QUEZON City Mayor Herbert Bautista on Wednesday granted cash incentives to all top-three students in the city’s 96 public elementary schools.
The city government has set aside P5.7 million to cover the cash incentives, he said.
This school year, the grant of cash rewards is 50 percent more than what the city government has provided in previous years, Bautista added.
The Division of City Schools and the QC school board coordinated efforts for the distribution of the incentive in time for the school opening in June.
Under the city’s incentive program, students graduating at the top of their class will be provided with a P10,000 cash reward; the No. 2 student will receive P6,000; and the third-placed student, P4,000.
Bautista said the release of the cash incentives would give the students and their parents the chance to shop for school supplies and uniforms ahead of the opening of classes on June 5 for public schools.
Quezon City hosts the largest school-age population in the country at 1.03 million children aged 3 to 21.
Meanwhile, advocates of electric motorcycles in Quezon City lauded Mayor Bautista for giving the innovative transport mode a chance to prove its viability.
“Mayor Herbert Bautista gives value to the positive contribution of e-trikes in our transport system. That’s why he’s very supportive to this initiative,” District 1 Councilor Olivere Belmonte said.
Bautista through the Department of Public Order and Safety started rolling out the “e-trike” service in April for a two-month trial run.
“The city government is eyeing to replace smoke-belching vehicles, such as the two-stroke engine tricycles,” said Jerry Foronda, Department of Public Order and Safety’s senior transportation regulation officer.
Five e-trikes out of the 20 units donated by the Japan International Cooperation Agency are involved in the trial run.
A full roll out of the 20 units will depend on the results of the trials.
An inter-agency committee will review the first 30 days of the test run of the e-trikes from Quezon City Hall to Maginhawa Street.
According to the city government, e-trike drivers earn more from P700 to P900 daily compared to the P500 to P700 range by those using ordinary tricycles.
The city’s e-trikes operate from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. with an P8 minimum fare.
The Tricycle Regulatory Unit said there are 24,700 registered units of tricycles in the city, most of them with two-stroke engines.