RA 10931

The Universal Access to Quality Tertiary

Education Act
 Introduction
Quality education, one of the seventeen global goals for sustainable development set by
the United Nations, aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote
lifelong learning opportunities for all.

The Philippine government, aside from its numerous other policies about education, has
enacted Republic Act 10931 or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act.
President Rodrigo R. Duterte signed this act last August 3, 2017.

One of the primary purposes of the act is to address dropout rates, primarily those
who drop out due to financial difficulties. This is not merely a transfer of
resources but rather assisting financially those in the tertiary part of their
education (Lim, Lomer, & Millora, 2018).
Objectives
• To provide a critique of the problem definition and agenda setting process of
the policy

• To provide a critique of the problem formulation process of the policy

• To provide a critique of the Policy Selection and Decision-making process of

the policy

• To provide a critique of the Policy Implementation

Overview of the Paper

The rest of the paper is organized as follows;

• Presentation of the Methodology, which covers the (a) Data Collection and
(b) Method of Analysis.
• Discussion and analysis of the different parts of the policy-making process.
• Conclusion
• Recommendation
 Methodology
A. Data Collection

The data utilized in this paper came from different sources. Most of the
resources came from the online Senate Legislative Digital Resource.
B. Method of Analysis

The scope of analysis will focus mainly on the SUCs and LUCs and not much more on

the vocational tech aspect of the law as the prior has more data as of the

moment.Content analysis will be done on the information gathered from the

previously mentioned sources.

Discussion and
Analysis
 A. Problem Definition and Agenda Setting

Quality Education has been an ideal goal set by the United Nations.

In the Philippines, education remains one of the top pie-getters in the annual
budget, which speaks of the country's commitment to providing education to its
populace (Education still top priority in 2019 proposed budget, 2018).

Despite the budget allocation, it has been a perennial issue dealing with education
problems.
The leading proponent of this policy back then was Senator Paolo Benigno "Bam"
Aquino IV, who also was the Chairperson of the Committee on Education, Culture
and Arts from July 2016 to February 2017.

In a report by Geronimo (2016), the Commission on Higher Education received

additional funding of Php 8.3 billion allocated for free tuition fees in State
Universities and Colleges (SUCs).
In the earlier part of 2016, during the campaign period, the promises of presidential

candidates, particularly Grace Poe, may have stirred the discussion of providing free

tuition fees in SUCs nationwide. Two senatorial candidates have also given the same

promise, only to differ in the required budget to realize the plan (Geronimo, 2016).
By January 24, 2017, Sen. Aquino has given his sponsorship speech for Senate Bill No.
1304 Under Committee Report No. 28 An Act Providing for a Full Tuition Fee Subsidy
For Students Enrolled In State Universities And Colleges (SUCs), And Appropriating
Funds Thereof Otherwise Known As The "Free Higher Education For All Act"
(Sponsorship Speech: An Act Providing Full Tuition Subsidy for Students Enrolled in
SUCs, 2017).
 B. Policy Formulation

Reich (as cited in Cerna, 2013) states, "broad reforms are possible when there is
sufficient political will and when changes to a sector are designed and implemented
by capable planners and managers." We are convinced about the political will
aspect though the part on capable planners and managers seems to be a gray area.
Cerna (2013) also discussed Reich's view that reform is political for the following
reasons:

• It represents a selection of values that express a particular view of society.

• Reform has distinct distributional consequences in allocating benefits and costs.
• Reform promotes competition among groups that seek to influence consequences.
• Enactment or non-enactment of reform is often associated with regular political events or
crises.
• Reform can have significant consequences for a regime's political stability.
According to Cerna (2013), "A strong and narrow political coalition improves the capacity of
political leaders to resist the pressures of concentrated economic costs."

Based on the Senate online resource, last March 13, 2017, during the Third Reading, a
unanimous eighteen (18) "yes" votes were recorded for the bill. On the side of Congress, last
May 22, 2017, a total of 221 "yes" votes were garnered, zero "no" and "abstain." With both
houses showing full support for the policy amidst the gloomy forecast of the economic team on
the budgetary cost of the law if implemented, it is a testament to how this policy formulation of
RA 10931 fits in the context of Cerna's "Politics of Change and Reform."
 C. Policy Selection and Decision Making

If we look at decision-making on how fast the process went through from start to
finish, the actors were quite decisive except when President Duterte had to sign
the law.

According to reports, he signed it Thursday night of August 3, 2017, just hours

before it lapsed into law (Mendez, 2017). Generally, it took only eight months for
the law to be approved.
 D. Policy Implementation

Based on Cerna’s (2013) discussion on Policy Implementation, RA 10931 is

based on the Top to Bottom approach considering this was borne out of national-
level institutions such as the Senate and Congress. However, one crucial factor in
Cerna’s top to bottom is that implementation is more of an administrative process.
After August 3, 2017, signed by President Duterte, it took some time before the law
was properly implemented. In a press statement released by the Senate last February
13, 2018, the body calls for the immediate implementation of RA 10931 via a
resolution the day before.

