FPL Cebu city scholarship program Council seeks lifting of “restrictive” rules

CEBU, Philippines —  The Cebu City Council has urged Mayor Nestor Archival to immediately lift restrictive scholarship guidelines that disqualify Cebu City residents who completed senior high school outside the city from availing themselves of the city government’s scholarship program.

A resolution authored by Councilor Mikel F. Rama called on Archival, who chairs the Cebu City Scholarship Committee, to issue clarifying board decisions and implement immediate policy changes.

At the center of the controversy are scholarship rules requiring applicants to graduate from senior high schools located within Cebu City.

The policy excluded Cebu City residents who had no choice but to enroll in schools in neighboring localities because their public high schools did not offer certain academic strands.

Among those most affected were students taking up the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) strand and the Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMSS) strand.

Parents from upland barangays such as Sinsin and Bulacao submitted handwritten appeals, saying they were initially assured that their children qualified for the scholarship program but were later informed of their disqualification, leaving families struggling to pay tuition and miscellaneous fees.

Rama told The Freeman that one parent even personally came to his office in tears because of the issue.

The councilor stressed that City Ordinance No. 2333, which established the Cebu City College Scholarship Program, bases eligibility on residency and financial need rather than the location of the school attended.

Rama argued that the current guidelines imposed a territorial restriction not found in the ordinance, effectively disenfranchising poor but deserving students.

He also pointed out that the Local Government Code supports scholarship assistance for city residents regardless of where they studied.

While seeking the mayor’s intervention, the resolution outlined conditions for reinstating affected students into the program once the disqualification is lifted.

These include verification that the applicant’s parents are registered resident-voters of Cebu City; that the applicant graduated from a public elementary and junior high school within the city; that the student completed senior high school in a private institution as a beneficiary of a scholarship, grant, or tuition-waiver program; and that studying outside Cebu City was necessary because the required academic strand was unavailable in the student’s local public senior high school.

The issue forms part of broader controversies surrounding the city’s scholarship program.

Earlier, the City Council rejected the accreditation of the Asian College of Technology International Educational Foundation (ACTIEF) Pit-os campus in a closely contested vote.

Rama and other councilors who opposed the accreditation cited compliance concerns, including Professional Regulation Commission passing rates and administrative qualifications.

Rama also pushed for a three-day executive session to hear directly from upland students and stakeholders.

He emphasized that solutions should be data-driven and grounded in the experiences of students facing hardships in mountain barangays.

For many affected families, lifting the disqualification under the proposed conditions is more than a policy correction—it is a lifeline that could allow poor but deserving students to pursue higher education, opportunities their parents were unable to attain because of difficult circumstances.(CEBU NEWS)