Cash gifts await Pasig public school students graduating with honors

As the final stretch of the school year approaches, graduating students in Pasig City have a reason to study even harder. A resolution passed on Wednesday by the city council authorized the local government to dole out cash rewards—ranging from P500 to P3,000—to all public elementary and senior high school students graduating with honors.

The incentive was the latest initiative made possible after the new administration, helmed by Mayor Vico Sotto, saved P150 million in the latter half of 2019 by cleaning up the process for procuring government supplies.

This also freed up enough money to purchase 400,000 Christmas gift packages that were distributed to each family in Pasig, compared to 180,000 gift bags given the previous year under former Mayor Robert Eusebio.

The city council resolution pointed to the cash rewards as a form of assistance for public school students in line with the city government’s duty to “promote and protect the right of all citizens to quality education” and “help young Pasigeños achieve their educational goals.”

It provided for graduating students in elementary schools “with honors” to be given P500, while those with “high honors” and “highest honors” will receive P1,000 and P1,500, respectively.

Senior high school graduates, on the other hand, will get P1,000 for graduating with honors, P2,000 for high honors and P3,000 for highest honors.

The city council ordered the rewards to be charged to “any available funds in the city treasury subject to existing Commission on Audit rules and regulations.”

The resolution was also the latest in a larger effort to bolster Pasig’s school system by extending relief to public school students. In September last year, 13,000 students enrolled in the city’s scholarship program.

Now simply called the Pasig City Scholarship Program, beneficiaries used to be known as “BCE scholars,” the initials of the former mayor, Bobby C. Eusebio. Newly allotted funds last year allowed for more than 1,000 new scholars to take part in the program.