Senate Approves Bill to Institutionalize Presidential Merit Scholarship Program

The Senate on Monday approved on third and final reading a measure that will institutionalize the Presidential Merit Scholarship Program (PSMP), aimed at providing academic and financial assistance to excellent senior high school students from financially constrained families. With 19 affirmative votes, the chamber passed Senate Bill No. 2410 mandating the subsumption of the existing Bagong Pilipinas Merit Scholarship Program. Beneficiaries are entitled to benefits such as tuition subsidy, books and connectivity, relocation and transportation, and a certificate of presidential recognition. “The Presidential Merit Scholarship Program will be the government’s premier national merit-based scholarship, opening both higher education and technical-vocational diploma pathways to outstanding senior high school graduates,” Senator Emmanuel Joel J. Villanueva, principal author of the bill, said in a speech in plenary. “This is an education, jobs, and nation-building measure.” The PSMP Act is included in the priority measures of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council. Under the measure, students from households with less than P2-million income are eligible to avail of the assistance, which prioritizes degree programs in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, agriculture, health, information technology, education, and research. The bill directs the Commission on Higher Education and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, in coordination with the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development and the Department of Labor and Employment, to update the list of priority programs every three years. — Kaela Patricia B. Gabriel