Press Release
June 25, 2017

ANGARA CONFIDENT DUTERTE WILL SIGN FREE COLLEGE EDUC BILL

SENATOR Sonny Angara has expressed confidence that President Rodrigo R. Duterte will sign into law the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education bill which was recently approved and ratified by the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Angara, vice chair of the Senate education committee and a co-author of the bill, pointed out that once the bill becomes a law, poor students will be able to pursue their college education at no cost if they enroll in State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) as well as Local Universities and Colleges (LUCs).

"I am very optimistic that the President will sign this on or before his scheduled State of the Nation Address (SONA) in July. It could be his biggest and best announcement for all of us that day," the lawmaker said in a press statement.

Angara stressed that the bill will empower the young people as it will remove a major hindrance to tertiary education.

"With this law, even the financially-incapable Filipino families can give their children college education without worrying how to pay for it because it will be for free," he said.

According to the chairman of the Senate ways and means committee, it is high time for college tuition to be made free. The senator's father, former Senate President Edgardo J. Angara, was the principal author of the Free High School Act of 1998.

"This will definitely be a big sigh of relief for parents. With free tertiary education in SUCs and LUCs, no more tears of frustration on their part," said Angara, who also authored the "Universal Kindergarten Education Act" when he was a congressman of the lone district of Aurora.

But Angara said with the passage of the free college tuition bill, the work is still not finished.

"Once we resume our session in July, I would be pushing for the approval of a bill I filed which would give our students a 20 percent discount on regular fares not only during schooldays and summer classes, but on all days including weekends, semester breaks and other holidays," he said.

The senator also added that the Student Fare Discount bill which he will sponsor in the Senate floor will cover the inclusion of train fares, airplane fares, and ship fares of students.

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