MANILA, Philippines: The Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities (PACU) said it was supporting four of its member private colleges and universities in Cagayan, which expressed concern over reports surrounding the enrollment of foreign nationals as their students.

In a statement on Thursday, PACU said it was "alarmed by the false narrative that foreign students are enrolling in Philippine schools with ulterior motives that pose a threat to our national security," referring to the University of Cagayan Valley, Medical Colleges of Northern Philippines, St. Paul University Philippines, and the University of Saint Louis Tuguegarao.

"As an organization that envisages nation-building through transformative private education, PACU calls the public of information which may not be rooted in the truth," it said.

"While efforts to safeguard our nation's security is acknowledged, PACU believes that these baseless reports and insinuations discredit and disparage the diligent work put in by these esteemed colleges and universities in building and maintaining their reputation as providers of quality Filipino education," PACU added.

The private tertiary education union also said that these reports question the integrity of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) and the Bureau of Immigration, who process and supervise the entry and stay of foreigners as students in the Philippines.

The PACU had called on the public to stop spreading "baseless insinuations that do more harm than good to the Philippine education industry as a whole."

Figures from the CHEd showed there were 62,511 foreign students who studied in the country between 2018 and 2021.

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