About the COCOFED National Scholars from Eastern Samar

    One of the best human resource development projects in the 1970s and 1980s was the Pres. F.E. Marcos-COCOFED National College Scholarship that enabled thousands of bright but poor high school graduates to pursue college education in top colleges and universities throughout the country. The prestigious and well-funded scholarship produced many of our present scientists, engineers, politicians, managers, and leaders. 

    The selection process was very tough due to the high number of applicants for the limited slots. Our experience in Eastern Samar was like this: First, all high schools in each municipality had to endorse only students who belonged to the top 5 of the graduating class. Then there would be a municipal level screening in the form of examination and panel interview to select the municipal level qualifiers (in Borongan, the applicants came from four high schools). This was followed by the provincial screening wherein all the municipal qualifiers would come to Borongan for the panel interview. Those who were lucky to be selected in the provincial screening would then take the national written examination administered by the COCOFED national office, followed by the final interview. The list of those who passed the national screening was then published in the national newspapers.  

The COCOFED scholars from Eastern Samar posing with Mrs. Maria Clara L. Lobregat, COCOFED President in ViSCA in 1978
 

    The COCOFED scholars from Eastern Samar, which totaled 75 from 1976 to 1986, were sent to the different top schools in the region for their undergraduate education such as ViSCA, Divine Word University (now defunct), and Leyte Institute of Technology (now EVSU) in Tacloban, and University of Eastern Philippines (UEP) in Catarman, Samar. One of those who studied at UEP, Dr. Maximo C. Aljibe, CESO III, is now an outstanding education administrator who has been appointed by four Philippine presidents to several top-level government positions. He has served as CHED regional director in several regions in the country. (Max and I represented our high school, the Eastern Samar National Regional Agricultural School, now ESSU, in various provincial, regional, and national student conferences of the Future Farmers of the Philippines or FFP).

    But the majority of the Eastern Samar scholars were sent to ViSCA (now Visayas State University), one of the best agricultural universities in Asia. To support its scholars, COCOFED built four dormitories, one cafeteria, and a guest house in ViSCA. The picture above shows the scholars from Eastern Samar with Mrs. Maria Clara L. Lobregat, COCOFED President, and other regional federation officials (e.g., Atty. Celestino Sabate) during the inauguration of the COCOFED dormitories in ViSCA. The scholars who belonged to the  2nd, 3rd, and 4th batches were Pedro Corado, Veronica Alconaba, Jacinto Aspa, Joy Castillo, Jovino Padullo, Manuel Chua, Luz Tiu, Edgar Estil, Cornelio Abuda, and myself.

    I was lucky to be among the more than ten fourth-batch scholars from Eastern Samar. For various reasons, some were not able to finish their courses. However, most of those who graduated are now very successful in their profession and are now occupying important positions in their respective institutions.