COTABATO CITY—After graduating from high school in March, Norombai Utto’s immediate problem was where to find the money for her college education.
The 17-year-old’s family lives among Maguindanao’s poor in Mamasapano town, whose economic hardships worsened after the Jan. 25 clash, which left more than 60 people killed in Tukanalipao village.
Utto, the class valedictorian of the Hadji Salik Kalaing National High School, and 400 other top high school graduates in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), need not worry anymore about pursuing higher education.
The regional government has made them scholars who would benefit from the free education and stipends in schools of their choice, says John Louie Balagot, deputy executive secretary for ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman.
“The regional governor wants to provide direct educational assistance to deserving Bangsamoro students of the kind of academic courses they want to pursue in college,” Balagot said of the ARMM’s Academic Investment for Muslim Mindanao Scholarship.
Aside from enjoying the free tuition, the scholars will receive P10,000 each as stipend per semester.
“We will monitor their performance from time to time,” Balagot said.
In Maguindanao, Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu said the scholarship program for the province’s poor students would be continued.
Last year, 4,400 students availed of the program, receiving P3,000 in monthly stipend. Mangudadatu expected the number to increase this year, saying “I want this to become a long-running program because educating our youth will become our passport to progress.”
“Those availing themselves of the scholarship will have to pay back when they find jobs after graduating so that funds would still be available for future scholars,” the governor said.
The Provincial Peace and Order Council recently urged the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority to increase its scholarship quota to pull more youths away from armed groups.
“The disgruntled youth among impoverished village families beset by poor access to education compounded by conflicts are very susceptible to recruitment by armed groups for rebellion and other nefarious activities,” Mangudadatu told reporters.
He also said that opening up more opportunities to learn would drive the people of the province away from their fascination with guns, which he described as among the factors that had thrust them into violence.
“The ink of the scholar is holier than the blood of the martyr,” Mangudadatu said.
In Kidapawan City, North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza said new scholars would be taken in in lieu of those who graduated from college this year.
Mendoza said the expenses of 1,179 scholars were being shouldered by the provincial government under a “Study Now, Pay Never” scheme. “They do not have to pay us back with cash. They just have to render service for about two months,” she said.
This year, 23 of the scholars graduated with magna cum laude and cum laude honors. “Their excellent performance proved that we are not only helping our youths become educated but we are helping them excel in their chosen courses,” Mendoza said.
“We were so blessed to avail of the governor’s scholarship program, most of us belong to poor families and without PSP [provincial scholarship program], we could not possibly graduate,” said Hannie Mae Dabucan, who graduated, magna cum laude, with a marketing management degree from University of Southern Mindanao in Kabacan, North Cotabato. Charlie Señase and Allan Nawal, Inquirer Mindanao