SC junks bid to stop tuition hike

MANILA, Philippines – The Supreme Court dismissed the petition of youth leaders seeking to stop the freshly approved tuition increase in 354 universities and colleges across the country.

During Tuesday’s deliberation, the high court junked the petition for failure of the petitioners to exhaust administrative remedies at the executive branch before seeking judicial intervention.

Aside from that, high court’s information chief said the petition is premature and there is no showing that respondents Commission on Higher Education, University of the East Caloocan, Adamson University and University of Santo Tomas did not commit grave abuse of discretion.

Petitioners, which include Kabataan partylist through counsel James Mark Terry Ridon, National Union of the Students of the Philippines, College Editors Guild of the Philippines, League of Filipino Students, Anakbayan, Student Christian Movement and the Kabataan Para sa Tunay na Kalayaan, said the Commission on Higher Education failed to perform its duties to take necessary steps to ensure that education remains accessible to all.

They want the high court to declare as unconstitutional Memorandum Order No. 3-2012 as well as Section 42 of the Batas Pambansa No. 232. Under the memorandum order, there is no provision on the exercise of regulatory powers of CHEd to determine the rate of tuition and other school fees.

They said the order also does not provide for regulation and supervision with respect to increase in tuition and other school fees for incoming freshmen students.

“This failure to include within the ambit of regulation and supervision the determination of its rates of tuition and other school fees is nothing but an unconstitutional surrender of the duty of the State to reasonably regulate and supervise all educational institutions,” the petitioners said.