UP to 12,000 more students in higher education institutions (HEIs) should receive scholarships from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), according to Northern Samar Rep. Paul Daza.
He said it was through the intervention of ex-President and Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo that around P400 million in CHED’s 2021 continuing appropriations can be allocated to new scholarships.
“No less than the former president and Senior Deputy Speaker, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, mediated and assisted in some discussions with Minority Leader Nonoy Libanan and CHED chairn Popoy De Vera regarding 2021 continuing appropriations,” he said.
“There’s roughly P1.8 billion remaining [from the 2021 appropriations],” he added.
Daza, a former taxman and finance legal counsel in the US, sifted through the commission’s audit records and financial reports where he was able to identify an opportunity to fund more indigent college scholars.
He thanked Arroyo, who assured him that the identified funds “would be utilized this year and allocated for poor and deserving students, specifically for Listahanan.”
Listahanan is a database of poor households that the Department of Social Welfare and Development uses to identify beneficiaries of its different social protection programs and services, which includes the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) and financial aid for indigent students.
CHED, in response, confirmed to Daza that there’s an “available P400 million to free up from [continuing appropriations],” which will be subject to the Department of Budget Management’s approval.