QC court issues 20-day TRO to prevent PSBA-QC from shutting down

The Quezon City regional trial court has issued a 20-day temporary restraining order to keep the Philippine School of Business Administration - Quezon City from closing.

 

Presiding judge Catherine P. Manodon, in the same TRO on Thursday, also required the petitioners to post a bond of P200,000. 

 

Two of the petitioners, Mary Plet Paguio and Patrick Lloret, are students of the business school. According to the TRO, the petitioners said they are willing to post a bond.

 

Judge Manodon said the students would suffer "irreparable injury" if the PSBA-QC notice of closure order will not be restrained.

 

The court order said petitioners argued that "no amount of damages can restore the lost time and effort in pursuing their studies" if the college were to shut down.

 

Manodon was not swayed by the contention presented by counsel of PSBA-QC that the petitioning students would only suffer "mere inconvenience". PSBA-QC counsel noted that Lloret, the second witness, is graduating in October 2013 and "was not able to establish the damage that he will suffer.

PSBA-QC  members of board of directors, who said they own and represent at least 98.99 percent of the school's outstanding capital stock, decided in a special meeting on September 20, 2013 to close the college on October 18.

Petitioners said the directors' decision prompted them to ask the court to intervene.

In a letter dated September 26, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) told PSBA-QC dean Raul C. Addatu that closure of higher education institutions cannot happen in the middle of school year.  — ELR, GMA News