GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/02 June) — The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) in Region 12 has enlisted an additional 59 scholars for school year 2015-2016 under a program for dependents of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).
Marilou Sumalinog, OWWA Region 12 director, said Tuesday three OFW dependents from the region have qualified for its Education for Development Scholarship Program (EDSP) and 56 for the OFW-Dependents Scholarship Program (OFWDSP).
She said the three ESDP scholars were among the incoming college students who earlier passed the qualifying examination administered by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).
The three EDSP scholars from the region are Vincent Barrion of Koronadal City, Hannah Castillano of this city and John Adrian Golveo of Surallah, South Cotabato.
Barrion will take up a business economics degree at the University of the Philippines (UP)-Diliman while Castillano will pursue a metallurgical engineering degree at the same university. Golveo will study accountancy at the University of Santo Tomas.
Under the program, the three scholars will receive a maximum educational assistance of P60,000 per school year.
“We consider the EDSP scholars as the cream of the crop as they belong to the top 200 who successfully hurdled the DOST examination last year,” she said in a statement.
Sumalinog said that since the scholars will study in Metro Manila, they have endorsed them to the OWWA-National Capital Region for facilitation in the payment of their school fees and monitoring of their school performance.
For the OFWDSP, she said the agency will support 56 additional scholars starting this school year.
She said 13 of them are from South Cotabato, 13 from North Cotabato, 12 from Sultan Kudarat, and 18 from Sarangani and this city.
Sumalinog said the beneficiaries will receive a financial assistance of P20,000 each per year or P10,000 every semester.
She said the assistance will cover for their tuition fees and other matriculation or academic-related expenses.
The scholars will also get a group health and accident insurance coverage of up to P100,000 each she said.
Sumalinog said the agency selected the OFWDSP scholars based on their general weighted average and other criteria.
“We’ve set a standard to ensure that our program will truly serve its purpose. And hopefully, four or five years from now, our scholars would be able to finish their chosen courses with flying colors,” she added. (MindaNews)