LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Various individuals and sectors in the province are now questioning the members of the Board of Regents of the State-run Benguet State University (BSU) if it gave a blanket authority to the members of the Search Committee to railroad the on-going search for the next president of the premier higher education institution in the region.
The uproar among concerned sectors came after information from the Board leaked that the election of the next president has been scheduled on February 23, 2016 which is just over a month after the eight aspirants have undergone the lone public presentation for them to present their programs and projects for the university.
In a letter sent by several concerned individuals and members of indigenous peoples to Commissioner Alex Brillantes of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), they recommended that the Board of Regents first address the pending issues and concerns earlier raised by some individuals and groups, particularly the filling up of the position vacated by a community representative and the need for the faculty associations of the three campuses to federate so that their duly elected representative to the Board will have the legal personality to represent the faculty in the voting process.
Several sources also revealed that incumbent BSU officials are not actually being involved by the Search Committee in the process of the search as evidenced by their failure to formally invite BSU officer-in-charge Dr. Jones Feliciano who must be a part off those who should ask questions from the aspirants for president.
In an interview with Feliciano, he confirmed his non-involvement in the search process and his failure to receive the invitation for the scheduled Board meeting on February 23, 2016 where the voting is supposed to be scheduled.
On the other hand, some members of the Search Committee had been spreading gossips on the supposed shortlist of the applicants when the same has not been released yet in order to condition the minds of the people for reasons of justifying future complaints once the Board will come out with the decision on who will be the next BSU president.
Concerned individuals and sectors appealed to the Commissioner and the members of the board to be circumspect in deciding matters which are being brought to their attention for referendum since they might be accused of being a rubber stamp of a certain officials in the institution who want to advance their own personal interests of lording it over in the institution.
According to them, the Board should not allow the collegial body to be influenced by some school officials who have vested interests on the outcome of the election for the next president because it will pose a serious negative effect to the overall image of the school as one of the best government schools in the country, citing that the Board will never gain the support of stakeholders once it pushes through in rushing the selection of the next president.
Since its meeting last December 3, 2016 to pave the way for the retirement of former president Dr. Ben Ladilad, the Board of Regents never met as a collegial body but it had been acting on several matters through referendum which is now being questioned by some sectors considering that such matters need extensive discussions and inputs from all members.
By Herald Express News Team
