MANILA-Both the University of the Philippines Los Baños and Manila will not collect tuition from undergraduate students for the first semester of academic year 2017-2018 "until further notice."

UP Manila made the announcement in a memorandum Tuesday while UP Los Baños bared the suspension of tuition collection from undergraduate students Wednesday.

"As instructed by Chancellor Fernando C. Sanchez Jr, tuition fee collection for undergraduate students for the first semester of A.Y. 2017-2018 shall be suspended until further notice," the UP Los Baños memorandum read.

Earlier this month, UP Diliman chancellor Michael Tan said the state university will not collect tuition from its students as well.

• Tan: No tuition in UP Diliman in upcoming semester

In December 2016, authorities announced that tuition in the undergraduate programs of state universities and colleges (SUC) will be free following an additional P8.3-billion funding granted to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

• READ: Free tuition in SUCs eyed with P8.3-B CHED infusion

CHED Chairperson Patricia Licuanan had said the P8.3 billion initially for projects in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) was reallocated to their agency.

The P8.3 billion was part of the P3.35 trillion Philippine budget ratified by Congress in 2016.