At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, hundreds of private schools in the country shut down due mainly to financial constraints.
According to the Department of Education, more than 860 out of the 14,000 private schools have closed their doors since the pandemic hit due to low enrolment numbers.
One school in Quezon City, the Colegio de San Lorenzo, suddenly closed a day before the scheduled opening of classes, and permanently at that, due to financial instability and lack of financial viability brought about by the pandemic and exacerbated by consistent low enrolment.
Its management claims it could not survive because its finances could not sustain paying the salaries of teaching and non-teaching staff.
In 2020, the 109-year-old Holy Spirit School of Manila ceased operations, citing the same reasons.
The education department revealed that during the pandemic, there was a notable number of private school students transferring to public schools. At the start of the academic year 2020-2021, it was estimated that 250,539 students transferred from private to public schools.
The exodus of teachers from private to public schools, where the pay is said to be higher, had also spurred the closure of many independent schools. One school owner said that the pay of public school teachers is triple that offered by small private schools.
Meanwhile, there were private schools that found it hard to comply with DepEd pandemic safety requirements for face-to-face classes.
A number of those schools which closed down during the pandemic have reopened and are just beginning to recover financially.
However, private school owners are worried about new measures being proposed in Congress.
In particular, Senate Bill 1359 and House Bill 7584 seek to prohibit the ‘no permit, no exams’ policy, which would allow students with unpaid tuition and other school fees to take assessments and examinations.
Last month, the Senate passed on third and final reading the “No Permit, No Exam” Prohibition Act, with all 22 senators voting in the affirmative.
Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) executive director Jose Allan Arellano said prohibiting the “no permit, no exam” policy could put the financial welfare of private schools at risk, saying these schools have no other source of revenue unlike government-funded public schools.
Meanwhile, the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations of the Philippines (Cocopea) warned that private schools may scrap the installment payment option for its fees if the bill becomes a law.
According to Cocopea legal counsel Kristine Manaog, private schools rely on prompt payment from parents to sustain their operations because this is where they get the money to pay for salaries, utilities, among others.
Unfortunately, these bills do not contain safeguards for private schools should they find themselves in a financial crisis as a result of mounting unpaid tuition. Schools like Ateneo and La Salle may have the resources to pay their teachers and other staff from their own deep pockets, but not the small independent private schools.
Manaog claims the passage of the bills caught them by surprise and that there were not enough consultations with the affected sectors.
Private schools must be financially self-sufficient, in contrast to public schools that are fully subsidized by national and local government funds.
Our legislators may not have realized that they are not only killing private schools slowly and by a thousand cuts, they are also risking the chances of students of attending private schools. Small and medium enterprises such as stores, carinderias, school bus operators, book and school supply outlets, which rely on the continued operations of these private schools as well as their employees and workers, may also find themselves out of business and jobs if these measures become law.
Leaders of the private education sector are asking legislators to defer the bicameral conference hearings and hold more consultations.
They deserve to be heard.
Bracing for heavy traffic
Back in 1995, the Las Piñas City Council passed an ordinance directing developers and homeowner’s associations in the city to open and allow the public free of charge to use their streets as alternative routes to ease or decongest traffic along Alabang-Zapote Road and other main streets in Las Piñas, and imposing penalty for any violation thereof.
This and other subsequent ordinances have eased the traffic along the main thoroughfares of the city, benefitting the residents who have used the so-called Friendship Route, which allowed Las Piñas residents to pass through more than 50 private villages in the city from 5 a.m. to 12 midnight for free, offering an alternative to the often-congested Alabang-Zapote Road.
The BF Resort Village (BRV), a private, gated subdivision, has 10 streets, including Onelia Jose St., that are part of the Friendship Route.
In July last year, the then newly installed BFRV Homeowners Association Inc. (BFRVHAI) administration posted guards at Onelia Jose St., preventing Las Piñas residents who are holders of friendship stickers from freely using said street that connects to the Zapote River Drive leading to Cavitex and the bridge that leads to Bacoor, Cavite.
A group led by Sen. Cynthia Villar and two other BFRV residents have filed a petition in court seeking to enjoin BFRVHAI from preventing the use by the general public of the said street and asking that the Las Piñas ordinance be strictly complied with.
Under the new traffic scheme implemented by the BFRVHAI led by its president Euam Rex Toralballa, non-BFRV residents, even if they are Las Piñas residents and holders of friendship stickers, will only be allowed entry and exit via Onelia Jose St. if they will buy BFRV stickers worth P2,500 per vehicle.
Last Monday, Villar was caught on video scolding a security guard after learning that ranking BFRVHAI officials placed several steel barriers and posted heavily armed guards along Aventine Hills, BF Homes, where Villar’s composting and vermicomposting facility are located. Other Las Piñas residents are rallying behind Villar.
Villar’s composting facility project processes kitchen and garden wastes into organic fertilizer to help the city attain its zero waste management goals.
The senator, in a TV interview, said she does not understand why BFRVHAI is blocking the public road that is for the people.
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