MEDICAL students caught in an ownership struggle in a Cebu university on Tuesday slapped officials of the Commission on Higher Education with administrative charges before the Office of the Ombudsman.
The students assailed the higher education body’s inaction over the legal scuttle between the two branches of Southwestern University.
Charges were filed against Chairperson Patricia Licuanan, four other Ched commissioners, namely Maria Cynthia Rose Bautista, Ruperto Sangalang, Minell Alarcon, Alex Brillantes, and CHEDRO-7 director Freddie Bernal for violation of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, particularly under section 3 (e), “causing undue injury to any party through manifest partiality and gross inexcusable negligence,” and other criminal offenses punishable under the Revised Penal Code, among others.
The complaint arose from the 2013 ownership conflict that created a division between the SWU, Inc. and the SWU-Matias H. Aznar Memorial College of Medicine.
Eighty-three students of the Southwestern University students, of whom 23 graduated last year, claim the dispute endangered their preparations for the medical board examinations and, subsequently, for the medical profession.
The students accused CHED of bias towards one of the schools by granting it government recognition and cancelling the permit and authority of the other to operate its College of Medicine.
Lawyer Joseph Noel Estrada, counsel for the students, said that they are taking up the issue to the Ombudsman as their earlier pleas “fell in deaf ears.”
“The prejudicial acts, omissions and wanton bias of Ched and Bernal to MHAM place the current medical students’ academic status and future profession in great peril and uncertainty as CHED continues to unduly deprive recognition to their school, SWU,” according to the complaint.