THE UniTeam tandem of former Senator Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio pledged to restore the CHED Scholarship Program should they win as president and vice president, respectively.

The duo made the remark following CHED’s recent announcement that applications for CSP for incoming first-year college students for Academic Year 2022-2023 have been ‘temporarily suspended.’

“The UniTeam stands firm in its belief that investing in the education of our youth should be a priority. As such, the CSP is one program that we are keen on restarting if given the opportunity to serve by our people,” the UniTeam said.

The suspension is an offshoot of budget inadequacy in the Commission’s Fiscal Year 2022 budget for Student Financial Assistance Programs, according to the statement posted on CHED’s social media sites last Feb. 21.

Even though the education department received the largest share of the P5.02-trillion national budget for 2022 at P788.52 billion, CHED’s allocation is only at P31.68 billion, down from P50.51 billion last year.

Marcos and Mayor Duterte also stressed the importance of sustaining the education of the CHED scholars because they have the potential to become experts and leaders in their respective fields.

“We need to invest more in the education of our youth, not less. Instead of them being the first in line to sacrifice in these budget cuts, let us make sure that we have adequate funding to sustain their studies because from their midst will come our future experts and leaders (of the country),” they said.

“We remain committed to continuing President Duterte’s Build, Build, Build program. On top of this, we will implement a robust digital infrastructure program that would support the digital shift in education and commerce,” they added.

The CSP is a merit-based program intended for the underprivileged, homeless, persons with disabilities, solo parents and their dependents, senior citizens, and indigenous people.

The assistance covers tuition and other school fees, a stipend and book/connectivity allowance per semester.