Kabataan party-list warns vs. putting ‘limits’ on IRR of free SUC tuition 

Kabataan party-list on Friday lauded the passage of a bill mandating free tuition in state universities and colleges (SUCs) but urged vigilance as the rules for the new law have yet to be released.

“The passage of the free tuition law is an initial victory not only for the youth today but also for future generations,” Kabataan Representative Sarah Elago said in a statement.

“We have to keep vigilant, however, on possible limits that may be inserted in the new law’s IRR. Also, Congress has to address the fact that our economic managers excluded any type of funding for this significant legislation in the 2018 proposed national budget,” she added.

Under the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) must be released by the UniFAST Board, in consultation with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), within 60 days from its effectivity.

Elago said “not a peso should be collected if we want to actualize the real spirit of the new law.”

Bayan Muna party-list Representative Carlos Isagani Zarate meanwhile lauded President Rodrigo Duterte for signing the law despite the opposition of his economic managers.

"We laud Pres. Duterte for heeding the call of the people rather than the anti-people recommendations of his neoliberal economic managers," Zarate said. 

"The victory of the people though is yet to be completed and we are now calling on leaders and members of Congress to immediately set a budget for the measure so that the youth and students of our country would now benefit from it," he said.

The bill was signed by Duterte Thursday night or on the eve the proposal was supposed to lapse into law.

Aside from SUCs, the law also mandates free tuition in local universities and colleges and vocational schools under the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (starting the second semester of school year 2017 to 2018.

Chairpersons of both the House appropriations committee and the Senate finance committee have assured that they will find the necessary allocations to fund the law.

The needed appropriation for the free tuition in SUCs was not included in the proposed 2018 budget, which has already been submitted by the Department of Budget and Management to Congress last month. —KBK, GMA News