CHED Chair should have resigned in 2016

Majority of the faculty members in the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) were jubilant upon learning of Patricia Licuanan’s resignation from Commission on Higher Education (CHED) as Chairperson on January 15, 2017 and of which was accepted by President Duterte.

Licuanan was an appointee of former President Noynoy Aquino. She was expected to tender her courtesy resignation upon the assumption of office of President Duterte in 2016. But she instead chose to remain as CHED chair despite the clamor for her resignation. She was asked to stop attending Cabinet meetings in December 2016. She complied with the directive but continued to hold office as CHED chair creating confusion and bewilderment in the Commission.

Based on her resignation letter, Licuanan mentioned two important issues that made her decide to resign her post.

First, she was accused of excessive international travels. According to her she had travelled abroad as CHED chair eight (8) times in 2017; five (5) times in 2016; six (6) times in 2015; and two (2) times in 2014. Rep. Jericho Nograles revealed to the media the travel documents that show Licuanan approving her own excessive travels. It was at that point that Licuanan questioned the loyalty and integrity of the Commission knowing that only few offices have access to her travel documents.

Second, she was accused of mismanagement and corruption in the release of allowances to Faculty scholars in the K-12 Transition Program also known as CHED scholars. But according to her, CHED faced heavy challenges in the release of allowances due to discrepancies and deficiencies of documents of the Faculty scholars submitted to CHED and the need to abide by government accounting and auditing rules.

With all of these allegations and counter-allegations, I must say that Patricia Licuanan should have resigned from the Commission the day President Duterte assumed Office out of delicadeza. As a presidential appointee of a former President, she is bound by morals to resign and it is called courtesy resignation. In the context of Philippine politics, a courtesy resignation is an offer to resign without the meaning to resign just because their right to stay in their jobs is coterminous with the term of the appointing power who has resigned or dismissed or whose term of office has ended or lapsed. Actually, her argument that her term ends in July 2018 is true but she could have opted to resign after she was barred or banned from attending cabinet meetings. She should have resigned out of delicadeza. In the Philippine context (again) delicadeza is having the grace to give up one’s position of authority when staying in authority involved impropriety. Licuanan had two options in 2016 to resign out of delicadeza or to tender a courtesy resignation.

Today, she resigned from CHED neither out of delicadeza nor as a courtesy resignation. She resigned because she is beleaguered of scandals and controversies. She will bring with her resignation the issue of corruption and mismanagement. My colleagues in USEP who are CHED scholars have not received their allowance for almost a year now. Some faculty members from other colleges opted to terminate the scholarship because they could not anymore finance their studies.

Finally, Patricia Licuanan will bring in her disgraceful exit the manipulation and travesty she wielded during the presidential election of USEP (University of Southeastern Philippines) in 2015. She will always be remembered by this writer as “the CHED woman who offered the USEP presidency on a silver platter with manipulation and deceit to another woman”. I know because I was there. I accompanied a female sheriff in serving a (TRO) Temporary Restraining Order to restrain the CHED chair in the person of Patricia Licuanan from holding the USEP election. Lo and behold! The election was held and the TRO was not honored nor respected.