Universities, colleges ask for tax incentives
BAGUIO CITY—Congress must consider legislating tax incentives on top of a P29-billion subsidy fund being discussed by lawmakers to help universities and colleges that will suffer zero enrollment in 2016 as a result of the K to 12 basic education program, their officials said.
Leaders of Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities (Pacu) raised this sentiment during the Nov. 21 executive session of the group’s board of trustees at Saint Louis University (SLU) here.
Tertiary institutions are bracing for financial losses starting 2016 because students in Grade 10 (formerly fourth year high school) must undergo a two-year senior high school program, as prescribed by Republic Act No. 10533, or the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013, said Fr. Jessie Hechanova, SLU president and a Pacu trustee for Luzon.
For one, SLU is projecting P350 million in tuition losses in 2016 and up to P600 million by 2017, although it has embarked on building new facilities, such as establishing colleges in the provinces, Hechanova said.
He said investments in the universities and colleges would continue, stressing that improved basic education would help the Philippine education sector integrate with member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and with the rest of the world.
“But it will be difficult,” he added.
Lawmakers have asked officials of colleges and universities to provide them with information about their finances and personnel to help justify a P29-billion sectoral stabilization fund, said Pacu president Karen Belina de Leon. Congress initiated the fund to help colleges and their faculty address the looming financial problems.
Reform advocates are also pushing for a parallel measure that provides some form of tax break, said lawyer Ada Abad, Pacu legal officer.
Tax credits on school income during the transition period would help offset the troubles brought about by K to 12 reforms, said Dr. Caroline Marian Enriquez, president of Our Lady of Fatima University.
“It’s not our fault that we are losing money. It’s their (government’s) regulation,” said Enriquez, who is also Pacu’s second vice president.
Talks on how much resources the government must raise have been deadlocked over various concerns, said De Leon, who is also president of Misamis University.
The most divisive issue involves K to 12’s impact on employment, Pacu officials said. Many colleges may scale down their work force to sustain operations starting 2016, they said, but the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), a number of teachers’ associations and several lawmakers find the plan unacceptable.
In Metro Manila, five major universities will retrench employees by 2015, according to Abad.
The Department of Education has indicated that it may absorb some college instructors and professors, including guidance counselors and librarians, to build a senior high school faculty and staff.
Some schools have also studied alternative proposals, including negotiating with teachers for a diminished pay status or unpaid leaves of absence during the transition. However, DOLE officials are worried that this may affect the teachers’ tenure or length of service.
“Because of this government initiative [to reform basic education], we have been reduced to conflict with our own employees and that is how the dialogue has been phrased … threatening the postponement of K to 12,” said Dr. Chito Salazar, a Pacu trustee for the Visayas and president of University of Iloilo.
“Labor and schools are being made to fight this win-lose situation rather than working together to demand greater response from the government,” said Salazar, who also leads the advocacy group Philippine Business for Education.
“If you’re [the employee], all you deal with is retrenchment, retirement [and work] redundancy. But, of course, they understand the school side, [which] worries about zero enrollment,” he said. “If we believe this is good and the government believes this is good, then the employees and the schools should work together … and approach the government on a united front.”
“The government should just put money into this and avoid massive displacements on both sides,” Salazar said.
