Solons reject closure of Bukidnon extension campuses

August 5, 2017

The House committee on higher and technical education moved to stop the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) from implementing its plan to close down extension campuses of the Bukidnon State University .

House members said the closure will displace some 5,000 students in Misamis Oriental and deprive the youth, who come from poor families, in acquiring a college education, thus denying them an opportunity to build a better future, a statement from House of Representatives said Friday.

The lawmakers approved a  motion calling on the CHED to abandon its abolition plan during the inquiry by the House committee on higher education, chaired by Rep. Ann Hofer of  Zamboanga Sibugay on the issue.

The inquiry is being done based on House Resolution No. 957 filed by Rep. Juliette Uy of Misamis Oriental. The resolution seeks to determine the dire consequences of the CHED order to close the various Bukidnon State University-External Studies Centers to students and communities in Misamis Oriental.

Hofer, in her opening statement, said the CHED was established to ensure quality higher education is accessible to all particularly those who could not afford it.

“Even before CHED was created (in 1994), the learning institutions have already been there,” Hofer said.

She stressed the students in the campuses come from poor families, who could not afford to study in the capital city, more so, in Metro Manila.

Hofer suggested CHED should cooperate with the local government units and the House members concerned in addressing what is lacking in the external studies centers.

“House members, being representatives of the people, are expressing the sense of their constituents, and the sense is not to close the ESCs,” Hofer said.

Uy said that although she supports the laudable efforts of the CHED to improve quality education, CHED must balance the need to achieve higher education with the accessibility of education which are imposed by the realities of communities.

“The sad reality is that many of our citizens in Misamis Oriental and Bukidnon cannot afford to go to school outside their municipalities. We have no community college as the local government units cannot afford them as of now,” she said.

Uy said the closure of BSU-ESCs in Misamis Oriental will ultimately displace close to 5,000 students in the province and permanently deprive them and future generations of youth of accessible and affordable tertiary education.

Rep. Ma. Lourdes Acosta-Alba of Bukidnon said the CHED’s closure order would be an injustice to the students to be adversely affected by the said order.

“Most of the students enrolled in the ESCs in Bukidnon will not have the opportunity to study in the BSU main campus due to distance and cost of travel,” she said.

“The ESCs have produced countless professionals who in turn have helped uplift the lives of their respective families,” Acosta-Alba said. DMS