MANILA -- House Senior Deputy Minority Leader and Northern Samar Rep. Paul Ruiz Daza on Wednesday urged the government to pay private higher educational institutions their dues from the Tertiary Education Subsidy "to save these institutions from closure."
"Maraming mga private colleges that are entitled to what we call tertiary education subsidy. Under the 2017 law, they are supposed to be receiving subsidy for poor students even sa mga private colleges. P6 billion ang utang sa kanila for the last 2 years. So I'm calling on CHED and DBM to utilize the P10.1 billion sa Higher Education Development Fund to immediately pay our private colleges before po sila magsara," Daza told a press conference.
In a separate press release, Daza's office explained that based on the CHED’s most recent data, the attrition rate for Academic Years (AY) 2017-2021 increased to 47.61 percent across all Higher Education Institution categories (State, Local, and Private). This was a 9.78 percent increase from the 37.83 percent attrition rate of AY 2016-2021.
“Nakakapanghinayang at nakakalungkot. We have the funds to change this. The question now is, does CHED and DBM have the will to do what must be done?" he lamented.
“I'm calling on DBM and the economic managers to immediately reimburse the private colleges as many are in danger of closing and to augment the CHED's TES for the 2024 budget year,” Daza said in his press release.
Then-President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act (Republic Act 10931) on August 3, 2017.
It mandated free college tuition in State Universities and Colleges (SUCs).
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