CHED, Aquino blamed for Cagayan coed’s death

TUGUEGARAO CITY -- Student groups are blaming the Aquino administration and the Commission on Higher Education for the suicide of a student of the Cagayan State University here allegedly over unpaid school fees.

Rosanna Sanfuego, a freshman Respiratory Therapy student, reportedly hanged herself at their home in Abulug town last Feb. 25 after she failed to take the midterm examinations.

“We denounce the subservience of Aquino and CHEd to the dictates of school owners who make milking cows out of the youth,” National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) president Sarah Elago said.

Activists stormed the CHEd office in Quezon City last week to protest the government’s failure to stop schools from imposing high fees.

“Her death is a slap in the face of CHED, the institution that caters to the interests of capitalist-educators while betraying the youth’s right to education,” said Charisse Bañez, national chairman of the League of Filipino Students.

The CSU has been imposing a “no tuition policy” since 2009. But the NUSP said the university converted the tuition to miscellaneous or other school fees ranging from P2,000 to P4,000.

“Although the students do not pay tuition, a majority of them cannot afford the cost of other school fees,” it said.

The university is reportedly planning to re-impose charging tuition, which the students are opposing.

CHEd Commissioner Alex Brillantes, chair-designate to the CSU, has ordered the school to cooperate with authorities in the probe of Sanfuego’s death.

Sanfuego’s death prompted Pasig Rep. Roman Romulo to urge the Senate to pass the Unified Student Financial Assistance for Students in Higher and Technical Education (UniFast) Act, which was approved by the House of Representatives in June last year.

Romulo, chairman of the House committee on higher and technical education, is planning to file a resolution seeking an inquiry into Sanfuego’s death.

He said public and private higher education institutions are aware that they should not prevent students who fail to pay tuition and other school frees from taking examinations.

The lawmaker said the House would look into the procedures being taken by CHED in disseminating, implementing and monitoring a ban on the “no permit, no exam” policy.

The committee will find out if the charges imposed by state universities and colleges on students are reasonable.

“Education should be for everyone. The death of Rosanna Sanfuego shows our government’s failure to provide access to tertiary education for all students,” said Romulo, author of the UniFast Act.

He said Sen. Pia Cayetano sponsored the UniFast Act at the Senate.

“I am appealing to other senators to prioritize the passage of this bill. The death of Sanfuego shows how difficult it is for Filipino families to afford college education even at our state universities and colleges,” he said.

The UniFast Act aims to harmonize, reform, strengthen, expand, rationalize, and re-focus all existing modalities of student financial assistance programs.

Kabataan party-list Rep. Terry Ridon said he would asked CHEd to reject requests for tuition and other school fee increases for the next school year.