LAGUNA 1ST District Representative Ma. Rene Ann Lourdes Matibag filed a measure that aims to strengthen the Legal Education Board.

Matibag’s House Bill 5400 seeks to amend Republic Act 7662 or the Legal Education Reform Act of 1993.

The bill will reiterate the authority of the LEB to establish the parameters of the exercise of its power and to enable itself to operate at its highest potential, while respecting and pursuing every cornerstone of academic freedom.

The lawmaker said that the Legal Education Board was constituted as an independent agency that would govern the legal education system and supervise the legal education institutions all over the country.

“Despite being an independent government agency with its own charter, the LEB is attached for budgetary purposes and administrative support to the Commission on Higher Education,” she said.

The lawmaker added as a result, the Legal Education Reform Act has imposed upon CHED additional duties and functions that are not related to the latter’s mandate.

CHED, with the amount of tasks it faced, is additionally burdened with the financial and administrative operations of what actually is an independent agency in all other respects.