ANG PROBINSYANO Partylist Rep. Alfred Delos Santos has filed House Bill 7955, or the Abot-Alam Act, to institutionalize DepEd’s Abot-Alam Project.

Delos Santos noted that despite existing programs, many Filipino youth remain out of school, unemployed, or underemployed, lacking tertiary or post-secondary education. The Philippine Statistics Authority reports that around 4 million young Filipinos fall into this category.

“This persistence underscores the need for a strengthened and integrated national intervention framework,” Delos Santos said.

The Abot-Alam Program, launched in 2014 in coordination with the National Youth Commission, targets out-of-school youth through identification, profiling, and needs-based interventions. However, the program is administrative in nature and lacks statutory funding or accountability mechanisms.

The proposed law seeks to institutionalize Abot-Alam as a convergence and coordination framework that complements existing statutory mandates, including the Alternative Learning System Act and the Youth in Nation-Building Act, ensuring systematic delivery of formal and non-formal education services under DepEd authority.

The program shall function as a mechanism for systematic delivery of formal and non-formal education services shall remain within the authority of Department of Eduction.