Mayor Dante Dexter A. Agatep, with other LGU-Lasam officials, and two student-recipients, during the NALEA hand out ceremonies held this afternoon.

Now on its fourth year, the Natalged a Lasam Educational Assistance (NALEA) has provided cash assistance to deserving college students of Lasam.

Before the year has closed, Mayor Dante Dexter A. Agatep led the distribution of the NLEA cash assistance to 135 recipients on December 28, 2022.

Present during the hand over ceremony at the Lasam Town Center Multipurpose were Mayor Agatep's Executive Assistant Isabella G. Lozada, who heads the NALEA screening committee; SB Member Lilibeth Barut-del Rosario, Chair of the Committee on Social Services, Women and Family; Budget Officer Jose Rebultan, Jr.; Information Officer Renato 'Bongpy" Paat, Jr.; Youth Development Officer Gerlyn Yang; and Treasury Office's Joy delos Santos .

Since his assumption to office in 2019, the local chief executive has selected deserving, financially challenged students enrolled in various higher educational institutions to receive P 3,000 cash assistance each semester.

NALEA scholars, as they are called, come from any of the town’s 30 barangays and they could be enrolled in any course of their choice. In July this year, Jaren Galindo who was among the initial NALEA beneficiaries has graduated cum laude with a degree in Information Technology from the Cagayan State University (CSU) Lasam campus.

In his message to the NALEA scholars, Mayor Agatep communicated his personal objective with NALEA — that is to ease the financial burden of the recipients’ parents as he knows how important college education for their children is to them.

For her part, SB Member del Rosario recounted how she herself benefited from a scholarship when she was still in college.

Jovelyn Peralta, John Michael Labasan, and Eddie Mar Corpuz, some of the NALEA beneficiaries gave their testimonies on how NALEA is helping them out. They also expressed their gratitude for their selection from more than a thousand applicants this year.

Leslie Gaman, a member of the indigenous peoples (IP) community, also stood up to thank the local chief executive. The Agay college student also receives a monthly aid from Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office (MSWDO) for her to complete her higher education.

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