Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Thursday proposed for the inclusion of state universities and colleges (SUCs) in the “Build, Build, Build” program of the government in order to fund the construction of more classrooms and school facilities.

Gatchalian, who is seeking another six year term in the Senate said this would also ensure that more students can benefit from free higher education.

“Maraming gustong mag-aral sa college, maraming pumapasa ng entrance exam pero hindi nakakapasok ng SUCs natin, kahit sa Local Universities and Colleges, dahil sa limited capacity (Many students want to study in college. A lot of them pass the entrance exam but they can’t enter our SUCs, even at the Local Universities and Colleges due to the limited capacity),” Gatchalian said.

“We need to address this issue by building more infrastructure, kaya kailangan din ng Build, Build, Build program sa ating mga SUCs para mas maraming classrooms at laboratories at matanggap natin yung mga pumasa ng entrance exam (that’s why we also need the Build, build, build program in our SUCs so we can have more classrooms and laboratories and we can accept those who were able to pass the entrance exam),” the lawmaker added.

During the 2022 national budget deliberations at the Senate, Gatchalian flagged as problematic the SUCs’ problems in absorptive capacity or the lack of classrooms, laboratories, and other facilities that prevent them from accepting some qualified students.

The lawmaker said addressing the problems on absorptive capacity would increase the number of students that would benefit from free higher education and increase the country’s participation rate in higher education.

Gatchalian is one of the co-authors and co-sponsors of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act (Republic Act No. 10931) or also known as the free higher education law.

Yet, despite increases in the annual budget for free higher education, he noted that the budget of SUCs for capital outlay did not increase commensurately.