REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City, Metro Manila

FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

S20" 86807
House Bill No.

Introduced by Kabataan Party-List Rep. Raymond V. Palatino

EXPLANATORY NOTE

The 1987 Philippine Constitution, Article XIV, Section 1, state:

The State shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality
education at all levels, and shall take appropriate steps to make such

accessible to all.

Yet despite this constitutional guarantee, education in the country has remained largely
inaccessible to poor students. Despite a ‘no-collection policy’ imposed by the Department of
Education on public elementary and high schools, as per DepEd Order No. 19-2008,
collection of miscellaneous fees remains rampant in many schools nationwide, Meanwhile,
due to the government's long-standing policy with regards higher education, public tertiary
schools, including state colleges and universities, are becoming more and more privatized
resulting in the inevitable increase in tuition and other school fees. Private higher education
institutions (HEIs), on the other hand, have become mostly run as profit-making
enterprises with their routine imposition of higher or new school fees, unmindful of the
economic situation of the students and their parents.

It has been repeatedly pointed out that the State is not doing enough to protect the
Filipino’s right to quality and accessible education. Given that the State can barely ensure
quality public education, it has also not sufficiently exercised its regulatory role among
private schools, as Article XIV, Section 4 of the Constitution provides:

The State recognizes the complementary roles of public and private
institutions in the educational system and shall exercise reasonable

supervision and regulation of all educational institutions.

Consequently, apart from the unabated increase in tuition and other school fees in private


schools, many have also taken to imposing a ‘no permit, no exam’ policy, which prohibits
students who have not partially or fully settled their financial obligations from taking their
periodic or final examinations. Such policy effectively bars unpaid students from graduating
or obtaining an academic degree, regardless of how hard they have worked for it or how
much they academically deserve it.

In light of this situation, it is the State’s obligation to intervene and ensure that our young
people’s right to education is not compromised due to financial difficulties ~ most specially
given the present economic situation of the country, in which millions of families struggle to
meet even their most basic needs.

Kabataan Party-List filed a similar bill last Congress with a specific focus on higher
educational institutions (HEI’s) and though we were not able to see through the ratification
of the said measure into law, we were able to convince the Commission on Higher
Education to issue Memorandum No. 02-2010, enjoining all HEI’s to allow students with
delinquent accounts to take their final examinations. This directive, however, was proven to
be just that—an appeal without mandatory directives, and we witnessed how hundreds of
schools nationwide ignored the memorandum. This strengthened our resolve that the only
way for schools to be forced to follow the directive is through legislation.

We are re-filing this bill, and expanding its scope to embrace even elementary and high
schools, to protect deserving students from prematurely halting their studies due to their
understandable inability to pay high school fees on time. We must uphold the State’s right
and responsibility to exercise reasonable regulation of private schools.

Hon. ond V. Palatino
Representative/ Habataan Party-List


REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES,
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City, Metro Manila

FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

aren 4
House Bill No. 80%

Introduced by KABATAAN Party-list Rep. Raymond V. Palatino

AN ACT
PENALIZING THE IMPOSITION OF A ‘NO PERMIT, NO EXAM’ POLICY OR
ANY SUCH POLICY THAT PROHIBITS STUDENTS FROM TAKING THEIR
PERIODIC OR FINAL EXAMINATIONS DUE TO UNPAID TUITION AND
OTHER SCHOOL FEES
Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Philippines in

Congress assembled:

SECTION 1. Short Title. - This act shall be known as the “Anti-‘No Permit, No Exam’
Act of 2010”

SECTION 2. Declaration of Policy. - It is hereby declared the policy of the State to
ensure the accessibility of quality education and, towards this end, to exercise
reasonable regulation of private education institutions. This Act pursues this policy by
penalizing private education institutions that impose a ‘no permit, no exam’ policy or
any such policy that prohibits students from taking their periodic or final examinations
due to unpaid tuition and other school fees.

SECTION 3. Rights and Obligations of Students. - Students with delinquent fees shall
have the right to take an examination. Nevertheless, such students shall be subject to
the right of the school concerned to withhold the release or issuance of their school
clearance prior to their graduation until all prior delinquencies are fully paid.

SECTION 4. Implementing Guidelines, - The Department of Education and the
Commission on Higher Education shall promulgate the implementing guidelines
necessary to enforce the objectives of this Act.

SECTION 5. Penalties. ~ Violations of the provisions of this Act shall be punished by

the suspension and/or cancellation of the permits of the offending schools and fine of


not less than P30,000.00 but not more than P50,000.00

SECTION 6. Separability Clause. - If any provision or part hereof, is held invalid or
unconstitutional, the remainder of the Act or the provision not otherwise affected shall
remain valid and subsisting.

SECTION 7. Repealing Clause. - Any law, presidential decree or issuance, executive
order, letter of instruction, administrative order, rule or regulation contrary to, or
inconsistent with the provisions of this Act is hereby repealed, modified or amended

accordingly.

SECTION 8. Effectivity Clause. - This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its
publication in at least two (2) newspapers of general circulation.

Approved,