Valenzuela Mayor REX Gatchalian personally awarded the City Government’s financial assistance to 717 new grantees of the Dr. PIO Valenzuela Scholarship Program at the Valenzuela City People’s Park Amphitheater, October 23, 2020.

With contracts as recipients, the three (3) batches of scholarship grantees will receive a total of PhP 30,000 for the entire academic year with PhP 15,000 allotted per semester.

The Dr. PIO Valenzuela Scholarship Program has been instituted in Valenzuela City since 1995 through Ordinance No. 95-12 and has helped a lot of the City’s deserving but underprivileged students to pursue higher education for more than two (2) decades.

Following a marked increase in the number of students wishing to avail themselves of financial assistance from subsidies and grants, Ordinance No. 418, Series of 2017, marks the initiative of the City Government of Valenzuela to include all income derived from the rentals and other fees being paid by businesses within the compound of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Valenzuela (PLV) as additional funding sources.

This is in addition to the annual funding of at least one percent (1%) of the total collection of the city's business taxes for the Dr. PIO Valenzuela Scholarship Fund.

“Itong [This] scholarship program, nanggagaling ito sa mga [came from the] portion ng [of the] business taxes na binabayad sa [paid to the] City of Valenzuela… Pinasasalamatan natin ‘yung mga taxpayers ng [We really want to thank the taxpayers of] Valenzuela,” Mayor REX Gatchalian shared during the distribution of the financial assistance to the student grantees.

With the scholarship grantees being the “best and the brightest” among all examinees, Mayor REX expressed his appreciation to the students and hoped that the opportunity will be “well taken care of.”

“Congratulations for making it to the top. Alam ko na libu-libo ang nag-exam para ma-qualify sa [We know that thousands took the exam to qualify for the] Dr. PIO Valenzuela scholarship. Kayo ang nagpakita ng angking talino at galing kaya kayo ‘yung nag-qualify para sa scholarship program na ito. Please take care of your scholarships,” he added.

Amid the pandemic, Valenzuela City aims to encourage young Valenzuelanos to keep their heads high and still hope for their future.

The local government is also giving their full pledge of assistance by supporting a student’s holistic learning despite the COVID-19 pandemic. On top of the scholarship grants, Valenzuela City also funded the free data subscription of around 8,000 students from PLV, Valenzuela City Polytechnic College (ValPoly) and Valenzuela City School of Mathematics and Science (ValMaSci) for online learning. Valenzuela City also uses a world-class learning management system, Canvas, which is also free-of-charge for student’s use.