A measure that seeks to widen access to free tertiary education by strengthening the Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) and introducing a voucher pathway for qualified Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) beneficiaries who choose to study in private higher education and technical-vocational institutions was approved by the House of Representatives on Wednesday night on second reading.

The bill aims to ensure that academic potential among poor households does not stall at senior high school because tuition, fees, and daily school expenses remain out of reach.

House Majority Leader and Ilocos Norte Rep. Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” A. Marcos said the measure is part of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council Common Legislative Agenda, as the House under Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy III moves priority reforms with urgency in a season when families need practical assistance.

“Under Speaker Dy, we are pushing bills that speak the language of daily life, ‘yung ginhawang nararamdaman sa bahay, sa eskuwela at sa trabaho,” Marcos said.

The measure, House Bill (HB) No. 8476, is a substitute bill that reforms the TES program under the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act and introduces a voucher system for poor and academically qualified students who opt to study in private schools.

In his sponsorship speech, Tingog Rep. Jude Acidre, Chair of the House Committee on Technical and Higher Education, framed the substitute bill as a practical cleanup of the TES program, meant to remove the friction that keeps poor but capable students stuck at the gate.

“The substitute bill before us therefore seeks to strengthen the TES program through several key reforms,” Acidre said.

Acidre began with a priority lane for families already identified as most in need so that support follows the student as soon as they clear admission.

“First, the measure prioritizes and automatically includes students from households under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps in the Tertiary Education Subsidy once they qualify for admission to higher education institutions recognized by the Commission on Higher Education,” Acidre noted.

“The poorest families should not be made to prove their hardship twice, especially when the point of the program is to spare them from being priced out of school,” he added.

“If a student already belongs to a household officially recognized by government as among the poorest in the country, then that student should not have to struggle through additional layers of verification simply to receive support for education.”

For all other applicants competing for the remaining slots, Acidre said targeting should be updated, local, and anchored on real household data instead of guesswork or outdated lists.

“Second, for the remaining TES slots, the bill introduces a more accurate and updated targeting mechanism by utilizing the Community-Based Monitoring System or CBMS, established under Republic Act No. 11315,” he stated.

Acidre presented CBMS as a way to rank applicants more fairly because it allows the government to see per capita income at the household level, not just broad categories.

“Through the CBMS, local governments now collect household-level socioeconomic data that allow us to rank applicants based on per capita household income," he stressed.

He also made room for families who may fall through the cracks of any database so that lack of a record does not automatically mean loss of opportunity.

“At the same time, the measure ensures that students who may not yet be captured by the CBMS database may still qualify for TES, subject to income verification guidelines to be issued by the UniFAST Board,” he explained.

Acidre then addressed the geographic reality, where a student’s hometown can determine whether college is even an option, and he pushed to prevent location from becoming a built-in disadvantage.

“Third, the bill addresses a geographic inequality that has long been raised by students from underserved areas,” he said.

“Many municipalities still do not have campuses of State Universities and Colleges, Local Universities and Colleges, or public technical-vocational institutions.”

From there, he introduced the voucher feature as a flexibility tool, recognizing that private schools fill gaps in access and programs, especially when public options are limited or mismatched.

“In addition, the measure introduces a voucher mechanism that allows academically qualified but economically disadvantaged students to enroll in private higher education institutions or technical-vocational institutions, even in areas where public institutions already exist,” he said.