Good day PSBA! I release this statement as the duly elected president of the 29th SSC to clarify the issue that the council haven’t acted with regards to the issue of closure of the school. Let us start with what triggered this all. It began with the intra-corporate problems that our administrators had where the other administrators were trying to remove Atty. Paulino from his position as President of PSBA-QC. This shoudnt be a problem of the students yet, as we were not yet directly affected with the issue at that time. But when a series of events and confrontations between the two parties led to disruption of classes, the then 28th Supreme Student Council, which I am the 1st Year Representative and led by Mr. Gari Sampedro as President, filed a resolution that any further confrontations that will in any case induce fear and pose harm to the students, the student council will be forced to take or avail legal remedies . Then election came and I was elected as the president. We then adapted the resolution filed by the former council. It was also the time that the other group of administrators issued a notice of closure in a national broadsheet. So then your 29th Supreme Student Council, simultaneously sought legal counsel and requested the help of the government agency that is mainly responsible for this kind of matters – Commission on Higher Education. It was an advice from a legal adviser to propose mediation to CHED to settle the issue amicably between the two parties together with the faculty and the students. Your Supreme Student Council did everything that we can do to push through with the mediation even to the extent of asking the help of PSBA-Manila Faculty Union to make the Manila Party attend the mediation and requesting the assistance of SCA’s resident priest-adviser and a good friend of Director Licuanan, Fr. Manny Flores, S.J. in doing back chanelling with CHED. We also help organize the Open Forum so that both Manila and QC parties will have a chance to clarify the issues or defend themselves. And a mediation was then duly set and all parties were formally invited to attend- the two opposing groups of the administrators, the faculty officers and the Supreme Student Council. And as sign or show of unity and solidarity, the 29th Supreme Student Council organized an Interfaith Prayer Rally which were attended by all the 3 pillars of the school – Administration, Faculty, and Students meanwhile I represented the Supreme Student Council in the CHED Directors Meeting at the same time. Yet, it was most unfortunate that the Supreme Student Council doesn’t have the necessary and enough resources to sustain legal actions. So in one of the meetings with the organizations where we opened up the “real score” of the PSBA-QC and the need to take immediate legal action but faced with the problem of lack of resources, we ask the organizations of any legal counsel that will give pro bono sevices. It was then that the student council was offered help by Atty. Paulino in giving legal counsel and assigned Director Evans Pino of NSTP to be the point person. During the forum, the student council already requested to meet with the given lawyer but he was not yet available. We let it pass in full belief that we do really have a legal counsel. A suprising turn of events then occured, days before the scheduled mediation. Almost all of the people ,except us, knew that we will be filing a case already including various media outfits, since in the early hours of the supposed day of filing they were badgering me with calls and request for interview regarding our supposed filing. Little that we knew that a group of three organizations led by KPM is already posing and is prepared to file a case with the legal counsel that was initially intended to be given to the 29th Supreme Student Council. So our hopes to the immediately file a case went to nothing. And to add another problem, the CHED was included as defendant in the case that they filed putting into jeopardy the carefully set mediation with CHED. It is therefore logical that CHED declined to act as mediator citing that whats the use of mediation when they where already included in the case mainly based on a broadsheet article which they vehemently denied of releasing. And the Supreme Student Council strongly believes that PSBA-QC will not be that easily closed because it explicitly states in paragraph 2 of Section 83 of the CHED’s MANUAL OF REGULATIONS FOR PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATION OF 2008 (MORPHE) that – A student who qualifies for enrollment shall qualify to stay for the entire period for which he is expected to complete his program of study. But still we haven’t fully relied on this situation alone, so we still have to make a move, find a pro bono lawyer and then file a legal suit. It took us a while to find a willing legal counsel. And when we did, we immediately filed a suit with Civil Case No. R-QZN-13-05093-CV in the Quezon City Regional Trial Court. Since then our case is ongoing and this evidently proves that we in the 29th Supreme Student Council haven’t, even for a second, forgot to defend the rights of every students and that we did something to fight against the closure. As I end this statement, I leave you this information so that you may be enlightened with this matter. And a piece of advise, before we judge please take into account all sides of the story before jumping into any conclusion. Therefore PSBA, may this statement rest this issue permanently. Be wise in choosing your next leaders. Thank you and God bless PSBA! -GUNTA ONO 29th Supreme Student Council President
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 16:30:11 +0000
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