House bill ensures poor kids will have tuition fund for college

LEARNING SKILLS A student gets hands-on training on welding through a Technical Education and Skills Development Authority course in this file photo. A lawmaker has proposed setting aside funds to ensure that poor Filipino students will get college education or technical-vocational training. —LYN RILLON

A House committee approved on Monday a bill requiring the government to issue annually treasury bonds to babies born to poor families to help pay for their tertiary or technical-vocational (tech-voc) education once they turn 18 years old.

House Bill No. 638 or the proposed Educational Bond for Tertiary Education Act was approved by the committee on higher and technical education chaired by Baguio City Rep. Mark Go during a panel meeting.

Under the bill principally authored by Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, the Bureau of Treasury (BTr) and the Department of Finance (DOF) will issue risk-free, nonnegotiable and nontransferable treasury bonds in the names of poor newborns. Each bond will have a maturity period of 18 years, with a face value of P25,000 and fixed interest rate.

The amount to be kept in trust, estimated to be at P61,000 from 18 years worth of earned interests, will be released only to the underprivileged beneficiaries when they reach 18 years of age provided that they are enrolled in undergraduate postsecondary programs in state or local universities and colleges, private higher learning institutions, or tech-voc programs.

Held in trust

“All proceeds of the bond shall be pooled and held in trust by the national treasurer in a fund called ‘educational bond fund,’ which will then be applied to school expenditures to support the cost of tertiary education or any part or portion thereof,” Salceda said.

He added that he patterned the program after the Canada Learning Bond—referring to money added by the Canadian government to a registered education savings plan for children from low-income families. The fund is then used to finance their education after high school.

According to Salceda, HB 638 aims to “put up a mechanism, that is the issuance of government securities or treasury bonds that will guarantee future funds for the education of underprivileged Filipino youth, that is insulated from the vagaries of politics and economic uncertainties.”

Under the bill, the number of educational bonds to be issued will be “based on the yearly average birth rate as officially declared by the Philippine Statistics Authority.”

The bill tasks the Commission on Higher Education to hold for safekeeping all funds derived from the proceeds of the educational bond issuance. The agency, in close coordination with the BTr and the DOF, will also be responsible for adopting a mechanism “for the efficient, fool-proof and speedy release of the proceeds accruing from the securities to qualified beneficiaries.” INQ