Proposal vs heavy school bags backed

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga, Philippines – After filing a bill requiring special desks for left-handed students, Sen. Lito Lapid said here he will also back up a proposal to limit the weight of school bags children carry to school.

“I did not finish college, so I really want to provide every opportunity to children to finish schooling up to college by ensuring that all health-related measures, among other considerations, are put in place for them,” Lapid said in Tagalog in an interview here.

Lapid, who was reelected in the last May polls, admitted that despite his years in the Senate, he remains uncomfortable with the English language. In his first year in the Senate, he moved that all official documents in the Senate be also translated into the national language.

Lapid said he will also file in the Senate a bill to serve as counterpart for the proposal to be re-filed soon by reelected Pampanga 1st district Rep. Carmelo Lazatin limiting the weight of school bags to a maximum of 15 percent of the body weight of a pupil.

In the last Congress, Lazatin introduced House Bill 6644, An Act Limiting the Amount of Bags Carried by Children in School and Implementing Measures to Protect School Children’s Health from the Adverse Effects of Heavy School Bags.

The bill was not passed but Lazatin said the proposal would be among the first he will introduce in the 15th Congress.

Lapid and Lazatin said they would cite in their bills medical studies citing dangers to health posed by heavy school bags. They cited a 1988 study conducted by the Hong Kong Society for Child Health Development showing that 4.54 percent of Grade 3 to Grade 6 students who carried heavy bags experienced back problems ranging from mild to serious spinal deformities.