Cañete: Mandaue City College will continue to operate until court tells us to stop
The Mandaue City College on H. Abellana Street in Barangay Basak is not recognized and accredited by the Commission on Higher Education and was ordered closed in 2010. CDND PHOTO / Rosalie Abatayo
MANDAUE CITY, Cebu — Only a court decision can stop Mandaue City College in Barangay Basak from ceasing operations, according to its president Dr. Paulus Cañete.
Cañete was reacting to a recent statement of Commission on Higher Education (Ched) Chairman Prospero de Vera urging MCC students to transfer to another school as they will not be qualified to take licensure examinations administered by the Professional Regulations Commission.
“I’m challenging the chairman of Ched to present to me a court order with finality and I will abide,” Cañete told CDN Digital in an interview on Wednesday, August 7.
Cañete said that despite Ched’s claim that the Court of Appeals has affirmed a Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) ruling that the school’s operation is illegal, he was not furnished with a copy of the ruling.
“Nalibog gani ko kay ako nga petitioner wala mahayagan og copy sa decision,” Cañete said.
(I am confused because even I, the petitioner, has not receive a copy of the decision.)
The MCC that Cañete is administrating is different from the Mandaue City College that is recognized by the city government of Mandaue, which located behind the Mandaue City Cultural and Sports Complex.
Cañete’s MCC was first established in 2005 in Barangay Tipolo.
In 2007, then outgoing councilor and now Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes passed an ordinance which established the new MCC.
In December 2010, Ched first ordered the closure of Cañete’s school for alleged failure to comply with the CHEd requirements.
But Cañete has continued operating the school.
Cañete maintained that the MCC that he is running is a state college despite not being recognized by Ched.
Cañete’s MCC offers undergraduate programs on Teacher Education, Nursing, Midwifery, Criminal Justice, Engineering and Business Administration.
Cañete said his school currently has almost 2,000 students.
“We will continue to accept students because that is a constitutional right that we cannot deny them,” Cañete said.
Jielyn Quiling, a fourth year BS Criminology student in the Cañete-run MCC, said they knew about the school’s status with Ched.
“They said that the documents are already on process and we would like to hold on to that,” said Quiling.
Quiling, 21, said the free education that Cañete’s MCC is a great help to her family in Biliran.
The family’s main source of livelihood is farming.
“We are not asked to pay. We just render some of our time in cleaning the school or running errands here,” she said. /celr
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