Different activist groups strongly opposed Gloria Arroyo's re-implementation of Commission on Higher Education's (CHED) Memorandum Order No. 13 (MO13), which permits private tertiary schools to increase their tuition and other fees without limit.

Reaffirmed early January by Arroyo in a meeting with CHED officials, MO13 lifts the tuition cap first imposed through MO14 and MO42, which only allowed tuition and other fee hikes without consultation for increases within the existing inflation rate. 

In a statement, the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) said “school owners therefore can freely increase or invent various fees,” as MO13 does not provide established ceiling rates on any tuition increase. The NUSP added that the consultation process covers only the tuition increase and does not include charges for incoming freshmen and "other fees and new fees."

MO 13 leads to redundant fees such as a sports development fee even when there is already an athletic fee, power plant development fee, energy fee, aircon fee and other anomalous fees,said NUSP.

According to MO13, first implemented in 1998, the consultation process includes the “actual meetings and/or discussions on the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed increase in tuition…wherein the participants will have an opportunity to air their objections, sentiments and the like.”

Consultations should be conducted in a “free and candid atmosphere” with representatives from the student council, faculty, alumni, and non-teaching personnel associations, MO13 stated.

In a statement, Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro Casiño said that Arroyo did not consult students’ and teachers’ groups that “can very well articulate the negative impact of the school fee hikes.”

"It [the re-implementation of MO13] reflects the Arroyo administration's thrust of deregulation and state abandonment of education and clearly favors school owners," said NUSP President Alvin Peters. "Arroyo simply confirms the longstanding opinion that she does not have the Filipino youth's interest in mind, in particular, the youth's basic right to quality and affordable education."

According to League of Filipino Students-College of Mass Communication Chair Marco DR Reyes, MO13 reflects the government’s abandonment of its obligation to pay for the people’s education. He added that the individuals end up paying for their education, which is the state's obligation.

In a report, CHED said less than 10 percent of private tertiary schools increased tuition in 2007 "with tuition hikes mainly applying to freshmen students." Mapua Institute of Technology, a private university, has increased its tuition by 3% in AY 2007-2008 in accordance with MO14. # Philippine Collegian

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