CH to consign payment in court

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City government is planning to deposit before the court the amount of P135 million representing its obligation to the Asian College of Technology and Asian ACT International Educational Foundation pending the resolution of the issue on whether or not it should pay the tuition fees of the city scholars.

The option was considered after the school refused to release the transcript of records of the graduating city scholars because of unpaid tuition fees. 

City lawyer Jerone Castillo said that the scholarship committee has asked his office to render a legal opinion whether or not the city government should pay the dues after ACTIEF recently sent a request for the payment of P26 million for the second semester of the current school year.

Castillo said that his office is not aware of the incidents and status of the pending cases against south district Representative Rodrigo Abellanosa, owner of the school.

Abellanosa was earlier found guilty of conflict of interest by the Office of the Ombudsman Visayas for entering into a contract with the city government while he was still a member of the City Council.

The City Legal Office has asked the anti-graft body to render an opinion on whether or not the city should pay its obligation to the school considering its guilty findings against Abellanosa.

However, the Ombudsman reportedly refused to give an opinion. The Department of the Interior and Local Government as well as the Commission on Audit has not also given a categorical opinion.

“If these offices will not give categorical answer if we have to pay or not, in my humble opinion, we might as well consign the amount before the court. Have it placed there so that there is no basis for ACT not to release the TOR of the scholars because technically, we have already paid it, subject for our reservation,” Castillo said.

In that case, he said that the city government has paid its dues to the court subject to the outcome of the case.

The city’s scholarship committee, for its part, said that it has deferred the process on the ACT’s billings since it is waiting for the legal opinion.

The members of the City Council discussed the issue yesterday during an executive session. The council passed a resolution inviting the lawyers of ACT, city legal office, some councilors in a conference on Monday to come up with a win-win solution on the matter. — (FREEMAN)