Free Muntinlupa university proposed by Masangkay

Muntinlupa City mayoralty candidate Bess Aguilar-Masangkay yesterday unveiled an ambitious plan to establish a pubic university for poor but deserving students of the suburban city.

Aguilar-Masangkay, a successful businesswoman and Certified Public Accountant board topnotcher, said she would strengthen the existing science high school to accommodate more elementary school graduates willing to pursue a special science and math which focus on secondary curriculum.

As envisaged, the public university would be open to residents of the city who meet the qualifying exams to be given the start of every school year. Priority would be given to children of low-income families, she said.

She noted that other cities in the National Capital Region like Makati and Las Piñas have established free public colleges of their own and she sees no reason why this would not be done in Muntinlupa with its more than P1 billion annual budget.

Stressing the people’s right to universal education, Aguilar-Masangkay also vowed to pursue massive manpower training program for out-of-school youth.

In line with this, modern vocational training centers would be set up to provide free manpower education for technical workers in such areas as electronics, air-conditioning and refrigeration, automotive repair, computer maintenance and the like.