BI offers scholarships to employees’ family

CEBU, Philippines - A Memorandum of Agreement was signed between the Bureau of Immigration and five private schools in Cebu City that would extend scholarship grants to children of the bureau’s employees.

The MOA signing is part of the “Handog Edukasyon program” of the agency launched in time for its 75th Anniversary last Friday.

“It is our way of showing the bureau and the entire bureaucracy that we should take care of our great asset, which is our personnel,” Commissioner Siegfred Mison said during the MOA signing on behalf of BI last Friday at the J Centre Mall in Mandaue City.

The schools which agreed to grant scholarships to the children of BI employees were University of Cebu, Southwestern University, AMA Computer College-Mabolo Campus, Cebu International Distance Education College and the Cebu Doctor’s University.

Aside from children’s scholarship, Mison said some schools also extended scholarship to their employees’ siblings, husbands and wives. The grant is also open to BI employees who wish to go back to school to avail of post graduate degrees.

He clarified that not all of the schools which signed the MOA will give full scholarships as others only tend to give discounts. The provisions of the MOA for each school vary as some schools agreed to offer four-year grants while others are willing ten-year scholarships.

In Metro Manila, the Emilio Aguinaldo College and the Lyceum of the Philippines offer scholarships to the bureau’s employees.

However, Mison said that for one to become a scholar, it should be based on merits and that there are certain requirements for them to qualify.

“We are optimistic (that more schools will offer scholarship) and hoping at the same time that our employees really avail themselves of these scholarships,” Mison said. —ATO (FREEMAN)