What happens when a local college with limited funding and ambitious programs cannot meet quality assurance standards?
The ongoing Libacao College of Science and Technology (LCST) case highlights how local government ambitions clashed with quality-assurance standards, resulting in the college’s failure to obtain compliance certificates and causing hardship for students and families caught in the controversy.
LCST was established in 2003 by a municipal ordinance of the municipality of Libacao, Aklan, pursuant to the wide-ranging autonomy granted under the Local Government Code.
Since its first graduation in the 2007-2008 academic year, LCST has offered degree programs and graduates students annually. Despite efforts to deliver affordable, quality education to local residents, the institution has yet to achieve Institutional Recognition (IR) from CHED.
So what happened?
The UAQTE law was enacted in 2017, requiring CHED to assess local universities and colleges (LUCs) and identify those qualified for national government tuition and fee reimbursement.
The Duterte administration actively worked to guarantee free, high-quality higher education by mandating all public universities to secure a Certificate of Program Compliance (COPC) for each degree program. Congress supported this by including specific provisions in the General Appropriations Act (GAA), which obliged CHED to review all public university degree programs and shut down those that did not meet standards. The Marcos administration continued this policy.
A COPC is issued for each degree program offered by a higher education institution, attesting to the presence of qualified faculty, mandatory plantilla positions, academic officials, laboratories and a curriculum that meets minimum CHED standards.
In 2021, the enforcement of strict standards led to 19 LUCs being delisted from receiving free higher education benefits from UNIFAST. Despite intense political pressure, UNIFAST and CHED remained firm in their decision, forcing these LUCs to seek alternative funding to compensate for the loss of the national subsidy.
The reasoning was simple: it is wrong to provide free education to Filipinos if the government cannot guarantee quality education.
LCST applied for the COPC for its degree programs starting in 2022 but failed to obtain it. Without a COPC, its CHED Institutional Recognition (IR) could not be granted. It reapplied for COPCs in 2023 and 2024, and its application was again disapproved for failure to comply with minimum standards.
By 2024, CHEDRO VI recommended delisting the affected programs and enforcing the prohibition on admitting new students.
By that time, LCST had graduated 674 students from Academic Year 2007-2008 to 2025-2026 and had 645 continuing students in the affected programs.
Under the guidance of regional director Raul Alvarez Jr., the CHED regional office conducted various technical assistance activities to support the college. However, the college leadership and local government still failed to recruit qualified program heads and faculty or to improve facilities and laboratories. Despite regular discussions between CHEDRO VI and college officials, which often ended with promises to fix issues, these conversations did not generate specific, time-bound plans for achieving compliance.
As expected, the proposed closure of noncompliant academic programs at LCST sparked a firestorm among students, parents, alumni and local leaders. For many residents of Libacao, Aklan – an area classified as geographically isolated and disadvantaged (GIDA) – LCST has been the only accessible route to higher education.
Interestingly, this happened in a region recognized for maintaining quality-assurance standards. Region VI was the first to attain 100 percent Certificate of Program Compliance (COPC) for all SUCs offering degree programs, with LUCs like Iloilo City Community College, Passi City College, Vicente Javier Memorial College, and Altavas College also earning their IR.
Clearly, the problem is not with CHED.
The new mayor, Tim Teodocio, has acknowledged the previous administration’s failure to comply with the Commission’s directives and committed to full compliance with all existing CHED laws, policies, standards and regulations.
LCST is voluntarily phasing out its BS Hospitality Management, BS Industrial Technology and BS Special Needs Education programs and will not admit new students starting in Academic Year 2026-2027.
But the damage is already done. Many students, especially those from IP communities and low-income households, cannot access private or public schools because of distance and cost. Other colleges in the region are reluctant to accept or credit courses completed by transfer students because of the COPC issue.
For humanitarian reasons, CHED may permit existing LCST students to finish their degrees via an organized phase-out. However, issuing Special Orders (SOs), Certification, Authentication and Verification (CAV), diplomas, transcripts and other academic documents to former graduates involves complex legal issues and places a substantial administrative load on CHED staff.
The tale of LCST serves as a warning for LGUs to carefully reconsider before establishing their own local colleges. While offering free education can earn voter support, it is only effective if the college provides accessible, high-quality education.
Since the passage of the Free Higher Education Law, CHED has enforced non-negotiable quality-assurance standards in collaboration with UNIFAST, PRC, DBM and the CSC.
CHED must remain firm in its mandate to guarantee access to quality education by shutting down all degree programs that do not meet compliance across all higher education institutions.
Quality without access leads to inequality, while access without quality offers false hope. CHED must uphold both, as this is not only good governance but also a constitutional duty and a fundamental promise of higher education to all Filipinos.