Philippine School of Business Administration shutting down

A business college in Quezon City is shutting down next month due to financial losses and its students may transfer to a sister campus in Manila, according to an announcement made earlier this week by its top officials.

However, the lawyer heading the QC branch of Philippine School of Business Administration (PSBA) is questioning the legality of the board decision to close down the campus on Aurora Boulevard.

Some 4,000 college and postgraduate students stand to be affected by the closure.

In a newspaper ad and website post on Wednesday, PSBA officials based in Manila said the campus would have its last day of operations on Oct. 18.

According to the notice of closure dated Sept. 20 and signed by PSBA chair Juan Lim and PSBA president Jose Peralta, the school’s board of directors and stockholders had unanimously approved a resolution “to close PSBA-Quezon City and all its educational programs effective at the end of classes on Oct. 18, 2013, the end of the first semester of academic year 2013-2014.”

It cited “serious business losses” for the past eight years as reason for the shutdown. The school would no longer accept enrollees for the second semester, it added.

“All students from PSBA-QC can be accepted and accommodated at PSBA-Manila (on) R. Papa Street, Sampaloc, Manila, subject to the usual admission requirements,” it said. Interested students may send written requests to the registrar of the Manila branch starting Oct. 28.

The notice also set the job termination of PSBA-QC’s academic personnel on Nov. 8 and that of the nonacademic staff on Nov. 29.

But in an interview, Benjamin Paulino, the PSBA-QC president since 1991, said “any move to close down the school would be illegal because each enrolled student can sue PSBA for breach of contract.”

“Each enrollment can be considered a contract in itself between the student and the school,” the lawyer said.

According to Paulino, there are five seats in the PSBA board of directors but two of them are currently vacant. One of the vacant seats used to be that of lawyer Florencio Lim, who had passed away. Paulino holds a seat while Juan Lim and Peralta control the other two.

Paulino argued that under these circumstances, it was impossible for the board of directors to achieve a quorum. He said he was not advised of the meetings leading to the closure notice, which he said were attended only by Lim, Peralta and a third person they had appointed, Antonio Magtalas.

In a May 4 meeting among Lim, Peralta and Magtalas, Paulino said, all seats were declared vacant and Peralta was later elected president, chief executive officer, vice chair, chief academic officer, Certified Public Accountant review director, and dean of graduate and undergraduate studies. Lim was made chair, executive vice president, vice president for finance and secretary; Magtalas was made vice president for admission and registration, and assistant treasurer.

Paulino, who claimed to have the support of the students, said he had filed 10 complaints in the Quezon City Regional Trial Court questioning the decisions reached in those meetings.