NCIP grants scholarships to 1,958 indigent students

By Dexter A. See

BONTOC, Mountain Province -- At least 1,958 indigent students of the Mountain Province State Polytechnic College here received scholarship grants from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.

The budget for the grant was incorporated in the annual budget of the NCIP contrary to claims of some politicians that the same was their initiative when they just assumed office last July way ahead before the 2010 budget was signed into law.

Under the NCIP’s financial assistance for poor but deserving students, each student will receive at least P2,500 per semester to help them defray expenses in their college and technical-vocational education.

Aside from MPSPC students, those enrolled in several technical-vocational institutions in the province will also receive such assistance provided they pass screening.

From 2005-2010, MPSPC had been the first higher education institution in the country to provide its students with full scholarship through the initiative of the late Rep. Victor S. Dominguez and continued by Kalinga Rep. Manuel S. Agyao, who acted as the province’s caretaker, when the former died due to heart disease.

The state-run institution which was established through Republic Act 7182 signed by former President Corazon C. Aquino on January 17, 1992 is the only higher education institution in the province.

Lawyer Amador Batay-an, NCIP Cordillera regional director, urged beneficiaries to value the aid given them and concentrate on their studies so they will succeed in getting an education.

He said life has become too difficult to hurdle, thus, the present and future generations must realize that education is still the best inheritance that parents can give them because it could not be taken away from them.