Bernos Presses CHED to Go All In on ETEEAP: More Awareness, More Schools, More Data

A working Filipino puts in five, ten, sometimes twenty years on the job. They train, they get promoted, they pick up skills no classroom could have taught them. And yet, without a diploma, a promotion or a better-paying post abroad can stay just out of reach. Solid North Party-list Representative Ching Bernos says the government already has the answer to this problem sitting on the books. The trouble, she argues, is that almost nobody has heard of it.

Bernos is now calling on the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to mount a far more aggressive push behind the Expanded Tertiary Education Equivalency and Accreditation Program, better known as ETEEAP, warning that too many working Filipinos still have no idea they can convert years of experience into an actual college degree.

In This Article

What Bernos Is Actually Asking CHED to Do

The lawmaker’s message boils down to three concrete requests. First, a sustained, nationwide information campaign, run in partnership with local government units, employers, labor groups, overseas Filipino worker organizations, and the higher education institutions already deputized to offer the program. Second, more accredited schools, enough that every province in the country has somewhere nearby offering ETEEAP. Third, regular, public data on applicants, graduates, and participating schools, so lawmakers, applicants, and the public alike can actually see whether the law is working.

None of these are small asks. But Bernos frames them as necessary, not optional, if RA 12124 is going to live up to its promise.

A Transformative Law Not Enough People Know About

Bernos calls Republic Act No. 12124, enacted in March 2025, one of the country’s most transformative education reforms in recent memory. That is not an exaggeration of what the law actually does. RA 12124 turned ETEEAP from a program that had operated for nearly three decades under a single executive order into a permanent, funded institution with the Commission on Higher Education named as its lead agency. It allows workers, including OFWs, to convert relevant work experience, prior learning, and non-formal training directly into academic credits toward a college degree, without setting foot in a traditional four-year classroom.

You can read more about what changed when the law’s implementing rules were finally signed in our earlier piece on how the ETEEAP IRR became a second chance for millions of Filipinos. For a broader rundown of how the program itself works, from portfolio assessment to panel interviews, see our guide on what ETEEAP actually is.

That is precisely why Bernos’s complaint lands the way it does. A law this significant, sitting largely unused by people who would benefit from it the most, is not a policy failure. It is a communication failure, and that is the gap she wants CHED to close.

The Awareness Campaign She Wants to See

“The best law is useless if people do not know it exists,” Bernos said, and it is hard to argue with the logic. ETEEAP is not a small, niche offering anymore. It is open to Filipino citizens whether they are living in the Philippines or working abroad, and CHED already runs a dedicated portal for overseas applicants through the ENROLL OFWs system. If you want to see exactly how that overseas pathway works, our guide on ETEEAP for Overseas Filipino Workers walks through the registration process, the required documents, and how remote assessment is handled for candidates who cannot travel back home.

Bernos wants that kind of information reaching people well before they stumble onto it by accident. Her proposed campaign leans on local government units and employers precisely because those are the places where working adults without a degree are most likely to be found: barangay halls, HR offices, union meetings, OFW send-off orientations. It is a grassroots approach to a law that, on paper, already has national reach.

More Schools, One Per Province

The second part of her push is about access, not just awareness. Bernos wants CHED to accredit more higher education institutions to offer ETEEAP, arguing that every province should have a provider within reach.

It is worth noting that this goes a step further than what current law actually requires. RA 12124 obligates CHED to establish at least one ETEEAP Center of Development and Excellence per region, not per province, and CHED’s own long-range planning reflects that regional framing. Our earlier breakdown of CHED’s 2030 roadmap for ETEEAP shows the Commission targeting a jump from roughly 112 deputized schools as of mid-2025 to 137 by 2030, with hundreds more degree programs opening up along the way. That is real growth, but a province-by-province presence, as Bernos is proposing, would mean going noticeably further and faster than the current targets suggest. Whether CHED takes that suggestion on board remains to be seen, but it puts a specific, testable benchmark on the table.

In the meantime, applicants do not have to wait for new schools to open near them. Our accredited schools directory lists institutions currently authorized to run the program, including public state universities and colleges alongside private HEIs offering more flexible, remote-friendly formats.

Show Us the Numbers

Bernos’s third request, regular public data on applicants, graduates, and participating schools, is arguably the easiest for CHED to deliver, since the agency already compiles this information internally. CHED figures released covering 2020 through mid-2025 showed nearly 39,700 enrollees and over 18,700 graduates across the deputized network, a dataset we walked through in detail in ETEEAP by the numbers. The ask here is less about producing new numbers and more about publishing them consistently, rather than releasing a snapshot every so often. For a lawmaker trying to track whether a landmark law is actually reaching people, that kind of transparency is the difference between guessing and knowing.

Do You Qualify for ETEEAP

None of this changes who can actually apply. Under Section 5 of RA 12124, a candidate needs to be a Filipino citizen, at least 23 years old at the time of application, and a high school completer, whether through a diploma, the Philippine Educational Placement Test, or ALS accreditation. On top of that, applicants need at least five aggregate years of work experience in an industry related to the degree they are pursuing, along with documentation such as proof of education, a detailed work portfolio, training certificates, and other evidence required by the deputized school handling the application.

If you think you might qualify but are not sure how your specific background lines up, our full eligibility and requirements guide breaks the criteria down qualification by qualification, including special cases like applying while currently unemployed or pursuing a second bachelor’s degree.

Bernos’s push is, at its core, a reminder that a good law does not sell itself. Whether CHED responds with a bigger information campaign, a faster pace of deputizing new schools, or more consistent data releases, the years of work experience Filipino professionals already carry are not going anywhere. The only question is how many of them find out, in time, that there is already a legal pathway waiting to turn that experience into a degree.

If that sounds like you, do not wait for the campaign to reach your barangay. Check your eligibility today and see which accredited school might be the right fit for your next step.