DAR opens college scholarship

For next gen ‘farm managers’

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol (PIA)— Helping spread the broad spectrum of the government’s flagship social justice program, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) now opens its support services to scholarship program for children and relatives of its Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs).

Seeing sustainability and continuity of the farming communities as well as helping the ARBS position themselves in a better perch to improve their lot, DAR will now provide free college education for deserving next generation children of ARBs who are taking up agriculture and its related courses, revealed Bohol DAR Agrarian Reform Program Officer Leah Kyra Cirunay.

Billed as DAR Scholarship Program for Dependents of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (DSP-DARBs), the free ride through college is open to legitimate dependents of ARBs who are senior high schools who have a standing general weighted average grade of 83, of good health and character, no criminal conviction and does not have any other scholarships, and finally, has to pass the college entrance examination for the school one would enrol, Cirunay said.

Set to be heirs of the lands that their parents worked on, offering free college education through scholarships help assure motivation to bring young blood to farming, a generation armed with the science and technology of farming and agricultural production against the present restricted harvests due to the vestiges of traditional farming.

Speaking at the Kapihan sa PIA, Cirunay said the scholarship, affords a student some P3,000 in monthly stipend, P10,000 school fees (to be paid directly to the school), P2,000 book allowance per semester, transportation and lodging allowances, P5,000 graduation fee allowance, P10,000 thesis allowance and some P5,000 in summer allowances.

But in the advent of government scholarships not really being treated seriously by beneficiaries, the (DSP-DARBs) makes sure that beneficiaries maintain a 2.5 GWA per semester or has to pass all subjects with satisfactory scholastic grades, completes the course within the given time and complies with the laws, otherwise he could be stripped of the scholarship.

Graduates who benefitted from the scholarship are mandated to a lock-in service policy for a year in the local DAR office.

For the documentary requirements, applicants must submit a completely filled scholarship application form with a certification for DAR that the candidate for scholarship is qualified.

Applicants also need to submit an authenticated birth certificate, a health certificate issued by a government physician, a barangay clearance from barangay of origin, Form 137-A or report card, certificate of good moral character from the high school principal, a copy of the certificate of income tax return showing family income or certificate of indigency issued by the appropriate government agency and a statement of commitment by the candidate, according to the DAR official.

Deadline for the filing of application for the 2026-2027 school year is March 18, 2026, Cirunay said. (PIABohol)

BRINGING EDUCATION, TECH TO FARMS. With farmers getting older and younger generations shying away from farming, DAR brings in a motivation for students intending to get a college free ride with DSP DARBS, ARPO Leah Kyra Cirunay said, at the Kapihan sa PIA.

BSP issues alert on

new QR code-fraud

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol (PIA)—Bangko Sentral ng PIlipinas (BSP) has issued an alert for people who may have been technologically overly confident, they miss out the digital payments details when paying, via Quick Response (QR) code.

BSP Banking Officer V Dr. Gregorio Baccay III, during a briefing with information officers and banker officials of the Bohol Bankers Association at the Reynas Garden, revealed yet another of scammers’ modus involving the use of QR codes.

Baccay said the new modus is called “quishing” which is short for QR phising.

Quishing is a scam where scammers use malicious QR codes to trick people into visiting fake websites, downloading harmful content or sending cash, the bank official explained.

Instead of sending a suspicious link which was an old modus that has already been exposed, scammers simply place a QR code on posters, emails, receipts, or messages.

When an unsuspecting person scans the code, it leads to sites that steal information, a fake log-in page like an e-wallet, fake bank log-in or a malicious malware that sends virus to your phone.

And because the QR code hides the actual URL, discerning the danger is much harder before scanning.

The real danger is when scammers replace a merchant’s generated QR codes with their own generated QR codes, that when one scans the code, the details that come out are not of the merchant, but of the scammer’s account.

For the unsuspecting, instead of paying to the merchant, the payment then goes to the scammer’s account.

So how does one get protected from quishing?

BSP authorities said only scan QR codes from trusted and verified sources, check if the QR code looks altered or replaced, before proceeding with any transaction.

Also pre-view the URL before opening, as most phones show it.

Finally, the bank official advised: don’t enter sensitive info on sites opened via QR codes, and always protect your personal information, and that is the reason why it is called personal.

Baccay, who presented for the BSP the recent regional economic highlights, also detailed the cyber hygiene practices for consumers especially those who have slowly transitioned into the digital payments system as the government broadens its digitalization campaign.

Quishing is the most recent modus that scammers use, after SMishing has been exposed to the public.

Smishing is a type of scam that uses SMS (text messages) to trick people into giving away personal information, money, or access to accounts, Baccay shared to information officers.

Using text messages, scammers pretending to be from a trusted source, such as a bank, delivery services, government agencies, e-wallets or telecom providers, send urgent text messages, urging immediate action like replying, or clicking on a link where the person’s personal Identification number (PIN), one time password (OTP) or password is asked.

In addition to this, Baccay told the information officers and bankers of a recent BSP circular which now sets aside the or discourages the reliance on OTPs as the primary authentication method for digital banking—mainly because OTPs (especially via SMS) are vulnerable to phishing and SIM swap fraud.

BSP Circular No. 1160 (2022) encourages banks and e-money issuers to adopt stronger authentication measures beyond OTPs and asks them to promote multi-factor authentication (MFA) using more secure methods like biometrics (fingerprint, face recognition), device-based authentication and in-app approvals instead of SMS OTP. (PIAbohol)

QUICK AS QR CODING. BSP baking officer Dr Gregorio Baccay shares alert to Boholano information officers about a new quishing modus where a QR code is also used to direct the flow of money from a supposed payment to a merchant into the personal account of the scammer. (PIAbohol)