MANILA — In a move designed to turn academic excellence into national progress, Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez expressed high hopes today following the House of Representatives’ third-reading approval of the Presidential Merit Scholarship Program. This consolidated measure, which integrates Romualdez’s House Bill No. 5763 with a proposal from Majority Leader Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” A. Marcos, seeks to bridge the gap between financial struggle and high-level ambition.
The initiative represents a strategic shift in educational support by expanding the safety net beyond just the lowest-income brackets. Speaker Romualdez emphasized that “the program aims to widen access to quality education of graduating senior high school students not only from poor families but from other financially-challenged and middle-class households as well.”
Beyond simple tuition coverage, the program is envisioned as a talent incubator for the nation. Romualdez noted that “the program will extend substantial financial assistance to the cream of the crop in senior high school. Hopefully, we can produce the best and the brightest professionals who can be our country’s future leaders among these graduating senior high school graduates.” The scholarship also carries a practical economic goal by encouraging students to pursue specialized degrees.
Romualdez expressed his desire for beneficiaries to choose fields of higher education where graduates are in high demand both locally and internationally. By aligning academic pursuits with market needs, the Speaker believes “this will expedite their employment so they can be of help to their families as soon as possible.”|PR
