CITING pressure from Malacañang, Commission on Higher Education chairman Patricia Licuanan on Monday resigned after receiving a phone call from Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea asking her to step down.
Although her fixed term expires in July 2018, Licuanan, an appointee of the previous administration, said “it is tie to go” to protect CHED from people who are determined to get her out of office with “false and baseless accusations.”
A Palace spokesman said President Rodrigo Duterte has accepted Licuanan’s resignation.
“Although I vehemently deny the accusations against me, it is time to resign as my continued presence in CHED is inimical to the interest of the institution. It will only serve as lightning rod to attract more controversy that is distracting the agency from vigorously pursuing urgent reforms that will redound to the benefit of future generations of Filipinos,” Licuanan told CHED employees Monday.
She said the agency should focus more in doing its mandate, “especially at this critical time when it prepares for the implementation of Republic Act 10931 or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act.”
Licuanan admitted receiving a call from Medialdea “over the weekend” asking her to resign. She did not say, however, if the pressure coming from the Palace stemmed from allegations of going on trips abroad without the approval of the President.
Duterte had earlier threatened to fire more government officials accused of corruption.
“I was first accused of excessive travel. When records revealed that I traveled eight times officially in 2017 [with only five of these trips paid for by government], five times in 2016, six times in 2015, two times in 2014, and only three times in 2013, the accusation turned to travel without authority from the Office of the President,” she said.
“When my office provided copies of travel papers signed by the senior deputy executive secretary authorizing me to meet specific commitments in line with CHED’s internationalization mandate and allowing me to travel business class to avoid the recurrence of vertigo, my ability to attend to CHED work for health reasons was maliciously peddled in social media even if I have worked consistently in CHED from 6:45 a.m. to after 6 p.m. on most days and took a sick leave only for half a day in 7.5 years in office,” she added.
Licuanan also slammed PBA Party-List Rep. Jericho Nograles for placing her in a bad light over her official travels abroad, despite getting the approval of Malacañang. With Rio N. Araja, Vito Barcelo, Maricel V. Cruz and Macon Ramos-Araneta
“What I cannot understand is how Rep. Jericho Nograles got hold of my internal travel documents for the past five years. Only a few offices in CHED had access to these. These are internal documents to support the administrative release of funds and while I sign the internal document for my own travels, my signing is always based on an official travel authority from Malacañang. The question is, who put these together and who offered it to the congressman?”
She also disputed accusations of mismanagement and corruption in K to 12 funds.
“When the travel-related accusations proved baseless, those who are dying to remove me from office then turned to mismanagement and corruption in the release of allowances to faculty scholars in the K to 12 Transition Program,” Licuanan said.
“I must strongly denounce malicious allegations of corruption and mismanagement of funds. It has been my personal commitment to stamp out corruption in CHED since day one, despite the odds and the strong resistance. The K to 12 Transition Program has been implemented with the highest level of ethical stewardship and every peso is accounted for,” she added.
Licuanan previously admitted that logistical issues hampered the on-time release of the scholars’ allowances, including their lack of requirements submitted to CHED.
She said, however, that the applications of more than 2,828 scholars have been processed, while applications for 1,268 other scholars will be released once they’ve submitted valid enrollment forms and authenticated copies of grades for the previous semester.
A former president of Miriam College, Licuanan was appointed as CHED chairman in July 2010. She was reappointed for another four-year term in 2014 and was expected to end her term this year.
This is not the first time that Licuanan was asked by Medialdea to resign from her Cabinet-rank post.
Duterte had earlier issued an Aug. 22, 2016 memorandum circular, asking officials appointed by former President Benigno Simeon Aquino III to tender courtesy resignations.
Licuanan did not resign at the time, however, because she had a fixed term.
She was also asked not to attend Cabinet meetings starting December 2016.
Licuanan later prevailed in a later power struggle with former CHED executive director Julito Vitriolo in 2017, who asked Duterte to instead appoint Commissioner Prospero de Vera III, an appointee of President Duterte, to replace her.
Vitriolo was then dismissed by the Office of the Ombudsman for being guilty in a “diploma mill” scandal in 1996 but afterwards got a favorable ruling from the appellate court. The chair, however, refused to recognize Vitriolo’s return to CHED after Duterte appointed another agency insider, Karol Mark Yee, to sit as cxecutive director much earlier.
Licuanan hoped that reforms in Philippine higher education will continue despite the deep political divide surrounding CHED.
“My only wish is for reforms that ought to transcend political divides and have their roots in many previous administrations—reforms of access and equity, quality and relevance, excellence and competitiveness, and good governance—to continue when the CHED political cloud dissipates and the agency settles down to the task of pursuing its mandate,” she said.
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque confirmed that Duterte had accepted Licuanan’s resignation, which he described as a voluntary act.
“It is immaterial whether she is saying, you know, [that] some groups worked for her resignation. It was her decision to resign,” Roque said.
He added that Licuanan’s resignation rendered all controversies around her “moot.”
He said the most senior of the commissioners will take over in an acting capacity.
Nograles welcomed Licuanan’s resignation, saying it would give CHED “a fresh start.”
But Senator Francis Escudero said her move was “unfortunate” because she had done a good job as CHED chairman.
Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino IV said higher education has lost a dependable ally with Licuanan’s resignation, and thanked her for her service, particularly on drafting the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act.
With Rio N. Araja, Vito Barcelo, Maricel V. Cruz and Macon Ramos-Araneta