Youth groups call to stop tuition fee increase for upcoming academic year

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By Joseph B.A. Marzan

Progressive youth sector groups commemorated the 162^nd birth anniversary of Philippine national hero José Rizal on June 19, with a lightning rally in Iloilo City to protest the looming tuition fee increases and oppose proposed constitutional amendments.

The Panay chapters of Kabataan Partylist, Anakbayan, and the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP), among others, were joined by students from various schools across the city despite the academic year having already ended.

They dubbed their protest blitz as ‘Yes to Lato-lato, No to Paglalako ng ating Kinabukasan, Edukasyon, at Soberanya’, referring to the traditional toy craze popular among children and younger adults.

The three groups released a joint statement to Daily Guardian emphasizing on the importance of their calls to the country, especially today’s youth.

They stated their long-held belief that the Filipino people deserve affordable and quality education, with guaranteed academic freedom, as a right, and not as a privilege or commodity that needs to be availed expensively.

Kabataan Partylist called for support to House Resolution No. 9, penned by their representative, Raoul Danniel Manuel, which calls for a moratorium on increases to tuition and other fees in all educational institutions.

The resolution has remained pending since July 27, 2022, when it was referred by the full House Committee on Rules to the Committee on Higher and Technical Education.

Crimson Labinghisa, Kabataan-Panay chapter spokesperson, cited Commission on Higher Education (CHED) data indicating that 15 out of 42 private higher educational institutions which requested for an increase were approved.

“In this state when the inflation rate is at 6.1 percent and that of Western Visayas is at 7.1 percent, base prices of goods remain high while the ordinary worker’s salaries remain low. If tuition and other school fees increase, it would be an additional burden to parents and working students alike”, said the party-list in its statement.

Continuing inflation was also the focus of NUSP Panay in supporting Kabataan’s call and in reiterating their own call to scrap proposals in Congress to mandate the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) in senior high school and tertiary levels.

“Today, inflation rate remains high in the city of Iloilo and in Western Visayas, but it has been a problem of the people for a long time, that is why we wish to seek public support for the amortization of tuition and other fees and other activities which would increase access to education, instead of meaningless projects like reinstating mandatory ROTC,” they said.