Student groups on Wednesday criticized President Rodrigo Duterte for his false promise of free education following his recent statements which reversed previous pronouncements warranting free tuition in state universities and colleges (SUCs).

“Limiting free tuition for ‘poor and qualified’ students puts undue burden on the part of students in exercising their right to education,” Rara Ada of Sanlakas Youth said in a statement.

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“Distorting the recently passed law ensuring free tuition in SUCs through its implementing rules betrays the promise of free tertiary education flaunted by the Duterte administration and its allies in the Congress,” she added.

Ada also said this burdened only underprivileged students who wished to pursue their tertiary education in SUCs because they would still have to prove they were “poor enough” to be eligible for free tuition.

“What is being flaunted as a progressive step in ensuring tertiary education as a right to be accessed by those who choose to is really just a deceptive mechanism in justifying the increase of tuition and other fees, as those who were considered unqualified for free tuition are deemed rich enough to cope with higher fees,” she said.

“If the President is serious in his promise of delivering change, he must do so by prioritizing the SixWillFix Bill as urgent, ensuring that free quality education will not suffer from arbitrary changes, nor be subjected to annual competition with other parts of the national budget,” Zaira Baniaga of Kaisa-UP said.

The SixWillFix is a legislation that aims to ensure the automatic appropriation of six percent of the country’s gross national product to the budget for education. The bill aims to ensure free education in all levels without having its quality and accessibility suffer, and it also targets fair wages for teachers and workers and quality facilities for students.

The said bill has been lobbied in both houses of the Congress.

“The right to education in all levels by all citizens is not up for debate,” Baniaga said.

“If the President believes in investing in the country’s future, he must not be among those who stand in the way of free education,” she added.

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