[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]
[av_heading tag=’h3′ padding=’10’ heading=’New TRO vs NIPSC’ color=” style=’blockquote modern-quote’ custom_font=” size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ custom_class=”]
BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
[/av_heading]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=’custom’ color=”]
Monday, April 24, 2017
[/av_textblock]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
ILOILO City – Grantees of the Iskolar sang Quinto (ISQ) scholarship program won another legal battle. They secured a new temporary restraining order (TRO) against the Northern Iloilo Polytechnic State College (NIPSC).
In an April 21 order, the Regional Trial Court, Branch 66 in Barotac Viejo, Iloilo stopped NIPSC from implementing a policy requiring its students or graduates to pay alleged back accounts or unpaid tuition fees as prerequisites for the release of their transcript of school records, clearances and other school credentials.
The TRO will last for 20 days.
Early this month, some ISQ graduates filed an injunction case against NIPSC president Ma. Theresa Palmares and Vice President for Administration and Finance Hilda Magtiza.
Judge Rogelio Amador of RTC Branch 66 granted the petition and issued a TRO.
However, NIPSC released the transcript of records of only the plaintiffs in the injunction case. This forced other ISQ grantees to file a class suit against NIPSC.
ISQ graduates Mykha Grace Buaya, Remar Ojas and Jeizl Ferenel filed the class suit for themselves and in behalf of other similarly-situated NIPSC students.
A total of 27,892 students were grantees of the ISQ program in NIPSC’s various campuses and nearly 1,000 of them already graduated. But the graduates could not get their transcript of records due to what NIPSC claimed were unpaid tuition fees reaching P74.7 million.
The ISQ was a scholarship program of then congressman Niel Tupas Jr. of Iloilo’s 5th District. It started in 2007 and funded by his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).
The problem started when the PDAF was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
In granting the TRO again, the court reiterated that it is not fair to make the students suffer since the ISQ was a government-to-government transaction.
“If there was mishandling, misuse or misapplication of (funds) resulting to the non-allocation of the corresponding amounts for the tuition fees of each students, it is but fair that these students should not be made to suffer the shortcomings not of their own making unless enough basis is shown to also hold them answerable,” the court order read.
The court further pointed out that the transcript of records and/or other school credentials certify the completion of the plaintiffs’ college studies and the degree of learning they earned.
“It’s a product of their hardship and perseverance, and they have an accrued right to it,” it added
Complainants described NIPSC’s refusal to release their credentials as arbitrary and capricious.
While acknowledging several pending questions regarding the collectible funds, the court believed denying the release of the grantees’ credentials was not the only means available to NIPSC to exact payments.
“To hold hostage the educational and professional advancement of the students/graduates is a seemingly harsh measure adopted by NIPSC at this time when they are bracing for enrollment/board exams and/or landing a job,” the court averred.
The court further stressed that NIPSC is not private but a public school which has a mandate to provide access to quality education to underprivileged and deserving students./PN
[/av_textblock]
[/av_one_full]
