2 of 3 ‘bangkang papel’ boys to continue receiving scholarship grants

Malacañang on Wednesday said the scholarship grant to two of the three youths who became the poster boys of the Arroyo administration’s fight against poverty will continue under the current government. In a text message to reporters, presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said Social Welfare and Development Secretary Dinky Soliman has committed to continue the full scholarship of the two. The three — Erwin Dolera, Jomer Pabalan and Jason Banogan, collectively known as the “bangkal papel" boys — were victims of the Payatas landfill landslide in 2001. They wrote their dreams and wishes on a paper which they folded into paper boats and let sail on Pasig River as their symbolic way of bringing to then President Arroyo their aspirations. Only Dolera and Pabalan decided to continue receiving the scholarship grants. Banogan decided against it, saying he feels violated every time he is sought by media for an interview. He now continues his studies as a college student with the support of his relatives. Pabalan is now in third year college at AMA Computer College taking up BS Information Technology while Dolera is an incoming senior mass communication student at the Trinity University of Asia. Lacierda said scholarship grants for Pabalan and Dolera were supposed to be terminated in 2010. They were supposed to be recommended for the “Study Now, Pay Later" program of the Commission on Higher Education, but the Aquino administration decided to continue it. — Amita O. Legaspi/KBK, GMA News