Help those graduates

Cartoon for 27MAY2015_renelevera_CITY HALL SUPPORT1.1

Somewhere between a school’s demand to collect tuition, and City Hall’s refusal to pay, over 1,000 students of the Asian College of Technology  International Educational Foundation (ACTIEF)  are left  twisting in the wind.

Each institution is concerned about preserving its interest.

Who’s watching out for the students’ welfare?

ACT officials know they will no longer enjoy the gravy train of scholars enrolling every year with tuition vouchers paid by City Hall every semester.

ACT’s  heyday is  over. The founder, Rep. Rodrigo “Bebot” Abellanosa, not only has an Ombudsman verdict of guilt in a graft case for conflict of interest, he’s  a political opponent of Mayor Michael Rama.

ACT wants to collect P26 million in unpaid scholarship fees  for two previous years.  The school’s quarrel is with City Hall.

So why turn  the pressure  on ACT students by refusing to   release  their Transcript of Records? Without this document, how can graduates apply for a job and students make a decent transfer to another school by June?

Reason: The city hasn’t paid.    Maybe City Hall will cough it up after seeing the students suffer.

Mayor Rama   says his hands are tied and has  shifted the burden of deciding the legality of  payment to the court.

That’s convenient for him.  But it will  take weeks, even months, for a judge to rule on  the petition for declaratory relief.

Why won’t the mayor pay?   He  fears being slapped with a graft case for channeling more tax money to a private school that had benefited from political favoritism.

That worry, however, doesn’t end his obligation as mayor to beneficiaries of the city’s scholarship program.

The program was started by his predecessor mayor  Tomas Osmeña.     When Rama was elected  in 2010, he adopted a similar program, with the same aim – to help high school graduates who can’t afford a college education.  Each qualified scholar receives P10,000 per semester for tuition and P1,000 allowance a month.   Scholars have to enroll in accredited schools.  ACT fell out of favor after the Ombudsman’s decision against  Abellanosa was released last year.

Fear of a graft case can be handled  by City Hall lawyers, who can argue  that the mayor is acting in good faith.

So we ask again, who’s standing up for the students and their parents, who look to Cebu City as their only chance for an affordable – not free – college education?

This sorry group needs a champion to sue both ACT and City Hall for doing a poor job of protecting the interest of  students at a crossroads.

The timing of their dilemma is  cruel. Classes start in June.  Transfer  now  with no assurance of being accepted in a new school?  Or stay enrolled in ACT “at your own risk” in the words of Mayor

Rama, with no  subsidy from City Hall or peace of mind that your grades will be released?

Someone should take the case to court  so the school and City Hall can be ordered to  spare students from their intramurals, and   give priority to what matters most ––- an education for qualified CebuCity youths  who should not be held hostage in   this political wrangling over  the collection of money.

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