Senator Win Gatchalian lauded the increase of Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) beneficiaries from Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) households, with more than 159,000 new students from these families now receiving financial assistance for education-related expenses.
Based on an analysis by the senator’s office of data from the Commission on Higher Education and the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST), only 21% of TES beneficiaries for school year (SY) 2022-2023 were from low-income households, or those from both 4Ps and Listahanan. The Listahanan is an information management system that identifies the country’s poor and their locations.
Seventy-nine percent of TES beneficiaries that same school year were from places with no state and local universities and colleges (SUCs and LUCs). When TES started in 2018, 71% of beneficiaries were from these low-income households.
Gatchalian flagged the decrease of TES beneficiaries from poor households in last year’s budget deliberations, saying that the trend is not consistent with the intention of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act (Republic Act No. 10931) to prioritize the poorest students.
To reverse this trend, Gatchalian introduced a special provision in the CHED’s 2024 budget, which mandated the UniFAST to prioritize students under the Listahan 2.0 and those from low-income households when selecting TES beneficiaries. Gatchalian’s special provision directed TES grants totaling Php 3.1 billion towards college students from the poorest households in the country.
Data from the CHED and UniFAST now shows that there are 159,832 new grantees from 4Ps households. The share of beneficiaries from 4Ps households saw an increase of 27% in SY 2023-2024 from less than 1% in SY 2022-2023. For SY 2023-2024, the combined number of TES beneficiaries from 4Ps and Listahanan is 210,202.
“Nais nating siguruhin na mapupunta sa mga pinakamahirap nating constituents ang subsidiya at sila muna ang mabibigyan ng prayoridad. This is an intervention that we brought to life during last year’s budget deliberation. I thank the Commission and also the UNIFAST board for responding to our request,” Gatchalian said during the briefing on the proposed 2025 budget of CHED and SUCs.
CHED Chairperson Prospero De Vera III confirmed that the UniFAST board changed the policy on selecting TES beneficiaries because of Congress’ intervention.