Appointment of new head for Philippines state university held

MANILA, Philippines—A Manila Regional Trial Court judge has suspended the appointment of a new officer-in-charge for the Polytechnic University of the Philippines for at least 17 more days ostensibly to prevent trouble at the state university.

On Friday morning, Manila RTC Branch 26 Judge Silvino Pampilo extended for 17 days more a 72-hour temporary restraining order on the PUP board of regent’s appointment of Edicio de la Torre as new university OIC to temporarily replace incumbent university president Dante Guevarra starting July 6.

Guevarra’s four-year term as president was supposed to lapse July 5.

The three-day TRO was issued last Tuesday by Manila RTC Executive Judge Amor Reyes and was set to lapse Friday afternoon.

On July 4, the PUP board of regents issued a resolution appointing De la Torre as OIC. A day after, Guevarra filed a certiorari and mandamus petition with the Manila RTC to stop the board from implementing it decision and to nullify the resolution completely.

Guevarra’s petition included an application for preliminary injunction, and the three-day TRO which Reyes granted and Pampilo extended.

In his two-page order, Pampilo explained he was extending the TRO “in order to avoid or prevent the eruption of violence in the PUP campuses.” He also ordered Guevarra to pay a P20,000 cash bond.

While hearings on the petition are ongoing, Guevarra will remain in his post as PUP president in a holdover capacity.

In his petition, Guevarra argued that De la Torre’s appointment was in violation of the Higher Education  Modernization Act of 1997 and that the board committed grave abuse of discretion when it issued its  resolution on De la Torre’s appointment.

“When the incumbent president expresses his desire for reappointment… only after [he] is found to be qualified and eligible per standards set by the board may they exercise their discretion either to proceed with the search…or do away with the conduct of the search,” Guevarra said in his petition.

He added the board of regents should have performed a quantitative evaluation based on statistics, instead of just deciding based on qualitative and subjective analysis.

In Friday’s hearing, Guevarra’s counsel also pointed out that the board resolution was being protested by the student community. Ttthrongs of students showed up at the Branch 26 court room to show support for Guevarra’s petition.

On Wednesday, students also walked out of classes at the PUP main campus in Sta. Mesa, Manila, to dramatize their opposition to De la Torre’s appointment.

The board of regents, represented by the Office of the Solicitor General, in turn, argued that “there is no causal connection between the issue of whether [Guevarra] can seat in a holdover capacity and the violence that might erupt by virtue of the non-representation of students in the search committee,” Pampilo said  in his order.

At Friday’s hearing, the OSG also filed a motion to dismiss Guevarra’s petition, as well as a motion for Pampilo to inhibit himself as he used to be a professor at the PUP College of Law in Sta. Mesa, Manila, as endorsed by Guevarra.