QC councilor takes issue with Paref

A Quezon City councilor said the Paref-Northfield School for Boys Inc. has no document to support its claim to its controversial 50-year rent-free use of a 3.1-hectare public lot in Greenmeadows III Subdivision.

Councilor Ariel Inton Jr. was reacting to Paref’s allegation in a half-page paid advertisement published in newspapers Wednesday.

"Documents don’t lie. Paref’s allegations in the advertisement are not corroborated by existing official documents, which were obtained during a public dialogue held two weeks ago," Inton said in a statement.

Inton, who chairs the Quezon City Council’s committee on justice, presided over a public hearing last Aug. 13 between Paref officials and homeowners’ associations opposing the establishment of a private school in an open space inside an upmarket subdivision in Quezon City.

The alderman said Paref’s advertisement avoided basic issues involved in the memorandum of agreement signed by former Quezon City Mayor Ismael Mathay Jr. with the private school.

"Foremost was the issue on whether it was legal or moral for Mathay to dispose of vast public-owned land, through a grant of a special privilege to a private enterprise," Inton said.

Presidential Decree 957, Inton said, allows the construction of a public school on a 3.1-hectare government owned open space and not the construction of a private school which shall make millions in revenue from its operations.

"How can it be legal for a private enterprise to use for free government-owned land?" Inton asked. "And instead of paying the city government, Paref even obligates the city government to pay 25 percent of the assessed value of its buildings and facilities at the end of the agreement." – Cecille Suerte Felipe