Osmena Political party" CEBU, Philippines - The National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP)
and the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) wants to do their own
investigation on the alleged “controversy” in Cebu City’s Scholarship Program,
particularly the participation of a school owned by no less than a City
Official.
Alya Simone I. Mongaya, Deputy Secretary – General for Visayas of CEGP and
John Lord Escatron, Cebu coordinator for NUSP, in a letter dated September 12,
asked Mayor Michael Rama for the release of documents about the scholarship
program that will shed light on the alleged “controversy.”
They particularly want to know the rules, regulations and mechanics of the
scholarship program, the date the scholarship program began, how many scholars
are enrolled per school and how many actually graduated, the amount released to
all the schools, the breakdown of the amounts per school and other pertinent
information about the “controversy.”
NUSP and CEGP said they view with concern the “controversy” about the
scholarship program, the involvement of Councilor Rodrigo Abellanosa and the
school the latter owns, the Asian College of Technology.
“Based on published materials and discussion online about the issue, we
gathered that this involves the ethical issue of “conflict of interest”, some
2,000 scholars and government funds accounting to P75 million. During an earlier
students’ dialogue, ACT presented to us related issues about the school’s fees
and services,” the student groups said.
NUSP and CEGP, two national student organizations promoting students’ rights,
welfare and interest, asked the city’s cooperation as they conduct their probe
in behalf of the students of ACT who have been dragged into the issue.
“The issue has earned our attention and we hope, that with your help, in the
interest of good governance and transparency, we will ascertain the truth and be
properly guided in our subsequent actions,” the groups said.
NUSP and CEGP want to be furnished a copy of the documents they requested by
September 17 or Monday next week.
Councilor Jose Daluz III, chairman of the Scholarship Committee said that he
is willing to release documents to the concerned groups.
“Nalipay ko ana. Maayo na ilang buhaton because we need help in monitoring
our scholarship program and monitoring the participating schools, (I am happy
that they are doing that…)” he said. Daluz wishes to meet with the groups in
person.
The issue on the alleged conflict of interest started when Abellanosa
proposed to add a provision in the scholarship ordinance to include his
committee, the Committee on Social Services, in the list of members of the
Scholarship Committee.
Rama partially vetoed the ordinance particularly the inclusion of
Abellanosa’s committee to prevent insinuations that ACT, which happens to be
owned by Abellanosa, is being given special treatment in the program.
It was learned that ACT has the most number of scholars compared to the
number of students that enrolled in other participating schools. More or less
3,000 city scholars of the estimated 7,000 city scholars are enrolled in
ACT.
Abellanosa earlier denied there is conflict of interest in the participation
of his school in the program. He said he has not violated any law for that
matter.
