A day before the regular en banc session of the Supreme Court, youth groups led by Kabataan Partylist called on the high court to immediately issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the implementation of tuition and other fee increases in 354 private colleges and universities nationwide.

“The issue at hand is imbued with great importance, such that a delay in the issuance of a TRO will cause grave and irreparable injury not just to the petitioners but to thousands of tertiary-level students affected by the illegal tuition hikes,” said complainant-lawyer Terry Ridon, Kabataan Partylist president and counsel for the petitioners.

“Apart from having sufficient legal grounds for the issuance of a TRO, the controversy at hand is also sufficiently ripe for the high court to tackle,” Ridon said. “In this light, we ask the SC to expedite the release of a TRO.”

Last May 29, youth groups led by Kabataan Partylist along with students from various colleges and universities filed a petition in the Supreme Court to stop the implementation of the newly-approved hikes in 354 tertiary schools nationwide.

The petition comes right after the CHED en banc approved 354 out of 451 tuition hike applications last May 27.

In the petition for certiorari, mandamus and prohibition filed by youth groups last week, youth and student leaders asked the high court to declare the newly-approved increases in tuition and other fees invalid for failure to being subjected to “reasonable regulation and supervision,” as stipulated in Article XIV Section 4 of the 1987 Constitution.

Specifically, the petition questions the constitutionality of Sec. 42 of Batas Pambansa No. 232 or the Education Act of 1982 and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Memorandum Order No. 3 series of 2012 – the two of which are the basis for approval of new and higher fees in tertiary schools – as “both law and regulation does not constitute reasonable regulation and supervision of all educational institutions as required by the 1987 Constitution.”

The petition also calls on the Supreme Court to declare invalid all increases in tuition and other school fees that were based on the BP 232 and CMO 3 even in the past years.

Respondents for the case include CHED, and several schools that increased tuition for the incoming academic year, notably the University of Santo Tomas, University of the East Caloocan and Adamson University.

Pending the resolution of the petition, petitioners also asked the SC to “immediately issue” a TRO and/or a writ of preliminary prohibitory injunction, which will prohibit respondents from implementing “all approved and previously implemented increases in tuition and other school fees.”

“There is no reason for the SC to delay hearing this petition, as for years, unsound tuition policies have transmogrified higher education into its current deregulated nature, and it will only continue if we don’t strike down the laws and regulations that allow such,” Ridon ended.###

Students denounce tuition hikes, full implementation of K-12 program

In time for the first day of school year 2013-2014, student groups led by Kabataan Partylist, National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP), League of Filipino Students (LFS), Anakbayan, and other formations stormed the offices of the Department of Education-National Capital Region (DepEd-NCR) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) in separate mobilizations today.

At half past nine in the morning, student formations picketed in front of DepEd-NCR Office along Misamis Street, Quezon City, a few yards away from SM North EDSA. The students slammed the unabated tuition increases in private grade schools and high schools in the country and the “additional burden” brought about by the implementation of the K-12 program.

“As another school year begins, millions of students are to return to their schools only to find the same old education problems brought about by years of underfunding for education – shortages in facilities, skyrocketing matriculation, and for students in basic education, additional burden through the full-blown implementation of the K-12 program,” said Kabataan Partylist President Terry Ridon.

Last May 15, President Benigno Aquino III signed Republic Act No. 10533, or the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 (K-12 Law), which introduces two additional years in secondary education and makes Kindergarten mandatory.

“Touted by the government as a solution to the country’s ailing basic education system, the K-12 program only adds additional burden to millions of Filipino families. Essentially, it does not address existing problems in the basic public education system in the country such as shortages in rooms, educational materials, and other facilities and equipment, underfunding, the orientation of the education system, and access,” said NUSP President Victor Villanueva.

According to government statistics, for the incoming school year, the country still lacks 47,584 teachers, 19,579 classrooms, 60 million textbooks, 2.5 million chairs, and 80,937 water and sanitation facilities.

