CHED CHIEF: CHARGES 'UNSUBSTANTIATED'

MANILA, Philippines: Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) Chairman J. Prospero de Vera said that the cases filed against him by a college in Koronadal City at the Office of Ombudsman "lacked merit" and were "purely unsubstantiated."

It comes after the head of Marvelous College of Technology, Agapito Lubaton, and 10 students accused him of "failing to provide action in the two-year delay of the Tertiary Education Subsidy for no apparent or valid reason."

In a statement sent to reporters on Wednesday night, de Vera said that while he has not yet received the complaints, he denied that he neglected the payment of TES for these students.

He said that this was only one voice in the governing board of the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST), which governs the student financial assistance programs under the free college tuition law.

The UniFAST board is composed of CHEd, DepEd (Department of Education), NEDA (National Economic and Development Authority), DoLE (Department of Labor and Employment), NYC (National Youth Commission), TESDA (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority), DoST (Department of Science and Technology), ALCU (Association of Local Colleges and Universities), PASCU (Philippine Association of State Colleges and Universities), COCOPEA (Coordinating Council of Private Education Associations), GSIS (Government Service Insurance System) and SSS (Social Security System).

"Why am I being singled out for a policy decision that I cannot make individually but is collegially made by the UniFAST Board?" De Vera said.

He also said that Marvelous College received a total of P157,653,600 for the academic year 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 which was part of the cost for tertiary education students as provided under the law.

"There are 1,275 continuing qualified TES student-grantees enrolled in Marvelous College and CHEd Region 12 has released the funds for them. It is therefore not true that the students have not received money from CHEd-UniFAST," de Vera said.

Any claim of unfairness, de Vera said, was also unfounded as the subsidy amounts were set by the UniFAST guidelines and approved by its board. He said that according to the guidelines of the Free Higher Education Act, the subsidy is set by the UniFAST board and is subject to the availability of funds.

"The claimants are therefore wrong in their argument that RA 10931 or the Free Higher Education law guarantees them a specific amount for TES. The alleged unreceived payments lack factual basis," de Vera said.

He also said that budget constraints due to the pandemic and congressional alignments in the 2021 and 2022 General Appropriations Act also reduced the funds of the TES, which affected the number of grantees from 2021 to 2023.

"CHED looked for other funding sources to assist TES grantees. All continuing TES grantees of Marvelous College received their TES for AY 2021-2023 and 1,498 new TES grantees enrolled in Marvelous College received their TES for AY 2021-2023," de Vera said.

He also said that there were no violations of the Ease of Doing Business Act, as delays in disbursement were due to the lack of funds allocated by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to the CHEd as confirmed by its regional offices.

The UniFAST board told the Anti-Red Tape Authority that delays in the disbursement in the TES in Academic Year 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 were due to lack of funds allocated to the Commission for the program.

"The same complaint was raised by Mr. Lubaton to the DBM. To reiterate the statement of DBM Regional Office XII, CHEd has stated that funds are depleted and cannot meet additional requirements, but this doesn't signify a delay because fund utilization varies and may not cover all expenses according to CHEd's guidelines and fund availability," de Vera said.

2024-04-17T12:02:21Z dg43tfdfdgfd