Youth leaders urge SC to stop tuition hike

MANILA, Philippines -Youth leaders on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to stop the recently approved tuition increases in 354 universities and colleges.

In a 46-page petition, the youth leaders said the Commission on Higher Education violated their right to accessible and quality education.

They said CHED failed to perform its duties to take the necessary steps to make education accessible to all.

Petitioners said the high court should declare as unconstitutional Memorandum Order No. 3-2012 as well as Section 42 of the Batas Pambansa no. 232.

Section 42 of the Education Act of 1982 allows private schools to determine its rate of tuition and other school fees or other charges while the Memorandum Order is the basis for the approval of the new fees.

Petitioners 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.

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,” petitioners said.

“The acts of respondents, if not immediately restrained or enjoined will cause grave and irreparable injury to petitioners…The threat of inaccessibility of education resulting in the dropping out of the petitioners and thousands more from school must never be allowed by this Honorable Court,” they added.

Aside from CHED, respondents include University of the East (Caloocan), University of Santo Tomas and Adamson University–3 of the 354 higher educational institutions proposing tuition hike.