P1,000 allowance for all students pushed in House
Batangas Representative Leandro Leviste, author of House Bill 27, said the P1,000 monthly allowance will cover each student's expense on food, transportation, and school supplies.
He said a student must attend his or her class 80% of the time to avail of the assistance.
'If we are going to limit the beneficiaries, that would pit people against each other. So for efficient implementation, this should be given to all students,' Leviste said in an interview with Super Radyo dzBB.
He said the government would need to allocate P300 billion yearly to fund the proposed P1,000 monthly allowance for all students.
'What we are saying here is that education should get the lion's share of the national budget, and if we are able to do this, then we can really say we finally made education a priority,' said Leviste, son of Senator Loren Legarda.
'This is not about cost, but investment. In the long run, our tax revenues will increase because these students will later become productive,' he added.
Asked where the government would get the fund, Leviste said: 'If the government has to borrow money to fund this, I would say this is justifiable and a good investment for our future." —AOL, GMA Integrated News
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