Foundation University in Dumaguete City has paid for all the medical bills and hospital expenses amounting to about P230,000 of students who sustained burns during a fireworks display in its campus on Dec. 17, 2005.

This was clarified by Dinno Depositario, vice president for student affairs of the university, in the wake of what he believes are untruthful statements made by some of the victims.

Depositario said the university never turned its back on its responsibilities, stating that the first thing university president, Mira Sinco, instructed him to do was to bring the victims to the hospital, place them in private rooms and take care of all their expenses since day one until all of them got out of the hospital.

Records show that on Dec. 23, 2005, a week after the fireworks accident, the university paid the Holy Child Hospital an initial amount of P68,561.35, and another P87,958.20 was paid on Jan. 5, 2006.

Depositario said the university would rather deal with the fireworks supplier legally, rather than pointing fingers at anybody, that would only prejudice the treatment of the victims.

Two of the victims, Gile Flores and Ma. Cristina Verganio, went to the police station last week, worried about who's going to shoulder their hospital expenses.

Depositario said the students would not have gotten out of the hospital if their bills were not settled by the university first.*JG

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