Albay suspends scholarship for new college students

LEGAZPI CITY—Some 4,000 incoming college students applying in Albay’s novel scholarship program would have to wait some more before they could enter college after provincial officials temporarily suspended the grant because of a P45-million cut in Albay’s Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA).

Arnold Embestro, provincial board member and education committee chair, in an interview, said the IRA cut affected new and ongoing projects.

“After intense deliberation, we deemed it right to suspend it (scholarship grant),” he said.

Embestro said the suspension of the grant under the Albay Higher Education Contribution Scheme (AHECS) would only be for two years as it would be restored as soon as funds are sufficient.

AHECS, which is into its third year this school year, seeks to produce one college graduate per family in the province.  A qualified student receives P5,000 in tuition support per semester.

The program, which has been allotted P40 million each year in the past two years of implementation, accommodates some 4,000 qualified college students in any state college and university, community college and private school in Albay.

Gov. Joey Salceda said Albay borrowed P150 million from the Land Bank of the Philippines to partly finance the program.

He said Albay was the only province in the country with its own education department and it “now has the single largest college scholarship program in the history of the Philippines.”

He hoped, however, that the suspension would be lifted sooner once they source out funds from local revenues.

“We suffered around P100 million in lost revenues for the past two years because of the IRA cut,” he said.

“Since 2007, we have budgeted almost P860 million of scholarship assistance in postsecondary studies,” he said.