The SC Third Division upheld the Court of Appeals’ (CA) decision over Ched’s resolution on the closure order of the Mandaue City College owned by a certain Paulus Cañete, located along H. Abellana St. in Barangay Basak.
The resolution was uploaded online on June 20, 2023, which identified MCC-Cañete as a “rogue school,” stressing that only the MCC inside the Mandaue City Sports and Cultural Complex in Barangay Centro was acknowledged as a local city college under section one of the MCC ordinance.
The real MCC Board is governed by a board with Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes as the chairperson.
The tribunal stated that MCC-Cañete did not present sufficient proof that it had complied with the requirements set forth by Ched.
The CA Sixth Division also denied Cañete’s appeal at the 2016 Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 216 ruling, which had likewise affirmed Ched’s orders.
SunStar Cebu tried reaching out to Cañete for comment on the matter but to no avail.
Cañete is a former administrator of the Mandaue City College back when it was first established in 2005.
He was ordered by the MCC board of trustees (BOT) to step down in June 2007 and was replaced by Susana Cabahug as its officer-in-charge.
This prompted Cañete to establish his own school using the “Mandaue City College” name.
In 2008, Cortes filed charges of unlawful appointment and malversation of public funds against Cañete before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas for allegedly hiring five people less than a year after they ran for public office and lost, violating provisions of the Local Government Code; and allegedly refusing to turn over the MCC passbook and tuition fees when he was still the school’s head.
On December 3, 2010, Ched released the closure order for MCC-Cañete for its failure to comply with the requirements, and more than half a year after, on July 4, 2011, the agency also released a public notice advising MCC-Cañete students to transfer to legitimate institutions.
But in 2019, Cañete defied Ched’s order, arguing that only a court decision could stop the school’s operations.