LINGAYEN, Pangasinan – The Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) recently slapped Pangasinan State University (PSU) President Dexter Buted with a ‘persona non grata’ resolution for disrespecting the highest legislative body of the province.
PSU’s Buted got the ire of the provincial board for brushing off the series of invitations previously sent by the SP for PSU officials to appear before the SP’s fact-finding inquiry on the alleged anomalous malpractices of the university’s On- the-Job Training (OJT) program.
In an interview, fourth district Board Member Jeremy Agerico Rosario, Chairman of ad hoc committee, bared that refusing to heed the SP invitations is a “patent disrespect to the highest policy-making body in Pangasinan which might create a precedent with many other future invitees of the SP.”
“We have given the PSU administration due courtesy as we invited the PSU officials and teachers involved in the OJT issue to attend our hearings, but they keep on ignoring the provincial board,” he added.
“Bakit ‘nung first hearing nandun naman sila? What other reasons ngayon na hindi na sila pwedeng umattend?,” Rosario inquired.
It can be recalled that issues on the alleged OJT malpractices in PSU surfaced last July when a certain Dharel dela Cruz, a PSU student, became a whistle blower to the alleged irregularities in PSU’s OJT program. Dela Cruz was among the PSU students who were employed as ‘regular workers’ in Interphil Laboraties in Laguna for their supposed OJT.
BM Rosario said that an ad hoc committee was formed by the 9th SP to focus on the PSU OJT issue.
PSU officials and teachers were invited to attend the fact-finding investigation early July. They were again summoned two more weeks after, but the PSU administration said the SP inquiry coincided with the start of classes in July, and there was an ongoing parallel investigation by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) regional office, and that finally, they cited the advice of the PSU’s board of regents which disallowed PSU officials to attend the SP inquiry.
However, Rosario said that a CHED Region 1 official bared that there hasn’t been any ongoing investigation yet on the OJT issue from the education commission.
The SP finally invited the PSU to the august body’s Question Hour last October 3, but again no one from PSU appeared.
“The intention of the SP is clear. We will not allow that PSU students to be exploited again. We need to know the missing link of the anomalous OJT program of PSU,” BM Rosario said.
Rosario recalled that PSU President Buted during the first inquiry of the ad hoc committee headed by former Board Member Alfonso Bince of the 8th SP promised to expedite PSU’s fact-finding on the irregularities of the OJT program, but until now no report was forwarded to the SP.
It can be recalled that during the previous SP ad hoc committee hearings, a certain Adonis Bautista, who holds a key position in PSU being the executive director of the school of advanced studies in Urdaneta City, was referred to as the one who introduced the PSU students to the JIF manpower agency.
Dela Cruz admitted that Bautista lured them with the good offer to work in Laguna for their supposed OJT, but asked them to conceal their identity as students.
By Dexter A. See
