Court approves settlement reached by Cebu City and ACT on scholars

THE Cebu City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 5 has approved a compromise agreement entered into by Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and the Asian College of Technology International Education Foundation Inc. (Actief), formerly known as Asian College of Technology (ACT), regarding the city’s payment of its past dues with the school where it had sent hundreds of scholars.

“I am proud to announce that the court has approved the compromise agreement between the City Government and ACT! What this means is that as soon as payment is made, your TORs (Transcript of Records) can finally be released,” said Osmeña in a Facebook post.

Under the compromise agreement, the city agrees to pay 56 million twenty-five thousand seven hundred thirty pesos and 8/100 (P56,025,730.08), without interest, in unpaid tuition fees for the first and second semesters of Academic Year 2014-2015 as full settlement of the claims, demands and causes of action of the City of Cebu and ACT against each other.

For its part, the school undertakes to release the TORs of all its Cebu City scholar graduates even prior to the full payment of the money owed by the city government.

With this development, the city awaits clearance from the Commission on Audit (COA) for the release of the funds which will be used to settle the fees.

Around 2,600 city scholars stand to benefit from the compromise after Actief withheld their TORs in 2015 because of the city’s unsettled obligations.

“We have already instructed our staff here in the city to work on the release of payments and now were asking ACT when they can release the TORs as promised,” said Councilor Joy Augustus Young, chairperson of the city’s committee on education and scholarships in an interview yesterday.

“We aim to have all your TORs out by early 2018. I hope this brings you a little Christmas cheer,” Osmeña, meanwhile said on FB.