Press Release
March 10, 2011

Bongbong Marcos seeks student-friendly repayment scheme
for 'Study now-pay later' program

Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr. today asked Malacanang to execute a student-friendly repayment scheme to ensure success of "study now-pay later" programs of the government.

Marcos emphasized that the government, through the Department of Education (DepEd), should know by now the pitfalls of the student loan program and be able to avoid them by crafting a better "repayment scheme that is both efficient and workable whereby students would not be saddled by payment obligations long after graduation."

Last week, the Senate heard various bills seeking to boost financial assistance to education, particularly by establishing a national student loan program.

Marcos said that the DepEd should carefully study the feasibility of the measures as well as analyze successful models all over the world. He noted the experience in some schools in England and in the United States, whereby students could not timely meet their loan obligations to their schools, such that their delinquencies extended even after they have graduated.

The hearing revealed that the Philippines is no stranger to the phenomenon in the Western countries, since, according to the DepEd, student loan programs presently in use in the Philippines have a dismal repayment rate of 0%, although the rate has recently improved to 4%.

News Latest News Feed