• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The STI West Negros University in Bacolod City has been ordered by a court to allow a Japanese American senior high school student to participate in the graduation ceremonies and related activities on July 4.
Regional Trial Court Branch 79 Judge Ferdinand Elbert Jomilla issued a writ of preliminary mandatory injunction on July 2, ordering STI WNU to include Rachelle Faith Shimada in the list of its graduates, and to allow her to join the graduation rites.
Shimada, a Grade 12 student, through her counsel, Atty. Kemp Bryan delos Santos, sought Injunction with Damages with prayer for the issuance of Writ of Preliminary Mandatory Injunction, after STI WNU informed her that she will not be included in the list of graduating students, and will not allow her to attend the graduation ceremony, for the sole reason that she did not have a PSA issued Birth Certificate.
Furthermore, she was told that she was going to repeat her grade level, court records showed.
Shimada, who was born on January 7, 2006, Northern Mariana Islands of Guam, a United States territory, moved to the Philippines in 2008. She completed her elementary education in Bacolod City. During her junior high school year, she attended Stella Maris Academy from Grades 7 to 10, Binalbagan Catholic College for Grade 11, and continued her studies for Grade 12 at STI WNU.
Court records indicated that Shimada opted to enroll at STI WNU after being told by the school administration that it accepts United States citizens, who assured her of enrollment even in the absence of a Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) issued Birth Certificate.
While the stepfather of Shimada was assured by the staff of the STI WNU Registrar’s Office in November 2023 that there will be no impediments, even if the PSA Birth Certificate will not be issued within the period coinciding with the graduation, the school changed its stance on the matter, and informed her that there was no assurance if she would be graduating from Senior High School due to absence of her PSA Birth Certificate, court records further showed.
Confused and unguided on what to do, Shimada signed a document on April 1 this year, certifying that she agrees and is fully aware that her enrollment with the school will be canceled if she does not submit her PSA issued birth certificate.
On May 3, the plaintiff informed the school registrar that despite serious efforts to obtain her Birth Certificate from PSA, those efforts failed. In a meeting with personnel of the Registrar’s Office, her classroom adviser, and stepfather, she presented documents as proof that she had initiated an application for the issuance of a Birth Certificate with the PSA, and the final step was to deliver the documents to the Guam consulate or embassy.
The Registrar’s Office, however, informed her that she is not eligible to graduate this school year, and would need to repeat Grade 12, court records further indicated.
Despite the plaintiff presenting documents relevant to her application for the issuance of PSA Birth Certificate and making repeated pleas for compassionate consideration, as well as submitting a notarized Affidavit of Undertaking, the defendant disregarded plaintiffs immediate predicament. Instead the Defendant insisted on its arbitrary decisions that lacked legal basis, her counsel said, in a complaint filed in court.
It is important to note, that from the beginning, the Defendant permitted the Plaintiff to enter and successfully enroll in the school, even in the absence of the PSA issued birth certificate. This document, which Defendant now emphasizes as the sole reason for denying the plaintiff’s graduation this school year, and attendance at the graduation rites, was not initially required for the enrollment, court records also showed.
In granting the application for a Writ of Preliminary Mandatory Injunction of Shimada, after notice and hearing, Judge Jomilla said the requisites for its issuance having been established thus: there is a clear and unmistakable right of the applicant, a material and substantial invasion of such right, an urgent need to prevent irreparable injury, and the absence of an ordinary, speedy, adequate remedy to prevent the injury.*
