CABARROGUIS, Quirino, April 3 (PIA)— Commissioner Percy Brawner of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples said that the Commission has increased the educational assistance for the scholars under the Educational Assistance Program or NCIP-EAP.

Under the new guidelines, there are three components, namely the regular EAP which will provide P10,000 to qualified and deserving IP college students; Merit-Based Scholarship which provides free tuition and miscellaneous fees, book and uniform allowance and transportation, boarding and food allowances to top IP students and EAP-PDAF which funding comes from the congressmen’s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) for the implementation of scholarship programs in their respective districts for one school year.

In an interview over Radio Veritas, Brawner said the Commission en banc, the policy-making body of NCIP amended the rules and regulations for the improvement and betterment of the IPs.

Scholars under the regular EAP are required to maintain a general average of 80 per cent and 85 per cent for the merit-based scholars.
Meanwhile, NCIP Provincial Director Manahan Attagoy explained that the grantees under the Regular EAP shall continue to receive benefits until they graduate while the new or incoming grantees will already be covered by the new guidelines.

In the province, there are around 100 slots for the merit-based educational assistance program that are awaiting to be filled up by qualified incoming college students in the province.

Katherine A. Fajardo, administrative officer and designated information officer, some 270 applicants took the qualifying examination and they are waiting for the final list of scholars who will take the slots vacated by the scholars who graduated last school year 2012-2013.

Fajardo said some 330 IP students in the province are benefiting from the said scholarship grant.