The Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) on Thursday announced that it would temporarily suspend accepting applications for its scholarship program for incoming first-year college students in Academic Year (AY) 2022-2023.

According to the CHEd, the suspension was due to lack of funds.

“The suspension is an offshoot of budget inadequacy in the Commission’s FY 2022 budget for StuFAPs (Student Financial Assistance Programs),” the commission said in a Facebook post.

CHEd chairman Prospero de Vera III signed the memorandum announcing the suspension on Feb. 21, 2022.

The CHEd’s StuFAPs program originally offers financial assistance to college students whose parents or guardians have a combined annual gross income not exceeding P400,000.

The CHEd was given a P51.54-billion budget for 2022, which is more than P10 million lower than the P62.3 billion appropriation it had requested. John Ezekiel J. Hirro