Senate passes bills converting, establishing SUC campuses; converting state colleges to state universities

The Senate has approved on third and final reading several local bills that seek to convert and establish state universities and college campuses in the Philippines.

At the resumption of the plenary sessions Monday, January 17, senators, voting 22-0-0, passed nine bills from the House of Representatives, sponsored in the Senate by Committee on Higher, Technical and Vocational Education chairman Sen. Joel Villanueva.

Approved were: House Bill (HB) No. 4959 converting the Dulag Satellite Campus of the Eastern Visayas State University in Dulag, Leyte into a regular campus; HB No. 7687 converting the extension campuses of the Don Honorio Ventura State University in Pampanga into regular campuses; HB No. 6877 establishing campuses of the Cebu Technological University in the municipalities of Liloan and Borbon; HB No. 6969, establishing a regular campus of the Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology (NEUST) in Sto. Domingo, Nueva Ecija; HB No. 7692 establishing another campus of the NEUST in the municipality of the Nampicuan; HB No. 7537 calling for the establishment of campuses for the Davao del Norte State College in the municipalities of Carmen and Sto. Tomas in Davao del Norte province; and HB No. 7693 establishing a campus of the Philippine Merchant Marine Academy in Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental.

"The establishment of satellite and regular campuses improves the education in the provinces. This is timely legislation as we emerge from the pandemic with quality education for more Filipinos, creating better job opportunities for the graduates," Villanueva said.

Senators also passed the measures which would convert the Bulacan Agricultural State College in Ildefonso, Bulacan (HB No. 8111) and the Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College in Sta. Maria, Ilocos Sur (HB No. 8188) into state universities.

Villanueva thanked his colleagues for supporting and approving the bills.

"This is just to thank our dear colleagues for supporting these nine measures that we passed on third and final reading. I would just put on record my sincerest thanks and gratitude to all the members our colleagues," Villanueva said in his manifestation on Monday.