More than 30,000 college students, who are dependents of repatriated, displaced, and deceased overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), are expected to benefit from a P1-billion scholarship fund this year, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said.

The Department of Labor and Employment had signed a memorandum of agreement on the provision of educational assistance with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST) Chairman Prospero de Vera III in a ceremony in Quezon City.

Under the program dubbed as “Tabang OFW,” one college-level dependent of a repatriated, displaced, or deceased OFW is entitled to receive a one-time financial assistance of P30,000.

“We hope this will go a long way in helping our OFWs and their children in these most challenging times. By doing this, we also hope we can partly repay our modern-day heroes,” Bello said.

Under the agreement, the DoLE shall issue orders, circular, or guidelines that will spell out the effective and efficient implementation of the program, including the appropriate utilization of funds, adherence to the usual government accounting and auditing rules, and submission of reports.

The CHED, on the other hand, will release the funds amounting to P1 billion to DoLE for the implementation of the educational assistance program to the qualified college children dependents of the OFWs.

UniFAST shall assist DoLE in the promotion and other information dissemination activities of the program and jointly work in crafting the guidelines, coverage, and criteria in availing the subsidy under the Tabang OFW program.