ADVERTISEMENT
Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Dela Rosa, Legarda back increase in scholarship funding for combatants' children

Dela Rosa, Legarda back increase in scholarship funding for combatants' children

Published Sep 24, 2025 01:52 pm

At A Glance

  • Senators Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa and Loren Legarda renewed the push for Congress to increase the budget for scholarships for children of combatants to improve the overall peace situation in the country.


Senators Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa and Loren Legarda renewed the push for Congress to increase the budget for scholarships for children of combatants to improve the overall peace situation in the country.

During the 2026 budget deliberation for the Office of the Presidential Adviser for Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU) led by Dela Rosa as the Chairperson of Senate Committee on Finance Subcommittee E, Sen. Loren Legarda urged the committee to provide additional funding for the program to possibly increase the amount received per student.

The amount currently stands at P50,000 per year. Legarda also called on OPAPRU to increase the number of beneficiaries as well.

Dela Rosa said he is supportive of this suggestion as he recalled his experience as a full scholar at the Mindanao State University (MSU) – Marawi for three years before he entered the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) in 1982.

Back then, the senator said he received a P300 allowance a month, which was a big amount already for them.

Thus, in the case of the combatants’ children nowadays, Dela Rosa said this would greatly help them cover their everyday expenses.

“You know if we really focus on this, it's not just the children of the Muslim rebels who will benefit, but also the Christians, the Lumads who are there, not just Mindanao, even those from Palawan, there are even those from Manila who are availing the MSU Marawi scholarship,” Dela Rosa said.

“There are many who will benefit from this...so Chairman, listen to our request, let's also increase it,” the senator added when he asked Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, Senate finance committee chair.

Legarda also moved to increase the coverage—from only one, as currently implemented, to all children of combatants—and urged OPAPRU Secretary Carlito Galvez to submit the revised computation to the committee.

“Just to summarize and make sure we understand, we will ask for the list of scholarships in all state universities and LGU colleges in the BARMM region and the beneficiaries who are children of school age, SUC college age of…combatants and Indigenous Peoples…You’ll submit it to the chair and he committed to fully fund the scholarship program of 50 thousand (pesos) per student per year,” Legarda said.

Gatchalian, for his part, yielded to the request and committed to increase the scholarship funding for combatants’ children

“I agree with Sen. Loren, she has a good proposal…in exchange for peace is education. So we need to fund that,” he said.

Related Tags

Bato Dela Rosa Loren Legarda scholarship program 2025 national budget OPAPRU
ADVERTISEMENT
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1561_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1562_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1563_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}

{{ articles_filter_1564_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.mb-article-details { position: relative; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview, .mb-article-details .article-body-summary{ font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: "Libre Caslon Text", serif; color: #000; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview iframe , .mb-article-details .article-body-summary iframe{ width: 100%; margin: auto; } .read-more-background { background: linear-gradient(180deg, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0) 13.75%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0.8) 30.79%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000) 72.5%); position: absolute; height: 200px; width: 100%; bottom: 0; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; padding: 0; } .read-more-background a{ color: #000; } .read-more-btn { padding: 17px 45px; font-family: Inter; font-weight: 700; font-size: 18px; line-height: 16px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; border: 1px solid black; background-color: white; } .hidden { display: none; }
function initializeAllSwipers() { // Get all hidden inputs with cms_article_id document.querySelectorAll('[id^="cms_article_id_"]').forEach(function (input) { const cmsArticleId = input.value; const articleSelector = '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .body_images'; const swiperElement = document.querySelector(articleSelector); if (swiperElement && !swiperElement.classList.contains('swiper-initialized')) { new Swiper(articleSelector, { loop: true, pagination: false, navigation: { nextEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-next', prevEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-prev', }, }); } }); } setTimeout(initializeAllSwipers, 3000); const intersectionObserver = new IntersectionObserver( (entries) => { entries.forEach((entry) => { if (entry.isIntersecting) { const newUrl = entry.target.getAttribute("data-url"); if (newUrl) { history.pushState(null, null, newUrl); let article = entry.target; // Extract metadata const author = article.querySelector('.author-section').textContent.replace('By', '').trim(); const section = article.querySelector('.section-info ').textContent.replace(' ', ' '); const title = article.querySelector('.article-title h1').textContent; // Parse URL for Chartbeat path format const parsedUrl = new URL(newUrl, window.location.origin); const cleanUrl = parsedUrl.host + parsedUrl.pathname; // Update Chartbeat configuration if (typeof window._sf_async_config !== 'undefined') { window._sf_async_config.path = cleanUrl; window._sf_async_config.sections = section; window._sf_async_config.authors = author; } // Track virtual page view with Chartbeat if (typeof pSUPERFLY !== 'undefined' && typeof pSUPERFLY.virtualPage === 'function') { try { pSUPERFLY.virtualPage({ path: cleanUrl, title: title, sections: section, authors: author }); } catch (error) { console.error('ping error', error); } } // Optional: Update document title if (title && title !== document.title) { document.title = title; } } } }); }, { threshold: 0.1 } ); function showArticleBody(button) { const article = button.closest("article"); const summary = article.querySelector(".article-body-summary"); const body = article.querySelector(".article-body-preview"); const readMoreSection = article.querySelector(".read-more-background"); // Hide summary and read-more section summary.style.display = "none"; readMoreSection.style.display = "none"; // Show the full article body body.classList.remove("hidden"); } document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => { let loadCount = 0; // Track how many times articles are loaded const offset = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]; // Offset values const currentUrl = window.location.pathname.substring(1); let isLoading = false; // Prevent multiple calls if (!currentUrl) { console.log("Current URL is invalid."); return; } const sentinel = document.getElementById("load-more-sentinel"); if (!sentinel) { console.log("Sentinel element not found."); return; } function isSentinelVisible() { const rect = sentinel.getBoundingClientRect(); return ( rect.top < window.innerHeight && rect.bottom >= 0 ); } function onScroll() { if (isLoading) return; if (isSentinelVisible()) { if (loadCount >= offset.length) { console.log("Maximum load attempts reached."); window.removeEventListener("scroll", onScroll); return; } isLoading = true; const currentOffset = offset[loadCount]; window.loadMoreItems().then(() => { let article = document.querySelector('#widget_1690 > div:nth-last-of-type(2) article'); intersectionObserver.observe(article) loadCount++; }).catch(error => { console.error("Error loading more items:", error); }).finally(() => { isLoading = false; }); } } window.addEventListener("scroll", onScroll); });
Join Our Newsletters

Sign up by email to receive news.

© 2025 Manila Bulletin The Nation's Leading Newspaper. All Rights Reserved.