LOS BAÑOS, Laguna — At the University of the Philippines, “Everyone [will be considered] rich until proven poor,” according to UP Los Baños student council chair Ynik Ante.

Ante and 50 other UPLB students on Wednesday protested a new scheme that would determine if students are qualified for subsidies, a day before Thursday’s regular meeting of UP’s Board of Regents (BOR), the highest policy-making body of UP.

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The UP BOR Thursday approved a new Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Program (STFAP) scheme, which, the students say is a form of tuition increase.

UP Student Regent Cleve Arguelles said the BOR, in a vote of 6-2, approved the new scheme, which automatically places all students in bracket A of the Alphabetic Bracketing Scheme (ABS) with a corresponding tuition of P1,500 per unit.

Since 2006, UP has been implementing the ABS, in which students, depending on their families’ annual income, are categorized into brackets with corresponding fees and benefits.

The tuition rate per unit goes like this for the UP Diliman, Los Baños, Manila campuses: Bracket A (annual family income of P1 million and above) P1,500; Bracket B (P500,001-P1 million)-P1,000; Bracket C (P135,001-P500,000) P600; Bracket D (P80,001 to P135,000) P300 and Bracket E (up to P80,001) free tuition.

For regional campuses in Baguio, Mindanao, San Fernando and Visayas: Bracket A-P1,000; Bracket B-P600; Bracket C-P400; Bracket D-P200 and Bracket E-free tuition.

“The new scheme automatically moves the students up to bracket A from the present default bracket which is B. If you wish to stay in bracket B, you’d have to apply for it,” Arguelles said.

At present, UPLB, UP Manila and UP Diliman students are automatically charged P1,000 per unit when they enroll, unless they apply for a lower bracket.

By next semester, however, the per unit fee will be automatically pegged at P1,500 unless a student applies for a lower bracket.

To apply for a lower bracket, students will be required to submit their parents’ income tax returns, a vicinity map of their house and the STFAP application form.

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Arguelles said the new scheme, which “in essence is a system-wide tuition increase,” would be implemented next semester in all UP campuses.

“If they could just imagine the long queue of students applying for the [lower brackets of the] STFAP,” Ante said.

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