CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY —- Several non-full scholars in college in this city expressed their disappointment after the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) included students who are grantees in any type of scholarship to the list of non-eligible beneficiaries to the educational assistance.

Jomar Caparoso, a third-year Business Administration student at one of the colleges in Barangay Carmen here, sought the DSWD’s explanation on why partial scholars are not eligible to avail of the educational assistance when they too have tuition to pay and other expenses.

“Please enlighten me what was the reason why half scholars were not included in the DSWD educational assistance? Naa pod mi bayrunon, dagko pa! (We also have payables, which is even bigger),” Caparoso told Manila Bulletin.

Caparoso’s tuition fee would cost P13,000 per semester despite the 50 percent scholarship grant from his school. The educational assistance from DSWD, he said, would be a huge help when it comes to his school requirements and other expenses.

The same sentiments shared by Cherrymae Abalde, a first-year Criminology student of the same school, who is also a 50 percent scholar, where she stressed that the P4,000 educational assistance would be of great help for a working student like her who pays for the food and rent, apart from her tuition fees.

“I am a working student and I am the one paying for my tuition. Aside from that, I also pay my rent for my boarding house and food. That P4,000 amount would be helpful for me and to all non-full scholars,” Abalde said.

“I would like to inform everyone that our scholarships are just a discount from the school. We are not government scholars and we are not receiving any amount from the school,” she added.

Caparoso did not try to proceed to the DSWD office after their school head informed them that scholars are not eligible for the assistance.

Meanwhile, Abalde made an effort to line up outside the DSWD regional office here twice but still ended up empty-handed.

For Jupeth Abella, a nursing student who also has a 50 percent scholarship, he is still waiting for the text confirmation from DSWD region 10.

He said once he received the text confirmation, he would still proceed to the payout venue, hoping that DSWD personnel would consider him.

“I am praying that they would consider me as the assistance would be a huge help already for me. I am the one paying for my tuition and I am also the breadwinner of the family,” Abella said.

Apart from the three college students, there were also several non-full scholars who have expressed their disappointment in a certain Facebook group.

Apart from non-full scholars, Nica Abalos, a third-year Civil Engineering student from a state university here also called on the DSWD to include poor students from their school.

Abalos chose to study in a state university as they are financially incapable to pay the tuition in college.

“It’s just so unfair that students who can pay their tuition fees are the ones who can receive the assistance compared to us who only depend on the free tuition,” Abalos told Manila Bulletin.

Ubec Tyrell Namalata, a student organization president from a college school here, is not in favor of excluding the non-full scholars to the educational aid and called on the DSWD to consider all students.

“Even though students have scholarships, they also have expenses for their daily needs. I hope that all students could get the assistance because for as long as they are students, they have expenses in school,” Namalata said in vernacular.

DSWD-10 Information Officer Roshiel Galia earlier said that all types of scholars, both from the government and private schools, are not eligible for the educational assistance.

The said agency understood the disappointment on the part of the students and expressed their willingness to help, the reason why the DSWD regional office 10, Galia said, raised the said concern to their central office.

“We really feel sorry for the students that is why we raise this concern to our central office,” Galia said in a text message.

During the third distribution day on September 3, the DSWD-10 has accommodated a total of 4,247 beneficiaries and distributed P12,389,000 of educational cash assistance under the Assistance to Individual in Crisis Situation (AICS) program in the entire region.

The said figure is 747 higher compared to the 3,500 beneficiaries targeted by the regional office in the entire Northern Mindanao.

After the distribution on Sept. 3, a total of P29,480,000 of educational cash assistance have already been distributed.

The DSWD central office has allocated a P120-million budget for DSWD Northern Mindanao for the said program that will end on Sept. 24 this year.

The non-full scholar students as well as students from a state university here expressed hope that they would receive the DSWD educational assistance before the end date.