“While the Commission on Higher Education had heeded the call of Kabataan Partylist and allied student groups to impose a directive permitting college students to take their exams despite delinquent tuition payments, we dare posit that a return to full regulation of higher education must be in order.” This was the statement of Terry Ridon, National Chairperson of the League of Filipino Students, as he noted that the CHEd memorandum order is not mandatory because of the deregulated nature of higher education.

Ridon said that the CHEd memorandum order may go the way of last year’s mere appeals by the CHEd for schools not to raise tuition.

“Because our current educational system has essentially stripped CHEd of full regulatory powers, it is without power to force schools to take heed of its directives, no matter how pro-student these directives may be.”

The Education Act of 1982 is the statutory basis of the limited powers of the CHEd and the affirmation of the corporate powers of higher educational institutions to determine for themselves their corporate direction, such as the imposition of tuition, other fees, and policies on no-permit, no-exam.

“But it needs to be stated clearly that education, even private education, must not be viewed primarily as a business enterprise, because it is imbued with great public interest. Therefore it must submit to public demands of accessibility.” Ridon said.

Ridon added that the purpose of regulation is to protect students and parents from unscrupulous educational institutions who charge excessive school fees and offer substandard quality of education.

“By greater regulation, private educational institutions cannot easily hide behind the cloak of their corporate existence to justify policies which depart from the public interest considerations in education, such as the no permit-no exam, automatic tuition increases, among other policies.”