#AyokongMagmahal was the slogan of the student-youth amid looming hikes in tuition and other school fees. On February 15, the Rise for Education-Cebu protested in front of the office of the Commission on Higher Education Region 7 to condemn proposals to increase tuition and other school fees in various colleges and universities. This came after the filing of petition by 1,400 private schools last February 7 to increase fees by 6-8% for school year 2019-2020. Private school administrators are citing TRAIN law as pretext for their proposals.

At present, there are 1,710 private universities in the country while only 233 are public. Thus, majority of schools and students are not covered by the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act or RA 10931, which is supposed to ensure free education in public educational institutions. In addition, the law does not cover all types of fees in public universities.

At present, fees and other expenses for private senior high school and college such as food and lodging, uniforms can reach up to P100,000-P200,000 and P160,000-230,000 annually, respectively.