The House of Representatives approves House Bill No. 6975 or the “Palawan State University – College of Community Resources Development (PSU-CCRD) External Campuses Act” assimilating the external campuses in the province of Palawan and the city of Puerto Princesa as PSU regular campuses, September 1, 2020.
The bill was introduced by the Representative of the 2nd District of Palawan, Congresswoman Cyrille “Beng” F. Abueg-Zaldivar and other representatives Mark O. Go and Eric Go Yap.
HB 6975 aims to “secure adequate and automatic funding” for the PSU-CCRD external campuses from the national government and to “strengthen the administrative supervision of PSU” over the campuses since the operation of the external campuses are governed by a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the University and the host municipality.
“To continue providing access and quality tertiary education to the rural youth in Palawan, this bill intends to secure adequate and automatic funding for these CCRDs from the national government and to strengthen the administrative supervision of PSU over the same in order to achieve maximum results,” as stated in the Explanatory Note in House Bill No. 5885, the precursor of the approved bill.
The agreement between PSU and the host municipality specifies that the roles of the university are to oversee the operation of the external campus and to provide the needed faculty and staff while the host municipality provides the infrastructure and the funding for the salaries of faculty and staff.
The explanatory note also stated that because of the steady increase in the student population and operational costs in the external campuses, the host municipality’s financial assistance spiked from P500,000 to almost P10,000,000 at present. The increase caused some of the LGUs to scale down or even withdraw their support to the external campuses.
The bill is submitted and awaiting the ratification of the Senate. On the other hand, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan ng Palawan also approved a resolution urging the Senate to enact the HB 6975 in support for the bill during their 58th Regular Session, September 8, 2020.
Aside from PSU Manalo and Tiniguiban campuses, the university operates CCRD external campuses all-around the province – Rizal, Narra, Quezon, Araceli, Brooke’s Point, San Vicente, Cuyo, Coron, Balabac, Roxas, Taytay, El Nido, Linapacan, San Rafael, Sofronio Española, Dumaran and Bataraza.