Mel defends QC gov’t deal with school

Former Quezon City Mayor Mel Mathay Jr. defended the Quezon City government’s deal with the developers of Paref-Northfield school for boys in Greenmeadows, saying that the primary consideration is the opportunity to send poor students to a school with very high standards of learning.

"This will redound to the greater good of the city’s poor but deserving students," he said as he belied reports that there was railroading in the approval of the plan for the 3.1 hectare lot in Greenmeadows III, donated by Ortigas & Company Partnership (developer of Greenmeadows) to the city government.

"This was not railroaded, " Mathay noted, saying that there was no money involved in the deal. "Wala ditong pera, eh…ang inaalala natin dito, mga anak ng mahirap, (No money here, poor children were what we had in mind)," he said.

Mathay pointed out that the project would not cost the Quezon City government any centavo and it would be Paref-Northfield which will shoulder the cost of the school’s construction, as well as the park development.

Moreover, Paref-Northfield will also subsidize 200 scholars from poor families. "Now if you base it on their P40,000 tuition fee a year, that (scholarship) will amount to millions of pesos…at the same time, they will also help out retraining public school teachers," Mathay added.