MABALACAT CITY (PIA) -- Commission on Higher Education (CHED) recognized Mabalacat City College (MCC) for receiving three awards from different institutions.

It is part of the PADYAK! Moving Forward, Claiming Victory for Philippine Higher Education initiative, wherein CHED goes to different universities and colleges in the country to celebrate free higher education.

“Every time the government takes the road, every time the government gives programs at the local level, it affirms that the government cares, and that is the best way to make people believe that their hopes could turn into reality,” CHED Chairperson J. Prospero De Vera III said.

PADYAK! also celebrates this year the first batch of students who will graduate after benefitting from the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act of 2017 which provides free tuition and miscellaneous fees to 1.6 million young Filipinos in more than 200 public universities.

“That means we have proven correctly our position that the best investment that the country can give is to invest in its own people. That every peso given to education is not an expense, it is an investment in the future of the country,” De Vera added.

For her part, CHED OIC-Regional Director Maria Teresita Semana acknowledged the efforts of higher education institutions (HEIs), including MCC, for their victory by working together, collaborating, and pulling resources despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“HEIs continue to operate, students’ learning did not stop as well as the employment of teaching and non-teaching staff, and communities are provided with the needed services. Indeed, this is a great victory for the men and women of the Higher Education sector,” she said.

CHED awarded MCC as the top Local University and College (LUC) for being able to rise above the challenges of the pandemic and proceed with its extension activities leading to significant and positive impact on the community.

In response, MCC President Michelle Ong said that the awards are challenges for LUCs to do and give more in their respective communities.

“Because today, and the day of the awards, I think our community needs us more. The community colleges should step up, and embrace the roles we have to give; the roles that we have to embody; the roles that everyone in the community is aspiring us to be more than ever,” she said.

MCC is the only HEI from the Philippines to be shortlisted in the Outstanding Support for Students, and Technological Digital innovation of the Year categories by the Times Higher Education Awards Asia 2021.

The city college was also acclaimed by the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) for the Project DigiHub video entry which was selected out of 157 applications to be part of “SEAMEO Pre-Congress Lecture Series 2021, Stories of Success: Transformation and Innovation for Schools and Communities”. (MJSC/JLDC-PIA 3)