A senatorial bet who owns two private schools Sunday backed proposals for the imposition of a moratorium on tuition hikes in the coming school year.

Citing the adverse economic impact of the El Niño phenomenon. Lakas-Kampi-CMD senatorial bet Ramon Guico called on the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) to freeze tuition to the current level to prevent students from poor families from dropping out.

“Incomes were lost, freeze-hiring occurred and prices of commodities increased as a result of the dry spell. I don’t think this is the right time to give poor families another problem,” said Guico, president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines.

Guico issued the statement despite the fact that he and his family will be the first to be affected should CHEd carry out the tuition fee moratorium.

Guico, it was gathered, owns the World Citi University in Quezon City. His family also operates a flying school in Binalonan, Pangasinan where he is mayor.

He explained that the planned tuition hikes at this time is improper as many poor Filipino parents, particularly those engaged in farming, have suffered the brunt of the dry spell and its adverse effects, and any increase in school fees would certainly deprive them of sending their children for a college education.

As a policy, private and state institutions need to seek CHEd approval of any planned tuition fee hikes in colleges and universities, justifying all the reasons why they need to impose such increases according to Guico.

School officials, he said, should temporarily look for other means to increase their operational funds instead of effecting tuition fee increase.

The administration senatorial bet said state colleges and universities should be the first to impose a freeze on tuition rates even as he rejected as unacceptable the move of the state-owned Polytechnic University of the Philippines to impose a 2,000 percent tuition hike.

“We would certainly deprive these poor students of their future if we allow tuition fees unaffordable. We are supposed to help them, not to bury them further by making them lose hope and the chance to improve their lives and that of their families,” Guico said.

Reacting to the same issue, Makabayan senatorial bet and Nacionalista Party guest candidate Satur Ocampo expressed full support to the ongoing protest of students against the PUP tuition hike plan.