Northern Samar 1st district Rep. Paul Daza (Ellson Quismorio/ MANILA BULLETIN)

The Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act---one of the landmark laws of the previous administration--is being wasted as far as Senior Deputy Minority Leader and Northern Samar 1st district Rep. Paul Daza is concerned.

“It took a very strong political will to be able to enact a law like this. As far as we know, there are less than 30 countries in the world where there is free tertiary education—and many are in developed and upper-middle income countries. We are among the luckiest, so to speak," Daza said in a statement.

"However, it seems we are wasting this golden opportunity,” he noted.

This, as the veteran solon highlighted Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) Region 1 Director Danilo Bose's recent confirmation that there were no funds for new Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) beneficiaries because the item was not included in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2021, 2022, and 2023. CHEd only allocated TES for beneficiaries who were in third and fourth year college.

Daza said it had been revealed in earlier House hearings that the Higher Education Development Fund (HEDF) currently has unspent funds of P10.1 billion. CHEd also revealed that TES payables to different private schools have already reached around P6 billion.

“Do we really have to wait for these schools to close down before deciding to pay them?” Daza rhetorically asked.

CHEd agreed to ultimately utilize the HEDF to settle the TES they owe because some schools are already in danger of closure as they have yet to receive reimbursements.

Daza also pointed out that, based on the CHEd’s most recent data, the attrition rate for Academic Years (AY) 2017-2021 increased to a staggering 47.61 percent across all Higher Education Institution categories (State, Local, and Private).

This was a 9.78 percent increase from the 37.83 percent attrition rate of AY 2016-2021.

“Nakakapanghinayang at nakakalungkot (It'sregretful and saddening. We have the funds to change this. The question now is, does CHEd and DBM (Department of Budget and Management) have the will to do what must be done? They have the power to utilize the HEDF. They could have done so sooner,” he lamented.

The Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act or Republic Act (RA) No.10931 took effect in 2018 after being signed by former president Rodrigo Duterte in Aug. 3, 2017.

"I'm calling on DBM and the economic managers to immediately reimburse the private colleges as many are in danger of closing and to augment the CHEd TES for the 2024 budget year," added Daza.

The 2024 budget season in Congress is expected to begin around August 2023.