PAYABLES of scholars under the Paglaum Scholarship Program will be settled by the Cebu Provincial Government to allow them to get their transcript of records.
As to who will continue to enjoy the financial support of the Province, Board Member Christopher Baricuatro said that only those graduating scholars will continue to receive their allowance and payment for tuition for this year. Those in the second and third year of college will no longer receive financial support.
He made this announcement Friday, Oct. 11, 2019, after a meeting with Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia. Baricuatro heads the Provincial Board committee on higher and technical education.
“As per instructions of the governor, only Paglaum scholars who are graduating this school year may continue. Also, the Province will pay for those who already graduated but still did not get their transcripts,” Baricuatro said in a mix of Cebuano and English.
Scholars would have to wait for the governor’s decision on whether or not she would continue the Paglaum Scholarship Program.
Some 200 Paglaum scholars from different universities staged a mass action Friday to let the governor hear directly their plea for her administration to continue the program because their education would be sacrificed without the support.
However, they had to leave upon learning that Garcia was not in her office.
Some turned emotional and appeared distraught over their failure to get a decision from the governor. But they said they are still hoping to get the support of the Province.
Of the 1,810 Paglaum scholars, 200 are graduating students.
The Paglaum scholarship was created in 2016 through an ordinance authored by then vice governor Agnes Magpale. Magpale ran against and lost to Garcia in the local elections last May.
Baricuatro has come up with a new scholarship program under the Garcia administration to be called the “Cebu Province Grants Intended for Tertiary Students (CP-Gifts).” Under the proposal, the program would get an annual budget of P15 million.
In Garcia’s earlier stint as governor, the Cebu Tertiary Education Assistance Program (CTEAP) was created to provide educational assistance to poor but deserving college students.
Garcia’s CTEAP is different from the Paglaum where all low-income students, whether or not they have exemplary performance in high school were granted assistance.
Garcia earlier said: “Let us not redefine the word scholar, which refers to the academe and scholastic performance. If you will just be immediately recognized as a scholar just because you are a son of a friend, then that defeats the idea of a scholarship, especially since we are spending government funds.”
Baricuatro said the new scholarship program will only be for incoming first year students for school year 2020-2021.
Only students with an 85 percent average grade can apply and they should maintain that average to continue to get the grant.