The Great Nation 2025
Proposed Laws Capable of Transforming a Nation
All proposed laws, if they cannot be passed at the national level due to politics, political dynasty or a lack of majority votes, may become local ordinances applicable to any local government unit, such as a city, municipality, or province.
The Great Nation 2025 is a citizen-driven initiative presenting over 75 original proposed laws aimed at solving the Philippines’ most persistent challenges in education, health, corruption, political dynasty, and more.
Through a clear legislative vision, The Great Nation proves that ordinary Filipino citizen can generate extraordinary solutions to rebuild a broken system – without waiting for permission from those in power.
Included in the initiative are two pioneering tools: The Statesman’s Affidavit and the City Mayor Fair Debate Framework – both designed to increase accountability and transparency before leaders are elected.
The Statesman’s Affidavit, even though it’s only one page, is far better than these 75 proposed laws.
Proposed Law #1: A law requiring the construction of adequate primary and secondary schools in proportional to the number of out-of-school youth and adults.
The government must first fix the school backlog in the entire Philippines, which will take at least 20 years to be addressed. This proposed law is also applicable at the city or provincial level.
Short Title: Proportional School Construction Act
Description: A law mandating school infrastructure based on the number of out-of-school youth and adults.
Proposed Law #2: A law requiring all primary and secondary schools to be converted into extensions schools of State University and Colleges at night.
Proposed Law #2a: A law requiring all State University and Colleges funded by the Government to offer night classes to double school capacity
The government can solve the problem of the senior high school and college backlog by simply converting existing primary and secondary schools, as well as public/state universities and colleges, into night schools.
I remember stories from some of my professors before, that during the day they worked hard, and during the night they studied. If we institutionalize this idea across the Philippines and the entire world, then we can double the capacity of all existing schools.
It is a practical solution for offering free education to all. The government just needs to allocate funds for teachers who can teach at night.
According to Guillemette (2016), most European countries offered FREE college education like (1) Norway, (2) Finland, (3) Sweden, (4) Germany, (5) France, and (6) Denmark.
If only the politicians in power were not corrupt, the government could have offered free college education to all Filipino citizens.
There are more than P363.665 billion in unprogrammed funds, according to Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III last December 2024.
I’m not sure, though, if it’s appropriated for short-term ayuda.
Short Title: Night School Reform Act
Description: Double educational capacity without building a single new room.
Proposed Law #3: A law providing emergency student loans to poor but highly qualified students.
Emergency case can be defined by the law or ordinance, such as, but not limited to:
- Parents who lost their job;
- Parents who cannot work due to accident, serious medical condition, etc.;
- OFW in war torn countries, who are forced to go back to Philippines; and
- Or any emergency case beyond the control of the students.
One requirement: A one-page letter on why the school or local government should grant the student loan. Just submit the letter to guidance councilor or school president, or the City Councilors since it requires appropriation ordinance.
Optional: The student can issue eight post dated cheques worth P5,000 each in favor of school or the City Government. This can drastically reduce the drop-out rate in the entire Philippines. In BARMM, the dropout rate is 93.4%, while in NCR is 52.4%.
Source of funds: Local government funds or unused savings/budget of some government agencies and offices.
Short Title: Emergency Student Loan Act
Description: A law providing emergency student loans to poor but highly qualified students.
Proposed Law #4: A law mandating the construction of adequate six-storey school buildings in far-flung and remote areas.
With extra rooms that can be used by at least six teachers as dormitories. Grade 1 to 6.
Important provision: Each floor must have self-paced learning materials such as computers and learning modules, so in case there is no available teacher, the students can learn by themselves. Though ideally, there shall be one teacher for each grade level.
Why do we need a law? If there is a law, then it means there is automatic appropriation of budget every year until every far-flung and remote area has at least one six-storey school building.
Once every far-flung and remote areas have one-storey school building, then the government can build another one-storey school building for secondary and senior high school. Much better, if the government can build at least two storey buildings in the first year after the passage of this law.
Short title: Remote Area School Building Act
Description: A law mandating the construction of six-storey school buildings in far-flung and remote areas, with dormitory rooms for teachers and self-paced learning materials on each floor. This ensures continued education even without a teacher and provides annual budget allocation until all remote areas are covered.
Proposed Law #5: A law mandating the funding of adequate school buses in far-flung and remote areas.
Proposed Law #5-a: A law mandating the funding of adequate school buses free for the poor children.
There are provinces and municipalities in the Philippines with no jeepneys. I’ve been to Siquijor, Batangas, Palawan, Ilocos Norte, etc., with no jeepneys because it’s not cost-effective for a jeepney driver to drive all day with few passengers.
Imagine your experience during a jeepney strike, where you have to walk for more than 30 minutes, or you have to hire a private vehicle. That is the experience of many Filipino students. In some rural areas, getting education is very challenging specially for some Grade 1 to Grade 6 students.
It would be an easy decision for them to just give up if they have to walk every day at least 45 minutes just to go to the nearest school.
In other countries, the politicians and government officials empathize with these students, which is why they provide school buses to some students. It can be free, or it can be at a very affordable cost, depending on the children’s family circumstances.
Short Title: Remote Area School Transport Act
Description: A law mandating the funding of school buses in far-flung areas, free or low-cost, to ensure safe and accessible education for poor and remote-area students.
