Tuition fee increase

New year. New president. Same old anti-student system.

Following the retirement of the President, who revoked the scholarships of hundreds of students, froze the freshman enrollment in four “unattractive” degree programs, fired faculty and staff during the pandemic, and disbanded several sports teams, the University is now headed by a new president, handpicked by Dr. Ester A. Garcia herself, who seemed to be merely serving as a shadow of the former Chief Academic Officer.

Less than 100 days after assuming office, new University of the East (UE) President Zosimo M. Battad’s administration has already been pushing for a 9.5 percent increase in tuition and other fees for the upcoming academic year. “I do not want what I have invested in and done for UE to just go to waste.” These were the words of Garcia to Battad, as recalled by him. True enough, the new president would not like to disappoint her and undoubtedly wants to live up to his predecessor’s expectations at the expense of the students.

The University just reopened its doors for more face-to-face classes after over two years of online distance learning, and it greeted its students not with safe back-toschool policies but with yet another burden to bear. In February 2023, the UE administration conducted a series of consultation meetings with the student councils for its proposed tuition increase for A.Y. 2023-2024, following the provisions of Republic Act No. 6728. But do students really have a voice in those consultations? Or were those consultations merely a formality? That, regardless of what the students say, the UE administration has already made a decision, and the dialogue had no real impact on the situation. The University held the consultation not because it values students’ opinions but rather to formalize another antistudent plan.

During the TOFI consultation meeting, Battad revealed that the impending increase in school fees is “based on the inflation rate.” The UE administration said that they have to do something for the institution to survive. The students and their families, who chose the University for its affordable, quality education, will, however, bear the brunt of this tuition hike.

The impending implementation of a whopping 9.5 percent TOFI is clearly unjustifiable and undeniably inhumane. Inflation has also had an impact on the students and their families. On top of that, due to UE’s hybrid classes, they also incur higher transportation costs just to attend one on-site class and then return home to complete their online asynchronous activities for other subjects. Not to mention that these students have struggled to budget their allowances for mobile data because the University’s Internet connection is so poor and slow that it cannot even perform a simple Google search.

Meanwhile, according to the certificate of compliance (COC) released by the University, at least 20 percent of incremental proceeds from A.Y. 2020–2021, when it last imposed an increase in school fees, were utilized for the improvement of buildings, equipment, facilities, and laboratories. However, just recently, UE Caloocan engineering students complained, through a letter sent to Officer-in-Charge Dean Angelita Guia, that computers in laboratories at their College are “slow, unresponsive, outdated, and lacking essential software.” They also expressed concern about the defective projectors and air conditioners in many rooms. This was not an isolated case, since students at UE Manila also complained about the same issues.

For A.Y. 2022-2023, students paid more than Php 1,700 per semester for the Technology Systems Fee— one of which was last semester, when students did not even utilize this fee due to online classes. And now the UE administration is proposing another tuition increase when it cannot even provide good services to the students.

Battad and the Board of Trustees may tell the students that they are the top priority, but everybody knows that it is a total fallacy. They promised a bright tomorrow to the students. But does tomorrow really begin in the East? These proposed tuition fee hikes appear to indicate otherwise.

UE has never been, was not, and will never be for the students because it is pure business and nothing more. And just like that, Battad has already taken his first order of the day— tuition fee increase. It’s business as usual at the President’s office!

MAUNA raw tayo. Sa ipinahayag ni Pangulong Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. noong ika-7 ng Pebrero 2023 sa National Tax Campaign launch ng Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), itinapal niya sa noo ng mga Pilipino na magbayad ng tamang halaga ng buwis sa tamang oras. At kung mayroon mang manguna sa pagpapatupad nito ay tayo raw ‘yon.

Tayo na muna ang maging pamantayang susundan dahil masyado nang abala ang ating pangulo sa maraming bagay, tulad ng pagpili ng bulaklak bilang pagbibigay-pugay sa himagsikan na pinangunahan ng mga nagpatalsik sa rehimen ng kaniyang ama na si Ferdinand Marcos Sr. Dagdag mo pang mahirap pagsabayin ang pagiging presidente’t vlogger. Kaya naman, halina’t ibsan natin ang ngalay niya nang mga balikat sa kakahawak ng kamera at banat niya nang mga pisngi sa kakangiti. Isang pagsubok ang magsilbing modelo ng kaniyang mga mamamayan—ng mga totoong naghihikahos sa buhay at lipunan. Tiyak na puyat din siya sa bawat pagdiriwang, lokal at internasyonal, sa tuwing nalulugmok ang bansa sa samu’t saring mga bagyo at trahedya. Nakapangangamba rin kung komportable ba siya o hindi sa tuwing siya’y alo-alo ng Philippine Air Force jets sa kaniyang mga pagbisita sa ibang bansa. Sa modernisasyong ginagalawan natin ngayon, mas kamungka- mungkahi na ang pangunguna ng publiko sa pagtala ng mga dapat at hindi dapat gawin. Siguro nga’t hindi na maiiwasan, lalo na’t mas marami tayo sa bilang kaysa sa mga opisyal. Kaya huwag panay reklamo, tayo ay humanap ng solusyon!

