Laws without money are lies dressed up as solutions
On the 32nd anniversary of the Commission on Higher Education, Senator Loren Legarda reminded the Philippines that a law without a budget is not a promise kept but a promise deferred. Speaking from experience — having once secured ₱8 billion that put 800,000 students through college — she named the quiet failure at the heart of the Free College Education Act: funds allocated on outdated enrollment figures, leaving real students without real support. Her call was not for new legislation but for the oldest form of accountability — that what is declared must be delivered.
- Hundreds of thousands of Filipino students have been quietly failed by a free tuition law that exists on paper but arrives underfunded in practice.
- The root of the crisis is bureaucratic but consequential: budget allocations based on old enrollment data leave institutions perpetually short, turning celebrated programs into hollow announcements.
- Legarda's warning cuts at a systemic habit — governments signing laws with fanfare while the Department of Budget and Management withholds or miscalculates the funds needed to make them real.
- Congress has allocated ₱11.8 billion for 2026, but the senator insists that allocation and actual release are two different things, and only the latter changes lives.
- She is pressing the DBM to use accurate, projected student data in budget planning — a procedural fix with enormous human stakes.
At the PICC Complex in Pasay City, Senator Loren Legarda used CHED's 32nd anniversary not for ceremony but for candor: laws without funding, she said, are empty promises dressed as solutions.
Her frustration was grounded in a specific failure. The Free College Education Act, designed to open higher education to those who cannot afford it, has been chronically underfunded — not because the money was never appropriated, but because allocations were calculated using outdated enrollment figures rather than the actual number of students arriving at state universities and colleges. The result was a recurring gap between what was announced and what institutions actually received.
Legarda knew the difference between symbolic and substantive funding. As former chair of the Senate Committee on Finance, she had secured an ₱8-billion realignment that allowed roughly 800,000 students across 112 institutions to complete their degrees without paying tuition or miscellaneous fees. That experience gave her both the authority and the impatience to demand better.
For 2026, Congress allocated ₱11.8 billion — ₱7.8 billion through CHED's Higher Education Development Fund and ₱4 billion under the General Appropriations Act. But Legarda's message was precise: allocation is not release. She called on the DBM to use projected enrollment data in the National Expenditure Program and to ensure every designated peso actually reaches the students it was meant to serve.
She acknowledged CHED's ongoing reforms — strategic plans, revised scholarships, new programs — as meaningful steps, but insisted they could only succeed if the money followed. Her closing appeal was not partisan but practical: the work of education policy demands unity of purpose, and that purpose is measured not in speeches but in students who graduate.
Senator Loren Legarda stood before the Commission on Higher Education's 32nd Anniversary celebration on June 10, 2026, at the PICC Complex in Pasay City, and delivered a message that cut through the usual ceremonial pleasantries: laws without money are lies.
She was speaking to a specific wound. The Free College Education Act, meant to open higher learning to students who could not afford it, had been chronically starved of resources. When CHED officials met with state universities and colleges the previous year, the gap became undeniable. The government was allocating tuition support based on enrollment numbers from years past, not the actual students showing up to classrooms. The result was a perpetual shortfall—programs announced with fanfare, then discovered by institutions and students to be underfunded or unfunded entirely.
Legarda's frustration was rooted in experience. As then-chair of the Senate Committee on Finance, she had fought for and secured an ₱8-billion realignment to CHED under the 2017 General Appropriations Act. That money had real consequences: around 800,000 students across 112 state universities and colleges were able to complete their degrees without paying tuition or miscellaneous fees. She knew what actual funding looked like. She also knew what its absence looked like.
The problem, she explained, was not the laws themselves. Laws existed to solve problems, not to create the appearance of solving them. The breakdown happened in the space between the bill signing and the budget release—where announcements were made, programs were promoted, expectations were raised, and then nothing arrived. "Ginagawa ang batas para magbigay ng kalutasan sa ating mga problema, hindi lamang sa edukasyon, sa lahat ng sektor," she said. The law is made to provide solutions to our problems, not just in education, in all sectors.
To address the immediate crisis, Congress had allocated ₱11.8 billion for 2026—₱7.8 billion through CHED's Higher Education Development Fund and ₱4 billion under the General Appropriations Act. But Legarda's warning was clear: allocation and release are not the same thing. She called on the Department of Budget and Management to use accurate, projected student enrollment data when preparing the National Expenditure Program, and to ensure that every peso designated for free college education actually reached the institutions and students it was meant to serve. The law, she insisted, should never be held hostage by incomplete or withheld funds.
Her speech moved beyond complaint to acknowledgment. CHED was pursuing reforms—the Higher Education ACHIEVE Strategic Plan, a revised merit scholarship program, Project PAG-IBIG—that pointed toward a learner-centered direction. These initiatives mattered. But they could only work if the money followed. Legarda positioned herself as a partner in that work, someone willing to set aside political differences to focus on what students actually needed. "Advocacy, policies, and the work we do go beyond titles, go beyond designations and chairmanships," she said, "because there's so much work to do that we have to remain united in our vision and our mission to get it done."
The question hanging over the celebration was whether the ₱11.8 billion allocated for 2026 would be different—whether this time the money would actually move, whether the gap between promise and reality would finally close. For the hundreds of thousands of students depending on free tuition to reach a degree, the answer mattered more than any speech.
Notable Quotes
The law is made to provide solutions to our problems, not just in education, in all sectors.— Senator Loren Legarda
Advocacy, policies, and the work we do go beyond titles and designations, because there's so much work to do that we have to remain united in our vision and mission to get it done.— Senator Loren Legarda
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does a senator need to make this argument at all? Isn't funding education laws just what government does?
You'd think so. But there's a gap between passing a law and actually paying for it. A law can exist on paper, get announced, get celebrated—and then the money never arrives. Students show up expecting free tuition and discover the institution has no budget to deliver it.
How does that even happen? Doesn't the budget process catch that?
Not always. The Free College Education Act was allocated based on old enrollment numbers, not current or projected ones. So the government was funding for fewer students than actually existed. The shortfall was chronic, predictable, and nobody was fixing it.
And Legarda has seen this work before?
Yes. In 2017, she secured ₱8 billion for CHED, and it actually worked—800,000 students got through without paying tuition. She knows what real funding looks like. That's why she's so direct about the difference between announcements and actual money.
What does she want to happen now?
Two things. First, the Department of Budget and Management needs to use accurate student data—not outdated figures—when planning allocations. Second, when money is allocated, it has to be released. Not held back, not delayed. The promise only means something if the cash follows.
Is there a chance this actually changes?
Congress allocated ₱11.8 billion for 2026. That's real money. But Legarda's warning suggests she's seen promises before. The test is whether it gets spent.