A member of the Bohol Sangguniang Panlalawigan cautioned that community colleges run by local government units (LGUs) could siphon students away from private colleges in the province’s towns, arguing that public subsidies give the LGU-run schools an unfair edge.

Board Member Benjie Arcamo said the concern arises amid a growing number of municipal and community colleges being set up across Bohol.

He cited Talibon as an example, where a private college already operates alongside a community college, saying the public institution’s access to subsidies could pull students away from the private school.

“In a competition between private schools and community college, the former is in a disadvantage compared to the latter,” Arcamo said, noting that public-run schools can rely on government subsidy in ways private schools cannot.

Arcamo said local governments planning to open a community college should first weigh whether it will compete with an existing private institution in the same town, calling for a feasibility study before any such school opens.

He said establishing a community college effectively puts the local government in competition with private investors in the town, and that doing so is no simple undertaking given the requirements imposed by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

He said he would rather see convergence or collaboration between private institutions and government in delivering education, and suggested community colleges instead offer courses not already provided by private schools, to avoid direct competition.

Arcamo, a resident of Panglao, confirmed there is a plan for the town to build its own community college but said he has no details on whether it will push through.

Even if it does, he said, it would take time before the school opens.

LGU-run colleges

Arcamo’s remarks come as towns across Bohol continue to establish municipal and community colleges, a trend of LGUs bringing tertiary education directly to rural residents.

Among the province’s top LGU-run higher education institutions:

Trinidad Municipal College (TMC) has grown rapidly to serve more than 7,000 students and is CHED-recognized.

Ubay Community College (UCC) serves northeastern Bohol with programs geared to local economic needs and has graduated its first batches of students.

Buenavista Community College (BCC) grew from an extension campus into an independent municipal college offering teacher education, information technology, and hospitality programs, drawing students from neighboring towns including Inabanga and Getafe.

Tagbilaran City College (TCC) gives urban and suburban residents in the capital local, affordable options.

Local officials say these schools help retain young talent in sectors such as agriculture, education, information technology, and hospitality, rather than losing them to migration toward bigger cities — building local human capital that could strengthen town economies over time.

The legal and funding framework

The wave of municipal colleges is rooted in two Philippine laws.

LGUs create these schools — generally called Local Universities and Colleges (LUCs) — through an ordinance passed by the local Sanggunian, as authorized under Republic Act 7160, the Local Government Code of 1991.

Local government funding, not national appropriation, covers their day-to-day operations, which is the subsidy advantage Arcamo referred to.

Republic Act 10931, the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act signed by then-President Rodrigo Duterte in August 2017, layered free tuition on top of this system.

The law defines an LUC as a CHED-accredited public higher education institution established by an LGU through an enabling ordinance, financially supported by that LGU, and compliant with CHED’s policies, standards, and guidelines.

Only students enrolled in CHED-accredited LUCs qualify for the law’s free tuition benefit — accreditation is not automatic just because a town creates a college.

That accreditation requirement has historically been a bottleneck.

As of 2017, only 18 of the country’s 107 LUCs were CHED-recognized, though that number rose to 101 of 121 LUCs, or about 83.5%, by October 2020 as CHED worked through the backlog created by the law.

This is the accreditation process Arcamo referenced when he described the “plenty of requirements” LGUs must fulfill before a community college can operate and its students can access free tuition.

Because free tuition and operating subsidies for LUCs are funded through local government budgets — and, once CHED-accredited, tie into the national Tertiary Education Subsidy system administered by UniFAST — the expansion of town colleges is ultimately underwritten by Filipino taxpayers at both the local and national level.

That funding structure is central to Arcamo’s argument: private colleges, which depend on tuition revenue, compete against publicly subsidized institutions that can offer free or low-cost education by design.