Senate bets back calls for free public education

MANILA, Philippines – Six senatorial candidates have crossed party lines and expressed commitment to support calls to make public education up to tertiary level free for all Filipinos.

Former justice secretary Leila de Lima, former Metro Manila Development Authority chairman Francis Tolentino and Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares personally attended the signing of the nine-point youth covenant in Quezon City yesterday.

Senate bets Mark Lapid, Valenzuela Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez sent representatives to the event organized by youth groups led by Kabataan Party-list.

De Lima and Lapid are candidates of the ruling Liberal Party, while Colmenares and Gatchalian belong to the Team Galing at Puso ticket of presidential candidate Sen. Grace Poe.

Tolentino is running as an independent, while Romualdez is a guest candidate of the United Nationalist Alliance of Vice President Jejomar Binay.

The nine-point covenant highlighted the call of the youth for measures that will ensure free public education up to the tertiary level, as well as a stop to tuition hikes and removal of school fees.

Other points included in the covenant are decent jobs for the youth and the people, genuine agrarian reform, just and lasting peace, improvement of healthcare and other social services, environmental preservation, good governance, better Internet service and upholding of national sovereignty.

“We recognize the vital role of the youth in fomenting genuine social change, and thus set our hand upon this covenant – in the presence of national and local youth leaders – as proof of our whole-hearted commitment in the implementation of the nine-point agenda once elected into public office,” read the document.