Arroyos file bill granting scholarships for public teachers

Former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her congressman son have filed a bill, institutionalizing scholarship grants for public school teachers and their children.

House Bill 3035 also known as “Scholarship Grants to Public School Teachers and their Children Act of 2013 was filed by the former leader and Camarines Sur Representative Diosdado Macapagal-Arroyo “to uplift the personal integrity of teachers by extending them proper recognition and the corresponding benefits,” a statement said on Monday.

The proposed measure seeks to grant `free education to legitimate children of public school teachers from pre-schools, elementary, secondary, and tertiary education schools.

The bill also provides that public school teachers, who are in service for at least two consecutive years, would be eligible to avail scholarship grants in masteral or post-graduate course.

Retired public schools teacher, the statement said,  would only be entitled to a proportional amount of the grant.

Teachers, who have record of misconduct, would not be eligible for the grant, the statement added.

There is already an existing law – Republic Act 4670 or the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers Act—   passed in 1966 to address the social and economic woes of public school teachers.