8,000 vie for Cotabato government’s college scholarship support

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Up to 8,000 high school graduates took the pre-qualifying tests for a college scholarship program of the governor of Cotabato province in different testing sites on Friday.

The tests were administered in different towns in Cotabato by facilitators from the office of Gov. Emmylou Taliño Mendoza and her constituent-local executives, among them Rolly Sacdalan and Evangeline Guzman, mayors of Midsayap and Kabacan, respectively.

The applicants for the college scholarship program of Mendoza's office for school year 2024-2025 are from the Muslim, Christian and ethnic non-Moro indigenous communities in Cotabato, covering 17 towns and more than 40 barangays in its capital, Kidapawan City.

A number of them are from the 63 predominantly Moro barangays in different towns in Cotabato that are under the regional government of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

“Our provincial governor is open to the admission of scholars from these Moro barangays even if no longer under her jurisdiction as a direct support for the peace process between the government and the country's Moro community,” Sacdalan said.

In separate dialogues with examinees while at designated testing venues in their respective towns, Sacdalan and Guzman urged the scholarship applicants to religiously abide by the policies of the program once they qualify as grantees for them to become professionals and productive residents of Cotabato province.

In her state of the province address at the provincial capitol in Kidapawan City early this week, Mendoza, presiding chairperson of the multi-sector Regional Development Council 12, said she will focus on providing educational interventions to her Moro and non-Moro constituents as part of her administration's peacebuilding and socio-economic thrusts in Cotabato province.