4 accused of graft for bid to oust president of Manila university

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MANILA, Philippines – Students and employees of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) have filed graft charges against four senior university officials for their alleged illegal acts to unseat PLM president Artemio Tuquero.

In a 10-page complaint they filed in the Office of the Ombudsman, the student council and university personnel accused Amado Valdez, chairman of the PLM Board of Regents, and board members Adelaida Rodriguez-Magsaysay, Corazon Rubio and Estrellita Bautista of serious dishonesty, grave misconduct and oppression.

They also charged them with violation of Republic Act 6713, or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.

The complainants asked Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales to immediately issue a preventive suspension order against the four PLM officials to prevent them from influencing the conduct of the investigation.

The complaint was signed by representatives of the PLM Administrative Employees Association, Academic Employees Association of PLM and the PLM Supreme Student Council.

In their joint affidavit, the complainants said the respondents convened a clandestine meeting of the Board of Regents on July 8 without informing the three other members of the board—Tuquero, Renato dela Cruz and Ramon Bagatsing.

In that meeting, the board issued a resolution recalling Tuquero’s appointment as university president and declaring the position vacant.

Tuquero, 82, a retired Court of Appeals justice who served as justice secretary under the Estrada administration, was able to secure a temporary restraining order from a Manila Regional Trial Court to block his ouster.

The complainants said the holding of the board meeting violated PLM’s University Code, which states that special meetings may be held “provided that the members are properly notified in advance.”

“The manner by which the meeting was conducted… is highly irregular, if not illegal, and in blatant violation of established procedure for the holding of board meeting under the University Code,” the complainants said.

They said the respondents wanted to remove Tuquero from office “by virtue of a hastily constituted board resolution being a by-product of a hastily convened” board meeting.

Citing the university charter, they said Tuquero may be removed from office only “on the grounds of incapacity, incompetence, dishonesty and/or conviction of a crime involving moral turpitude.”

“Premises considered, it is very evident that the respondents went beyond their authority as members of the (board). They exercised the rights granted to them… in a despotic, arbitrary, bias and oppressive manner to the detriment of the PLM community as a whole,” the complaint read.

It said the acts of the accused were part of a “concerted and premeditated move to wrest and consolidate power and authority over the administration” of the city-funded academic institution.