THE COMMISSION on Higher Education and the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education  started releasing the Tertiary Education Subsidy  stipends of qualified students of the St. Vincent de Ferrer College of Camarin, Inc. a year after the alleged violations of the school on the implementation of the program.

“The UNIFAST Board had issued Board Resolution No. 2020-067 approving the release of TES to qualified students of the private HEI, subject to certain conditions. We must not delay this financial assistance that is considered a lifeline of our grantees and their families during this health crisis. For the requirements of the CHEDRO NCR, SVDFCCI must comply with what is requested so that payments of the TES grants will continue for the revalidated students,” CHED and UniFAST Board Chairman Prospero de Vera III said.

Earlier, CHED and UNIFAST questioned SVFC’s implementation of the TES program.

The school is a private higher education institution in Caloocan City and belongs to one of the cities in the National Capital Region with no existing state university and college or a CHED-recognized local college and university.

Because of this, students who live within the city and enrolled in a program included in the CHED Registry automatically becomes eligible to an annual TES grant worth P60,000.

In July last year, UNIFAST asked SVFC to explain why the TES stipends for Academic Year 2019-2020 should be released after it found violations in reports submitted by the CHED National Capital Region Office during their monitoring visits to the school questioning the sudden spike in the number of its TES student-grantees and the residence information of the beneficiaries.

UNIFAST also questioned the school’s carrying capacity, increase in tuition and other fees, and faculty qualifications, among others.

A CHED investigating team was formed to look at possible violations of the school.

To facilitate the revalidation process of CHEDRO NCR, CHED and UniFAST required SVFC to submit the updated and active directory of the 763 students who do not have any contact information on their profile.

The school submitted a list of 2,622 students for the TES grant.

So far, 992 have been given TES, 24 were found to have deficiencies and needed to submit required documents,18 were delisted, 688 were delisted because they have graduated, 3 were disqualified for not meeting the residency requirements, 3 were not enrolled in a course not in registry and were delisted, 85 were delisted for dropping during the 1st semester, 46 are up for revalidation and orientation and 763 are ongoing revalidation.

Only those who have complied with all the requirements and remedied their deficiencies will be included in the processing of payment.