- DBP launches a ₱510M CSR education program to fund scholarships, school facilities, and student support nationwide.
- ₱437.5M allocated for scholarships across engineering, IT, sciences, agriculture, and vocational courses; ₱72.5M to upgrade 150 public schools.
- Program partners with 9 HEIs, building on DBP’s past ₱1.5B education initiatives that achieved over 94% graduate employment rates.
State-owned Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) has launched a P510-million corporate social responsibility program to enhance access to quality education nationwide through enhanced school infrastructure and endowments.
DBP president and CEO Michael de Jesus stated that the bank's comprehensive scholastic program for inclusive and responsive education is a strategic complement to government efforts through scholarships and conjunctive assistance with higher education institutions (HEIs). "In the initial year of implementation of the program, at least 350 financially-strapped students will be helped, particularly those taking courses in engineering and its corresponding fields", de Jesus stated.
These also encompass accountancy, education, agriculture and forestry, sciences, maritime, information technology and technical vocational courses, since the social responsibility program includes basic and tertiary levels of education.
The program will cover scholarships, tuition, matriculation fees, study materials and living allowances for financially disadvantaged students with P437.5 million. The program will also give P72.5 million in support to the Department of Education (DepEd)'s adopt-a-school and brigada eskwela initiatives designed to enhance classroom facilities and provide basic learning equipment to 150 public schools.
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De Jesus added the program complements the bank's past education and corporate social responsibility programs, which together invested P1.5 billion and benefited more than 5,000 scholars for the last 15 years. Significantly, he said the past programs had achieved 94 percent and 96 percent employment rates among graduates, which are higher than the national average.
"DBP will go on assisting to bring about quality education to the nation through its firm cooperation with the DepEd and partner schools and universities, and in celebration of the power of education to transform", de Jesus stated.
In all, the bank hired nine HEIs for the project, including the Bulacan State University, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Saint Dominic College of Asia, Cebu Normal University, University of Cebu and Mindanao State University Iligan Institute of Technology. It also has Misamis Institute Technology, University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines and Zamboanga State College of Marine Science and Technology.
