MANILA — The House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading a measure granting discount on books and school supplies to underprivileged students.
Rep. Roman T. Romulo, chairperson of House Committee on Higher and Technical Education, thanked his colleagues for supporting the bill that would ease the financial burden of underprivileged students and help them cope with the high cost of education.
“House Bill 5902, also known as Underprivileged Higher and Technical Students’ Discounts Act, grants 5 percent discount to students not only in buying books and school supplies, but also their food and medicines,” Romulo said.
House Bill 5902 substituted House Bills 223, 1496, 1522, 2785 and 3093 authored by Reps. Cinchona Cruz-Gonzales (Party List, CIBAC), Bellaflor J. Angara-Castillo (Lone District, Aurora), Marcelino R. Teodoro (1st District, Marikina City), Romulo (Lone District, Pasig City), and Czarina D. Umali (3rd District, Nueva Ecija), respectively.
All enrolled students in post-secondary non-degree technical-vocational courses and those enrolled in Bachelor’s Degree programs at the college level, post-secondary non-degree technical-vocational courses are covered by the measure.
Likewise, the measure also covers the student-beneficiaries of the Conditional Cash Transfer or Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) and other poverty reduction programs of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
Also covered are students with part-time jobs whose income combined with the annual gross income of their parents do not exceed PHP300,000.
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The discounts shall be discontinued if the student fails for one semester in the majority of the academic subjects enrolled in, if the student fails to finish the short-term non-degree course enrolled in and if the student stops schooling.
The qualified student may also be disqualified if the student is convicted of any crime, unless such failure is due to some valid cause beyond the student’s control, as determined by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) or the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).
CHED and TESDA are mandated to screen and monitor the qualified beneficiaries, issue identification cards, and cancel the same if they fail to comply with the requirements under the proposed Act.