Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Tuesday, January 2 assured that the 2024 General Appropriations Act (GAA) or Republic Act No. 11975 has sufficient allocation to address possible funding deficiency in free higher education in state universities and colleges (SUCs).
Gatchalian said the 2024 GAA carried a special provision which he proposed and provides the use of unused balances of the Higher Education Development Fund (HEDF) to pay the deficiencies between the 2024 allocation for free higher education in SUCs and the program of receipts and expenditures.
This is based on the actual number of enrollees and fees approved by SUCs’ board of regents or trustees.
The Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges (PASUC) had predicted that about 1.8 million students will avail of free higher education in 2024 and that the projected deficiencies in free higher education would amount to P4.1-billion.
“Tiniyak natin na para sa taong ito, maiiwasan natin ang kakulangan ng pondo para sa libreng kolehiyo sa ating mga State Universities and Colleges (We have assured that for this year, we will avoid the lack of funds for free college in our SUCs),” Gatchalian said.
“Mahalagang matiyak natin ang sapat na pondo para sa ating mga SUCs para maipagpatuloy din nila ang paghahatid ng dekalidad na edukasyon para sa ating mga mag-aaral (It is important that we ensure adequate funding for our SUCs so that they can continue to deliver quality education for our students),” he added.
Gatchalian recommended the use of the HEDF as based on data from the Bureau of Treasury, the accumulated net balance of the fund has totaled P10.167-billion as of May 22, 2022.
He said such amount is enough to cover the funding gap for free higher education in SUCs for 2024. But the HEDF will only cover free higher education deficiencies for fiscal year 2024.
Gatchalian had repeatedly emphasized the need to tackle the looming funding shortfall as this would affect SUCs’ capacity to invest in laboratories, classrooms, and other facilities which, in turn, will affect the quality of education that SUCs deliver.