Lapid files bill to ensure availability of books to poor college, post-grad students

Senator Manuel “Lito” Lapid has filed a bill seeking to ensure the availability of affordable college and post-graduate textbooks among underprivileged students in universities and colleges all over the country.

Lapid said his Senate Bill 898, also known as the Cheaper Books for the Poor Act, intends to institutionalize a mechanism that would provide low-cost textbooks and other supplemental materials to students.

Despite the passage of Republic Act No. 10931 or Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, which provides tuition-free education in state universities and colleges all over the country, Lapid said there were still challenges that beset impoverished students, including the affordability of college education textbooks.

Through the proposed law, students can borrow books at an affordable price or on a loan basis in order to lower the cost of purchasing college and post-graduate textbooks and supplemental materials.

“There are many students who use a lot of money to buy books that are good for one semester only and are later piled up in a room or locker. There are many students who need their meager allowances for fares and food,” he said in Pilipino.

Moreover, under the proposed legislation, book rental distribution branches in different provinces, cities and municipalities shall be established under the Philippine Textbook Rent Foundation (PTRF) — which will be an attached agency to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

PTRF will be in charge of reproduction and procurement of the books needed in college and post-graduate studies. It shall also create a databank which will provide all the necessary information regarding the available textbooks that the students can borrow. The foundation is also mandated to establish a national website for its services to be easily accessible to the public.