open letter to the liberal pary.pdf
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President Aquino and the Liberal Party extols 'matuwid na daan' but supports a Cebu City congressional candidate facing 'conflict of interest' charges.TRANSCRIPT
Who is Shamelessly Profiting from the Cebu City Scholarship Program? (An Exposé)
An Open Letter to the Leadership of the Liberal Party (LP)
Is it sheer coincidence that the bulk of Cebu City’s more than P100 Million annual scholarship budget, and an overwhelming majority of its college scholars, go to a little-‐known college owned by a sitting City Councilor who serves as the Chairman and Vice-‐Chairman, respectively, of the City’s Social Services and Education Committees? In June 2010, the Cebu City Council, acting under the leadership of then City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, established the Cebu City Government College Scholarship Program (the “Scholarship Program”) in order to afford graduates of the City’s public high schools the opportunity to enroll in any accredited college or university in the City. Under the mechanics of the Program, the City grants every scholar Ten Thousand Pesos (P10,000.00) per semester, which the City pays directly to his or her school pursuant to a billing arrangement between them. Each school-‐year, the City allocates a minimum of One Hundred Million Pesos (P100,000,000.00) to the Program. We draw the attention of the LP to the following: One College Dominates 18 Others Since the inception of the Program, one second-‐rate school, the Asian College of Technology (“ACT”), has cornered the lion’s share of the scholars and the scholarship funds of the City, with roughly 15,600 City scholars enrolling thereat over the last 3 years. That is more than the total number of scholars that enrolled in all of the 18 other accredited universities and colleges in the City, which counts among them such industry heavyweights as the University of the Philippines (UP), the Cebu Normal University (CNU), the Cebu Technological University (CTU), and the University of Cebu (UC). At P10,000.00 per scholar/per semester, that translates to cumulative earnings of not less than P156,000,000.00 beginning 2010. “Lucrative” cannot even begin to describe the magnitude of the business ACT has managed to bag from the City.
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Who Owns ACT?
As it happens, ACT is owned by incumbent City Councilor and Presiding Officer Pro Tempore Rodrigo Abellanosa, who is the Chairman, President, and principal owner of
the college. 1 Coincidentally, Councilor Abellanosa is the Chairman of the Committee on Social Services, Vice-‐Chairman of the Committee on Education, Science and Technology, and a member of the powerful Scholarship Committee of the City Council of Cebu.2
Three Suspect Contracts Asian College of Technology’s unmistakable good fortune began when, without divesting himself of his interests in ACT as required by law3, Councilor Abellanosa entered into scholarship agreements with the City in 2010 and 2011, signing in his personal capacity as President of Asian College of Technology. 4 In 2010 Councilor Abellanosa also crafted and entered into an ingenious "scholarships in exchange for back taxes” agreement with the City.5
All of the foregoing is substantiated by incontrovertible public records, i.e., SEC documents, City Council resolutions, signed memoranda of agreements between ACT and the City, and records of the City Treasurer, among others.
1General Information Sheet for Asian College of Technology filed by Corporate Secretary Erwin T. Verano dated 23 May 2011; General Information Sheet for Asian College of Technology International Educational Foundation, Inc. (Company Reg. No. CN200625060) filed by Corporate Secretary Erwin T. Verano dated 23 2 www.cebucity.gov.ph/cityofficials/legislative/97-‐hon-‐rodrigo-‐a-‐abellanosa 3 Sec. 9, Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards of Government Employees (R.A. 6713) 4 Memorandum of Agreement among the City of Cebu represented by City Mayor Tomas R. Osmena, the Department of Education, and the Asian College of Technology, represented by its President Rodrigo Abellanosa dated 24 June 2010; City Government of Cebu Executive Order 10-‐124, Series of 2010; Sangguniang Panglungsod Resolution No. 12-‐3355-‐2011 5 Sangguniang Panglungsod Resolution No. 12-‐541-‐2010; Memorandum of Agreement between the City of Cebu and Asian College of Technology dated 18 November 2010
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A Grossly Anomalous Public-‐Private Partnership
Forced to explain his unmistakable conflict of interest before a slew of reporters in January, Councilor Abellanosa had the temerity to laud his actions as "a fine example of the public-‐private partnership that the President himself espouses" 6 . Unrepentant, he trumpets this grossly anomalous partnership between his diploma mill of a college
and the City he purports to serve in attractive flyers and glossy “Certificates of Financial Grant” that he distributes to all public high schools in the City to lure yet more City scholars into his school. After all, the more City scholars in ACT, the richer he gets! Surely, the President would be livid if he knew how the Councilor has co-‐opted his exemplary PPP agenda to justify his legally and morally indefensible conduct! Sleight of hand To quell incessant talk of his corruption, Councilor Abellanosa pompously asserts that he matches the City scholarship Peso-‐for-‐Peso, “giving an additional P10,000.00” on top of the P10,000.00 from the City to every scholar enrolled in ACT.7 The Councilor’s self-‐trumpeted generosity – designed to bait an impoverished scholar to choose ACT over the 18 other accredited colleges and universities in the City -‐-‐ is of course nothing but an illusion; a sleight of hand. It is all too easy for the Councilor to inflate ACT’s cost of education to P20,000.00 and pretend to give P10,000.00 of his own money to cover the difference, when the truth is that the P10,000.00 from the City is more than enough for the paltry education each scholar receives from ACT. Of course, that is not what the scheming Councilor would have every poor and impressionable scholar believe. (In like manner, he represents that he was “Educated in Harvard University” (see banner); another lie, as some Harvard alumni called his bluff and he buckled.)
