Makati school’s closure final, says CHEd

The Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) said Monday it issued its final closure order on the International Academy of Management and Economics (IAME)  in Makati City, denying the school’s claim that Malacañang had allowed it to resume operations in the new school year.

In a statement, CHEd Chair Patricia Licuanan said the order was issued Feb. 16 for “gross and serious violations and continuous defiance, and noncompliance by the institution of CHEd Policies, Standards and Guidelines.”

The CHEd notified the school of the closure of all three courses offered at IAME—Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Master in Business Administration and Doctor of Philosophy in Management.

Licuanan issued the statement yesterday in response to a post on IAME’s official website, where the school claimed that President Aquino himself had revoked the closure order.

IAME also claimed that Aquino declared the school an “autonomous Higher Educational (sic) Institution and a Center of Excellence.”

“The Office of the President has sustained, supported and upheld the CHEd action in the valid and lawful exercise of its statutory regulatory function to protect the welfare and interests of the general public,” Licuanan said.

The CHEd also cited a letter that Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa sent to IAME president Emmanuel Santos on March 26 in response to the latter’s appeal.

“This office has no authority to act on the matter,” Ochoa said in the letter. “The CHEd is independent and separate from the DepEd (Department of Education) and attached to the Office of the President for administrative purposes only.”

Ochoa also told Santos that Malacañang’s administrative supervision over CHEd “shall not include the power to review, reverse, revise or modify the decisions of regulatory agencies in the exercise of their regulatory or quasi-judicial functions.”