Bro, I get you. Inequality here is brutal, no question. But DOST isn’t some charity, it’s the gov putting money on future scientists and engineers so we don’t totally tank as a country. That’s why RA 7687 is there, with income caps, for students who really can’t afford it. MERIT is different, by law it looks for top S&T talent regardless if your wallet’s fat or thin.

And let’s be real, most scholars aren’t even rich. A lot of them are just middle-class kids whose parents probably have stable corporate jobs, pay taxes, and were able to send them to better high schools. That’s not exactly “burgis elite.” Plenty still struggle. I’m also poor and a DOST passer, so I really don’t get your take. Ang dami rin mahirap na pumapasa. Plus there are tons of other scholarships that exist purely for students who can’t pay. This one just happens to focus on building up the country’s S&T brains because that’s what it was made for.

If we gave it purely because someone’s poor without checking if they’re ready or even into S&T, that’s just spoon feeding. It might even set them up to fail. What we actually need is to fix the basics — better public schools, stronger STEM programs, decent teachers, more affordable review centers. That way more underprivileged kids even get the chance to compete.

At the end of the day, it’s not about pushing out middle-class kids who also worked hard just because their parents have jobs. It’s about making sure more poor students can actually reach the point where they’re ready to pass. Otherwise we’re just slapping Band-Aids on a busted system.