SECTOR: Education
SONA YEAR: 2023
retain free tertiary education
PROMISE STATUS - DATE: In progress as of 07/16/2024
- Despite calls from former finance secretary Benjamin Diokno to review the current free tertiary education law, the 19th Congress allotted P128.23 billion spread across 112 state universities and colleges (SUCs) in the Philippines for 2024.
- The 2024 General Appropriations Act also allows unused funds in the Higher Education Development Fund (HEDF) to cover the deficiencies in the program appropriations, projected at P4.1 billion. Such a deficiency is the difference between the allotted funds for the program in the 2024 budget and the actual number of enrollees and expenses of SUCs in 2024, estimated at 1.8 million students.