PLM dispute worsens; board bans Tuquero on campus

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Despite a court order calling on the warring executives of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) to maintain the status quo, its Board of Regents has barred embattled university president Artemio Tuquero and other PLM officials from entering school premises, citing their “high-handed” tactics to cling to their positions.

Board chair Amado Valdez issued a memorandum Tuesday saying Tuquero, PLM counsel Carlos Carlos, and vice president for external affairs Roberto Rosales would be denied entry into the Intramuros campus for interfering with the implementation of a board resolution ordering Tuquero’s preventive suspension. Vice president for administration Marita Barrientos was added to the list of banned officials on Wednesday.

Tuquero, a retired Court of Appeals justice and former justice secretary, could not be immediately reached for comment. Calls and text messages to his mobile number went unanswered.

In the latest chapter in the leadership dispute plaguing the city-run university, the board last week imposed a three-month suspension on Tuquero while the office of Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada investigates the administrative complaints filed against him by Dean Gilmore Solidum of the College of Nursing.

“Out of the charges against him, the gravest was that he appointed a secretarial course graduate—Elena Cernias—dean (of the College of Management and Entrepreneurship and the Graduate School of Management),’’ Valdez told the Inquirer in a phone interview. “She was disqualified from holding the post after she allegedly collected money from students and failed to remit it to the Universidad de Manila, where she previously worked.”

Tuquero, 82, was appointed PLM regent by Estrada last year and was later elected president by the board. However, the Civil Service Commission invalidated his election, saying he failed to meet the educational requirement for state university heads and that his appointment was only as regent, not as president.

The PLM board then withdrew their election of Tuquero in a resolution in July, while Estrada issued a certification saying he did not appoint him PLM president.

Going to the Manila Regional Trial Court for relief, Tuquero later obtained a favorable ruling upholding the status quo pending full deliberations on his petition questioning the board’s action.

Earlier this week, a group of students and employees allegedly identified with Tuquero filed complaints in the Office of the Ombudsman against Valdez and three other regents for serious dishonesty, grave misconduct and oppression, in connection with their moves to oust Tuquero.

Valdez on Wednesday dismissed the complaints as yet another form of harassment from Tuquero, who he said was “trying to engage students and employees to rally behind him.”