Agenda for the First 100 Days

Senator Edgardo J. Angara has unveiled an "Agenda for the First 100 Days" which will write legislation seeking an improved study-now-pay-later program, the restoration of the senior citizens' discounts lost to the E-VAT and the institutionalization of a school-based child feeding program.

Angara said that a study-now, pay-later law for college students should require the payment of student loans after the loan beneficiaries have obtained jobs.

A jobless college graduate paying off student loans is a scenario as grim as a high school graduate with a fervent desire to go to college but without the financial means to do so, said Angara.

Angara said that he would also encourage private banks and financing institutions to put in place in the country an innovative practice recently introduced in the United States - the grant of loans to bright students who are sure to land good jobs after college or after graduate school.

The country's banking and financing institutions should start bankrolling the tertiary or graduate school education of bright young men and women sure to land good jobs after school, he said.

Angara also said that the 20 per cent discount senior citizens used to enjoy on transport fares and food and entertainment expenses has been reduced by the Expanded Value Added Tax Law of E-VAT.

It is this context that makes amendatory legislation necessary to restore the scaled-down discounts for senior citizens on basic expenses, said Angara. He is pushing for the increase of the senior citizens discount from 20% to 34%.

Angara is the author and sponsor of the Senior Citizens Act, which grants discounts on food, medicine and transportation to Filipinos aged 60 and above.

Angara further said that only a school-based child feeding program would ease the big problem of child malnutrition in the country.

Around 8.5 million children of school age and 10.5 million pre-school age children are suffering from various stages of malnutrition, said Angara, and a school-based feeding program is the solution to this grave problem.

Malnutrition not only leads to stunted growth but to stunted learning and development as well, thus we need to respond to this problem immediately, he said.

Angara added that malnutrition is a "silent killer" and government response should be an institutional and sustained one.

Several of the landmark laws passed by the post martial law Congress had been either written or sponsored by Angara.

These include the Free High School Act, the PhilHealth Law, the Generic Drugs Act and the creation of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.