[ manilastandardtoday.com ] July 12, 2010
THE Supreme Court has ordered the closure of a grade school owned by former AIM president Felipe Alfonso and his wife Mary Anne in Ayala Alabang following a protracted legal battle initiated by the homeowners’ association.
The high tribunal last week upheld the position of the Ayala Alabang Village Association that the Alfonsos went beyond the deed restrictions when they expanded their nursery and kindergarten school, The Learning Child School, to offer a grade school department in 1991.
Although located in the same compound at 111 Cordillera Street, the grade school, School of the Holy Cross, apparently has a corporate personality separate from its nursery and kindergarten sibling.
To prevent the dislocation of students, the high court’s First Division allowed Holy Cross to finish the education of the existing students until they graduate from Grade 7, on condition that the school will not accept any more new pupils.
“This court understands the attendant difficulties this decision could cause to the current students of the School of the Holy Cross, who are innocent spectators to the litigation in the case at bar,” Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro said.
The homeowners’ association, complaining of the traffic and the noise generated by the swelling student population, sued the Alfonsos and the school, citing the deed of restrictions imposed by subdivision developer Ayala Land.
The male Alfonso, a former president of the Asian Institute of Management, no longer sits on the school board.
The Learning Child’s Web site identified its board members as president Juan Miguel Luz of the International Institute for Rural Reconstruction, Dean Maria Lourdes Baybay of Miriam College, Assumption College president Gertrude Borres, Pilar Bunag, Bernie Oca of De La Salle University, lawyer Renato Puno, Ateneo math associate professor Queena Lee Chua, Mark Hernandez, and lawyer Maria Luz Mendoza. Rey E. Requejo
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