8 CHED officials face raps for tuition hike approval

MANILA, Philippines – Youth groups and students have filed before the Ombudsman criminal and administrative charges against 8 Commission on Higher Education (CHED) officials led by its chair Patricia Licuanan for approving tuition hikes in higher education institutions (HEIs).

The petitioners, who filed the complaint on Friday, June 13, alleged that CHED officials had failed to issue a decision on pending complaints against the tuition hike proposals prior to approval, and also in enforcing its resolution against the collection of “development fees” in HEIs.

The others named in the complaint are Maria Cynthia Rose Bautista, Minella Alarcon, Alex Brillantes Jr, and Ruperto Sanggalang, Commissioners; Julito Vitriolo, Executive Director; Leonida Calagui, Regional Director of CHED National Capital Region; and Catherine Castañeda, who was CHED NCR Regional Director on the relevant dates.

The petitioners are Sarah Elago of the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP), Marc Lino Abila of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP), Vencer Crisostomo of Anakbayan, Charlotte Velasco of the League of Filipino Students (LFS), and students James Bryan Deang and Vincent Sudaria.

In the 61-page complaint, the petitioners alleged that the CHED officials committed the following:

• Gross neglect of duty due to patent violation of Republic Act No. 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act particularly Section 3(e) and 3(f)
• Gross incompetence for their patent violation of Section 4(a) and 4(b) of Republic Act No. 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees
• Gross inefficiency for patent violation of Section 7 and Section 8(b) of RA 9485 or the Anti-Red Tape Act
• Administrative suits against respondents for committing acts falling under Rule X of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of RA 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical standards for Public Officials and Employees, particularly Rule X(j), (k), and (l)

The petitioners accused CHED of “wholesale failure to perform its constitutional mandate to exercise reasonable supervision and regulation of educational institutions  due to the commission’s gross inexcusable incompetence, inefficiency, and negligence in handling several complaints” against tuition hike proposals for academic year 2014-2015.

They also cited the “unexplainable non-enforcement of a CHED en banc resolution that disallowed the charging of so-called ‘development fees’ in higher education institutions.”

The petitioners said that from March 18 to April 1, 2014, student councils and individual students filed separate complaints before the CHED, questioning the proposal of their respective schools to increase tuition and other fees for 2014-2015.

They alleged that CHED had violated its own rules on tuition fee increases since “despite the complainants’ diligent request for CHED to act upon the various tuition complaints, no official communication to student petitioners were ever given to students who filed the complaints to ascertain the status of the said complaints.”

They said the CHED “essentially kept the information on approved increases to itself, thereby leaving the public in the dark on which schools are charging fees approved by the commission.”

They also claimed that CHED officials “violated the right of complainants to due process and essentially reneged their duty and obligation to reasonably supervise and regulation higher education institutions” and that this “could be seen as an act constituting inexcusable negligence in handling administrative complaints.”

“The said omission committed by CHED officials has resulted to the charging of new and higher rates during the enrolment period of schools with pending complaints, constituting grave damage on the part of the petitioners in the pending cases,” the joint complaint-affidavit stated.

The petitioners accused CHED of failure to implement Resolution No. 221-2012, issued by the CHED en banc in its 397th Regular Commission Meeting on August 6, 2012, which prohibited the collection of development fees.

“Despite this clear issuance, public and private universities still collect developmental fees that range from P120 ($2.75) to as much as P2,000 ($47) in subsequent years. CHED has done nothing to address the non-enforcement of its very own resolution, thus making its Resolution No. 221-2012 worthless,” the petitioners said. – Rappler.com