Use portion of CCT for poor's education, Palace urged

MANILA, Philippines - Administration lawmaker Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo urged yesterday Malacañang to use a portion of the P40.2 billion under the 2012 conditional cash transfer (CCT) program to cushion the impact of tuition fee increases in more than 300 private educational institutions nationwide.

 Castelo said the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), which administers the CCT program, could rechannel a portion of the CCT fund to finance the educational requirement of the more than five million households that comprise the nation’s “poorest of the poor.”

The lawmaker made the call as the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) was reported to have received the applications of about 300 of the more 2,000 private educational institutions to raise their tuition fees for the schoolyear 2012-2013.

The fund support could be in the form of scholarship grants for deserving college students, whose families are among the beneficiaries of the Pantawid sa Pamilyang Pilipino PROGRAM (4Ps), otherwise known as CCT program, Castelo said.

 “It could also be outright subsidies to the tuition fees of elementary, high school, and college students under the 4Ps,” Castelo explained.