PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte on Friday signed a new law that grants free tuition in all state universities and colleges (SUCs), despite the warnings of economic managers that the measure will cost the government as much as P100 billion a year.

In a press briefing on Friday, Deputy Executive Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra said Mr. Duterte believes the law’s long-term benefits would outweigh any short-term budgetary challenges.

“The enrolled bill came to the Office of the President nearly 30 days ago and during that period there had been a lot of discussions and study about the bill because of its heavy budgetary implication first and foremost. But free tertiary education in state universities and colleges is a very strong pillar or cornerstone of the President’s social development policy,” Mr. Guevarra said.

“So [we] weighed everything and came to the conclusion that the long term benefits that will be derived from a well-developed tertiary education on the part of the citizenry will definitely outweigh any short term budgetary challenges,” he added.

Republic Act No. (RA) 10931 or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act was enacted, just hours before the end of the 30-day period that would have seen the bill lapse into law. Had Mr. Duterte chosen to veto the bill, it should have been sent back to Congress with his objections during the allotted 30-day period.

Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno on Friday said the government will look for possible sources of funding for the tuition subsidy in the proposed P3.767 trillion 2018 budget. Next year’s proposed budget does not have any allocation for the free tuition program.

“The law will be prospective, not retroactive, since academic year 2017-2018 is already ongoing. First, I’ll estimate the half year total costs of the program, first semester 2018-19, then determine how much can be funded from 2018 budget,” Mr. Diokno said in a mobile phone reply.

“We may have to consider disallowing use of income by SUCs. If worse comes to worst, we may consider asking for supplemental budget,” he added.

Mr. Guevarra said the administration was looking at different ways to help fund the initiative, including borrowing through official development assistance as well as receiving donations. He said Mr. Duterte had left it to Congress to realign the budget to include free education.

Earlier this week, Mr. Diokno said free college education in state universities would not benefit the poor because only 12 percent of students come from poor families and the government already offered scholarships in 114 state-run tertiary schools. — Jil Danielle M. Caro and Elijah Joseph C. Tubayan with Bloomberg

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