Gov’t to boost student loan program

MANILA, Philippines -  The government is currently crafting the guidelines on the implementation of a strengthened student loan program after President Duterte recently signed the free college education law.

Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST) program director Nicki Tenazas said the recently approved Republic Act 10931 or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act provides for the implementation of a student loan program to further support students.

The program will be made available to all undergraduate and graduate students in public and private tertiary institutions, with the amount to be disbursed limited to the allocation that will be provided by Congress.

“Our new student loan program will be different,” Tenazas said during the weekly Kapihan sa Manila Bay yesterday. “If it’s a long-term loan, you will only start paying after you’ve reached a certain level of income.”

Under the new law, the UniFAST Board is mandated to determine the so-called compulsory repayment threshold, or the level of income that a grantee should reach before the loan will have to be mandatorily repaid.

Tenazas noted that the current set-up mandates student loan grantees to immediately pay after graduation, which sometimes results in huge debt for fresh graduates.

Unlike in the present set-up where the grantees will have to pay directly to the Commission on Higher Education, the new law also mandates that the payment be included in the monthly contribution to the Social Security System or the Government Service Insurance System.

The UniFAST Board, which is mandated to implement government-funded financial assistance program, was also tasked to come up with a repayment scheme for those who are in the informal system and the overseas Filipino workers.

Tenazas said they will try to make repayment options more convenient to avoid instances when grantees fail to repay the loan.          

“Hopefully, even e-load or in any branch of a bank you can pay your loan. Right now it becomes a barrier if you have to travel far to pay just a few thousand,” he said, adding that they may adopt the model used by the Department of Science and Technology to track those who are bound by a return-service agreement.