By Chito Chavez Progressive group National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) on Friday said even with free education programs, state colleges and universities have imposed lower admission quotas and de-funded student councils and publications. The group added that these and other issues have shown that the challenges and problems of the Philippine education system have worsened through the years. For private schools, NUSP claimed the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) are aggravating the crisis of commercialized education by allowing private institutions to increase their tuition and other school fees every year. NUSP alleged that CHED and DepEd are allowing private universities “to conduct bogus and unfair students’ consultation regarding the tuition increases”. “There were cases in which attendance of the students on tuition increase consultation is considered as a vote for the increase regardless of what transpired during the consultation,” NUSP said. In other instances, the group noted that students were pressured to sign and vote for the increase because if they refuse, there will be grave consequences for them. Despite the increases in tuition and other school fees, the promised pay increases for educators, employees, and staff were not implemented. NUSP said youth and student groups are mobilizing to stop the tuition increases that will burden not only themselves but also normalize the commercialization of education in the future. Working under the hashtag #AyokongMagmahal, NUSP said various protests were held in the following schools:

• DLSU – One La Salle led a Black Shirt Day and mobile photo booth. The movement organized a walkout protest on February 27, 2020 together with College of Saint Benilde to show their unity in stopping the cycle of annual tuition increases;
• College of St. Benilde – The Central Student Government, along with progressive organizations, led a campaign against tuition hike in the form of room-to-room discussions and a photo walk with broken heart paraphernalia written with #AyokongMagmahal;
• FEU – Students protested against the 3 percent-3.5 percent increase in tuition and other school fees on February 21, 2020. They pressured the FEU administration to heed the calls of their educators and employees in terms of humane and decent salary increase after implementing a tuition hike last year;
• Adamson University – Students held a creative protest on February 25. Also, despite threats of the school administration in sanctioning students who protest, the Ayokong Magmahal Adamson Network held a black shirt protest on February 26, 2020, to show their dissent against the 8 percent tuition hike and 2 percent – 86 percent increases in other school fees (OSF);
• UST – Against the 4 percent-6 percent tuition and OSF increase, student formations are holding signature campaigns, educational discussions regarding students' rights, and alliance-building among university organizations;
• Lyceum of the Philippines University (LPU) – The LPU Central Student Government initiated the #AyokongMagmahal campaign through a unity statement signed by student councils, political parties and campus-based organizations;
• University of San Carlos (USC) in Cebu – Students from USC and other schools in Cebu City forged an alliance among student formations calling to stop the tuition fee increases. USC students showed their protest against the 7 percent increase last February 18 and vowed to join the national protest day on February 28, 2020;
• Louis University (SLU) in Baguio – Students staged a protest on January 31, 2020, to decry the carry-over scheme, a deceptive tactic that hides tuition hike by charging every batch of entering first year students a tuition rate higher than those of older batches, and assigning the same tuition rate to the batch until graduation;
• Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) – The postgraduate students through the College of Medicine Student Council initiated an online campaign using the hashtag #PamantasanHindiGatasan. They decry the planned 20 percent-30 percent increase in school fees, a rare instance in state-funded schools which ought to promote free and accessible education, and;
• Other schools like Holy Angel University (HAU) in Pampanga, De La Salle University (DLSU) in Dasmarinas and Central Philippine University (CPU) in Iloilo spearheaded signature campaigns that will be formally filed as complaints to CHED in a bid to stop this year's wave of fee hikes.