Licuanan should not go/The way Duterte speaks

Yesterday was Blue Monday for me as Dr. Patricia Licuanan read her letter in Karen Davila’s television Headstart program resigning her post as chair of the Commission on Higher Education. What a waste that a most competent, non-political educator should be pressured to quit over false claims filed against her. In her letter she said Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea had asked her to resign, and, although her term of office by law ends in July 2018, “I have decided it is time to go.”

It is up to President Duterte to accept or turn down her resignation. Several months earlier, he had asked her not to attend Cabinet meetings for unexplained reasons. The CHED head held her head high, saying her term was up to July 2018. But.

“It has become obvious that there are persons determined to get me out of CHED by hurling false and baseless accusations against me in what appears to be a fishing expedition and a well-orchestrated move in media,” she said on television.

She said she was first accused of excessive travel. “When records revealed that I travelled 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.”

When her office provided copies of travel papers signed by the Senior Deputy Executive Secretary  authorizing her to meet specific commitments  in line with CHED’s internationalization mandate and allowing her to travel business class to avoid the recurrence of vertigo, her 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.”

What she cannot understand is how Rep. Jericho Nograles got hold of her 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 Malacanang. The question is, who put these together and who offered it to the congressman?”

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.”

Said Dr. Licuanan: “The K to 12 Transition Program began in 2016 to prevent massive displacement of higher education faculty and staff, while upgrading the quality of higher education.  Admittedly there have been challenges in the release of living allowances, but these were due to 1) discrepancies and deficiencies in documents submitted to CHED; 2) the volume of documents that required thorough vetting and that put the onus of accountability and final review of the documents previously checked by contractual staff on an extremely limited number of staff with plantilla items; and 3) the need to abide by government accounting and auditing rules.”

Since CHED’s effort to fast-track processing last November 2017, the 2,828 scholars who have submitted valid documents have already received their allowances as of today – full allowances for 2,247 scholars and partial allowances for 581 scholars with remaining deficiencies in terms of submission following accounting and auditing rules, in line with the same rules, funds for the 1,268 scholars who have not submitted valid enrollment forms and authenticated copies of grades for the previous semester will be released as soon as these requirements are met, said Licuanan.

Chair Licuanan strongly denounced “malicious allegations of corruption and mismanagement of funds.” She said it had been her “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.”

Although she vehemently denies the accusations against her, it is time, she said, “to resign as my continued presence in CHED is inimical to the interest of the institution. It will only serve as a 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. It is particularly important for CHED to focus on its work especially at this critical time when it prepares for the implementation of Republic Act 10931 or the “Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act.

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My questions directed to the Honorable Jericho Nograles are, why do you want to get rid of Dr. Licuanan? Now that she has answered your charges of corruption and mismanagement, should you not apologize to her? I can only hope that the person you have in mind to replace her as CHED chair will have her competence, integrity and dedication.

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ON ANOTHER FRONT: A very interesting book,  Deconstruct to Understand: Why President Duterte Talks His Way,  will be launched on Jan. 24 at the AMIC headquarters at the Philippine Women’s University on Taft Ave. Manila.

The book, edited by Crispin C. Maslog, consists of comments of eight communication specialists talking on the topic at a conference that brought together 200 communication professionals hosted by The Asia Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) last year on the theme: “Deconstructing Toward Understanding: The Communication Content and Style of President Rodrigo R. Duterte.” AMIC is headed by Secretary-General Ramon Tuazon.

One of the comments, by linguistics professor, Farah Cunanan, Ph.D., is that “President Rodrigo Duterte’s speaking style can be described as very raw – direct, unedited, no pretensions. He speaks his mind… how his emotions dictate. Being open is often thought of positively; but for the Philippine President speaking to a big audience, this poses a lot of questions . . .”

Presidential Communications Coordinating Office (PCOO) Director Martin Andanar justifies the personality of his boss: He talks of a Public Duterte – “the tough-talking mayor of Davao who forged order out of chaos, the man who rides a big bike and swears like a sailor . . . and Private Rody – “a mellow fellow, an introvert pushed to the brightest stage of the land, a kindly and unassuming man driven by empathy, and a romantic visionary . . . Private Rody is the man who went to his parents’ grave after winning the election, there to weep.”

On the other side, this criticism by National Artist and Ramon Magsaysay Awardee Francisco Sionil Jose: “The President does not realize that his greatest enemy is his own self, his mouth, because he thinks he knows all the answers. This differentiates him from Ramon Magsaysay, who surrounded himself with the best minds . . .”

Dr. Maslog says Deconstruct to Understand is an attempt to deconstruct Duterte’s language in order to make sense of it. Deconstruction is a method of analysis that states that a piece of writing does not have just one meaning. It shows how meaning depends on the reader. This method of critical analysis does not mean “demolition” but analyzing something to discover its true significance, whether intended by its proponent or not.

The 84-page book, published by AMIC is available at AIJC, AMIC office at the Philippine Women’s U, Solidaridad bookstore and Metro Manila bookstores at P180 a copy.

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