Murang Kuryente Partylist Representative Atty. Arthur C. Yap scored a legislative victory this week as two of his measures seeking to expand the Bohol Island State University system cleared the House Committee on Higher and Technical Education.
House Bill No. 8874 would convert the BISU Dauis Campus into a full regular campus while formally establishing it as the Technical, Architecture, and Engineering Educational Center of the BISU System of Schools and Colleges.
House Bill No. 8875, meanwhile, seeks to establish a BISU Tourism and Sports Institute in the municipality of Balilihan.
The committee approvals advance both measures to plenary deliberations in the House of Representatives, where they must pass before moving to the Senate for concurrence.
Yap said the bills represent critical steps toward expanding access to higher and technical education across Bohol, where many students face geographic and financial barriers to university enrollment.
BISU’s Dauis Campus, situated on Panglao Island, currently operates as a satellite campus with limited program offerings and institutional autonomy.
Full campus status would allow it to independently offer degree programs, manage its own budget allocations, and access a wider range of government funding under the Commission on Higher Education framework.
The proposed Technical, Architecture, and Engineering track at the Dauis Campus responds to a documented shortage of technically trained graduates in Bohol’s construction and infrastructure sectors, gaps that have become more pronounced as the province pursues major public works projects including road networks, port facilities, and the French ODA-funded Panglao-Tagbilaran City Offshore Bridge Connector.
The Balilihan tourism and sports institute, meanwhile, addresses a different but related gap.
Bohol is among the Philippines’ top tourist destinations, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to its Chocolate Hills, marine sanctuaries, and heritage churches.
Despite the sector’s economic weight, the province lacks a dedicated higher education institution focused on hospitality, tourism management, and sports sciences — disciplines increasingly in demand as the provincial government pursues sustainable tourism development and sports infrastructure investment.
Yap, a former Bohol governor and secretary of the Department of Agriculture, has built a legislative portfolio centered on reducing the cost of living for ordinary Filipinos.
He previously authored House Bill No. 8415, which sought to remove the value-added tax on system loss charges in electricity bills.