6 Cebu Daily News, p. 6, January 13, 2013; Sunstar Cebu, p. A8, January 13, 2013; The Freeman, p. 2, January 13, 2013 7 Ibid. See also Primer 2011 Cebu City Government Scholarship Program “Education For All,” p. 18
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Which brings one to wonder: If the Councilor truly has the means and the intention to provide scholarships for the City’s underprivileged students, then what is stopping him from setting up his own scholarship fund, entirely distinct from that of the Cebu City Government’s? That would double the Peso amount of scholarships available to the countless graduates of the City’s public high schools to more than P200,000,000.00 per annum! And yet, because his offer is nothing more than empty enticement, the Councilor is forced to ride the coattails of the City’s College Scholarship Program. Meanwhile, the City Councilor faces serious graft and administrative charges before the Ombudsman and the Office of the President.8 Councilor Abellanosa for Congress? We ask the LP: Who is really profiting from the Cebu City College Scholarship Program? Certainly, it is not the City scholars, each of whom receives only a piddling subsidy from the City Government. Rather, it is ACT Chairman, President, and principal owner, Rodrigo Abellanosa, an elected City official who leveraged the powers of his office to build himself an immensely profitable business empire; a double-‐dealing public servant whose idea of service is to enrich himself at the expense of the taxpayers of the City and of the City’s very scholars themselves. Is this the kind of man the LP would foist upon the hapless residents of the City’s South District as their next representative in Congress? Tahakin Natin ang Daang Matuwid! We challenge the LP whose foremost leader, President Aquino, exhorts every public official to take the straight and narrow path of public service, i.e., the “Daang Matuwid,” to carefully scrutinize and select its local candidates in the City. Unfazed by the arsenal of charges brought against him, the Councilor defiantly claims every City scholar previously and currently enrolled in ACT as his own, i.e., “Scholars ni Bebot,” as if he were the one personally paying for their schooling and not the taxpayers of the City. To say that he is frying the people in their own lard, i.e., using their taxes to give their children a mere semblance of an education while profiting enormously in the bargain is an understatement. For what he is doing is the worst kind of criminal enrichment. 8 Philip Banguiran vs. Abellanosa (Docket OMB-‐V-‐C-‐13-‐0022, OMB-‐V-‐A-‐13-‐0025) and Aristotle B. Batuhan v. Abellanosa dated 23 January 2013 (for docketing); Aristotle Batuhan v. Hon. Rodrigo Abellanosa, OP-‐DC Case No. 13-‐A-‐006
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What a Shame! What a crying shame if, using precious scholarship funds unlawfully amassed from the City he purports to serve, Councilor Abellanosa should succeed in buying himself a seat in the next Philippine Congress. But there can be no greater shame than for the LP to knowingly aid and abet the candidacy of so duplicitous a public official, a man bereft of all moral scruples, as Councilor Abellanosa. In the Councilor’s own words, we exhort the LP to ACT NOW! Spare the nation the tragedy of having such a man of proven greed and avarice in the halls of Congress!
Aggrieved Residents of Cebu City South (2nd) District Abante Barangay Movement University of San Carlos Stand Alumni Association
Bag-‐Ong Sugbu Foundation Gen Y Clubs of Cebu Abante Barangay Youth Movement Transform Our Lives Movement
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato
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Page 2 of the General Information Sheet of Asian College of Technology, Inc. filed by Corporate Secretary Erwin Verano on May 25, 2011, declaring Rodrigo A. Abellanosa to be the Chairman of the Board (“C”) and President (“PRE”) of the Company
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Signature Page of the Memorandum of Agreement dated 24 June 2010 among the City, represented by then City Mayor Tomas Osmena; “Colleges and Universities,” represented by Rodrigo Abellanosa, President of Asian College of Technology; and the Department of Education
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ACT Flyer prominently advertising the anomalous Public-Private Partnership between ACT and the City ostensibly “For the Poor Families
of Cebu City,” and the Certificate of Financial Grant with which the Councilor attempts to lure City (and, with the looming elections in mind, even non-City) scholars with the pretense of a “cash” subsidy provided
they enroll on or before May 25, 2013.
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Giant tarpaulins all over the City featuring ACT owner, founder, and President Rodrigo “Bebot” Abellanosa, No. 1 Cebu City
Councilor, trumpeting: “Cebu City Scholarship + Scholarship Ni Bebot = FREE College.” “ACT NOW!”
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