SENATOR Raffy Tulfo is pushing for a measure promoting access to quality legal education.

Senate Bill 1610 or the proposed Free Legal Education Act of 2023 aims to provide free tuition and other school fees in State Universities and Colleges for prospective lawyers, allied professionals, and legal scholars.

Tulfo explained that while the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act of 2017 provides free tertiary education to bonafide students in SUCs regardless of the program or course, law students are ineligible to avail of it as they are already bachelor’s degree holders.

In top private legal educational institutions, it costs around P75,000 to P98,000 per semester to study law, while tuition in state universities range from P24,000 to P30,000 excluding all the living expenses and other necessities.

“One of the reasons for lack of access to justice in the Philippines is the shortage of practicing lawyers. At present, there are only around 40,000 attorneys comprising the Integrated Bar of the Philippines — even fewer are practicing lawyers,” Tulfo said in his explanatory note.

The measure also mandates return service in the public sector for a sustainable human resource deployment in the public sector that is critical for the nation’s justice system.