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Lawmaker flags 'misuse' of P10 billion of CHED scholarship fund

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<h3><strong>CHED denies misusing funds</strong></h3><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt=" The Commission on Higher Education office in Quezon City, June 7, 2017. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News/File" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/news/11/06/20170607-ched-md-1-(1).jpg"/><figcaption>The Commission on Higher Education office in Quezon City, June 7, 2017. <em>Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News/File</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>MANILA — House Senior Deputy Minority Leader Paul Daza raised concern over the alleged misuse of P10-billion worth of scholarship fund by the Commission on Higher Education.</p><p>Speaking to ANC on Friday, the Northern Samar lawmaker said the amount, which is part of the Higher Education Development Fund, could have assisted hundreds of thousands of students annually.</p><p>&quot;In our last committee hearing, it came out that essentially CHED has not utilized as of 2021 report P10 billion,&quot; Daza told &quot;Headstart&quot;.</p><p>The HEDF, which comes from travel tax and shares from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office and Professional Regulation Commission, could have been used for students&#x27; financial assistance, Daza said.</p><p>He noted that the dropout rate among college students was between 25 and 30 percent.</p><p>&quot;The law said free tuition and dapat may living allowance para nga maka-graduate lahat. Delayed pa ang mga releases,&quot; Daza said. &quot;We need to really shake up CHED.&quot;</p><p>Based on records, about P2 billion in HEDF was used in 2016 for students&#x27; financial assistance, the lawmaker said.</p><p>But when CHED chairman Prospero De Vera came in, about P200 million was only spent, he claimed.</p><p>&quot;They&#x27;re using funds for all sorts of different programs,&quot; Daza said.</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s a combination of all. Underspending, misspending and a lot of issues raised by COA,&quot; he added.</p><p>Daza said De Vera needs to appear at the next hearing of the House Committee on Higher and Technical Education.</p><p>&quot;If he can&#x27;t respond well to the COA audit reports, underutilization, what has he done to reduce dropout rate? What has he done to help our needy students from the 4Ps?&quot; he said. </p><p>&quot;If he can&#x27;t answer those questions well, I will be the first member to consider asking the President to maybe revamp the Commission on Higher Education.&quot;</p><p>CHED denied it misused the funds.</p><p>Citing laws, De Vera asserted that the HEDF is meant to strengthen higher education and it is not a scholarship fund.</p><p>&quot;I don&#x27;t know where the idea came from that there&#x27;s a P10 billion scholarship fund,&quot; he said in a statement.</p><p>&quot;Based on these 2 laws, the CHED law and the Tourism Act of 2009, the CHED has been using the HEDF to provide grants to higher education institutions.&quot;</p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PjeQr5sd4Ug?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

House Senior Deputy Minority Leader Paul Daza has raised concern over the alleged misuse of P10-billion worth of CHED's scholarship fund.