“I HAVE good news. P111 million but I’d like to tell you more about it personally.” I’m sure I’ll never be able to lay my eyes on a hundred million in this, or even in the next, lifetime but to a billionaire like lawyer Augusto Go, the amount, although nothing to sneeze at, is not supposed to cause too much excitement. So why was the University of Cebu (UC) owner so animated when he asked me to see him at his office last week so he can give me the details?
Because, he would later told me, the amount, or more particularly its intended use, is going to be, in his own words, “life-changing” for many families, 2,645 of them this year and every year thereafter.
That’s the number of scholars the National Government, through the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda), will spend for to allow them to finish a three-year course in Hospitality Management or Tourism Management at the UC.
Only at the UC. No other school in Cebu or most probably in the entire region has been chosen to partner with the Tesda for its Universal Access to Quality Education Act (UAQTEA) diploma program.
The program is open to senior high school graduates and college undergraduates. Each scholar will receive P45,000 per semester to cover, among others, tuition fees, accident insurance, uniforms, books and an allowance of P9,000.
Gus urged qualified applicants to take advantage of the government program. “I believe that education is a great equalizer,” he said, noting the economic and social mobility that a college diploma can provide.
Currently, UC has a 68,000 student population, spread among five campuses.The UAQTEA classes will be held at the Maritime Education and Training Center campus in Mambaling.
Still on UC (my source this time is not Gus but my son), is it true that its Lapu-Lapu-Mandaue secondary basketball team was declared to have forfeited all its games in the the 2025 Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (Cesafi) because one of its team members played elsewhere while the Cesafi tournament was ongoing?
It does not make sense. You suspend the offender or even permanently ban him from the league. But you don’t punish the whole team. It’s unfair to the other team members.
It would have been justified if the player was already disqualified at the time that he played in the Cesafi. But his ineligibility came later. Why should the penalty be given retroactive effect?
The Cesafi board should strike down the rule, if there is such a rule, that mandates this ex post facto-like punishment. It does not promote the Cesafi brand; it diminishes it.