FREE tuition in state universities and colleges (SUCs) and free health care in 2017. That seems to be too good to be true.
Not when every year we see patients in public hospitals, mostly elderly, waiting in line at the PCSO or at some charity office to fill up forms as indigents before availing of a major operation. Not when you hear government health facilities are going to be closed down for lack of budget.
Not when we see students of state universities rallying every year when school heads announced an increase in tuition just to survive, and then the tragedies of students ending their lives.
Health and education are basic rights first and an obligation of the state. And in the first budget passed under the Duterte administration, it is trying to meet this obligation.
And this comes at a time when media is focused on how much lives were lost in his war, but then these things come up, and it's Christmas.
Free health care assistance has been provided in the past few years with PhilHealth saying it covers 92 percent of Filipinos. It has a "No Balance Billing" policy covers medical bills especially in public hospitals.
Now the Department of Health (DOH) says an additional P3 billion coming from the 2017 budget will make PhilHealth cover hospitalization and medicines for the remaining eight percent or 20 million people.
Aside from that, the DOH will get P 96.3 billion for construction of health facilities and drug rehabilitation centers. The department said major operations like heart surgery and kidney transplants will be shouldered by the government.
SUCs will be getting an added P8.3 billion allocated for tuition fees for over 1.4 million students of 114 SUCs.
Some are saying "kaya pala." But there are things to consider, like how did this happen.
Reading from the Facebook posts of Marjohara Tucay, president of the Kabataan Partylist: "Free tuition is not yet official policy. Laws and regulations on deregulation, commercialization, and the push for SUCs to earn income remain in place."
And here's the catch, "senators readily admit, the move to realign P8.3 billion was made not because it was on top of their heads, but as a hurried compromise to break the debate on the accumulation of supposed pork funds."
My guess is that the pork in the past, where House members have always paraded as scholarship programs and assistance to indigent patients, are just re-allocated.
But this is better than before. Public funds are for public use in the proper label. We must agree with the Kabataan Partylist that free tuition (and free health care) is no Christmas gift.
These things materialize from efforts of youth activists and health-rights advocates for many, many years.
And the problems are still plenty.
What about the need for tuition moratorium for 1,699 private universities and colleges? How can public health be better served when there are more twice as more nurses working in private hospitals than in public hospitals? What about the deteriorating health institutions and the need for health centers in far-flung areas such as in Talaingod?
And for that, we have to do our part in scrutinizing that every peso promised will go to the people, and more demands have to be met by an administration that promised change.
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