Both houses in the bicameral conference committee on the Universal Access to

Quality Tertiary Education Act agreed that implementation would take effect by
November 2017 or by the second semester of the academic year 2017-2018.
Senator Bam Aquino shared that during the budget deliberation for RA 10931, CHED
assured that the P41 billion budget for its implementation was enough to cover the
tuition and other fees in SUCs starting the second semester of 2017-18.

Representative Joey Salceda, one of the principal authors, has cited several problems in
the implementation.
In a report by Cepeda (2018), Salceda shared that only 9 out of 199 HEIs have been provided
funds to implement free tuition for the first semester. He also questioned why UniFAST still holds
the budget at this time when it should already be in the SUCs.

One of the main reasons why the economic managers of the Duterte administration opposed the
approval of RA 10931 is the budgetary concerns.

Another impact of the implementation that the policymakers seem to forget is the beneficiaries’
socioeconomic status. According to Anne Lan K. Candelaria, RA 10931 assumes equality between
Filipinos wherein everyone has the same (financial) starting point.
Lim, Lomer, & Millora (2018) cited in their research that RA 10931 benefits more
students who have moderate to well-off backgrounds as most of the students enrolled
in SUCs belong to the middle to upper classes, with only 12% of SUC students
coming from the first and second poorest deciles.

This disparity based on socioeconomic class has implications for the entrance exam.
Contreras (2017), in his article in the Manila Times, pointed out that with competitive
entrance exams as essential requirements in SUCs and LUCs, access to tertiary
education will never be universal.
To do well in these entrance exams, the student should have an excellent educational
foundation in the primary and secondary years.

Adding to the problems of public high school graduates is the K-12 system which
imposes additional two years of high school with higher subjects being taught by
public school teachers who are only trained to teach basic subjects.
E. Evaluation

Two independent studies that somehow provided Evaluation on RA 10931.

First is the Process Evaluation of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary

Education Act (RA 10931): Status and Prospects for Improved Implementation by
Ortiz et al. (2019).

Second is the Utilization of CHED-UniFAST's Tertiary Education Subsidy by the

Students of a State University, Philippines by Maga-ao & Gonzales (2019).
Based on the findings of Ortiz et al. (2019), if the objectives of the law are
realistic and achievable, the respondents are still determining if these are
attainable due to the current design and resources required to sustain them.

The respondents agree that the law provided more access but did not consider
other education-related costs.

The respondents shared their concern on how the law will provide "equal"
opportunities when the most basic requirement for availing the benefit is to be
enrolled in HEIs where better-off students have the advantage in passing the
entrance exams.
One respondent shared that the Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) depends on the
budget and not on the actual demand, and the available slots are at the mercy of
the available budget.

Respondents also were doubtful of the voluntary opt-out mechanism of the law
since, being rational economic agents, people would most likely want to avail of
the free tuition.

Ortiz et al. (2019) showed that for the first semester of SY 2018-19, the billings
from the SUCs and LUCs have already exceeded the Php 8 billion cap.
 Conclusion

The policy's problem definition and agenda setting were achieved through the
Senate Committee on Education, Culture and Arts initiative headed by then-
Senator Paolo Benigno "Bam" Aquino IV.

In terms of instruments used in agenda setting, it has utilized several means such
as Routinize, Regularize, and Imposition.
The weakness in agenda setting is that the policymakers focused on the eutopic
goal of providing blanket free tuition for tertiary students and needed to give more
diligence on the preceding scholarship policies.

Regarding Policy Formulation, RA 10931 is in the mold of the Politics of Policy

Change and Reform theory.

Based on the criteria of the theory, it represented the value of attaining education
for all. It experienced benefit/cost distributional consequences as the policy
required a considerable budget, bringing about changes in the already prepared
budget.

The discussions in both houses about the bill were relatively short and
unanimously approved despite the objection of the economic team.

In Policy Decision Making, it is a fact that the policy was decided relatively fast.
It also promoted competition in terms of influence as landslide votes were
gathered in both Houses and numerous authors participation.

In policy formulation, the discussions in both houses about the bill were relatively
short and unanimously approved despite the objection of the economic team.

In Policy Decision Making, it is a fact that the policy was decided relatively fast.
In terms of Policy Implementation, being "top to bottom" in approach, the
principals (policymakers) delegated the implementation to state agents
(CHED, UniFAST).

One of the issues of the implementation is the budget.

The implementation shows problems related to the beneficiaries'

socioeconomic status, where only some have the same financial starting
point.
The socioeconomic status discrepancy has implications for the entrance exam,
as students from wealthier families are more equipped to take the exam. If the
poor pass the exam, another problem they must face is where to get the
payment for other school fees.

Another issue of top to bottom implementation is that once the law is

approved, most likely, the principals will pass the burden of implementation to
the agencies.
In the case of RA 10931, the law was implemented with unclear guidelines
and poor logistics and workforce. There were also reports of discrepancies in
the ground implementation against the Implementing Rules and Regulations.
 Recommendation
• Retract or supersede RA 10931- from a taxpayer's perspective, we would welcome
supporting poor but mentally abled students in their tertiary education.

• Improve the UniFAST policy.

• Improve the monitoring of fees and carrying capacities of HEIs.

• Improve the workforce support in the ground implementation of the policy.

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