MANILA — Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero on Wednesday flagged billions worth of deficiencies in the budget of state universities and colleges (SUCs) due to their acceptance of more students beyond what their funding allowed.

Escudero said that in 2022, SUCs had a deficiency of around P2.7 billion. This year, that figure could rise to more than P4.2 billion or a total of roughly P7 billion for both years.

The senator noted that since 2022, the budget has been directly released to SUCs, upon the request of lawmakers, instead of being channeled through the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

“Dinownload yung pera, may sariling computation ang DBM with the existing enrollment of the SUC. But about 70 percent of SUCs thought it best to decide on their own and allow so many enrollees in excess of the budget allocated by Congress for free tertiary education per SUC,” he said.

Citing specific figures, Escudero said that while 29 percent of the SUCs closely followed their budget, 71 percent of them exceeded their allocation.

One of the universities that exceeded its budget is the University of the Philippines, which Escudero said spent P607 million more than its 2022 budget.

“Now my problem with that is, if government pays for the balance, which is roughly P3 billion in 2022, and you’re looking at P4 billion in 2023 and P4 billion in 2024, hindi naman pwedeng balon na walang katapusan to. And you cannot be left to your own devices to decide that and all of a sudden, sisingilin nyo ang gobyerno. Because it creates complications,” he said.

“Naniningil kayo sa gobyerno, anong basis?,” he asked Dr. Tirso Ronquillo, president of the Batangas State University and the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges (PASUC). “There’s no item in GAA (General Appropriations Act) that allows that payment.”

Ronquillo said there was a gap between the projections submitted by the SUCs and the proposed budget submitted by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) in the National Expenditure Program.

Under the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, the amount required to implement the free tuition and other school fees in SUCs and LUCs (local universities and colleges) shall be determined by their respective governing boards “based on the projected number of enrollees for each academic year, which shall be the primary factor in computing the annual proposed budget of SUCs.”

But in reality, Ronquillo said, the DBM based its proposed budget for 2024 for SUCs on actual enrollment figures in 2022, which an agency representative confirmed during the hearing.

“Sa sinasabi po ninyo, dapat kami, sa aming enrolment, dapat bumase doon sa cap or sa ceiling na ibinigay ng DBM. Mukhang it’s the other way around. Kasi nahihilo din po kami, Mr. Chair, kasi sabi sa batas, ang pag-allocate ng pondo ay depende sa projection ng enrollees. Ngayon naman po, you are expressing that our enrollment must be based on the budget must be allocated. So I think that is where the gap is lying,” he told Escudero.

The senator said that once the budget is allocated, the legal authority to release it would be the GAA and SUCs should follow the budget allotted.

On the part of DBM, Escudero told the agency that it has to catch up with the 2023 data and take into account inflation and increase in population, and not rely on figures from 2 years prior.

He urged SUCs and the DBM to come to an agreement. Otherwise, he said, the claims of the SUCs will require appropriation from Congress and will have to go through the process.

He also asked SUCs to agree and CHED to come out with a joint memorandum circular determining how to compute the tuition for every student in SUCs.

A moratorium on tuition increase in SUCs is set to expire in 2024.

Should the moratorium lapse, Escudero said the 2018 rate would be used as basis until an agreement among SUCs reached.