Scholarships for indigenous students pushed

MANILA, Philippines - Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat filed a bill seeking to allot P200 million for the education of indigenous students in state universities and colleges (SUCs) in the country.

Baguilat said the mandatory scholarship grants of SUCs increase the number of beneficiaries as indigenous peoples are guaranteed with available slots for education.

House Bill 97, called the Indigenous Peoples Scholarship Program, also allots P150 million for the scholarship program of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.

“There exists an urgency to giving sure access to quality education to our oft-neglected members of indigenous peoples especially the young,” Baguilat said.

He added that under the 1987 Constitution, the state recognizes and promotes the rights of indigenous cultural communities within the framework of national unity and development.

“Giving life to these provisions of our fundamental law, I am proposing an educational program to grant substantive equality for indigenous peoples,” he said.

Funds for the program will be charged against the savings in the General Appropriations Act in the year of its implementation.