SC allows 300 colleges to increase tuition

MANILA, Philippines – The Supreme Court (SC) junked on Tuesday, May 4, the petition to stop the implementation of tuition increases in 354 tertiary schools all over the country.

The high court said the petition – filed by a group led by the Kabataan party-list organization against the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) – was “premature, failed to comply with technical requirements of the rules of court, and a finding that, in any case, there is no grave abuse of discretion.”

Apart from the Kabataan party-list, the other petitioners were representatives from the National Union of Students of the Philippines, College Editors Guild of the Philippines, Anakbayan, Student Christian Movement, Kabataan Artista Para sa Tunay na Kalayaan, and students from the University of Santo Tomas, University of the East, and Adamson University. 

Read: Stop tuition hike, groups ask SC

The groups said the bases for the increase – CHED Memorandum Order No. 3 series of 2012 and Sec. 42 of Batas Pambansa No. 232 – are unconstitutional as “both law and regulation do not constitute reasonable regulation and supervision of all educational institutions as required by the 1987 Constitution.”

These should also be nullified because they are not subjected to “reasonable regulation and supervision,” as stated in Article XIV Section 4 of the 1987 Constitution, the petitioners added.

“For years, unsound tuition policies have transmogrified higher education into its current deregulated nature, and it will only continue if we don’t strike down the laws and regulations that allow such,” Kabataan partylist counsel Terry Ridon said.

CHED OKs tuition hike

Earlier, CHED Chairman Patricia Licuanan said the petition should settle the legal basis for tuition increases in private schools.

“It will settle a lot of issues. They seem to question the legality, the legal basis for schools to raise tuition. I would be happy that would be settled once and for all,” Licuanan said.

In an en banc meeting on May 27, CHED approved 354 petitions for increases in tuition and other school fees, or 78% of the total number of applicants.

The average tuition hike per unit approved by CHED is P37.45 or 8.5 percent, while other school fees will increase by P194.62 or by 7.58 percent. – Rappler.com