LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Chairperson Patricia Licuanan of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) is being prodded by the leadership and various stakeholders of the State-run Benguet State University (BSU) to intervene and try to address the questions relative to the upcoming election of the next president before proceeding with such exercise.
BSU insiders claimed that a formal letter from the institution was already forwarded to Chairperson Licuanan for her to freeze the scheduled election of the next president on March 16, 2016 in Manila and to instruct the Board of Regents to effectively and efficiently address the issues and concerns raised before setting another date for the election to avoid suspicion of railroading among others.
Sources said the rushing the election of the next BSU president might do more harm than good to the best interest of the institution because those who were allegedly shortlisted were not actually the ones that were supposed to be in the list.
Further, the Board of Regents must not deprive the community of full representation during the election of the next president, thus, the Board must make sure that the vacated position must already be filled up before the election will be done.
According to the source, the Board should also review the status of the alumni representative because he had been there for more than three years now in violation of the provisions of Republic Act (RA) 8292.
When the alumni was texted for his response to the issues raised, he replied that there was no need for him to be interviewed.
On the other hand, sources claimed the faculty of the three campuses is not actually well represented because for so long a time, it has been the faculty president of the main campus that had been sitting us the faculty representative which should not be the case considering that the other faculty presidents of both campuses were deprived to also sit in the Board to voice out the sentiments of their group.
Some members of the Board cited they are still grouping in the dark on who are those in the reported shortlist so that they themselves can make their own background check and a substantial evaluation and investigation on the credibility of the applicants.
They claimed they deserve to do their own investigation on the morality and credibility of the applicants to be the next BSU president so that they can intelligently select the one that can be a virtual leader and a formidable one who can independently decide for the better interest of the institution.
The 4-year term of Dr. Ben Ladilad expired last December 5, 2015 and subsequently, Dr. Jones K. Feliciano was appointed as the officer-in-charge with similar functions as that of a full pledged president.
By Dexter A. See
