Soon, another presidential race
No, not for President of the Republic of the Philippines, but, for some Filipinos, an almost equally significant post — that of president of the University of the Philippines System, who will be chosen by the UP Board of Regents in a meeting in mid-November. Standing at the forefront of Philippine higher education, UP — recognized by its new Charter as “the national university” — very often sets the standards and the tone for other Philippine universities, especially State-funded ones, to follow. Thus, the position is much more than honorific or ceremonial; the UP president is expected to be a visionary, an executive, a manager, a motivator, a mentor, a democrat, a disciplinarian, a nationalist and an internationalist all at once.
UP presidents have been known to surprise their constituencies. The very first one, Dr. Murray Simpson Bartlett, was an American and, of all things, a Protestant pastor — and yet he envisaged the new institution as a “University for Filipinos.”
Edgardo J. Angara was a successful lawyer and a budding politician, having served as a delegate to the 1971 Constitutional Convention, when he was asked by outgoing UP president Onofre D. Corpuz to consider taking over in 1981. The reluctant nominee and non-academic turned out to be one of UP’s best presidents, restructuring the university’s organization, boosting faculty salaries and reforming its curricula.
Francisco Nemenzo was a professed Marxist who modernized the university’s facilities and mindset, revitalizing UP’s core General Education program, and making better commercial use of UP’s vast landholdings. Emerlinda R. Roman broke barriers as UP’s first woman president, after having served twice as chancellor of UP Diliman. A management expert, she was able to harness considerable resources on the crest of UP’s centennial in 2008 and to employ those to the UP community’s benefit.
Incumbent president Alfredo E. Pascual’s ascendancy to the presidency came as a surprise to nearly everyone — perhaps including Pascual himself — when the BOR elected him in 2010 on the first ballot, reportedly by a one-vote margin (by tradition, the BOR members agree on a unanimous vote after the fact). A Chemistry and MBA graduate who later spent many years in the private sector and with the Asian Development Bank, Pascual was seen to be an outsider and went off to a rocky start. But he proved to be a quick study, and has worked hard to raise UP’s international profile and its connections, to raise performance incentives for UP’s professors and researchers, and to expand the UP System’s reach.
Their successor, according to search guidelines recently released by the BOR, must meet the following basic standards: 1) hold a master’s degree, with a doctorate preferred; 2) have substantial academic experience at the tertiary level; 3) be able to serve the full term of six years before reaching the age of 70; and 4) have no conviction for administrative and criminal offenses.
Additionally, and just as importantly, they should demonstrate 1) a commitment to academic excellence and national development; 2) the political will and the skills to defend and promote academic freedom and the University’s institutional autonomy; 3) a commitment to democratic governance in the university based on collegiality, representation, accountability, transparency, and active participation of constituents; and 4) a commitment to preserve the public and secular character of the university. (There are more requirements, which you can check out in the guidelines here: http://www.up.edu.ph/call-for-nominations-for-the-next-u-p-president/.)
This early, several prominent academics and personalities have been heard or rumored to be interested in running for the presidency. They include UP Law dean and popular radio host Danilo Concepcion; former UP Diliman chancellor and physicist Caesar Saloma; current UP Diliman chancellor, anthropologist, and newspaper columnist Michael Tan; current vice president for Academic Affairs and marine biologist Gisela Concepcion; and former senator and now Representative and UP Law alumna Pia Cayetano. The names of former vice president for Academic Affairs and now National Historical Commission chief Maris Diokno and of former CSSP dean Cynthia Bautista have also been mentioned. (My information, mind you, is based on coffeeshop chatter, and could very well be denied by any of these eminent persons tomorrow.)
In practical terms, and despite and away from all the spirited rhetoric we can expect of the campaign process, it will all come down to a matter of securing six votes among the 11 members of the BOR. The composition of that board is provided for by the new UP Charter, RA 9500 (which, as Dodong Nemenzo’s vice president for public affairs, I among others had the privilege of lobbying for in the Senate before it passed under Emer Roman in 2008, perhaps the government’s greatest gift to UP on its centennial).
The BOR comprises the chairperson of the Commission on Higher Education, who also serves as the BOR’s chair; the incumbent UP president, who serves as co-chair; the chairs of the Senate and House committees on education; the president of the UP Alumni Association; the elected representatives of the UP faculty, staff, and student sectors; and three regents appointed at large by the President of the Philippines (the BOR will recommend a shortlist of persons chosen for their academic and professional accomplishments — at least two of them have to be UP alumni — but the President can technically make other selections). Effectively, therefore — considering that the two representatives from the Senate and the House will likely be Malacañang allies — the Philippine President can exercise tremendous influence in selecting the UP president.
Before the new Charter defined an odd-numbered BOR, a tie was possible. In 2004, the then 12-person BOR was deadlocked 6-6 between Emer Roman and the Palace candidate, then Ambassador to the UK Edgardo Espiritu. The tie was broken 7-5 in a second vote a week later.
It’s a critical choice for both the Palace and the university because UP’s history is replete with instances when the two presidents have clashed bitterly, with sometimes brutal consequences. Rafael Palma fought Manuel L. Quezon over political issues, including free speech at UP, as a result of which the government cut UP’s budget and denied Palma a gratuity upon his retirement in 1933 after a decade of service. (Upon Palma’s death in 1939, however, Quezon praised him as “a patriot, a scholar and one of the noblest characters that ever lived,” and even had Palma’s interment delayed so he could personally attend.) Bienvenido Gonzalez and Elpidio Quirino also warred over academic freedom. Salvador Lopez stood up to his fraternity brother Ferdinand Marcos in defense of civil liberties.
Bearing these presidents and precedents in mind, if you have a candidate whom you feel should lead UP onward, take note that nominations will close on Sept. 23; the BOR election will be held Nov. 15; and the incoming UP president will take office on Feb. 10, 2017.
I myself will be retiring from full-time teaching in three years and so will see only half of the next president’s term through, but whoever gets chosen should have an impact less on the outgoing profs like me than on the incoming freshmen of Batch 2017. Admittedly, UP could always do better at basketball, but choosing the next coach of the UP System could prove just as important to the shaping of the Filipino mind as the one that 16 million of us made just a few months ago.
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Email me at penmanila@yahoo.com and visit my blog at www.penmanila.net.
