DSWD education aid: No more payout for .5 milion Western Visayas students

ILOILO CITY, Philippines — More than 500,000 students in Western Visayas will no longer receive educational assistance from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

May Rago-Castillo, DSWD regional information officer, announced yesterday that the last two payouts this month would not push through.

”Inasmuch as we wanted to serve more clients, our funds are depleted, she said.

Castillo said the DSWD regional office had used up P91 million under its Assistance to Individiuals in Crisis Situation (AICS) program for the one-time educational aid.

Castillo said a total of P101.326 million was used to provide financial aid to 8,311 elementary students at P1,000 each; 6,799 junior high school students who received P2,000; 4,667 senior high school students who received P3,000, and 16,354 college and vocational courses students who got P4,000 each.

Iloilo province, including Iloilo City, had the most number of beneficiaries at 11,686; Negros Occidental, including Bacolod City, 10,256; Capiz, 4,186; Antique, 3,809; Aklan, 3,965, and Guimaras, 2,229.

“We still have 555,613 pending applications,” Castillo said.

DSWD Secretary Erwin Tulfo had earlier said around 400,000 students may be the last batch of beneficiaries of the education aid under the AICS program during the last two payouts this month.

He said the online application for the educational aid had been closed due to lack of funds.

The DSWD said it had received more than two million applications.

Tulfo said P1.5 billion was allotted for the program and around P600 million to P800 million has been released.