Bill vs. “no permit, no exam” still pending

CEBU, Philippines - The “no permit, no exam policy” may soon be a thing of the past if a bill, now pending before the House of Representatives, will be made into law.

Aurora Province Representative and Team PNoy senatorial hopeful Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, who is the principal author of this bill said that no student either studying in a private school or much more in one of the  state universities and colleges (SUC) should be barred from taking an examination for failure to pay his or her tuition fees.

“SUC’s are not tuition dependent because they have budget from the national government,” Angara said in an interview.

Former Las Piñas representative Cynthia Villar, also a Team PNoy senatorial hopeful, echoed the same statement.

“Marami namang paraan kung papaano mababayaran ng estudyante yung tuition fee niya. But the more it will create problem, if you will not allow a student to take an exam,” she said.

Villar and Angara both cited what happened to a student of the University of the Philippines who committed suicide after she failed to pay her tuition fees.

“We do not want this thing to happen again especially that the budget for SUCs was already increased for this school year,” Villar added.

The country has 112 state universities and colleges with over 500 campuses.  Angara said that each SUC is created by Congress with the aim to provide affordable education.

Angara is also pushing for the approval of two bills.

One is the “Bill of Rights for new graduates”, which proposes for establishing a one-stop shop for free NBI clearances, birth certificates, passport, among other for the new graduates

The other is the “Free College Entrance Exam”, wherein graduating high school students shall be given free college entrance access to widen their access to higher education.  –(FREEMAN)