CAGAYAN de Oro City 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez on Wednesday opposed the suggestion of Finance Sec. Benjamin Diokno for the Marcos administration and Congress to revisit the free college education program.

“I am against the proposal to stop the program because it benefits many poor but deserving high school graduates who cannot otherwise pursue college education without government financial assistance,” Rodriguez, chairman of the House committee on constitutional amendments, said.

Rodriguez said he disagrees with Diokno that the program is not sustainable. “Congress can and should continue to fund it. Education is the best gift we can give to the poor.”

Besides, he added that free college education is not available to all those seeking enrollment in state and local colleges and universities, and is limited only to poor but deserving students.

The Mindanao lawmaker noted that free tertiary education is allocated P51.1 billion in the proposed P5.768-trillion 2024 national budget.

“P51.1 billion is a small fraction of the spending proposal for next year. It’s less than one percent,” he stressed. \

Over the weekend, Diokno said he had opposed the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act of 2017 (Republic Act No. 10931) when he was part of the Duterte administration because it was “unsustainable.”

He served in the previous administration as budget secretary and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor.

Diokno called the law “anti-poor” because “there are more poor people who do not attend college.”

“This is really a subsidy to those who can pay for their college education. Plus, it really consumes a lot of funds,” he said.

Rodriguez urged the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and state and local universities and colleges (SUCs) to strictly vet students applying for the free college education program to ensure that only those qualified get assistance.

He said many concerned citizens have claimed that the University of the Philippines has become the “university of the rich” because of the fact that parking lots in its Diliman campus in Quezon City are full of high-end cars and sport utility vehicles during classes.

“I hope these are not the students who receive financial assistance from the government under RA 10931,” he said.