Ched eyes return of limits to tuition increase

11/21/2007

The Commission on High Education (Ched) yesterday announced it is strongly considering the return of the “tuition cap” which was suspended earlier this year.

In an interview, Ched executive director William Medrano said they are now conducting a study on the possibility of returning the policy which is covered by Commission Memorandum Order (CMO) 14.

“Ched Memorandum Order 13 is currently in force with the withdrawal early this year of CMO 14 by then chairman Carlito Puno,” Medrano noted.

In the same light, Medrano said “this means the (2,000-plus) colleges and universities nationwide can increase tuition with no limits as long as there is consultation with students, and parents’ groups.”

“But we are looking into the possibility of putting back CMO 14,” he said.

For their part, Ched Chairman Romulo Neri and Commissioner Nona Ricafort assured the public the issue of tuition regulation was “being discussed by the commission.”

Last week, militant students asked Neri to channel his office’s “positive energies” into a speedy review of the government’s tuition regulation policy.

The League of Filipino Students (LFS) asked Neri, whom the group called “Mr. Feng Shui,” to “stop wasting his time looking for structural alignments and a better view (at the Ched office in Pasig City).

“Instead, he should start looking into questions on the Ched’s tuition increase policy because luck is running out for the students and parents who cannot afford the ridiculously high cost of tertiary education,” asserted LFS national chairman Vencer Crisostomo.

Crisostomo was reacting to a report that Neri had transferred to another room at the Ched headquarters upon the advice of a Chinese feng shui expert.

For feng shui adherents like Neri, harmony and balance can result from the manipulation and channeling of non-physical energies by means of the proper placement of physical objects.

According to Crisostomo, “harmony and balance were disrupted when former chairman Puno abruptly and questionably suspended last February tuition cap policy.”

He explained “the Ched suspension order, issued on Feb. 20, effectively removed the inflation rate limit previously imposed by the Ched upon tuition increases which was brought about by a series of dialogs, study sessions and agreements between parents and students’ groups since 2005.”

“The bad vibes during that time came from the Office of the President. The intense pressure imposed by school owners was echoed by President Arroyo. That’s the source of bad energy that we definitely have to get rid of,” Crisostomo said.

The LFS plans to “renew dialogs and conduct ‘pressure protests’ in order to push the reimposition of the tuition cap policy in the light of recent price increases and other signs of economic hardship.”

“By January, a new round of tuition increase consultations will start in schools nationwide and student leaders are getting impatient. Unless (Neri) acts on this matter quickly and reasonably, there will be no reason to expect peace and quiet as students are already gearing up for mass protests,” the LFS warned.

According to Crisostomo, Neri “will be needing more than feng shui to address that.”

For his part, Gonzalo Duque, president of the 160-member Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities (Pacu), asked Neri to “do something about the illegal and impractical provisions of the Ched tuition policy.”

The Pacu has a pending case against the Ched before a Dagupan City court where the organization questioned the provisions of the government’s tuition policy.

Duque, spokesman for the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (Cocopea), also urged Neri to “address the spiralling costs of higher education all over the country.”

Ched CMO 14 supposedly provided for a tuition cap based on the national inflation rate of over 6.2 percent.

The directive also called for prior consultations with students, among other groups, before schools impose tuition and miscellaneous fees.

Early this year, the LFS assailed the Ched memo which it said “prevented the students from reaping the gains of our long struggle against the increasing costs of higher education in the country.” Jojo Arazas

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