1,958 NCIP grantees in Mt. Province receive educational assistance

By Andrew B. Doga-ong

Wednesday 15th of February 2012

BONTOC, Mt. Province, Feb. 15(PIA)-- Some 1,958 student-grantees of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples under its Educational Assistance Program (EAP) last week started receiving their financial assistance for the second semester, this school year.

Mt. Province Congressman Maximo Dalog, Sr. and Cordillera NCIP regional director Sancho Buquing led the ceremonial distribution of the checks of P2,500 each to the grantees at the Mt. Province State Polytechnic College gym last February 10. Some grantees receive their financial aid through cash cards which they can use to withdraw from the Land Bank of the Philippines ATMs.

Dalog through his Priority Development Assistance Fund allots P7million while the NCIP provides P3 million annually for the government’s EAP. Each student-grantee receives a total of P5,000 for the two semester or for one year.

The EAP, one of the government programs that looks after the welfare of indigenous peoples, grants financial assistance to poor but deserving students to enable them to finish college education which they will use to find jobs in the future.

In his brief message, Dalog exhorted the student-grantees to strive hard in their studies stressing that education is the best legacy a person can acquire and it could also be a tool to get out poverty. He said being an indigenous people is not a hindrance of not finishing a college degree adding that many children of indigenous communities who are persistent in going to school and finished their chosen courses have improved their status in life.

George Lumiwes, focal person of the EAP of the provincial office of the NCIP here, said student-grantees will be supported until they will graduate. He said the educational assistance will only stop when grantees graduate, failed to enroll or those with discrepancies in their grades.

Lumiwes said the student-grantees are enrolled in various state and private colleges and universities in the region with most of them studying at the MPSPC. (JDP/AD- PIA CAR, Mt. Province)