Solon says new college aid program to solve CHEd failure

POZORRUBIO, Pangasinan—The failures of the Commission on Higher Education’s (CHEd) student financial assistance programs would be solved by the new Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary  Education (Unifast), Pasig Rep. Roman Romulo said here on Friday. Romulo, a senatorial candidate who attended a town fiesta here, said the deficiencies uncovered by the Commission on Audit (COA) had been attributed to CHEd’s lack of personnel.

But the Unifast program would be overseen by a board composed of CHEd, the Department of Education, the Department of Science and Technology, the Department of Labor and Employment, and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, said Romulo, who sponsored the bill that made Unifast a law (Republic Act No. 10687).

The 2014 COA report cited deficiencies in CHEd’s scholarship programs, which left unused allotments of P1.23 billion, that delayed the tuition requirements of almost 320,000 students. Romulo, chair of the House committee on higher education, said these deficiencies were “at the very least unacceptable because these funds have been put in place to ensure that qualified students are given financial assistance when they need them most.”“I ask CHEd to immediately address these deficiencies so no qualified students, especially the financially handicapped, would be turned away or denied what is due them as mandated by law,” he said. Unifast’s implementing rules and regulations are still being prepared but the scholarship program should be implemented this year, he said.

Unifast covers all government programs that provide assistance to students, such as scholarships, study-now-pay-later facilities and grants-in-aid instruments.

“With the different agencies working together on the program, the deficiencies of the CHEd scholarship programs would be addressed and solved,” Romulo said. Yolanda Sotelo, Inquirer Northern Luzon