SENATOR Camille Villar is seeking to establish a national scholarship and research program specifically for students and scholars in the Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMSS).

Villar filed Senate Bill No. 2210, or the proposed Humanities and Social Sciences Scholarship and Research and Development Program Act, which seeks to create a dedicated fund for the program.

The senator said the Philippines has made significant investments in developing its science and technology workforce, particularly through the Department of Science and Technology-Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI).

According to the bill’s explanatory note, more than 40,000 scholars receive scholarships annually through the DOST-SEI, backed by a budget of more than P4 billion.

However, Villar said this has resulted in a structural imbalance, with limited equivalent national support for students pursuing fields such as History, Philosophy, Political Science, Literature, Anthropology, Sociology, Linguistics and the Arts.

She also noted the absence of a dedicated national research council focused on scholarly inquiry into issues involving the country’s identity, history, institutions and shared future.

Villar warned that the lack of support could contribute to the under-documentation and potential loss of the country’s more than 180 Philippine languages and indigenous knowledge systems.

She likewise stressed the importance of the social sciences in addressing complex national issues, including poverty, inequality, conflict and climate-induced displacement, which she said cannot be addressed through purely technical approaches.

The proposed measure seeks to establish two major pillars for HUMSS development.

The first is the HUMSS Excellence and Leadership Scholarship (HEALS), a national scholarship program that would provide full financial support to outstanding HUMSS students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Scholars would be required to render return service in teaching, research or public service.

The second is the National HUMSS Research Council, which would be attached to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

The council would formulate a national HUMSS research agenda and administer competitive research grants for scholars studying urgent national concerns.

The bill would also recognize advanced HUMSS degrees as qualifications for senior government positions and establish a policy research internship program that would place top HUMSS graduates in national government agencies and congressional offices.

Villar emphasized that the proposal is not intended to diminish government support for STEM education but to provide a complementary investment in the humanities and social sciences.

She cited programs in Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia as examples of government support for humanities and social sciences research and scholarships.

“A nation that can build bridges and write code must also be a nation that can write its own history with honesty, debate its values with rigor, and imagine its future with wisdom,” Villar said in the bill’s