Partylist lawmakers allied with the National Unity Party (NUP) are pushing the passage of bill granting free college education for students belonging to underprivileged families whose incomes are below P7,000 a month.

Representatives Christopher Co and Rodel Batocabe of the Ako Bicol partylist group said their proposal, embodied under  House Bill 379,  gives poor high school students the right to choose the state college  or university within the city, province or region where they reside.

A beneficiary of the bill should belong to a six-member household earning P6,870 per month, the Ako Bicol partylist lawmakers said.

Ako Bicol is among the partylist organizations allied with the NUP under the Coalition for Peace and Development.

Co said the measure is a first concrete step towards providing the deserving graduates of the country's public high schools with appropriate quality college education attuned  to the demands of the highly competitive labor market.

"Not only does providing quality education a matter much to be heeded upon by the State, it also mirrors the problem of providing sustainability and productivity to one's economic life vis-à-vis the government's as well," Batocabe said.

Batocabe said that if there is no state college or university in the city or province where the beneficiary resides or where the university or college facilities cannot accommodate all qualified beneficiaries, the beneficiary may apply to any college or university within the region nearest to his or her place of residence.

In the absence of public universities or colleges within the region of the beneficiary’s residence, the privilege may be used in any public or state college or university in any region nearest to the province where the beneficiary resides.

The State colleges or universities have the obligation to admit qualified beneficiaries, subject only to limitation of funding and facilities, Co said.

Violation of the obligation shall constitute a ground for dismissal of the school authorities concerned, Co and Batocabe said.

The free college education benefit will be terminated if the student fails for two consecutive semesters in the majority of the subjects in which he or she is enrolled during the coverage of the scholarship.