NOW is the season for schools, universities and colleges to submit applications for tuition and other school fee increases to DepEd and Ched, who will ultimately decide whether to approve or reject the proposed increases.

But alas! Ched, via interview with ABS-CBN news, already defended in public the looming fee increases in higher education. This pronouncement by Ched gives us a hint that it will approve the proposed fee increases even before it has received all applications from schools that intend to hike fees.

This unmasks Ched and the Duterte administration as promoters of expensive and commercialized education in the country.

Amidst the free education program in SUCs, majority of college students are still in private schools, whose average cost of education is increasing annually because the government chooses not to regulate school fees.

This burdens students and families who are already suffering from the effects of the Train Law, a policy faithfully justified by Ched and the Duterte administration. Ched also instructed students who want to stop fee increases to go to Congress instead.

Actually, Ched just wants to evade accountability for the annual fee increases that make education a commodity for sale to the youth. It wants to hide the fact that it has the power to reject fee increases--if it chooses to do so.--NATIONAL UNION OF STUDENTS OF THE PHILIPPINES