SENATOR Sherwin Gatchalian said the national government is ready with the funding for the implementation of free tertiary education for state universities and colleges.
Gatchalian, who was the guest speaker in Thursday’s opening program of the Philippine Statistical Association Inc. 2017 Annual Conference at Sugarland Hotel in Bacolod City, said that contrary to the worries of the economic cluster of President Duterte’s Cabinet, the funding sources were already found for the initial implementation of the program next school year.
The senator said that through the program, generations of underprivileged Filipino youth will have the opportunity to graduate from college and improve their station in life.
Duterte signed Republic Act No. 10931, the Free Higher Education Law on August 3, 2017.
“It was my proudest day because it took a long road to transform that crazy free tuition idea into law,” Gatchalian said.
The senator pointed out that when he filed the Free Higher Education Act, critics from all sectors attacked his proposal as a crazy pipe dream that could never become real government policy.
“They said it would be too expensive. They said it wouldn’t have substantial positive impact, and it if did, it would only help the rich and not the poor. We calculated the actual cost of the program and showed that it was a mere drop in the bucket when put into the context of the entire national budget,” Gatchalian added.
He said they were able to convince the President to sign the law after they found out that 93 percent of the students enrolled in SUCs come from poor or working class families supported by wage earners, making only marginally more than the minimum wage.