Licuanan blames CHEd official for power play

Patricia Licuanan

Embattled Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) Chair Patricia Licuanan has put the blame for the brewing power struggle in the agency on a ranking official who allegedly forced other officials to sign a manifesto asking President Duterte to appoint a temporary head to take her place.

Licuanan said CHEd Executive Director Julito Vitriolo has a track record of undermining the past heads of the agency.

“I think Atty. Vitriolo is acting as he normally does,” said Licuanan in an interview with GMA News to Go on Friday, breaking her silence on the manifesto signed by several CHEd officials calling for her replacement.

“I’m grateful the past six years he (Vitriolo) has been relatively peaceful here at CHEd. He hasn’t given me problems in a sense. I thought we had reached a modus vivendi but I guess he saw this opportunity to strike, to move,” said Licuanan.

Last week, Vitriolo led other officials in signing a manifesto that underscored the importance of the commission being represented in the Cabinet so it can craft and implement programs consistent with the new administration’s program development for the higher education sector.

The manifesto urged Mr. Duterte to appoint an officer in charge who can serve as his alter ego and represent the agency in the Cabinet.

In an earlier interview, Vitriolo said the commission will continue to be “in limbo” if Licuanan insisted on staying as head of CHEd.

But Licuanan maintained that she has the responsibility to the framers of the CHEd law to continue in office and work on the problems that plague the country’s higher education.

“I want to ask them, have I been doing a reasonably good job, have I been doing such a horrible job that you want me to resign?” she asked. “Essentially, I believe the move for my resignation within CHEd is really the work of the executive director and a very small group of his loyal soldiers.”

She also disclosed that some officials whose name and signature appeared in the document submitted to Malacañang last week have approached her, regretful for participating in such a move.

“I’ve known this from the start that there’s a lot of pressure, there’s a lot of fear, it’s hard to understand,” she said.

Licuanan, an appointee of former President Benigno Aquino III, also disclosed her plan to meet with Mr. Duterte soon to get a clearer picture of why she was asked to desist from attending Cabinet meetings starting Dec. 5.

“I want him to also talk to me and tell me what happened since the time he assured me that he would respect my term and when he instructed me to continue my work because I think I am a good member of bureaucracy … I am committed to the 10-point socioeconomic agenda,” she said.