One evening our professor digressed into the situation of poor litigants. People who run afoul of the law or who are looking for relief from the court but cannot afford a lawyer are usually extended help by the Public Attorneys Office. But ordinary public school teachers cannot avail themselves of the PAO because they exceed the income bracket to be classified as poor litigants. But sometimes there are people, businessmen in fact, who qualify as poor litigants because they underdeclare their income or they do not file income tax returns at all. They can afford a private lawyer but they want the free services of the PAO.
Consider the Cebu Normal University, he said. It is a government school and was meant to provide education to poor families. But you can see private cars lining along its side fetching children of families who should have been able to afford tuition in private universities.
I also noticed this situation at the Cebu City National Science High School. Three of my sisters-in-law sent their children to Science High. From what I learned, their children were among the few who rode on jeepneys to and from school throughout their secondary school days. When it was our family's turn to send our children to school, we opted to send them to a private high school closer to home altho the school was of a lower caliber. Our family income was not enough to afford a better private high school. At the same time, I did not want to bump off a poorer child from a free schooling at the science high.
The rich, if you tolerate them, want freebies in education as well as in their income tax. I was happy to note that the professor and I share at least one line of thinking.
