Angara optimistic Duterte will sign into law bill granting free tuition in SUCs

Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

A senator expressed confidence that President Rodrigo Duterte will sign into law the bill which gives poor students free tuition in state universities and colleges (SUCs) and state-run technical vocation schools.

“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,” Senator Sonny Angara, vice chair of the Senate education committee and a co-author of the universal access to quality tertiary education bill, said in a statement Sunday.

The House of Representatives recently approved on third and final reading House Bill 5633 which also seeks to strengthen the Unified Student Financial Assistance System (UniFAST).

READ: House approves bill granting free tuition in SUCs

“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,” Angara said.

“This will definitely be a big sigh of relief for parents. With free tertiary education in SUCs and LUCs (local universities and colleges), 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.

READ: Economists: Tuition-free SUC education ‘anti-poor’

Angara, whose father, former Senate President Edgardo Angara, authored the Free High School Act of 1998, said he will also push for the approval of the bill seeking to provide students 20 percent transportation discount on all days.

The Student Fare Discount bill will also cover the inclusion of train fares, airplane fares, and ship fares of students.

“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. IDL