House Approves Bill on Treasury Learning Bonds

The House Committee on Higher and Technical Education recently approved a bill establishing Treasury Learning Bonds.

Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda mentioned that the Educational Bond Fund Act or House Bill 639 will have the National Treasury issue bonds in the name of an underprivileged child for their post-secondary education.

For Rep. Salceda, the Philippine Treasury Learner Bonds will be equivalent to ₱25,000 for each underprivileged child in the Philippines. The bond will be issued in favor of the child but will be held in trust by the Bureau of Treasury.

“In other words, it is like a government-funded layaway account or a pre-need college plan, except it is government-guaranteed,”  mentions Rep. Salceda.

According to Rep. Salceda, this said bill would be a way to alleviate inter-generational poverty as “it takes a poor family 32 years to be able to afford college.”

“I don’t think we should wait that long to provide this potent driver of upward social mobility,”  he says.

He also highlighted the fiscal sustainability of the bill.

“Until it actually matures, there is no cash flowing out of the Treasury. So, in that sense, it is cash-flow neutral. It is also deficit-neutral until then. It is also neutral in terms of the consolidated public sector financial position since it will not flow out of the government’s coffers.”

With the current poverty rate, Rep. Salceda says that the government will issue a total of ₱7.2 billion in bonds for around 288,000 children annually.

Source: Business Mirror