Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto has assured that the cash allowance of city scholars will be released next month.
Sotto said the local government was only able to release cash assistance for three months to city scholars this year due to “budget technicalities.”
“Three months muna na disburse. Sinubukan natin na five months kaso may teknikalidad sa budget (We have disbursed cash allowances for the first three months. We tried to make it five months but there were technicalities in budget,” Sotto said in a Twitter post.
“Di natin magawan ng paraan para i-release ang Jan-Feb 2021 allowance habang fiscal year 2020 pa lang. Will release as soon as possible this January (We cannot find a way to release the Jan-Feb 2021 allowance within fiscal year 2020. Will release as soon as possible this January,” he added.
The mayor said the cash allowances of scholars will be disbursed through online payment account PayMaya.
“Thank you for being patient with the processing, it really has been a very challenging nine months for everyone,” he said.
Sotto said for this school year, the city has a record 18,000 scholars compared to 13,000 scholars in 2019.
The local government has also expanded the coverage of its scholarship program to include 3,000 indigent private schools students this year.