PDEA, Arellano University sign pact to give scholarships to children of KIA, permanently incapacitated agents

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the Arellano University on Friday inked an agreement that will provide educational scholarship grants to children of PDEA agents killed in action.

The Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was signed by PDEA chief Director General Aaron Aquino and Arellano University Chairman President Francisco Paulino Cayco.

The deal will also grant scholarship to children of PDEA personnel who are either left permanently incapacitated after undergoing complete disability discharge proceedings or by meritorious reasons that makes them qualified for the scholarship.

Courtesy of PDEA-PIO

According to Aquino, the educational scholarship grant will be available in all of Arellano's seven campuses in Metro Manila for school years 2019 to 2023. He added that it is for elementary, secondary and tertiary students.

“PDEA would like to express its gratitude to Arellano University for recognizing the lives and limbs sacrificed by valiant men and women of PDEA in the name of public service," Aquino said.

"The educational privilege will be a huge morale boost to our personnel,” he added.

For a student to avail the scholarship, the anti-drug agency must submit the necessary documentary proof that the grantee is indeed the surviving child of PDEA personnel who were killed in action or left totally disabled while in the line of duty.

Aquino said the admission of grantees to any Arellano campuses is in accordance with the existing quota assigned and the programs offered subject to the existing laws and admission policies of the university.

He added that the grantee must satisfactorily pass the course of instruction based on the approved standards of Arellano. If the grantee fails to pass a subject, his/ her benefit shall be considered suspended, but he/she still has an option to retake it at his/her own expense.

According to PDEA, it is the first time that the agency partnered with an academic institution to provide quality education to the children of PDEA casualties. — RSJ, GMA News