A lawyer for Asian College of Technology (ACT) said he and the school management feel slighted by Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama’s advice to city scholars enrolled in their school to transfer to another school.
“They invited us a couple of times for executive sessions, what made this difficult is we talk about one thing during the council session but what comes out in the media is a different story and we don’t want to engage in a blame game,” said ACT lawyer Edison Ariola.
He said it is the city scholars who are inconvenienced by the standoff between the city government and the ACT.
The city government refused to pay P135 million for tuition of city scholars in ACT after the Ombudsman ruled that a conflict of interest was involved on the part of ACT owner and Cebu City’s south district Rep. Rodrigo Abellanosa.
Abellanosa signed the program during his stint as city councilor in 2010.
Yda Yting, head of Cebu City Scholarship Committee, said there are 119 incoming first year college scholars who enrolled in ACT for school year 2015-2016.
“The mayor himself promised during our closed-door meeting that he would endorse the scholars to other schools,” she said.