Beginning next year, funds to be allocated by the Department of Budget and Management for the Cebu Technological University Tabogon Extension Campus will be slashed by half.
If this pushes through, Tabogon Mayor Francis Salimbangon told Gov. Gwen Garcia that their students will also be reduced from what used to be four sections per year level per degree program, to only one section per degree program for the incoming freshmen.
Students of CTU, as well as all other state colleges and universities in the country such as UP and CNU, enjoy free tuition in their college education by virtue of Republic Act 10931 or the “Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act” which was signed into law by former president Rodrigo Duterte in 2017.
During a meeting at the Capitol on Thursday, April 20, the governor told Mayor Salimbangon that she would have to meet with CTU president Dr. Rosein Ancheta Jr. to get into the bottom of things in order to remedy the situation.
“Ang extension campus man gud is subject to the budget available sa iyang mother campus,” Gov. Garcia told the mayor as the possible reason for the decreased budget allocation.
She expressed hope that a bill in Congress filed by Cebuano representatives seeking to convert CTU into a System like UP System be passed into law in order to give the university some flexibility in terms of its financial standing.
Third district Congressman Pablo John Garcia, during a mayor’s convention at the Capitol last year, said that once the proposed CTU System Bill is passed, the university will no longer be under the direct supervision of the Commission on Higher Education.
It will be allowed to propose to Congress its own budget for the year, as well as create economic enterprises that would give it financial flexibility.
Vice Mayor Erik Alivio and the municipal councilors accompanied the mayor during the visit. | Babie Jane Revecoy