“From the data of shortages alone, we can clearly see that the government is not ready to implement K-12, and the program – which focuses on producing a surplus labor force to feed the global need for cheap labor – will not only inflict harm to students and families but would also result into a massive logistical mess,” Villanueva said.

“With RA 10533 signed into law, basic education institutions will be compelled to follow the new program, despite the fact that there has been no concrete scientific evaluation of the program’s efficiency and effectiveness after its first year of implementation. In fact, the curriculum for Grade 2 has just been finished and will be haphazardly implemented this school year without any proper assessment,” said outgoing Kabataan Partylist Rep. Raymond Palatino, who was one of the few congressmen who opposed the passage of the K-12 Law in the 15th Congress.

First day hike

Meanwhile, student groups also denounced DepEd’s approval of tuition increases in 1,144 private basic education schools for the incoming school year.

“The government tries to cover up the deregulated nature of the basic education system by saying that parents always have the option to enrol their students to public schools, where education should supposedly be free. Yet this reasoning does not answer the fundamental issue of having schools that charge a fortune for something that should supposedly be free,” Villanueva said.

Ridon, meanwhile, criticized DepEd’s Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE), which will be given a whopping P7-billion budget this year, a marked increase from the P6.3-billion GASTPE budget in 2012.

“DepEd says that GASTPE is the solution for families who want to enrol their children to private schools but cannot afford the tuition. We have two main points of contention against this – first, the solution to ease access in private institutions does not lie in providing dole-out funds that don’t even suffice to cover full matriculation. Rather, the solution is to strictly regulate tuition to ensure that tuition rates in private schools remain reasonable and affordable,” the youth lawyer said.

Ridon continued, “Second, GASTPE is essentially a program that siphons valuable funding that could have gone to public schools into the pockets of private school owners.”

Illegal increases

Meanwhile, at around 2:00 p.m., student groups also stormed the CHED main office in Diliman to protest the approval of new and higher rates in 354 colleges and universities nationwide.

“Despite clear opposition from student groups, and the filing of complaints regarding bogus tuition hike consultations, CHED still approved tuition hikes for 354 schools, which is more than the 222 schools it allowed to increase tuition the previous year,” Villanueva said.

“By approving these hikes, CHED has once again showed how it serves as a mere stamp pad for pre-approved hikes. And that’s the same reason why we decided to elevate this issue to the Supreme Court,” Ridon said.

On May 29, Kabataan Partylist along with other youth formations and students filed GR. No. 207119, which seeks to stop all tuition increases in tertiary schools. Specifically, the petition asks the high court to issue a temporary restraining order against the implementation of the approved hikes, and invalidate all previous hikes by virtue of violating the “reasonable regulation and supervision” clause stipulated in Article XIV Section 4 of the 1987 Constitution.

“The pending petition is one way to fight against the deregulated nature of education in the country. But at the end of the day, mobilizations such as the one we’re holding today, play important roles. If students all over the country will jointly oppose such policies, the government will be compelled to take action,” Ridon ended.###

Youth partylist Kabataan hit the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for delaying the proclamation of all winning partylists in the midterm polls, saying that the delay would “open a wider room for fraud and vote manipulation.”

Yesterday, Comelec proclaimed 14 partylist groups that obtained the 2-percent of the votes cast for the party-list polls. According to the National Board of Canvassers Resolution 0006-13, the proclamation is “without prejudice to the allocation of additional seats, or the proclamation of other parties, organizations, or coalition which may later on be established to be entitled to one guaranteed seat and/or additional seat.”

Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes was earlier quoted in media reports as saying that the commission has not yet proclaimed other winning partylists that have not reached the 2-percent mark as the NBOC has yet to finish the canvassing of votes.

However, as of May 20, the NBOC has already tallied over 95 percent of the total national and overseas votes, with the partylist votes already reaching 28.29 million votes.

“The remaining uncanvassed votes for the partylist elections comprise less than a percent of the total partylist votes, and Comelec can already proclaim all of the winning partylists yesterday if it wanted to. However, it only opted to proclaim the top 14 partylists,” said Kabataan Partylist President and first nominee Terry Ridon.

