Where will the Philippines get the money to fund the newly signed free tuition law?
Your guess is as good as President Rodrigo Duterte’s.
“That’s my problem now,” Duterte told reporters in Filipino yesterday. “I want to ask you. I have to consult. I don’t know,” he said with a giggle.
His economic managers had raised concerns that the government did not have the money to fund the passed law, saying it would cost PHP100 billion (USD2 billion) to cover the tuition fees of students from 112 state universities and colleges.
“When the document was given to me, I knew there was no money,” he said.
But members of congress are working to re-align the 2018 budget to make sure the law can be implemented immediately. Funding could come from under spending agencies or from moving funds from agencies with bigger budgets.
According to a story in Rappler, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) said the PHP100 billion was an “overestimation” and that it should only cost about PHP16 billion (USD320 million).
While Duterte himself did not explain why he signed the bill despite knowing there were no funds, his deputy executive secretary Meynardo Guevara explained that the president understood the long-term benefits of increasing access to tertiary education.
“Free tertiary education in SUCs (state universities and colleges) is a very strong pillar or cornerstone of the President’s social development policy,” Guevarra said in a news conference in Pasay City last week.
The country’s Department of Budget and Management will meet on Wednesday with CHED, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, the president of the University of the Philippines system, members of the House Appropriations Committee, and Senate Finance Committee to determine the budget for the free college education law.
Diokno said the law would be implemented for school year 2018 – 2019, and will cover all students of state universities and colleges, regardless of their financial standing.
with reports from ABS-CBN News
