The Department of Scoial Welfare and Development – National Capital Region as the primary promoter of Social Welfare Services of the Region, takes on a huge role in the implementation of the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST) program under the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). This program aims to provide Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) for the beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program who wish to pursue college but are in need of financial assistance.

The role of the Department in this program is to provide the data gathered by Listahanan as to where and who the poor individuals and households are, so that the government will know who to prioritze in terms of granting TES to beneficiaries. While the Listahanan database has already been shared to CHED, the Commission is still entitled to establish their own verification mechanism in identifying who are the eligible beneficiaries for their social Protection Programs. This means that the DSWD-NCR has no control as to who will be eligible for TES, nor being a member of the Pantawid Pamilya means that a person is automatically entitled for TES.

TES is a program under the Free Education Law or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act of 2017 (RA 10931), which provides tertiary education financial assistance to the poor but deserving students. ###