Yamsuan to press for CHED funding safeguards in 2027 budget amid possible travel tax abolition

Parañaque 2nd District Representative Brian Yamsuan has pledged to ensure that alternative funding sources for the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) are available under the proposed 2027 national budget should the measure abolishing the travel tax is enacted into law this year.

The CHED, which regulates higher education and administers the government’s financial aid programs for tertiary-level students, gets part of its funding from 40 percent of the total gross collections from the travel tax.

Yamsuan, a member of the House Budget Amendments and Review Subcommittee (BARSc) pointed out that under Malacañang’s National Expenditure Program for Fiscal Year 2027, a portion of the allocation for the CHED’s Higher Education Development Fund (HEDF) would still be sourced from the travel tax collections of the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA).

“Kami po ay magtatrabaho sa Kongreso para hanapan kayo ng alternative sources of funding once mangyari po ang pagsasabatas ng abolition ng travel tax (We will work in Congress to look for alternative sources of funding once the travel tax measure is enacted into law),” Yamsuan told CHED Chairperson Shirley Agrupis during the House Committee on Appropriations’ budget deliberations last week on the agency’s proposed 2027 budget.

If the bill abolishing the travel tax is passed into law, Agrupis told the House Committee on Tourism last March that without a substitute funding source, the CHED would lose 85.6 percent of the funding for the HEDF, “a structural loss that directly affects scholarships, research and institutional upgrading, and tourism education programs.”

The House of Representatives approved on March 16 the measure seeking to abolish the travel tax. Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian earlier said the Senate version of the measure is included in the chamber’s priority list of bills and will be passed this year.

“Kami bilang member ng BARSc, sisiguraduhin ko po na sa susunod na pagpupulong with (Committee on Appropriations) Chair Mika (Suansing) ay gagawa po kami ng paraan upang maibalik ang pondo para hindi maantala ang magagandang programa ng CHED (As member of the BARSc, I would make sure that in the next meeting with Committee on Appropriations Chairperson Mikaela Angela Suansing, we would find ways to restore CHED’s funding so as not to delay the implementation of CHED’s good programs),” he added.

During the hearing, Yamsuan also thanked the CHED for its efficient implementation of the government’s higher education initiatives and financial assistance to tertiary-level students, particularly the Tulong Dunong Program (TDP).

The TDP provides a financial grant of up to P7,500 per semester or a total of P15,000 per school year to help cover the tuition and other daily expenses of qualified college students.

Yamsuan urged the CHED to conduct more consultations with Local Universities and Colleges (LUC) to help them institute reforms that would allow them to take part in the TDP.

Out of 170 LUCs, only 116 are CHED-recognized institutions qualified to accept TDP grants from its enrollees.

Yamsuan made the appeal after finding out that several TDP applicants in his district could not avail of the financial aid because either the college or the course they are enrolled in is not CHED-recognized or -accredited.

The CHED has stringent requirements, such as earning a Certificate of Program Compliance (COPC), to classify an LUC or a State University and College (SUC) as “CHED-recognized” and eligible to take part in the TDP. The COPC aims to ensure that degree programs offered by state-run educational institutions fully meet national quality standards, policies and guidelines. ###