Senate bill seeks college scholarships for 4Ps beneficiaries

Students of the Batasan Hills High School attend their graduation ceremony in Quezon City. March is the month of graduation festivities nationwide in Philippines. AFP FILE PHOTO/NOEL CELIS

MANILA, Philippines–A bill that seeks to provide a college scholarship program for high school graduates from household beneficiaries of the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Programs (4Ps) has been filed at the Senate.

Senator Loren Legarda dubbed Senate Bill No. 6 or the “Government Scholarship to Students for University and Technical Vocational Act” she filed as “Pantawid Tuition Program.”

Legarda said her proposed “Pantawid Tuition Program” would be a “complementing policy” of the 4Ps.

“This will establish a college scholarship program for high school graduates from household beneficiaries of 4Ps who have satisfactorily completed the requirements and conditions set by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD),” she said in a statement on Wednesday.

“A tuition fee supplement worth at least P5,000 will be provided to the student beneficiaries to be released every start of the semester. The amount may be increased upon approval of the Commission on Higher Education,” Legarda added.

As of 2012, an estimated 2.3 million households are currently benefitting from the 4Ps.

Legarda said the 4Ps program was seen as the “biggest and most comprehensive” poverty reduction tool by the government as it seeks to improve human capital investments by linking up the receipt of cash grant on the basis of meeting certain conditions and requirements set by the DSWD.

Thus, she said, it was important that the early gains of the 4Ps would be preserved and complemented “through  the provision of a college scholarship program for high school graduates from the same household beneficiaries.”

“This will enable families to have a better chance of improving their financial standing by ensuring that at least one family member will graduate from college or from a technical-vocational institution to improve his or her job prospects upon entering the labor market,” Legarda said.