Why should Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama restrict the operation of a “mountain college” extension campus of the Cebu Technological University (CTU) in barangay Bonbon?
Would it not allow upland residents a better chance of getting higher education?
There’s more than meets the eye in this unusual showdown of political rivals in the hills of Bonbon.
Policemen and a demolition-clearing team were sent there last Saturday when workers were renovating a barangay gym for classrooms.
“This is clear harassment. This is not an illegal construction. There are just chairs and temporary classrooms here,” said Cebu City Rep. Rodrigo Abellanosa.
As it turns out, the banners announcing ongoing enrollment in Bonbon are premature.
According to CTU officials, the process of opening an extension campus is a long one. There’s no Memorandum of Agreement signed yet defining the roles of school and sponsoring local government.
So what’s the agenda of Congressman Abellanosa, who is still in the middle of a bitter fight with the mayor over the scrapping of city scholarships of thousands of students who used to enroll in the
private school he founded, the Asian College of Tecnhology (ACT)?
Two elements bear close watching — political sponsorship and revenue.
As a state university, CTU is funded by the national government. Many of its branches and extension campuses scattered in Cebu province are operated with the sponsorship of local governments, which provide the land and buildings, while CTU provides the academic training and teachers.
The goodwill of a congressman is something CTU finds it in their best interest to cultivate in areas where they operate.
(At one time, CTU officials were threatened by another congressman to have their budget reduced to zero in Congress if certain enrollees were not accomodated.)
With the Rama administration hostile to Abellanosa, the congressman has lost the business opportunity of thousands of students enrolling in his private school with tuition paid for by Cebu City Hall at P10,000 per semester.
Is it a coincidence that the congressman is now avidly supporting the opening of extension classes of a state university in his southern bailiwick?
Fund-starved vocational schools try to ensure better enrollment by courting the support of congressmen or influential local officails so that scholarship allotments can be channeled to their institutions.
Abellanosa should not make the mistake of finding a new arrangement to have scholarship funds from other agencies like Tesda or the Commission on Higher Education (Ched) flowing his way using a state university as a conduit.
After his rough day with the Visayas Ombudsman, which ordered him dismissed for conflict of interest for his dual role as school founder and city councilor at the time he facilitated scholarship funds for ACT, Abellanosa certainly can’t be thinking of another self-serving scheme.
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