Last year, I had a terrible and traumatic experience with the Immigration officers at the NAIA. I was told by the officer that I could not board the plane to Japan for my ENIT training because I was “hit”. Being “hit” meant that I was in the hold-departure list. At first I thought someone with the same name as mine had criminal records… but then, a realization struck me! Those horror stories were true… One of my classmates in Ateneo de Davao (during my Master’s in IT) who was also on CHED scholarship once told me that he was held at the airport because of CHED’s hold departure order. I kept this story in mind but was relieved when I got my NBI clearance without being “hit”. Yey, I was not on the list! And I thought I’d live happily ever after. Haha.
But, alas, doomsday came. I panicked and thought about what could be the reason why I am being held… could it be the DOST (PhiSci) scholarship or CHED? However at that moment, I didn’t have the luxury of time to assess wether it was DOST’s or CHED’s ghost chasing me. I only had to focus on how I could board that plane… Luckily, the immigration officers told me that I could ask my friends at MSU to send my travel order through fax. Good thing I had a bunch of reliable and helpful friends at MSU-GenSan who helped me and I was able to successfully get on board to Japan.
Until now, I could not forget the faces of the immigration officers and NAIA guards. The stern look on their faces warning me that it was my first and last time to go abroad without any clearance from DOST or CHED. They gave me a sermon on how iskolars ng bayan (scholars) should pay back to the government after having enjoyed the benefits of the scholarship. As if I didn’t know that. I was, after all, a law-abiding citizen because I rendered my services to my beloved country Philippines for the period of time that was expected from me. :p
So, now that I am about to go abroad again, I BADLY need that CLEARANCE!!! I called Pisay Davao to ask how I could get cleared from my obligations to Pisay and DOST. Our sweet registrar told me that Pisay has already lifted our travel ban a long time ago. Ahhh…Yes! DOST-PhilSci – eliminated from the list of suspects! Hehe.. And that leaves CHED as the primary suspect. Aha!
So I went to CHED (Davao)’s office last November 5, 2010 to inquire about how I could get my clearance. Fortunately, the people there were friendly and accommodating. One of them gave me the email ad of the contact person in Manila who knows the requirements for the clearance. And these are:
1. request letter
2. certified true copy of diploma and TOR
3. certification of completed return service obligation duly signed by the head of office of the sending institution.
Whew! I didn’t know there were a lot of requirements. I thought I only needed the certificate of employment. Huhu.. Poor me! So, I got to go now and try to satisfy all the requirements. By the way, you have to submit these documents to CHED 2 weeks before departure date…
Here is CHED’s address:
Faculty Development Program-II
Commission on Higher Education
Ground Floor, Higher Education Dev’t Center
Corner University – C.P. Garcia Avenues,
University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City
(02) 441-1192
Good luck to all of us!
My Lane 
My daughter was in a similar situation, having been a DOST scholar at PSHS and Ateneo. She lost (due to poor grades) her DOST scholarship while in college at Ateneo. We were on our way to Singapore on a Black Saturday at 6am when she was told that she could not leave. It was a good thing that we checked the date of their list and somehow proved by showing a stamp on her passport that she was able to leave for Korea for a computer competition even after that list was released. But on our way back, she was being questioned again. Which was really stupid because she was, after all, coming back.
I decided that it was best to get a clearance from DOST. She carried that clearance with her passport for a few years that she was traveling to and from Canada while doing her masters. I think it’s now safe to get rid of those papers.
I learned that the hold order list is sent to the Department of Foreign Affairs, Bureau of Immigration as well as the National Bureau of Investigation – so better be on the safe side and keep that clearance with your passport – so you have something to show. Don’t expect the immigration people to keep themselves updated on who has been cleared and who has not.
God bless.
Thank you Ms. Harvey for sharing this story! 🙂 I have heard a lot of similar stressful stories at the airport from other DOST scholars.
Those who were already cleared still had to bring a copy of their clearance every time they had to get out of the country. That’s really awful… 😦
But well, we have to accept the things that we cannot change so we might as well be on the safe side. 🙂
Hi Mylene.
