MANILA — The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) has suspended the applications for its scholarship program for incoming first-year students of academic year (AY) 2022-2023.

In a Feb. 21 memorandum publicized Thursday, CHED said the suspension was due to "the budget inadequacy in the [Fiscal Year] 2022 budget of CHED for Student Financial Assistance Programs (StuFAPs)."

"Further, the CHED Regional Offices are directed to disseminate the information to prevent spreading of fake news and avoid confusion to interested student applicants," the commission said.

ABS-CBN News has reached out to CHED for further details but it has yet to respond as of writing.

In a previous interview with ABS-CBN News, Chairman Prospero de Vera called the CHED Scholarship Program as the commission's "biggest scholarship program," offering a P120,000 grant per school year to private school students and an P80,000 grant per school year to public school students.

De Vera explained that "unlike other programs that are designed for the financially needed," the program is "purely merits- or grades-based."

Scholarships are automatically renewed in the succeeding year if a student maintains their grades.

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