Senators push to fix law on free, subsidized college education

Senator Loren Legarda has sponsored a bill seeking to strengthen the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, citing deep inequities, declining subsidies, and systemic failures that have prevented the country’s poorest students from fully benefiting from the landmark education program.

Legarda presented Senate Bill No. 1894, which proposes amendments to Republic Act No. 10931, the law that provides free tuition and other forms of financial assistance to students in public universities and colleges, as well as subsidies for those enrolled in private institutions.

Legarda said the measure aims to realign the law’s implementation with its original purpose: to prioritize academically capable students from the most disadvantaged Filipino families and ensure that higher education remains a true pathway out of poverty.

“When we enacted this law in 2017, we believed we were building the most consequential social investment of our generation,” Legarda said. “We were telling our poorest families: you are not alone, and government stands with you.”

However, she said assessments by the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II) revealed that the Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES), the program’s main financial support mechanism, has increasingly failed to reach its intended beneficiaries.

Legarda cited data showing that in 2018, about 74% of TES grantees came from households covered by the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) and the Listahanan, the government’s registry of the poorest families.

By 2022, that share had dropped sharply to just 30%. At the same time, beneficiaries classified as students in private schools in areas without state universities rose from 26% to 69%.

The consequences of this shift, she said, are stark. In 2024, some 384,388 students from 4Ps households completed senior high school, but only 4,746—or roughly 1%—were able to access TES as first-year college students that same year.

“Isang porsyento lamang,” Legarda said. “These are young Filipinos who did everything right, who finished school despite poverty, and yet only a tiny fraction were able to continue their education.”

She added that even for those who receive assistance, the amount has steadily declined. From an initial ₱60,000 per year when the program began, TES benefits have been reduced to as low as ₱20,000 annually, or ₱10,000 per semester—an amount she said is insufficient amid rising costs of living, transportation, and school supplies.

Legarda also pointed to accountability issues flagged by the Commission on Audit, including ₱548 million in overpayments to state universities, ₱1.8 billion in delayed benefit releases, and ₱13.5 billion in unliquidated fund transfers across several Commission on Higher Education (CHED) regional offices.

“These are failures of accountability that translate directly into human cost,” she said.

Senate Bill No. 1894 introduces a series of reforms aimed at correcting these gaps. Among its key provisions is a guaranteed TES slot for senior high school graduates from 4Ps households, subject only to their admission into a recognized higher education or technical-vocational institution.

“This guarantee changes everything,” Legarda said. “When a poor child knows college is already secured, they stay in school, they persevere, and they believe in their future.”

Senator Risa Hontiveros, who co-sponsored the measure, commended Senator Loren Legarda, chair of the Senate Committee on Higher, Technical, and Vocational Education, for leading efforts to introduce reforms that prioritize the poorest and most marginalized students, streamline administrative processes, and ensure timely delivery of subsidies.

“These reforms prioritize the poorest and most marginalized students, streamline administrative processes, and ensure that scholars receive their subsidies on time,” she said.

Since 2022, Hontiveros said her office has received numerous complaints from UNIFAST-CHED scholars regarding delayed financial assistance, as well as allegations of “ghost scholars” and corruption.

Hontiveros also echoed concerns raised by several state universities and colleges over the national government’s failure to fully fund free higher education, which has strained institutional operations and, in some cases, forced schools to limit new student admissions.

“This shortfall has strained their operations and, in some cases, forced them to reduce new enrollees,” she said, warning that inadequate funding threatens to undermine the promise of universal access.

She urged the Senate to ensure sufficient budgetary support for the program, emphasizing that investment in education is critical to national development.