At least one "congressman" had been making an "insertion" in the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd)'s list of beneficiaries under its Tulong Dunong program--an action that consequently compromised the agency's budget for all its other programs benefiting students from the poorest of the poor families.

CHEd Chairperson Shirley Agrupis disclosed these details on Monday, Sep. 1 during the House Committee on Higher and Technical Education hearing.

This, as Agrupis expressed her frustration over the criticims that CHEd was to blame for the high attrition rate of college students despite subsidies provided by the government.

Agrupis earlier said that CHEd saw a 29 percent attrition rate among tertiary education students, which according to her was caused by the reduced subsidies provided to the students.

Agrupis did not hold herself back during the hearing and said "The primary reason why we reduced the number of subsidies per month is that we have this Tulong Dunong."

Beneficiaries enrolled in private schools now only get P13,500 per year from P30,000, while those enrolled in local and state universities now only get P10,000 from 20,000 before.

"This is an insertion of the congressman...The congressman identified the beneficiaries—poorest of the poor or those belonging to middle class," she said.

Tulong Dunong is only one of CHEd's many assistance programs. It aims to support eligible and qualified Filipino students in their educational pursuits through the grant of scholarships.

Agrupis said it was good that CHEd "had no hands on that" because this shilelds the agency from blame regarding the selection of beneficiaries.

But CHEd still ends up taking the responsibility because "the congressman" would not be able to sustain the student's subsidy until the very end.

"Year two pa lang po, wala nang subsidy. So anong gagawin ng UNIFAST (Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education) at CHEd? Pabayaan namin ang bata na titigil? (It's only the second year, and yet there's no more subsidy for them. So what will UNIFAST and CHEd do? Should we neglect them)?" she asked.

However, committee chairman, TINGOG Party-list Rep. Jude Acidre pushed back, and said that Agrupis' remark made it seem like congressmen were "at fault".

Acidre, apparently aware of lawmakers practice of endorsing students for CHEd's program, said the House does not want the agency to compromise the budget of its other programs in favor of Tulong Dunong.

"If it [the request was] coming from the House, we would be most interested in providing the full funding," he said.

"But you have to work with us on this. You cannot tell us that the fault is with us because we've been proposing subsidies for the Tulong Dunong," he added.

Acidre also asked how come the budget for Tulong Dunong was compromised if the government was providing funding for each program separately.

Agrupis responded: "In order to sustain them... we have to displace 135,000 [existing beneficiary] students."

But she said, they could not do it "because they are enrolled now".

So in order to accommodate the new beneficiaries, the existing students need to "suffer".

The agency chief said CHEd needs P2 billion more for next year's budget as the P5.1 billion-budget allotted to them under the National Expenditure Program (NEP) was "not enough" for the existing and the new beneficiaries.

Negros Oriental 3rd district Rep. Janine Degamo then asked Agrupis if she could give assurance that students from all districts in the Philippines would already be covered by Tunong Dunong if the House would grant her additional budget request.

"Di kami ang nag-iidentify (We're not the ones identifying the beneficiaries). It is the discretion or selection of the congressman concerned," Agrupis said.

She also says CHEd relies on the endorsed list of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), which is the top priority in terms of beneficiaries.