Sen. Francis Escudero announced on Sunday that he refiled a bill that would lower the Department of Education personnel' required retirement age.

According to a statement from Escudero, Senate Bill No. 58 aims to lower the retirement age for regular DepEd personnel, including public school teachers, from 65 to 60 years old.

"If enacted into law, this proposed legislation will benefit hundreds and thousands of retirable DepEd personnel, both teaching and non-teaching, who would want to spend the prime of their lives doing other occupations other than their usual functions in the government," said Escudero, who chairs the Senate Committee on Higher, Technical and Vocational Education.

But the bill allows a DepEd employee to serve until 65 if they have less than 15 years of service, subject to existing civil service policies and Government Service Insurance System rules, said Escudero, who filed the same measure during the 17th Congress.

"This measure shall also open the doors of opportunities to young teachers and non-teaching aspirants for the jobs at the education department," he said.