Angara to move for probe on tuition fees

CEBU, Philippines - Team PNoy senatorial aspirant Edgardo “Sonny” Angara finds it “very awful” that one student committed suicide over her failure to pay tuition fees.

“Representative Angara wants to investigate these tuition fees and miscellaneous fees especially in state universities and colleges on why these are increasing despite the increase of government budget of these schools,” said Elvira “Tootsie” Angara, his wife, who was the guest speaker yesterday during the congress of Sangguniang Kabataan of Surigao del Sur which was held in Cebu.

Tootsie represented her husband on the said event. She conveyed her husband’s message about his plan for the expansion of “Study Now, Pay Later.”

Tootsie said that if her husband is elected into office, he will push for the inclusion under the current Pantawid Pampamilyang Pilipino Program of a provision wherein every family-beneficiary must have at least one college graduate and the tuition fees shall be shouldered by the government.

Meanwhile, according to Sonny Angara in a separate press statement, the next Senate should pass legislation to complement President Benigno Aquino’s efforts to usher in “an era of inclusive growth and across-the-board prosperity.”

 He said that he has draft laws built on agro-manufacturing, modernized agrarian reform, education-focused infrastructure spending and school modernization that he would push at the Senate if elected.

 The Philippine Development Plan 2011-2016 prepared by the National Economic and Development Authority defines inclusive growth as “growth that is rapid enough to matter, given the country’s large population, geographical differences, and social complexity.”

He added that economic disparities and poverty can only be addressed by enhancing the strengths and resources of communities and “building growth from below.”

He further said that agro-manufacturing, a modernized agrarian reform program, fisheries and others should be included in the “ramped-up investment program of government to address the underdevelopment in the rural areas.”

Angara, a Harvard-trained lawyer, had authored and co-authored some 50 bills that Congress had passed into laws including the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010, Kindergarten Education Act, Salary Standardization Law and Magna Carta for Women. — (FREEMAN)