Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairperson Prospero “Popoy” De Vera III said that millions of students across the country are now benefiting from the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education, dubbing it as the “most long lasting legacy” of the Duterte administration.
“The intergenerational dream of getting an education was put into motion under the Duterte administration with the passage of Republic Act 10391 on August 3, 2017. This landmark legislation is truly, only, and exclusively a “Tatak Duterte” because it was started under the Duterte administration,” said De Vera during the Duterte Legacy summit held on Tuesday, May 31.
The passage of the law, according to De Vera, allowed public universities, 112 universities and colleges, and about 100 local government-created universities to launch education programs in 2018, allowing young FIlipinos to achieve "quality education."
To further prove his point, De Vera said that 1.19 million students in more than 200 public universities across the Philippines stopped paying tuition and miscellaneous fees in 2019. The law, according to De Vera, also enabled the passage of Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) and the institutionalization of the “Tulong Dunong” program.
“Ito po ay dagdag ayuda para ang ating mga estudyanteng nangangailangan ng tulong dahil sa kahirapan o dahil malayo ang kanilang pinagaaralan para sa kanilang pang araw araw na pangangailangan (This is an additional help for the daily needs of our students who are disadvantaged because of poverty or because they are studying in far flung areas),” said De Vera.
CHED has at least 275,000 grantees in 2019, but to date, there are now over 1.97 million students in 220 Philippine universities who are no longer paying tuition and miscellaneous fees.
De Vera likewise reiterated that TES is an anti-poverty program, aiming to extend help to disadvantaged students.
CHED’s data showed that for SY 2021-2022, most of the TES grantees are from Region 12 with at least 43,360 grantees. Metro Manila, on the other hand, has the least with 11,138 beneficiaries.
“It is in the regions where poverty is most prevalent that TES beneficiaries are most numerous. The smallest number of beneficiaries are actually coming from the National Capital Region (NCR). There is a direct correlation between poverty incidents and the granting of TES,” he added.