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[av_heading heading=’After Palace exec’s call, CHED chairwoman resigns ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY PRINCE GOLEZ
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January 16, 2018
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MANILA – It was a call from Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea that made her decide to resign, the chairwoman of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) said.
Patricia Licuanan, accused of getting into excessive overseas trips, announced her resignation in a speech after a flag ceremony at their office on Monday.
In a phone call over the weekend, Medialdea asked her to step down, Licuanan said. “While my term, by law, ends in July 2018, I have decided it is time to go.”
“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.
According to Licuanan, she went abroad on official capacity only eight times last year and was allowed to travel business class “to avoid the recurrence of vertigo.”
Earlier Rep. Jericho Nograles of the Puwersa ng Bayaning Atleta party-list accused Licuanan of traveling without the approval of Malacañang.
“What I cannot understand is how Rep. Jericho Nograles got hold of my internal travel documents for the past five years,” said Licuanan.
“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 Malacañang.
“The question is, who put these together and who offered it to the congressman?”
Licuanan also clarified the delay in the release of living allowances for faculty scholars under the K-12 Transition Program.
She blamed the “discrepancies and deficiencies in documents submitted to CHED” and “the need to abide by government accounting and auditing rules.”
The volume of documents that required thorough vetting “[puts] 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,” she added.
Licuanan said she was “deeply grateful” for the opportunity to serve the education sector and wished for higher education reforms to continue despite the “political cloud.”
In December 2016, Licuanan had said she was told by Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. to stop attending all Cabinet meetings./PN
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