How long were you under the CHED scholarship? I’m worried about accepting my scholarship under the FDP because of these hassles. I’m just about to enjoy a couple of months’ worth of funding since it took too long for the processing of the application. I plan to go on a couple of trips abroad next year and I don’t know if all of it will go down the drain if I don’t get through CHED while under the scholarship. These are mostly personal and pleasure trips but I am definite in going back to the Philippines. Do you think they will easily grant permissions to leave the country?
I’m still clarifying the contract with the staff from CHED but I would appreciate any comment from you.
Thanks.
Hello Maam,
I enjoyed the scholarship about 5 years ago, from 2005-2007. I guess it won’t hurt if you enjoy the scholarship now. I am not so familiar with your case though, cause you are still enjoying the scholarship right now. I am not sure if CHED has already submitted your names to the Immigration.
I don’t really know when they submit the names – upon approval of the scholarship, during the time that you are enjoying the scholarship, or after you finish your studies. I haven’t tried going out of the country while still taking up my MIT so I’m afraid I can’t give you the answer you are looking for. It might be best to contact CHED.
When I went to Japan last year, I already had my diploma in MIT and have complied with the return service obligation. My guess is that while you are still enjoying the scholarship, you can still get a temporary clearance from CHED stating that you don’t have any intentions of staying abroad for a long time, and that you will only be on a business/pleasure trip. 🙂
Hope I was able to help… enjoy your scholarship and trips abroad.. 🙂
Hi, I would like to add as well that the application process for the Travel Clearance does not end up with CHED. You still need to go to Bureau of Immigration for the actual permit. I called BI a while ago and they told me that the processing time takes at least two weeks just to grant you that temporary permit. I find this absurd as I was able to go to Singapore with just the CHED clearance (for academic purposes), maybe I just got lucky. Make sure to keep all of those clearances with your passport as the Immigration guys still hold people even on arrival (which is again absurd). Im really hoping that they would speed up processing of requests as its too tedious and time consuming to process all of these.
OMG! I didn’t know that. I was so happy yesterday coz my friend already got my clearance from CHED. I don’t know that I still have to go to BI.. 😦
But I’m so thankful to you for letting me know this… THANKS!
I hope I can go to BI as soon as possible. Can you please tell me how I could contact them?
Hi i hope you are still active since your response has been posted almost 7 years ago. I am just curious when you gave all your documents to secure clearance from CHED, did they give you the certificate right away? Also, will they also send a notification or clearance certificate to your employer? I mean will they also notify your employer? Thank you so much!
Hi Dwendina! Sorry, I couldn’t remember all the details but I think I gathered all my docs and then went to CHED. I already had a contact with the person in charge so she already knew me beforehand. She just checked the papers and then she gave me the clearance certificate. I don’t remember if they notified my employer though.
Can you be a CHED and DOST Scholar at the same time? Isn’t DOST Scholarship requires that it would be the only government scholarship you will be having.?
DO you think I can still apply for the JLAP even though I’m a CHED scholar right now?
Hi,
I apologize for this late reply. I am not so sure about JLAP, I don’t have any idea about it but what I know is that you can only have one government scholarship at a time. I had my DOST scholarship when I attended Philippine Science High School. MSU-IIT scholarship for college and CHED scholarship during my Master’s at Ateneo de Davao University.
Hello
Where can I download the certification of completed return service obligation duly signed by the head of office of the sending institution? Thank you.
Hi,
Very sorry for the late reply. Just been soo busy lately. Anyway, you can’t download that certification.. You have to ask your sending institution for that. In my case, I got it from the office of our Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs (if I remember it right) and then it was signed by our Chancellor. Just ask your school admin about that.. 🙂 I am only sure of one thing.. it’s not downloadable anywhere (unless you have that kind of option in your school).
Hi, My husband is graduated from MSU IIT and had a CHED scholarship at Ateneo de Davao. Kailangan po ba na sa Manila talaga i process yung clearance? Hoping for your answer.
Hi Sha,
I am not so sure if there is a new process now but before we really had to process it here in Manila.
Hello Mylene,
Thanks for the info! I was searching for it, and then I realized I landed on your website. 🙂
Hehehe! Hope it was informative and helpful! 🙂
I’ve been a CHED-HEDP scholar from 2007-2012. I took up Electronics Engineering. Now if I’m lucky I will be sent to Japan for training for six weeks by my company. However, I don’t know if we have hold departure order since we were not informed on the orientation of the scholarship. Please, I want to know your opinion on this. Thanks.