MP solon restores scholarship for studes

BY DEXTER A.SEE

BONTOC, MOUNTAIN PROVINCE – The over 4,000 students enrolled at the Mountain Province State Polytechnic College received an early Christmas gift with the restoration of the full scholarship program of the institution for the second semester of school year 2007-2008.

The deserving students of the institution will be entitled to free tuition and miscellaneous fees for the duration of their stay in the institution provided that they pass the screening process.

Initially, Rep. Victor S. Dominguez said there are at least 1,685 college students that are beneficiaries of the full scholarship program for the second semester.

However, the number of beneficiaries who are bonafide residents of this province is expected to increase due to the expected influx of applications since the program will be a continuing one.

Earlier, Dominguez scrapped the subsidy on the program for the first semester of this school year after a number of students and some disgruntled sectors of the province filed a series of charges against the lawmaker before the Commission on Human Rights and the Commission on Higher Education.

“We have to ensure that deserving students from the province could be accorded a descent education so that they could be able to uplift the economic standing of their respective families in the future. The full scholarship program must be spared from the political maneuvering of disgruntled sectors who could not admit that we were able to initiate the realization of the program,” he said.

Dominguez is allocating a total of P10 million from his Priority Development Fund and initiative to fund the continuous implementation of the MPSPC’s full scholarship program over the past two years. P7 million is sourced out from his annual PDAF while P3 million is included in the regular budget of the NCIP as the congressman’s initiative which is also being enjoyed by other Cordillera congressmen.

Concerned students recently appealed to the lawmaker to reinstate the full scholarship program since it is one of the beneficial programs that they are enjoying and is a great help in easing the burden from their parents in bringing them to school.

Simultaneously, they denounced several individuals and disgruntled groups in the province for trying to create disorder just to suit their own political aggrandizement at the expense of noble programs.

Dr. Nieves A. Dacyon, MPSPC president, said restoration of the full scholarship program since the funds to be generated will be utilized to pursue the comprehensive development efforts being introduced in the institution so that its facilities and equipment could be at par with the respectable higher education institutions in the country.

MPSPC is the first higher education institution in the country to implement the full scholarship program with the able assistance of Rep. Dominguez.