Tollway firm expands scholarship coverage

MANILA, Philippines - Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) has expanded its scholarship program for academic year 2014-2015 by opening it to students of non-engineering courses and employee dependents.

Established in 2010, the MPTC Scholarship Program provides financial aid to students interested in pursuing tertiary level education in technical and engineering courses. High school graduates from towns and cities along the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) and Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX), as well as dependents of MPTC Group employees, are eligible for the program.

 “We place great value on our workforce, that’s why we are extending scholarship grants to their families via an expanded Scholarship Program. This year, we added six students to our roster; four are employee dependents taking non-engineering courses, while two students are from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP),” MPTC president Ramoncito Fernandez said over the weekend.

 Of the program’s 15 beneficiaries for this school year, two are studying food service and hotel restaurant management, with five in civil engineering; three in mechanical engineering; and one each in computer engineering, electrical and computer engineering, electronic engineering, general engineering, and industrial engineering.

Besides PUP-, which earlier signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with MPTC, current grantees come from publicly-funded Bulacan State University, the University of the Philippines, and the Catholic and private Holy Angel University in Angeles City.

 In 2012, the program granted nine scholarships to mostly civil engineering students.

MPTC, a dominant player in the tollroad industry, manages two-thirds of the country’s 320-kilometer tollroad network. It has a controlling stake in Manila North Tollways Corp., builder and concessionaire of the 90-kilometer NLEX.