Stipends available to grantees in SUCs, LUCs amid Covid-19

FILE: Commission on Higher Education in UP Diliman Campus, Quezon City (Photo by patrickroque01/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)

MANILA — The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST) on Sunday said the release of funds for the Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) Program to grantees in state universities and colleges (SUCs) and CHED-recognized local universities and colleges (LUCs) for academic year 2019-2020 will continue amid the quarantine due to the coronavirus pandemic.

CHED has released TES funds to 51 SUCs and LUCs and will continue downloading the subsidy even during the enhanced community quarantine caused by the pandemic.

“SUCs/LUCs should immediately coordinate with the grantees for the release of their TES and find the best way to distribute them while complying with the stringent safety and health measures being implemented by their respective local government during this period,” CHED and UniFAST Board Chairman J. Prospero E. de Vera III said.

Many SUCs/LUCs have yet to submit their TES Liquidation for academic year 2018-2019.

The papers of these HEIs with compliance issues are still being processed by the UniFAST Secretariat.

“The remaining SUCs and LUCs should now complete their submission of documents and resolve their compliance issues on TES liquidation so we can quickly disburse TES funds,” de Vera said.

Based on government accounting and auditing rules, any further disbursements of funds to HEIs will be deferred unless all liquidation reports have been submitted and that the said HEIs have strictly complied to the rules and regulations on proper liquidation.

“The CHED will fast-track the downloading of funds to SUCs/LUCs so that needy students can get their stipends especially because they need this during the COVID19 pandemic, but we need the SUCs/LUCs to comply with auditing and accounting rules to do this,” de Vera added.

The TES is an additional stipend given to students in SUCs/LUCs who are in the Listahanan 2.0 of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Students get PHP40,000 per school year for their additional education expenses such as books, school supplies, food and transportation expenses. (CHED PR)