Lyceum of the Philippines
+ 5% increase in tuition and another 5% increase in miscellaneous fees

University of the East (UE)
+ 5% tuition increase

Far Eastern University (FEU)
+ 6% tuition increase

San Juan de Letran College
+10% tuition increase

Philippine School of Business and Arts (PSBA)
+15% increase

San Beda College
+20% tuition increase

University of Sto. Thomas (UST)
+7% tuition increase to incoming 1st-3rd year students
+8.52% tuition increase to incoming 4th year students

Miscellaneous Fees Increase:
+ 90.5% Guidance and Counseling Fee increase
+ 7% Library fee increase
+ 5.56% registration fee increase
+ 66.7% Audio-Visual Fee increase to incoming 1st year students and 14.3% increase to incoming 2nd-4th year students
+ 7.14% drug testing fee increase
+ 9.09% energy fee increase
+ Student activity fee increase of 3.58% to 1st-3rd year students and 42% increase to incoming 4th year students
+ 7% ROTC/NSTP fee increase
+ 7% related learning experience fee increase
+ In the College of Science, 70% thesis advising fee increase
+ In the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery: 7.61% Learning Materials/ Test paper fee increase to 1st-3rd year students and 88.32% increase to 4th year students; and 46% LRU fee
+ 40- 50% Community Service Fee increase in college of commerce, Institute of Physical education and athletics, Institute of tourism and hospitality management, college of accountancy, college of fine arts and design, and faculty of arts and letters
+ In the College of Fine Arts, 8.52% increase in thesis advising fee
+ In the faculty of Arts and letters, 81.82% increase in Special lab fee- Edtech radio and TV

The following are the schools that conducted tuition consultation with students but did not inform them about the exact rate: Technological Institute of the Philippines (TIP), Jose Rizal University, Manila Central University

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The demonstration included students from from the , Far Eastern University (FEU), Technological Institute of the Philippines (TIP), and Lyceum University of the Philippines.

The school owners of these schools has already scheduled tuition consultations for this month despite an appeal from Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Commissioner Emmanuel Angeles not to increase tuition for the coming school year in light of the on-going global financial crisis.

“These ‘consultations’ are misnomers for they only serve as a venue for the administration to announce next school year’s tuition and other fee increases. The responses of the students are usually taken for granted by the administration, which is hell-bent at increasing their school’s fees,” said Terry Ridon, spokesperson of the LFS.

The protesters also slammed the CHED, which they described as “coddlers of capitalist educators.”

“The ongoing consultations in various universities are proof that CHED Chairman Angeles’ appeal is nothing more than a worthless publicity stunt aimed at hiding the government’s deregulated tuition policy,” said Ridon.

Moreover, the LFS, along with other student groups, denounced the Commissioner’s appeal, explaining that what they was a tuition moratorium and the scrapping of CHED Memorandum Order (CMO) 13.

Ridon explained that the CHED releases tuition increase guidelines through Memorandum Orders and the current policy is CMO 13, which deregulates tuition increases by removing a tuition ceiling.

“An appeal is worthless in a deregulated tuition environment. Moreover, the current CMO only requires tuition increases to go through consultations. Miscellaneous fees and other exorbitant fees need not pass scrutiny from the students, said Ridon.

Ridon explained that school-owners use the policy to implement redundant and exorbitant fees such as varsity fees, sports development fee, air conditioning fee, Internet fee, and others.

A protest action in the University Belt, to be participated by students from other schools like the University of Santo Tomas, University of the East, and Far Eastern University, was scheduled later in the afternoon. ###

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“With the dim prospects by the government itself that massive lay-offs shall ensue in the next few weeks in the hundreds of thousands, the soundest policy initiative by the CHED at this moment would be to order the freezing of tuition increases in higher education institutions,” said Terry Ridon, spokesperson of the LFS.

“While the COCOPEA has released a statement asking its members to reconsider increasing tuition rates for next year, the CHED can conclusively prod school owners, as a matter of clear government policy, on the gravity of the crisis, and its effects on the entire educational system,” added Ridon.

Ridon added that because of the present economic crisis and the unabated tuition increases through the years, many Filipino families are now mulling the pull-out of their children from their present schools. He said that the bankruptcies of several college education pre-need companies are the clear indicators that under present conditions, the promise of Gloria Arroyo of a bright future for the Filipino youth shall never come to pass.

“Had the Arroyo government simply acceded to the demands of the students in the years past to strictly regulate tuition increases, the education sector shall not be in such a dismal situation, such that even the state universities and colleges which may have served as viable alternatives for higher education are now in dire financial straits, precisely because of this government’s periodic misprioritization, ” he said.

“At present, nonetheless, the best recourse government can do is to implement the tuition moratorium, lest they wish to further earn the ire of the people for failing to manage an already fledging economy, and now, for robbing their children of their future,” said Ridon.

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