SOME 200 students of Mary the Queen College of Quezon City denounced the school’s attempts to make them pay tuition that they already settled for the school year 2019-2020.

The students, scholars under the Tulong Dunong Program of the Commission on Higher Education, said they have settled their tuition but the school still wants to collect from them.

The students said that they applied for a TDP scholarship for SY 2019-2020 but their application was only granted during the first semester of SY 2020-2021.

In an interview with The POST, one of the students narrated that MQCC administrators forced them to pay their “back accounts”.

“Taliwas ito sa sulat na ipina-receive ng school admin sa CHED kung saan nakasaad dito na ang kanilang i-implement ay para sa SY 2020-2021, ngunit pilit pa rin kaming sinisingil para sa nakaraang taon. Hindi kami nakatanggap ng kahit ano mang memo na kami ay may utang sa school, at hindi kami nabigyan ng orientation patungkol sa sapilitang paniningil,” the student said.

The student said that MQCC wanted them to sign a promissory note to settle their maintaining balance amounting to P14,700 for them to be able to enroll for the 2nd semester of SY 2020-2021.

“Ang pinaka-pinoproblema po namin next week na po ang pasukan. Para po maka-enroll kami kailangan po namin magkaroon ng promissory note, kapag nag-agree po kami doon pumapayag po kaming bayaran ang maintaining balance namin na dapat talaga ay hindi namin babayaran,” the student said.

He said that the school should stop collecting any kind of fees because their scholarship was for this school year.

The student said that they sought assistance from CHED but the agency has yet to respond.

MQCC Office of Student Affairs Director Neil Patrick Dig said that the school is studying the case of the students.

“Pero kung tinutukoy nila ay balance, just make it sure…kasi kahit saan school mayroon tuition fee at miscellaneous fee. Some of our students misunderstood what is the difference between the two. Ang akala nila ang miscellaneous fee ay tuition fee, at ang tuition fee ay miscellaneous fee,” he said.

“I don’t know if natanggap na ng CHED ang petition letter ng mga estudyante tungkol dito kasi wala pa naman nakararating sa amin. Pero kung mayroon man, may process na kaming ginagawa,” he added.