Huwag tayo masyadong umasa at sumandal sa lider na binoto natin no’ng eleksyon sapagkat maaaring hindi pa sapat ang tibay ng kaniyang mga poste. Maaaring may karupukan pa, lalo’t ginagapang pa niya ang ₱203B na napaglipas na ng panahon. Iwasang maging lubusang magaspang sa kaniya, yamang may taglay siyang kasensitibuhan dahil wala pa siyang isang taon sa panunungkulan. Hindi ba’t kaya nga tayo ang mauuna dahil baka nangangapa pa siya? Bilang isang hindi nakapagtapos ng kolehiyo? Malamang ay sinasaulo niya pa ang mga patakaran at hakbang patungo sa tamang pamamalakad ng bansa, lalo na ang pagbabayad ng tamang halaga ng buwis sa tamang oras, sa pamamagitan ng panonood sa kaniyang mga mamamayan na manguna rito.

Hinay-hinay, kababayan. Idinagdag naman niya sa kaniyang pahayag na para sa ikabubuti nating mga Pilipino ang bawat kilos niya. Tanggapin na lang natin na baliktad na ang mundo ngayon: ang mga Pilipino ang pinuno, at ang pinuno ang magsisilbing Pilipinong sugo.

Woefully Equidistant from Amelioration

A PEACEFUL Thursday evening greeted the upper-level students, despite Manila’s chaotic reality outside their classroom. A celebration was brewing. Yet before the acquaintances gave greetings, a girl blurted out, “May tumalon na naman,” (Someone jumped again) as she scrolled through an article on her phone.

The news report was about the San Beda College Alabang incident involving a 17-year-old who barely finished his last year in high school. It can be remembered that a few weeks ago, another senior high school student from the University of the East Caloocan Campus decided to end his life.

Senators urged Department of Education Secretary and Vice President Sara Z. Duterte to do more to curb the increasing number of people taking their own lives. Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri, in particular, hopes that Duterte hires more school guidance counselors to addresss the alarming rise in student suicide rates. However, Duterte’s nonchalant attitude toward these cases is evident through the lack of new programs under her department to strengthen suicide prevention and eradicate mental health stigma in the Philippines. The last initiative for suicide prevention under DepEd was back in September 2022, during World Suicide Prevention Day. Since then, the Filipino people have heard nothing from the office about mental health. Unbeknownst to her, her silence is loud enough to write the country’s mental health status in the blood of its new victims.

Taboo: mental health discussions summed up in one word. Despite the outrage among younger generations and various developments in global awareness of these illnesses, most Filipinos continue to turn a blind eye and silence those who speak out. On January 23, 2023, DepEd released an official statement lending condolences to the bereaved family of one of the victims: with an education secretary who expresses empty sympathy instead of proactively preventing further damage, students have difficulty vocalizing their need for help. The most straightforward act of going to the guidance counselor for consultation will be shamed, turning a hurt kid into a laughing stock.

Things would be different if the vice president prioritized information dissemination for mental health awareness and openly discussed underlying issues. Holding a position as influential as education secretary would allow someone to devise programs that could alter the thought processes of students and instructors alike. A shift in perspective on what seriously affects students’ lives could significantly reduce suicide rates and open the door to progressive conversations about mental health. This could eliminate the stigma that burdens learners; one could only wish that DepEd Secretary Sara Duterte knew how much power she holds.

It is clear that the tragic deaths of these adolescents are not enough to grab the attention of the Education secretary, as her department carries on with operations as usual, seemingly without regard for the recent events. Unfortunately, the Philippines is still far from achieving the freedom to discuss what burdens its citizens down, so many continue to fall into the abyss. Until the education secretary learns to utilize her authority to counter the very thing that took away the lives of hundreds of students, it will remain taboo and unsaid.