The Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2) raised the "alarming disparity" in higher education participation rates between the National Capital Region (NCR) and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) on Wednesday.

During the Senate’s deliberation of the Commission on Higher Education's (CHED) proposed 2025 budget, EDCOM 2 co-chairperson, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, lamented that BARMM lags behind NCR’s participation rate of 72 percent.

He stressed the need to understand why BARMM's participation rate is only 3 percent, despite the availability of free higher education and other subsidy programs such as Tertiary Education Subsidy and the Tulong Dunong program in the region.

In response, CHED Chairperson Prospero "Popoy" De Vera said CHED has limited powers “to enforce standards or directly intervene” in the operations of the  BARMM’s private universities as these are under the jurisdiction of the region’s Ministry of Basic, Higher, and Technical Education.

“While we are assisting BARMM in building its technical capacity for quality assurance, CHED has no legal basis to enforce our standards on private universities in BARMM,” he said, lamenting that CHED has limited capacity to obtain data from BARMM’s private institutions.

However, De Vera said CHED still oversees state universities and colleges (SUCs) in BARMM. 

Hence, Gatchalian suggested that SUCs can be mobilized to encourage enrollment in higher education as these institutions still receive funding and subsidies through national programs. 

“At the end of the day, we wanted to educate our BARMM students. We want to encourage them to go to school,” Gatchalian told De Vera. 

In a similar hearing, Senator Pia Cayetano mentioned Section 16 of the BARMM Law, which prioritizes an integrated system of quality education. 

Cayetano said this provision allows a more cohesive relationship between CHED and BARMM—enabling stronger collaboration in ensuring that students in BARMM have access to quality education.

“The whole section starts with: 'It shall be a top priority of the Bangsamoro government to establish, maintain and support the complete and integrated system of quality education, which shall be a subsystem of the national education system.' I don't know how you interpret that, but this representation submits that supervision and regulation of education in BARMM is still part of that subsystem,” the lady senator argued. 

Furthermore, Section 11 of the BARMM Law states that “as far as practicable, the Bangsamoro Government shall be represented in the departments, offices, commissions, agencies, and bureaus of the National Government that implement and enforce policies, programs, and projects of the National Government in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.”

De Vera, for his part, stressed there are ongoing efforts being made to strengthen BARMM’s capacity to manage and monitor its higher education institutions.

He, likewise, said that there are ongoing initiatives, such as training and technical assistance, to ensure that BARMM develops its own quality assurance systems, allowing its programs to benefit from national subsidies like TES and Tulong Dunong.

“We have funded several projects that support higher education in the BARMM. But it always depends on what they ask for, which is part of their autonomy. But whatever the request, we respond as a commission, including giving grants to SUCs in the region,” De Vera added. 

Gatchalian urged EDCOM 2 to further discuss the issue with CHED and BARMM officials. 

“We feel that from a national perspective, lahat dapat ng regions should benefit from free higher education and also from the subsidies that we are giving,” he said.