Kabataan Partylist, for example, has already obtained 337,950 votes according to the May 20 NBOC canvass report, ranking 28th in the partylist race and entitling it to one seat according to the guidelines set by the Supreme Court under the Banat vs Comelec case.

Brillantes said the Comelec will issue another resolution on Monday to proclaim all winners alongside the seat allocation.

“The issue here, however, is the fact that Comelec is again delaying the proclamation of other partylists, thus opening the partylist elections to further suspicions of fraud and vote manipulation to favor well-entrenched partylists that are at the tail-end of the ranking,” Ridon said.

“Rich and well-entrenched partylists that are lagging behind the elections can use their power and money to manipulate the remaining uncanvassed votes in their favor to catch up in the partylist race,” Ridon added.

“Maaaring may mga grupong ginagamit ang kanilang impluwensiya at pera para maigapang pa ang kanilang pagkapanalo sa partylist elections. Many nefarious activities can still occur while Comelec has not yet proclaimed all of the winning partylists,” Ridon added.

The youth leader also criticized Comelec for again threatening progressive partylists with disqualification using “trumped-up” charges of election offenses.

“Rich partylists can also push for the disqualification of partylists like Kabataan for them to clinch a seat. Clearly, Comelec is using the disqualification case against progressive partylists as a trump card that it can use against its strong critics like Kabataan,” Ridon added.

Kabataan Partylist has earlier criticized Comelec for anomalies hounding the 2013 midterm polls.

“We call on Comelec to push through with the proclamation of all winning partylists as soon as possible, and stop using baseless charges to silence critics,” Ridon ended.###

Responding to Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chair Patricia Licuanan’s earlier statement to the media that the commission has yet to “officially approve” on Monday, May 27, the proposed tuition increases in 344 colleges and universities nationwide, youth groups led by Kabataan Partylist pointed out that several schools with pending proposals have already begun the enrolment period, with new rates already being implemented.

Originally, 451 colleges and universities applied for tuition increase in the coming academic year, but CHED regional offices only forwarded 344 applications to the CHED main office. According to Licuanan, the earlier reported 344 approved hikes have yet to be decided upon by the commission en banc.

However, Kabataan Partylist President Terry Ridon pointed out that several colleges and universities with pending tuition increase proposals have already begun the enrolment period. This includes De La Salle Araneta University and Lyceum of the Philippines University, which proposed a 5-percent and 7-percent tuition increase, respectively.

“Though on paper it’s not yet approved, schools are already charging the new and higher rates. So what CHED en banc will be doing on Monday will just be purely ceremonial,” Ridon said.

“Schools can cite portions of CHED Memorandum Order (CMO) No. 3, series of 2012 to justify their collection of new and higher fees even without CHED approval,” Ridon said.

According to Section 9.1 of CMO 3, “Should the CHEDRO (regional office) fail to act within 30 days from the filing of application but in no case later than April 15 of the same calendar year the intended increase shall be implemented, would mean (sic) that the CHEDRO has no objection to the said application.”

“In essence, the proposals are already pre-approved and CHED has once again served as a mere stamp pad to these increases,” Ridon added.

Kabataan Partylist has earlier announced that it will file a petition to the Supreme Court to halt the implementation of tuition hikes by tomorrow. However, as CHED will still meet on Monday to approve the pending tuition hikes, the youth group decided to adjust the day of filing to Tuesday, May 28.

“We want to include the CHED memorandum as one of the basis for our petition in the SC, so we’ll wait for the CHED en banc decision,” Ridon said.

“We are again witnessing how inutile our government is in protecting the interest of the masses in the way it is turning a blind eye to the worsening state of education in the country. We will not let this new spate of increases go unnoticed. Students believe that these hikes are exorbitant and unsubstantiated and must therefore be stopped at all costs,” Ridon ended.###

Puzzled with Commission on Elections Chair Sixto Brillantes’ announcement that the official national canvassing will be suspended until 10 a.m. tomorrow, Kabataan Partylist President Terry Ridon said that it might be an early sign that Comelec is “really up to something.”