|
PRESIDENT Arroyo on Thursday launched a P500-million
student assistance fund, the second in a series of
programs funded by windfall gains from the value-added
tax (VAT) on oil, amid continued calls to scrap the
unpopular tax on the vital resource.
At
launching ceremonies for the “Student Assistance Fund
for Education for a Strong Republic” (Safe-4-SR) at the
Eulogio Amang Rodriguez Institute of Science and
Technology in Nagtahan, Manila, the President again
seized the opportunity to tell the public why the VAT on
oil should be retained.
“Today,
we launch the second of the major components of the
fruits to be made available this year, by our
lower-than-program budget deficit which shall be
ascribed to VAT reforms. Rep. [Bienvenido] Abante, you
can congratulate yourself and your colleagues because
these benefits would not have been possible without
VAT,” she said.
Taking a
potshot at critics of the VAT on oil and electricity,
the President said the program is being shouldered by
consumers of oil and electricity, “80 percent of whom
are well-off.”
Under
SAFE-4-SR, more than 60,000 qualified college students
all over the country will each get a one-time student
loan of P8,000, payable within two years, interest-free.
The
President handed out P300,000 to each of the 44
higher-education institutions selected to implement the
loan program for those in the junior and graduating
levels.
The
government is also providing P500 million for
scholarships in agriculture, fisheries and related
courses (P300 million) and English, math and science
courses (P200 million), which is expected to benefit
8,000 to 10,000 scholars, who will receive P15,000 per
year for four years.
Mrs.
Arroyo also said that the government has embarked on
measures to provide relief for state workers in times of
high food and fuel costs with a program to reduce
government fuel and energy consumption.
She said
the directives under Administrative Order (AO) 228—which
requires a 10-percent reduction in fuel consumption in
government offices, among others—would redound to
savings that can be used to provide more rice and
transportation subsidies to employees of
energy-efficient offices.
“The
savings, translated into peso value, shall be given back
to the personnel of the complying agencies in the form
of additional rice and transportation subsidies. This
will provide immediate relief from the rising price of
rice in the whole world and the adjusted transport
fares,” she said.
She
ordered Waldo Flores, chairman of the Philippine
National Oil Co. Development and Management Corp., and
Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. to monitor
compliance with AO 228.
She also
urged local government units to consider energy-saving
measures, especially as “the era of cheap and plentiful
fossil fuel. . .is definitely over...In this context,
cutting down on fuel and electricity consumption is an
economic imperative, a moral duty and a global
obligation.” |
