Court stops PSBA closure

MANILA, Philippines - A local court has ordered the issuance of a preliminary injunction stopping the implementation of a notice announcing the closure of the Philippine School of Business Administration in Quezon City (PSBA-QC).

In a 12-page order dated Nov. 6 and released to the media yesterday, Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 104 Judge Catherine Manodon said while the closure of a program or a school is an exception to the right of the students to enroll until graduation, the Manual of Regulations for Private Higher Education “still requires that the termination or closure of a higher education institution should be effected at the end of the academic year.”

The judge added that the PSBA-QC has not proven its claim that it suffered serious business losses, which is among the grounds for the closure as stated in the notice – signed by stockholders Juan Lim as chairman and Ramon Peralta as president – released on the school’s website on Sept. 23, and was published in The STAR in the following week.

Students Mary Plet Paguio, Charlene Zape, and Patrick Lloret – represented by former Quezon City councilor and PSBA-QC alumnus Antonio Inton, as well as lawyers VJ Topacio and Daniel Adeva III – filed a petition seeking to stop the school’s closure.

Named respondents in the petition were Lim, Peralta, listed stockholder Antonio Magtalas, Commission on Higher Education chairperson Patricia Licuanan, and CHED National Capital Region Director Catherine Castañeda.

The petitioners noted that the legal personality of Magtalas to sit in the school’s board of directors is currently being questioned by president Benjamin Paulino.

According to Manodon, what is clear from the evidence presented was that the closure is primarily due to the intra-corporate dispute between Paulino and the other respondents.

Manodon ordered the petitioners to post another P200,000 bond “to answer for damages that may be suffered by the respondents as a result of the issuance” of the preliminary injunction.