Magpeteños students will welcome the year 2024 full of hope and inspiration with the bicycles they received from provincial government of Cotabato Province.
At least 102 students from the municipality of Magpet received bicycle each through the program “Padyak para sa Pangarap” of Governor Emmylou “Lala” J. Taliño-Mendoza on December 28, 2023.
The program, which has an allocation of P13,966,560 for 1,650 units of bicycles to be distributed throughout the province, is in collaboration with the office of Cotabato Province 3rd District Congresswoman Ma. Alana Samantha T. Santos, and the Department of Education 12 (DepEd).
“Hindi hadlang ang kahirapan upang magpursige sa kanilang edukasyon. Mapalad ang mga estudyanteng naging benepisyaryo ng programa na naglalayong tulungan ang mga mahihirap ngunit matatalinong estudyante sa kanilang hangaring makapagtapos ng pag-aaral,” said Mendoza.
The program was also supported by the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP).
Education is among the key programs of Mendoza by offering scholarships to poor but deserving students as well as to government employees.
The Province of Cotabato has already established free education from government pre-schools, elementary, and high schools to state colleges and universities.
For the Cotabato Provincial Scholarship Program, P7,848,000 was released for the initial batch of 1,308 scholars for the calendar year 2022-2023.
The province also established a specialized scholarship program for the school year 2023-2024 and will be allocating additional slots for the scholarship program with a total budget of P30,524,000.
“Education for all means ensuring that all children have access to basic education of good quality. This is an involvement of an entire society including national and local government agencies and CSOs as providers for basic learning needs,” Mendoza said.
