An Act to Help Poor But Deserving Students Pursue Their Education by Encouraging Their Employment During Summer and/or Christmas Vacations, Through Incentives Granted to Employers, Allowing Them to Pay Only Sixty Per Centum of Their Salaries or Wages and the Forty Per Centum Through Education Vouchers to be Paid by the Government, Prohibiting and Penalizing the Filing of Fraudulent or Fictitious Claims, and for Other Purposes

March 30, 1992

REPUBLIC ACT NO. 7323

AN ACT TO HELP POOR BUT DESERVING STUDENTS PURSUE THEIR EDUCATION BY ENCOURAGING THEIR EMPLOYMENT DURING SUMMER AND/OR CHRISTMAS VACATIONS, THROUGH INCENTIVES GRANTED TO EMPLOYERS, ALLOWING THEM TO PAY ONLY SIXTY PER CENTUM OF THEIR SALARIES OR WAGES AND THE FORTY PER CENTUM THROUGH EDUCATION VOUCHERS TO BE PAID BY THE GOVERNMENT, PROHIBITING AND PENALIZING THE FILING OF FRAUDULENT OR FICTITIOUS CLAIMS, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

SECTION 1. Any provision of law to the contrary notwithstanding, any person or entity employing at least fifty (50) persons may during the summer and/or Christmas vacation employ poor but deserving students fifteen (15) years of age but not more than twenty-five (25) years old, paying them a salary or wage not lower than the minimum wage provided by law and other applicable labor rules and regulations.

For purposes of this Act, poor but deserving students refer to those whose parents' combined incomes, together with their income, if any, do not exceed Thirty six thousand pesos (P36,000) per annum. Employment should be at the Labor Exchange Center of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

SECTION 2. Sixty per centum (60%) of said salary or wage shall be paid by the employer in cash and forty per centum (40%) by the Government in the form of a voucher which shall be applicable in the payment for his tuition fees and books in any educational institution for secondary, tertiary, vocational or technological education. The amount of the education voucher shall be paid by the Government to the educational institution concerned within thirty (30) days from its presentation to the officer or agency designated by the Secretary of Finance.

The voucher shall not be transferable except when the payee thereof dies or for a justifiable cause stops in his duties in which case it can be transferred to his brothers or sisters. If there be none, the amount thereof shall be paid his heirs or to the payee himself, as the case may be.

SECTION 3. The Secretary of Labor and Employment, the Secretary of Education, Culture and Sports and the Secretary of Finance shall issue the corresponding rules and regulations to carry out the purposes of this Act. cdt

The Secretary of Labor and Employment shall be the Project Director of this program.

SECTION 4. Any person or entity who shall make any fraudulent or fictitious claim under this Act, regardless of whether payment has been made, shall upon conviction be punished with imprisonment of not less than six (6) months and not more than one (1) year and a fine of not less than Ten thousand pesos (P10,000), without prejudice to their prosecution and punishment for any other offenses punishable under the Revised Penal Code or any other penal statute.

In case of partnerships or corporations, the managing partner, general manager, or chief executive officer, as the case may be, shall be criminally liable.

SECTION 5. The amount necessary to carry out the purposes of this Act is hereby authorized to be appropriated in the General Appropriations Act for 1992 and the subsequent annual general appropriations acts. aisa dc

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect after its publication in the Official Gazette or in at least two (2) national newspapers of general circulation.

Approved: March 30, 1992

Published in the Philippine Times Journal and Malaya on April 8, 1992. Published in the Official Gazette, Vol. 88 No. 20 page 2926 on May 18, 1992.