Press
Statement
June 19, 1998
Today, the Filipino students express outrage over the
recent Commission on Higher Education (CHED)-sanctioned
tuition fee increase all over the country. The 10% - 40%
increase in tuition fees in more than 300 schools just
shows that CHED does not have the will nor the commitment
to deny the whims of the profit-hungry capitalist
educators.
According to Apolinario Alvarez, National Chairperson of
the League of Filipino Students, “The CHED, since
its establishment, has never served the interest of the
Filipino students. It has only served as the mouthpiece
and scapegoat at the same time of the school
administrators in their drive to squeeze out monstrous
profits from the pockets of the already impoverished
students and their parents.”
Alvarez also said that the CHED tries to “wash their
hands off” of their role in the worsening plight of
the students by saying that they do not have the
authority to increase fees.
“But they miserably failed even in their supposed
task of monitoring the schools’ compliance to the
tuition fee increase guidelines. The CHED has continued
to ignore repeated requests from students and teachers
for investigations on schools’ defiance of these
guidelines, as well as the continuous demands for tuition
rollback. In schools like the University of the East and
the University of Santo Tomas, for example, school
authorities increased fees even if the farcical
consultations they held resulted in a deadlock,”
Alvarez declared.
The Filipino students urge the administration of
President-elect Joseph Estrada to act immediately on
these pertinent issues. They vowed to launch massive
protest actions if their demands are not heeded.
“As the CHED proves that it is indeed inutile in
putting a halt to tuition fee increases, we challenge
President-elect Joseph Estrada to act on the demands of
the students to rollback tuition fees all over the
country, stop the repression of student democratic rights
inside the campus, and to scrap section 42 of the
Education Act of 1982, the provision which readily gave
the capitalist educators the unhampered right to dictate
tuition fee increases,” Alvarez concluded.#
What's New?
Home
What is the
LFS?
LFS News
Statements
Campaigns
International
How to Reach
Us
Links