QUEZON City, Philippines (Eagle News) — The House Committee on Appropriations was able to gather Php 40 billion in order to fund free tertiary education that will start on 2018.
“I’m happy to announce that we found P40 billion to finance free higher education,” Davao City Representative Carlo Nograles, House Appropriations Committee Chairman said.
Nograles said that they got the funds from the different scholarship programs of the various state universities and colleges as well as the Commission on Higher Education, from the Department of Education.
“We got P30 billion from Department of Education for their school building program, particularly those with problems sa site, no buildable space, no vacant lot,” Nograles said.
“Any area na merong nafo-foresee na magiging problem sa pagpapatayo ng bagong classroom or building, we were able to carve out P30 billion from the budget,” he added.
Aside from this, Nograles said they were also able to gather funds from the Department of Transportation and from the Department of Information and Communications Technology.
“Both of them combined, we were able to get P3 billion to add to the free higher education,” he said.
He also said that the funds that were gathered from different agencies will help cover all the free tuition and miscellaneous fees.
“All in all, we were able to raise P40 billion for free higher education. It will cover the free tuition and miscellaneous fees for local universities and colleges that are accredited by CHED. It will cover the free technical-vocational education sa mga tech-voc institutions under TESDA,” Nograles added.