Lakas CMD vice-presidential candidate and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte has said a total of 14,940 students have received scholarship assistance under the “Tulong Dunong Program,” a joint project of the City Government of Davao and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).
“This was in hope that their lives will improve,” Duterte said in a statement.
The P300-million project is solely funded by the City Government of Davao, with the beneficiaries given P7,500 per semester for four academic years, as long as they will not get a failing mark in any subject.
Norman Baloro, focal person of the Tulong Dunong Program, said it was initially a component from the “High Priority Bus System Project” of the city as a social intervention for PUJ drivers and operators to aid their children in going to school.
“But when we did a profiling of our PUJ drivers and operators, only some of them had children in college,” he added.
The Tulong Dunong Program, said Baloro, was then extended to all interested Dabawenyo students in tertiary education to “maximize and utilize the provided budget,” including children of solo parents, OFWs, sidewalk vendors and other indigent and deserving students.
“We will distribute this to all” you [Duterte] said, “everyone, rich or poor; as long as they are qualified based on our eligibility guidance and policy, we will accommodate them in the Tulong Dunong Student Assistance Program,” Baloro said.