DILG-Negros cites La Castellana for scholarships

BACOLOD City – The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Negros Island Region cited the local government of La Castellana, Negros Occidental for giving importance to education.

Mayor Rh u my la Mangilimutan announced on Monday that the DILG recognized their scholarship program as one of their “best practices.”

The Interior department wants it replicated in other local government units (LGUs), Mangilimutan told the press at the municipal hall.

She presented to reporters a research paper on the program. It was titled “La Castellana Scholarship Program its Impact on Beneficiaries’ Employment and Economic Lives.”

Mangilimutan said the LGU scholarship program of La Ca stella na was institutionalized via Ordinance No. 014-03, which was passed during the mayoral term of her father, Alberto Nicor, on May 20, 2014.

The CARES, or College Assistance f or Relevant Education System, caters to not only college students but also professionals, especially teachers, who want to pursue postgraduate studies, she said.

Nicor was unable to study in college, and this motivated him to help provide for college degrees in every family in the town — and, eventually, an improved living among his constituents, Mangilimutan said.

The program started in 2007 with an allocation of P200,000 for 30 scholars.

This year the budget is P7.7 million. The amount covers 479 college and 57 postgraduate s c holars, and f i nancial assistance for students in 150 schools, the mayor said./

ARCHIE REY ALIPALO/PN DAYBREAK. Early in the morning, farmworkers tend to a sugarcane plantation near the foot of the Kanlaon volcano in Barangay Cubay, La Carlota City, Negros Occidental. The active volcano straddles the two provinces in Negros Island Region.