A total of Php 17,600,000.00 has been allocated to the first and second batch grantees of the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Bangsamoro Assistance for Science Education (BASE) Program starting January to December 2021, excluding June to July. MOST Minister Aida Silongan confirmed it.

“I am glad that our 1st batch grantees of the Bangsamoro Assistance for Science Education have continually received their monthly cash assistance through their ATM cards. We see that cash assistance is given to them with no delays to support their monthly educational and financial needs. For the information of everybody, we already disbursed a total of 10M for the 1st batch of the BASE grantees, and we will provide the 7.6M budget for the 2nd batch.” Minister Silongan said.

The Ministry of Science and Technology has assisted the first batch of the BASE with 126 grantees. Each grantee has received an amount of Php 8,000 every month.

For the BASE grantees’ 2nd batch, the program is on its way to support the latter with 188 grantees confirmed by the Science Education Scholarships, Grants and Awards Head, Rocaya G. Edres, LPT, MSCIED. The ministry has prepared a total of Php 7,600,000.00 for August to December 2021 cash assistance.

The ministry has announced the opening of the application last May 2021. Last June 2, 2021, the application was closed. Estimating 3,000 application forms were submitted via online e-mails and walk-ins by student applicants of different provinces in the region.

Moreover, the qualifying exam for the second batch will be in July 2021. Then, the ministry will inform those applicants who are qualified to be part of the examination. After that, the ministry will post the list of passers to the website and FB page, and cash assistance for the second batch will be provided by the agency as well.

AOM-IO