LEGAZPI CITY, Albay, Philippines — Governor Joey Salceda said Thursrday that the province has further expanded its scholarship program for its poor and disadvantaged youth constituents with a budget of P236 million this year.

With the program now benefitting 34,000 high school and college students, is the only province and local government unit in the country with its own institutionalized Provincial Education Department (PED).

“It (Albay) now has the largest college scholarship program in the country, even bigger than those of Cocofed, the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and Commission on Higher Education (CHEd),” said Salceda.

He said Albay’s scholarship program has two components – the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (AHECS), and the Emergency Financial Assistance for Students in Tertiary Education or EFAST.

AHECS helps qualified Albayano students to earn college degrees or complete two-year technical education programs to make them competitive in the quality jobs market. It forms part of the Education Quality for Albayanos (EQUAL) project that promotes universal access to education, and has another P50 million budget for 13,000 students enrolled in community colleges in the province.

Now on its second year, AHECS has a budget of P116 million and has 11,160 scholars. It will take in another 5,000 students this school year with its P50 million outlay. EFAST, on the other hand, provides only a one-time aid of P2,000 each to 5,000 new enrolees who could not be accommodated in the other programs.

Salceda said they put up EFAST since AHECS can’t take in more than 5,000 new students due to budgetary constraints. Thus, with Albay’s 27,000 high school graduates annually, they decided to provide a lifeline of P2,000 each to another group of 5,000 new college enrollees outside AHECS.