Student leaders from different universities and colleges in Cebu City plan to organize protest actions in opposition of tuition hikes for the upcoming school year.

Joemark Narsico, president of the Unified Students Organization of the University of the Philippines in the Visayas Cebu Campus (UPVCC), said his group would conduct a room-to-room campaign protesting the school’s fee increases once classes open.

He claimed that UPVCC raised tuition by 300 percent and increased laboratory fees for school year 2008-2009.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo earlier ordered all state schools like the University of the Philippines to refrain from implementing any tuition hikes.

“What is the government doing with the increase when our laboratory has not improved? Our library is outdated, we can’t use it,” he said.

Narsico said he would contact other student organizations under the National Union of Students in the Philippines (NUSP) to coordinate a possible unified mass action against the increase in school fees.

He said the increase is adding to the burden of parents and students, and may result in a reduction in enrollment this year.

“The government is supposed to subsidize education in this country, not to have education become exclusive for the elite,” Narsico said.

Tawny Estelloso, president of the mass communications student body of the of the Saint Theresa’s College (STC), said her group also plans to protest against the school’s tuition hike.

She said she would bring the matter to other mass communications organizations in other schools so that they could come up with a common stand.

Estelloso said protest actions would have to wait until school opens, since most students are still in their homes in distant towns.

She said the higher tuition makes it harder for her parents to send her three children to school.

Estelloso, who will enter her senior year, said her parents support her and her younger sisters. One sibling will be on her third year as a nursing student while the youngest will enter third year high school.

She said that like many of her fellow students, she tries to help her parents by minimizing her other expenditures.

“I’ll try to save and not spend too much. I'll minimize going to the malls,” she said.

Ghea Sinajon, also an incoming fourth year mass communications student of STC, said that despite STC’s higher tuition, the school has not been transparent with what it has done with the money.

Apart from the tuition increase, Sinajon said STC raised its miscellaneous expenses as well.

“What’s the use of the increase? We don’t even know what the miscellaneous fee is for. If we ask, we’re not told because it would supposedly come out in print when it’s paid, but even then, the print doesn’t say anything,” she said.

In a report released by the Department of Education in Central Visayas (DepEd-7), 70 out of 191 private high schools and 34 out of 526 private elementary schools are expected to increase tuition for the incoming school year.

Several private colleges and universities have also increased their school fees.

Increases range between 10 percent to 40 percent of the school's tuition last school year.

President Arroyo earlier ordered all state-run schools to keep from increasing their fees. She urged private schools to do the same.

She also ordered state-run universities and colleges that have already started or completed enrollment to refund students any fee increases that the schools may have already imposed.