Maasin City, Southern Leyte - “The Alay Lakad funds will be used to finance the out-of-school youth scholarship program of the City.”

This was the statement uttered by Maasin Mayor Maloney Samaco in his speech at the public stage adjacent to the City Hall after the recent Alay Lakad participated mostly by students from the Systems Technology Institute (STI), Maasin City College and some government employees and officials.

Samaco said that those who are qualified for the out-of-school youth scholarship program are the high school graduates and the PEPT passers who are poor but deserving students.

The Mayor said the scholarship for the indigent students covers to provide free tuitions for a 4-year college courses and a 2-year vocational courses. However, the students? allowances, if there is any, would depend on the decision of the project committee management handling the funds.

He clarified that for vocational courses, Systems Technology Institute (STI) and the College of Maasin will be the designated schools. While a four-year college course will be enrolled at the Maasin City College.

The young Mayor also stressed that he will encourage some of the qualified Alay Lakad scholars to take up agriculture. This is to make the city and the province of Southern Leyte become self-sufficient in rice and in other agricultural products to lessen the importations of similar products done by the government.

He further informed that all interested applicants for the scholarship program should approach the City?s Department of Social Welfare for more information about this particular project.

When asked about the amount of current funds available for the Alay Lakad?s educational project, he said that he could not tell exactly because pledges of support still have to be collected from the donors. (Quirico M. Gorpido, Jr.)

About the Contributor:

Mr. Quirico M. Gorpido Jr was an erstwhile Correspondent/Contributor to the following weeklies and dailies: Tacloban-based regional weekly a 33-year-old The Reporter for many years(now defunct), a Cebu-based weekly The Visayan Express(now defunct),Cebu-based daily The Freeman(1994-1998) now a sister publication of The Philippine Star, Maasin-based weekly The Southern Leyte Times for three years, Tacloban-based daily The Leyte Samar Daily Express(2000-2001), Cebu-based daily the Cebu Daily News(2002-2003), Tacloban-based weekly 7-year-old Tribune(2003-2007).