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Commission on Higher Education. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News/File
MANILA — The Commission on Higher Education's UniFAST program will soon pay student subsidies for 2021 and 2022, an official said on Monday.
UniFAST officer-in-charge Executive Director Atty. Ryan Estevez said the program would use the remaining funds from CHED’s 2022 and 2023 budget.
Nearly 192,000 student applicants from School Year 2021-2022 will be prioritized in the payments, he said.
Estevez said applicants had until August 18 to submit the requirements. After validation, CHED will proceed with the payments.
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He issued the statement after some private schools said they had not received payments since 2021 for student subsidies under CHED’s tertiary education subsidy program.
House Senior Deputy Minority Leader and Northern Samar Rep. Paul Ruiz Daza had urged the government to pay their dues "to save these institutions from closure".
“We pulled out the money na natira sa 2022, tapos itong fiscal year 2023 nating budget, pinagsama-sama natin, naka-come up tayo ng almost P10 billion for the PNSL (Place with no State Universities and Colleges/ Local Universities and Colleges) alone,” Estevez said.
“For 2021-2022 academic year (AY), may applicants tayo na 191,739 students, ito yung babayaran natin ngayong second semester of 2022-2023… ‘Yun ang kine-claim ng private schools natin na babayaran natin ng P40,000 per student. That’s around P9.8 billion,” he added.
(We pulled the money left for 2022 and the 2023 budget, we came up with almost P10 billion for PNSLs alone. For academic year 2021-2022, we have 191,739 student applicants. We will pay them this second semester. Private schools say we need to pay them P40,000 per student.)
For the first semester of AY 2023-2024, Estevez said funds were sufficient to open only 34,783 new slots for tertiary student subsidies, which would be equally divided between public and private schools.
Daza advised CHED to tap the Higher Education Development Fund.
Estevez said the Commission has submitted a request to the Department of Budget and Management for P3-billion additional funding, and committed to complete the requirements within the week.
“In the Committee on Appropriations hearing two months ago, more or less ang utang per year sa private colleges is P3 billion each for 2021-2022, and 2022-2023. So about P6 billion ang backlog,” Daza said.
"The law is there, the money is there. Ang problema walang sense of urgency... We need to do a better job," he added.
(The yearly debt to private colleges is P3 billion each for 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. So the backlog is aroudn P6 billion... The problem is there is no sense of urgency.)
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Daza filed House Resolution 767, which calls on the government to improve access to tertiary education and reduce attrition rates among deserving and financially challenged students by increasing budget allocation for scholarships, among other interventions.
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