Press Release
August 4, 2017

Recto thanks 'teacher-in-chief' for signing tuition law, says funding, implementation must be ironed out

I would like to thank the country's teacher-in-chief for signing into law the free college tuition bill.

This law occupies a place among landmark social legislations. If a teacher affects eternity, so does a president who removes obstacles to learning.

By signing the law, he is in effect lecturing the nation that we should not just build, build, build for the sake of our future, but also teach, teach, teach our youth.

The challenge now is how to fund the measure, effective next year, because budget delayed is education denied.

We are confident that the 2018 proposed national budget has enough budget space to accommodate the more important mandates of the new law.

It would be wise to heed some of the reservations of the economic managers, as to the cost of fully implementing the law, as it covers not only SUCs but other tertiary education institutions like local government-run colleges and tech-voc public schools.

We should be open to a phased implementation that should begin with free tuition.

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