Pres. Diosdado Macapagal Agrarian Scholarship Program
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PDMASP is another program under the program beneficiary development (PBD) which concerns on giving free college education to children and direct descendants of CARP beneficiaries. This educational assistance is envisioned to interface with the improvement of land tenure by addressing the need to elevate the educational status of the farmers to allow their children assume greater responsibility for progress and responsibility. The PDMASP also aims to develop a poll of highly motivated and educated dependents of ARBs equipped with appropriate farming technologies.
The implementation of PDMASP is in partnership with state universities and colleges and in line with the 10-point priority agenda of the Arroyo Administration to provide educational scholarship to the deserving children of poor families. This was launched in 2003 in honor of President Diosdado Macapagal who himself was a son of a farmer, and who signed the agrarian reform program in the country in 1963 through Republic Act 3844 also known as the Agricultural Land Reform Code.
At present, there are about 1,787 agraryo iskolars nationwide enrolled in agriculture related courses in different state schools and universities in the country. They are provided under the PDMASP with free tuition fee, book allowance every semester and modest monthly allowance.
Zamboanga Sibugay
