MANILA, Philippines – Parents of students affected by the permanent closure of Colegio de San Lorenzo (CDSL) in Quezon City cried foul over a waiver they were asked to sign before getting their children’s tuition refund.
Claudia Cabrera and Zel Santiago, both mothers of supposedly incoming Grade 12 students in CDSL, shared that personnel from the school had sought their signature on the said waiver before releasing their check.
“They were insisting on signing a waiver that basically waives our right to any moral damages that was caused so maraming magulang ang pumapalag, nagagalit and they will pull them to the side and try to have them signed it pa rin sa loob ng room,” Santiago said on Wednesday.
(They’ll pull us to the side and have us sign it inside the room. They insisted on signing a waiver that basically waives our right to any moral damages caused, so many parents are getting angry and are refusing to do it.)
Cabrera further noted that they had both refused to sign the document since they were entitled to the tuition refund in the first place.
“We don’t have to sign a waiver dahil pera naman namin iyon. Tuition fee namin iyon. Hindi naman nila ibinigay iyong service kaya kailangan namin ito mabawi. Iyong waiver, kapag pinirmahan namin, hindi na kaming pwede magreklamo against them,” she added.
(We don’t have to sign a waiver since that’s our money. It’s our tuition, which we only have refunded because they didn’t provide the proper service for our children. So if we sign the waiver, we will no longer be able to file complaints against them.)
Both mothers also expressed their intention to discuss and pursue possible courses of action to hold CDSL accountable for their sudden closure.
“Kami nag-initiate na kami ng complaint sa [Department of Education]. We’re part of a group of parents of more than 300 who are talking about our next action pero sa ngayon, we’re focused on enrolling our children dahil ilang araw nalang [ay pasukan na],” Santiago said.
Following the parents’ complaints, the CDSL College Department announced Thursday that it would revoke the requirement before issuing the students’ tuition refund.
“Students are no longer required to sign the waiver. [Instead,] they can receive their cheques without signing it,” an advisory on its Facebook page said.
Citing financial woes and low enrollment turnout, CDSL bared its decision to permanently shut down on Monday, the same day it was supposed to start the new school year.
They, however, committed to “initiate full refunds of fees paid and assist all students for their transfer to other schools and educational institutions by timely releasing their records and credentials for such purpose.”
Several schools have since offered to take in the CDSL students affected by the closure.
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