Educators file complaint against Abellanosa

CEBU, Philippines - A group of educators accused Cebu City Councilor Rodrigo “Bebot” Abellanosa of influencing the teachers of his school, the Asian College of Technology (ACT), to allow students with very low academic performance pass their subjects.

The Cebu Educators Forum (CEF) raised this concern to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Department of Education (DepEd) and Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama.

CEF convenors headed by Professor Phoebe Zoe Maria Sanchez believes that this could be one of the reasons ACT has a share of more than 5,000 students among the city’s scholars because the school in lenient in their giving grade to students.

“We in the Cebu Educators Forum are afraid that if this is left undeterred, it might lead to the further erosion of the position of the education sector, particularly here in Cebu City,” the CEF’s three page letter complaint read.

Aside from Sanchez, the other signatories of the complaint are Professor Aurelio Vilvar of the University of the Philippines (UP); Dean Nerissa Lopez of the University of the Visayas (UV) and Regletto Imbong, who claimed to be a former ACT instructor.

Other names listed as complaints but have not signed the document are of Dean Filomena Dayagbil of the Cebu Normal University (CNU) and Dean Delfin Cabañero of the University of the Philippines (UP).

Abellanosa challenged the CEF convenors to formalize their complaint and have it notarized so that he could make the proper legal moves against them.

Abellanosa may file libel because they are maligned his integrity.

“Wala g’yud na mahitabo nga manghilabot ko sa akong mga instructor nga papasaron ang mga ubos og grado. I know that it is part of the political gimmick of my opponent,” said Abellanosa who is running for congressman of the city’s south district under Bando Osmeña Pundok-Kauswagan (BOPK) against Atty. Aristotle Batuhan of Team-Rama.

The CEF is also asking Rama, CHED and DepEd to intervene by providing some measures that “will put a stop to the erroneous practices” where Abellanosa’s private school has the most number of students who are beneficiaries of the city’s scholarship program.

Each of the city’s scholars is entitled to P10,000 grant and P1,000 for school supplies every semester. 

Abellanosa said most of the students chose his school because he also give them P10,000 scholarship grant as counterpart.

“Ang city scholar nga moeskwela sa ACT mahimong wala nay bayranan o kaha gamay na lang ang ilang mabayran. Asa man ang sayop ana?” Abellanosa said. – (FREEMAN)