The University of the Philippines, being the country’s state university, is supposed to provide free education to those who deserve it. The belief is that as long as there is UP, there is a place where brilliant minds, regardless of economic status, can be honed to their fullest potential. The recent increase of tuition and other fees, however, killed that belief.
Raw interviews with some UPCAT passers, especially those from low-income families, show that the crippling cost of tuition is their main reason for not entering the University. The UP administration claims that UP education is still accessible to poor students because of the newly restructured STFAP bracketing system. But even the brackets' reduction from nine to five has come under fire from critics, including former Faculty Regent Roland Simbulan who said in an interview with The Philippine Collegian that the new STFAP is nothing but a “guise” for acquiring “more money in the form of tuition.”
The UP administration says that the fees were increased for economic reasons; that P300/unit is of so little value today that the only way we can cope up with rising expenses is to make students pay more. The truth is that it is not the only way, and it isn't even the right way to begin with. The University of the Philippines is the state university. The education it offers is supposed to be subsidized by the government. To let students carry the burden of paying for rising costs, especially those whose families can barely make ends meet, is a disservice to them. It is likewise proof of the government's depreciating support—abandonment, even—of education.
We in the Union of Journalists of the Philippines – UP Diliman vehemently oppose the increase in tuition and other fees, and see it as a threat to every student's RIGHT to education. We strongly call on the Board of Regents to rescind their decision immediately.