Agencies to suffer budget cuts to fund free tuition

Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno (Malacañang file photo)

The government may have to slash the budgets of some agencies and issue a supplemental budget to raise the P51 billion it needs to fund free tuition in state universities and colleges (SUCs) next year.

Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno told a press conference on Wednesday that “with or without money, we will look for them” since President Duterte already committed to implement the free tuition scheme in the first semester of school year 2018-2019.

Diokno said the cost of free tuition in SUCs could rise to P70 billion by 2021, when it is fully implemented.

“We will finance it one way or another,” Diokno said. “If necessary, we might submit a supplemental budget.”

One option would be to “find ways to cut” some agencies’ budgets for next year, Diokno said, although they still needed to determine which agencies would suffer a budget cut.