Lapses were discovered in a controversial off-campus activity held by a private college a couple of weeks ago during a Quezon City Council oversight committee hearing on Tuesday.
“I myself am a parent and would not allow my children to walk over two kilometers or for half an hour. The issue here is not that no one died. This is absurd,” said Doray Delarmente, the council majority leader.
“Irresponsible. At the end of the day, it’s command responsibility. Preposterous to conduct a field trip with 25,000 students, with only a few teachers. You make my blood run cold,” Delarmente told officials of Best Link College.
The hearing was called after parents of the college’s students sought the attention of Mayor Joy Belmonte. The students suffered fatigue, and some fainted after walking 2.9 kilometers to find their bus after celebrating Best Link College’s foundation day in Hermosa, Bataan last 26 January.
The event went viral on social media after students aired their grievances about their harrowing experience of being forced to join the activity.
“BestLink put the blame on students for that, aside from the fees for the event,” argued Irene Belmonte, District IV councilor.
Students were made to pay P900 for the resort entrance (P400) and bus fare (P500) and signed waivers.
“That’s over P20 million. And you collect miscellaneous fees, right? Most of your students are the city’s ‘economic scholars’ for being indigent. It should be shouldered by the miscellaneous fees you collected from them,” Irene Belmonte argued.
Godie Liban, District 2 councilor, asked who decided on the off-campus activity.
Sis. Nina Basquiñez, Best Link Executive Committee member and Campus Ministry coordinator, told the oversight committee that they chose to hold their founding anniversary at the Punta Belle Resort in Bataan because the campus had already begun constructing a sports facility in December.
“Usually it (the founding anniversary every 26th day of January) is a four-day celebration (but with the construction, the school decided to have it outside). We tried Araneta, but it’s only good for 15,000. We checked the Philippine Arena (but it was fully booked). We had no choice but to end up in Bataan,” the school coordinator replied.
Atty. Lourdes Pagayatan, the school’s legal counsel, said the vice president for administration was unavailable to answer queries due to health reasons.