"Conflict of interest" in scholarship program? NUSP, CEGP want to investigate

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.

Abellanosa said he is willing to communicate directly with the group to shed light on the issue.

“I just hope the CEGP and NUSP are not being used as political tools by parties with vested interests like that of Totol Batuhan who allegedly has ties with these groups. You can give them my cell number and I will be willing to talk with them,” Abellanosa said.

In a text message, Abellanosa added “I would like to ask them this question: What is wrong with giving my counterpart scholarship grants of P5,000 to P15,000 per semester and P1,000 school supplies to every Cebu City scholar enrolled at ACT as help in addition to the P10,000 grant of the City Government? CEGP and NUSP should be ashamed of their tradition of protecting the welfare of the students if they allow themselves to be used.” — (FREEMAN)