Proposed Law #6: A law providing one free nutritious meal to underweight children.
Start with 2 to 3 meals per week for underweight children, then assess the student’s dropout rate in three to six months.
If it improves, we can increase it to 5 meals per week, of course considering the available budget.
Source of Funds: The budget can come from any unused government funds and savings. Or, if it becomes a law, we can appropriate the confidential and intelligence funds for this kind of free meal per day.
The local government such as City or Province can also pass a local appropriation ordinance depending on their available budget.
The goal of this law is to reduce the overall and local dropout rate of students.
There are more than P363.665 billion in unprogrammed funds, according to Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III last December 2024.
Free nutritious meals for underweight students are better than short-term ayuda.
This proposed law is also better than the idea of one good senator. He proposed free meals for students. My proposal is free nutritious meals for underweight students, so that we can sustain it long-term. I proposed this law way back 2024 in a paper with DOI, he only proposed it this election.
Equality vs equity.
Similar concept to Nutribun during the time of Marcos. Japan also provides meals to all students at a minimal monthly cost.
Short Title: Nutritious Meals for Underweight Students Act
Description: A law providing 1 free nutritious meal per day to underweight students, starting 2–3 times a week, to lower dropout rates and ensure long-term sustainability through unused government funds.
Proposed Law #7: A law setting the minimum hourly rate and working hours of professors in Public State Universities and Colleges.
A wise man once said, “Being a teacher is a noble profession.”
We need to increase the minimum hourly wage and working hours to be at par with other countries.
If there is no national law yet, then the provincial or city government can pass an ordinance increasing their minimum hourly wage and working hours.
In the United States, the salary of a full-time teacher can be as high as P250,000 per month, and if a teacher has a master’s or doctoral degree with more than five years of experience, it can be as high as P500,000 per month.
Some Asian countries such as Singapore and Taiwan have also a decent minimum wage per hour.
Without corruption, we can provide a decent minimum wage to all par time professor. Almost all them have a masteral degree already as it’s the minimum requirements in the state universities, so they deserve better.
Short Title: Part-Time Professors’ Wage and Hours Act
Description: A law setting the minimum hourly rate and working hours for part-time professors in Public State Universities and Colleges to align with global standards.
Proposed Law #8: A law setting the minimum hourly rate of full-time professors in Public State Universities and Colleges.
In other countries, the highest and most respected profession is teaching. Because without a teacher, there would be no other profession. The success or failure of a nation starts with the quality of the teacher, so they deserve a high salary at par with some politicians.
Some politicians such as City Councilors have a salary of ₱107,208 to ₱136,893 per month depending on whether it’s a low-class municipality or a highly urbanized city. Some cities have a regular session only once per week, and there are some councilors who are absent for four consecutive weeks and still earn ₱107,208 to ₱136,893 per month.
Teachers work full-time, 8 hours per day or more, so it’s about time to consider increasing their salary to be at par with some rubber stamp and useless City Councilors.
Short title: Full-Time Professors’ Fair Wage Act
Description: A law setting the minimum hourly rate for full-time professors in Public State Universities and Colleges, ensuring their salary is at par with local elective officials.
Proposed Law #10: Improving Alternative Learning School (ALS) System
There shall be an adequate number of ALS teachers for every three barangays or drop-out students.
The more drop-out students in a City, the more ALS teachers.
The national government must allocate annual funds every year to help those children who are forced to work when ideally, they should be at school.
If the national government fails to allocate national funds, the local government can pass an appropriation ordinance.
In China, the education is not only free, but they made it COMPULSARY. Meaning, all their children are required to finish 9 years of education. If it’s compulsary, then the national government, with the help of the local government, can work together to ensure that all children must finish 9 years of education.
We already have a free education in both primary and secondary education. What the government should do is to ensure that all primary and secondary schools are scattered in the entire Philippines, even in the most rural area and hard to reach mountains.
Why do we need a law? If there is a law, then it means automatic annual allocation from the General Appropriation Acts regardless of the President, and regardless of the composition of the Congress.
Lost opportunity: Imagine, if we only had competent local and national politicians, then we could have minimized child labor in the entire Philippines since the passage of the ALS Law.
Title: ALS Access and Equity Act
Description: A law mandating adequate ALS teachers for every three barangays and guaranteeing annual national funding to help all out-of-school youth complete basic education.
THE AUTHOR
Jonelle Peter Muñoz is a licensed Electronics Engineer and Real Estate Broker with a strong commitment to public service and national reform.
In 2022, he ran as an independent mayoral candidate for Cabuyao City, Laguna, advocating for transparent governance and community development.
He is also the author of two political tools called The Statesman’s Affidavit and Fair Debate Framework.
The Statesman’s Affidavit (2025) is a one-page notarized public declaration wherein political candidates commit to specific legislative priorities and accept voluntary resignation as a penalty for failure to deliver. Designed as a modern social contract, it aims to institutionalize electoral accountability and restore public trust in democratic leadership.
City Mayor Fair Debate Framework is a standardized, citizen-driven debate framework for local electoral candidates in the Philippines, particularly for City Mayor aspirants. It aimed to establish a transparent, equal-opportunity debate system that discourages the use of political machinery and dynastic influence, and instead encourages public scrutiny, impromptu speaking, and issue-based discourse.
Citation
Muñoz, J. P. (2025). The Great Nation 2025 (1.1). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15315128