ALYANSA Para sa Bagong Pilipinas senatorial bet and former Senator Panfilo Lacson wants to revisit and review the Free Tertiary Education Act of 2017 to make it more accessible—especially for students from poor families.

Lacson said that during the campaign period, he encountered issues with the law’s implementation, particularly the Commission on Higher Education’s (CHED) requirement for parents of scholars to pay tuition fees upfront and wait for a rebate.

“As we went around the country during the 90-day campaign, we saw problems in the implementation of the law. One is the requirement for some parents to give advance payments and then wait for a rebate. In some cases, CHED is delayed in providing the rebate. In other cases, the rebates never come at all,” he said.

“This is wrong. Scholarships should be available without requiring parents to advance payments. We should revisit this law in the Senate through its oversight function,” he added.

Lacson also vowed to find ways to make the law’s requirements more accessible for poor families.

He cited the setup in Pangasinan, where the local government’s scholarship program had “lower” standards, intentionally designed to help students from low-income families earn diplomas and become job-ready.

Additionally, Lacson proposed allowing scholars to have second chances if they fail to meet certain academic requirements, instead of removing their scholarships outright.

“Perhaps the scholars had valid reasons for falling short. They could be given the chance to retake exams. Let’s not take away their scholarships outright,” he said.

Meanwhile, Lacson reiterated his commitment to ensuring that the education sector—including the Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, and state colleges and universities—receives the highest priority in the national budget, as mandated by the Constitution.