The Valenzuela City government has allotted P169.6 million for the students of Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Valenzuela (PLV) and Valenzuela City Polytechnic College (ValPoly) for this year.
This city government’s subsidy is based on the free-education program of the administration of Mayor Rexlon Gatchalian at the tertiary level in Valenzuela City.
In a text message, Gatchalian told the BusinessMirror that the budget is “expected to increase some more [at the] mid [semester] this year when the new school year starts as we introduce new courses, hence adding more instructors.”
When asked why his administration invests such huge amount of taxpayers money for education, Gatchalian emphasized that “the best weapon against poverty is education. We invested [in education] to create the best public-school system [in Valenzuela City].”
“Starting from day care to college. We want our children to be as competitive as those that graduated from private schools so they will land good jobs, later on in life. With good jobs they can become productive members of the society,” explained the mayor, who is in his second term.
Lauro Zyan F. Cena, chief of the city government’s Public Information Office, told the BusinessMirror in a phone interview that the subsidy covers free tuition, miscellaneous, medical checkup, newsletter, university handbook, laboratory, sports activities, use of multimedia facilities and guidance and counseling programs.
Cena said the free education in Valenzuela City started in October 2016, or in the second semester of school year 2016-2017, after Gatchalian approved the City Ordinance 297, or the “Valenzuela City Free Higher Education Ordinance” that was approved and passed by the Sangguniang Panglunsod headed by Vice Mayor Lorena Natividad-Borja.
Councilor Rovin Feliciano, principal author of the ordinance, said in a text message that “the purpose of the said ordinance is to change the culture of tertiary education that is not only exclusive for the people who are capable of sending their children to colleges and universities because they have money, but rather they are sending their children to college because the government—especially the local governments that are financially capable—is providing world-class and free tertiary education, believing on dreams and goals of the students who are soon to be the professionals and leaders of our country.”
Feliciano, who is the Sangguniang Panlungsod’s chairman of the Committee on Higher and Technical Education, added that free education “is also aligned with executive agenda and priorities of our Mayor Rex Gatchalian.”
Prior to this, the city government shoulders the P17,500 tuition, miscellaneous and other fees of each student of both PLV and ValPoly, while the student pays P2,500, Cena said.
When the Gatchalian administration has already fully subsidized the whole P20,000 annual tuition and other matriculation of the students, the parents of the students were extremely happy with the assistance since it was indeed a big help for them, he added.
On top of free education, the Gatchalian administration invested P361.6 million for the construction of the new PLV Campus on Tongco Street in Barangay Maysan.
The new campus is at the 1.7-hectare area donated by the city government.
The campus was described as modern for having three Western Mediterranean-inspired buildings with a total floor area of 16,305.15 square meters (sq m), including the cafeteria.
Cena said the total building construction cost was P22,175.48 per sq m, or a total construction cost of P361.57 million.
Cena emphasized in a statement posted on the city government’s web site that the new PLV Campus is a manifestation that “Valenzuela City’s quest for high-quality public tertiary education continues to advance by leaps and bounds.”
The PLV officials, professors and instructors and the university’s more than 5,000 students can now use the high-tech amenities at the PLV, such as the laboratories for mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, electronics and communication engineering, information and communications technology, materials testing, fluid mechanics, chemistry, physics and speech communication.
It also has a University Library that offers varied selections of reading materials, an audio-visual room, spacious lecture rooms and a student’s lounge, where PLVians can loosen up from daily academic pressures, Cena explained in a statement.
The new Campus, likewise, offers what it called “PLV World Card,” which was profoundly described by the Gatchalian administration as a “revolutionary project.”
According to Cena, the PLV World Card, or the radio frequency identification-enabled cards, are the students’ access to a whole new world of top-notch university experience.
“It will serve as their pass to enter the campus. Once they tapped, their parents or guardian are notified through a text message whether they went in or out of the campus,” he noted. “This is also their access to their online university records, class schedules and university advisories.”
The world card will also serve as a discount card in merchants inside and outside of the campus, he added.
The PLV has restored the Eduardo Castrillo sculpture inside the campus, as it now serves as the institution’s “symbol of pride on its maxim of academic excellence.”
Education is Garchalian’s top agenda in what he called “Five Pillars of Good Governance.”
The four others are health and social services, housing, job generation and trade and industry.
“We want every Valenzuelano to have an equal opportunity to enrich themselves academically. We want them to unlock their potentials and convert them to productive skilled members of the work force after they graduate. We want them to be able to pull their families out of poverty,” Gatchalian added.