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BY HERBERT VEGO
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Tuesday, May 2, 2017
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THERE was a time when this corner exposed the lament of Central Philippine University (CPU) over the millions of pesos it had not collected from the College Assurance Plan (CAP) in behalf of beneficiaries who had availed themselves of its pre-need education plan.
A few days ago, I asked a CPU “insider” whether CAP had paid.
“Yes,” he answered, “in very slow installment plan.” He did not disclose the exact amount of remaining balance payable; he just kept his fingers crossed that CAP could earn enough from rentals of its buildings so that it could pay all its indebtedness to creditor schools nationwide.
But the schools don’t agonize as much as the poor parents who had paid CAP their bottom peso but whose children had never availed of the plan because colleges and universities would no longer accept CAP-covered students unless they had money to pay the schools directly.
In its heyday, CAP attracted the attention of parents whose pre-school kids could pay “at today’s prices tomorrow’s inflated tuition fees.” Under that policy, the parent pays in advance the college tuition of his boy or girl to the pre-need insurer at the present rate. When the right time comes, CAP pays the school the child’s tuition at higher cost.
Most of those kids are now professional adults. They have not forgotten how their parents paid CAP for scholarship vouchers worth P40,000 or more, but which have been dishonored.
Perhaps, one reason why some colleges and universities raise tuition fees sky-high is because they have to recover the millions of pesos of CAP’s unpaid debts. Ouch, why should today’s parents suffer like those who had bought CAP policy for their kids?
A sister of mine and her late husband were among those who bought pre-need education for a son and a daughter in the early 1990s. Unfortunately, by the time they had fully paid CAP for the children’s college education, it had gone bankrupt, unable to pay overdue school debts. Naturally, the couple had to shoulder the actual and entire cost of the two children’s college education.
Naturally, the widowed mother had to work harder to send her son to Ateneo de Manila; her daughter, to the University of Santo Tomas.
When I asked her whether she had attempted to get a refund of the money they had paid CAP, she quipped, “I attempted but got not a single centavo.”
If the CPU administration has chosen to remain silent, perhaps it’s because making noise would cast a negative image. As a Christian institution, moreover, the school is giving CAP the opportunity to pay belatedly.
Of course, CPU, hindi ka nag-iisa. Almost all colleges and universities nationwide have made the same honest mistake.
CAP, hindi ka rin nag-iisa. Many other educational plans have gone awry.
Apologists at CAP try to deodorize their fiasco by claiming “unexpected tuition inflation” as its cause. But in the first place, didn’t they ask prospects to “pay tomorrow’s rates at today’s prices”? It was truly a deceptive hedge against inflation.
On second thought, “inflation” could be a mere cover-up for misappropriation of the parents’ money. It is no secret that the pre-need firm has built scores of commercial buildings all over the country. A typical CAP building has a theater and/or convention center for rent.
And so it came to a point that CAP could no longer settle its debts to schools where its plan holders had enrolled. The schools, therefore, would no longer accept CAP scholars.
But now that they are able to pay the schools by “installment,” it is only proper and fitting that they at least refund the victims of their sweet talk – either the parents (if still alive) or the beneficiary children. Puede ba? (hvego@yahoo.com/PN)
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