Makati gives cash gifts to honor graduates

MANILA, Philippines - Makati City's 195 honor graduates from the city's public elementary and high schools will receive their cash gifts from the city government as an added incentive for their academic excellence.

The awarding ceremony will be held on April 15, 3 p.m. at the Main Theater of the University of Makati.

Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay said that as in the past years, valedictorians in the elementary and high school levels will each receive P5,000, while salutatorians will receive P4,000 each. Those who got three honorable mentions in the top five will each receive P3,000.

"We have made it a tradition to give cash incentives to the top five graduates in all public elementary and high schools of Makati every school year. It is our way of rewarding them for having valued their education and doing justice to all our efforts to empower them to achieve their potential,” Binay said.

Binay added that aside from the cash incentives, the city government will also donate 40 laptops to the 28 public elementary and 10 high schools.

The Pitogo and Benigno Aquino High Schools will both receive two laptops since they have two sets of honor graduates – one for their regular school program and the other for their specialized curriculum program.

Stella Marie Lumayad, one of this year’s valedictorians, was also declared as one of the Kabayan Ten Outstanding Public School Students (TOPS) Academic Excellence Award in the National Capital Region.

Lumayad, a valedictorian of the Pitogo High School, has also earned a full college scholarship grant from Kabayan Noli de Castro Foundation Inc. and the SM Foundation Inc.

The Kabayan TOPS Award recognizes poor but deserving public high school students who have shown exemplary performance in academics and leadership despite experiencing hardship and challenging circumstances.

Department of Education-Makati officer-in-charge, Dr. Dominicio Idanan, said Lumayad was among the first batch of graduates of Pitogo High School under the specialized curriculum for the Science, Technology and Engineering (STE) program of DepEd. Pitogo High School is among the additional 86 public secondary schools nationwide chosen to implement STE.

Meanwhile, the Benigno Aquino High School was among the 48 high schools nationwide chosen to implement and operate the Regional ICT Tech-Voc High School program of the DepEd that took effect in school year 2009-2010.

For this year, the city government has allocated P2 billion for education services out of its P11.7-billion 2014 executive budget. Of this, P1.3 billion has been earmarked for expenditures in the preschool to junior high school levels, including school supplies and uniforms provided for free to enrollees in the city’s public schools. At the tertiary level, P22.3 million has been allotted for the University of Makati’s various programs and activities. Almost P8.9 million will be spent for youth and sports development, while P3.6 million will fund the city’s college scholarship programs at the University of the Philippines and the Philippine Normal University.

A separate allocation of P23 million under the Special Projects of the Office of the Mayor has been earmarked for the K to 12 Senior High School Program at UMak, where Grades 11 and 12 students are provided free school supplies and uniforms.