Angara lauds Aquino for signing UniFast Law

UniFast Act ensures that government scholarship programs are given to the poorest of the poor and most deserving students in the country Beneficiaries under the Iskolar ng Bayan Act, or the top 10 graduates of every public high school, will be prioritized

SEN. Juan Edgardo ‘Sonny’ Angara commended President Benigno C. Aquino III yesterday for signing into law the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFast) Act which ensures that government scholarship programs are given to the poorest of the poor and most deserving students in the country.

“I thank President Aquino for signing UniFast Act into law and proving that advancing quality education in the country remains to be the President’s top priority,” Angara, principal author of the law, said.

Angara also thanked Sen. Pia Cayetano and Pasig City Rep. Roman Romulo for working hard to assure the passage of the law in Congress.

“Throughout the PNoy administration, the education sector has consistently received a significant part of the national budget. With the enactment of the UniFast, we can finally make sense of all the money the government gives for education — to give it more direction, and make sure that the country really benefits from public funds being spent in the field of education,” he said.

Republic Act No. 10687 or the UniFast Law mandates the government to put up a system and create a body that would oversee and harmonize all student financial assistance programs for a more targeted, speedy and sustained granting of scholarship programs.

A study by the Commission on Higher Education (Ched) revealed that while the government has in place up to 62 student financial assistance programs, these programs have only assisted about 60,000 students or a mere two percent of the 2.7 million Filipino college students.

The study also showed that even students from higher income families, who could do without assistance from the government, were granted financial aid.

“Our poor but deserving youth must be given the best education opportunity that they can afford with the assistance of the state. This is the main objective of this legislation that we have been pushing since our days in the House of Representatives,” Angara, a former chairman of the House committee on higher and technical education, said.

Under the measure, beneficiaries under the Iskolar ng Bayan Act, or the top 10 graduates of every public high school, will be prioritized in the provision of governmentfunded scholarships, while students belonging to poor families and marginalized sectors can easily avail of the grants-in-aid.