CHED exec clarifies report

MANILA, Philippines - A Commission on Higher Education (CHED) official sought to clarify a STAR report which she claimed said that she resigned from her post as CHED’s director for Administrative and Finance Services, and had not made allegations of irregularities in the commission’s five-year  Philippine-California Advanced Research Institutes (PCARI) research projects.

“The report is not factual for I have not resigned from my Office as the Director for Administrative and Finance Services, neither did I allege any irregularity as contained in the same report,” Carmina B. Alonzo, said in a letter to the STAR.

Alonzo referred to a Star report written by this writer titled “ CHED in trouble over science research project” that came out last October 3, that also came out in the online edition http://www.philstar.com/education-anhome/2013/10/03/1240876/ched-trouble-over-science-research-project

“I have tendered a resignation letter as an Ex-Officio member of the Bids and Awards Committee and not from the Commission on Higher Education. I resigned as an ex-officio member of the BAC for the simple reason that my membership therein is prohibited considering that as Director for Administrative and Finance Services, I am the disbursing officer for the goods, services and supplies needed by CHED. My resignation is based on a Supreme Court jurisprudence that upholds the principle of “check-and-balance,” Alonzo said. 

“I am offended by the article and the unauthorized disclosure and publication of portions of my BAC resignation letter. The statements quoted from my BAC resignation letter were taken out of context and are misleading,” Alonzo said. 

This writer was furnished a copy of Alonzo’s three-page resignation letter dated September 17 by his sources at CHED that listed Alonzo’s reasons for resigning as member of the BAC, which mostly discussed details of the PCARI project.

“I have neither used the word “irregularity” nor a P10 billion amount in the same letter. I do not know a reporter named Rainer Allan Ronda misquoting me in your news neither did I meet him in person. It is basic in responsible news writing that the concerned individual is consulted on the news that may affect them as you are dealing with people’s lives,” Alonzo said.

 I request that the news be corrected as the contents of the report are already damaging my reputation, my family, my standing in the Career Executive Roll and in my Office as I am already suffering sleepless nights and emotional trauma with the kind of confusing news reports coming out from your publication,” Alonzo said.