CHEd chief told to quit over ‘pork’

Commission on Higher Education Chair Patricia Licuanan PHOTO FROM CHED.GOV.PH

MANILA, Philippines–A militant party-list group on Thursday said Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) Chair Patricia Licuanan should resign for “tolerating the pork barrel system.”

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) issued the call after Licuanan admitted that scholar-beneficiaries identified by lawmakers were given priority in the CHEd’s P4.1-billion scholarship fund realigned from the outlawed congressional pork barrel, officially known as the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

ACT secretary general France Castro said in a statement that Licuanan had lost all moral authority to sit as the head of CHEd for allowing the pork barrel system to continue despite the Supreme Court ruling outlawing the PDAF.

“She allowed her office to be used for patronage politics,” said Castro.

At the congressional hearing on the CHEd’s 2015 budget last Monday, Licuanan said that lawmakers received P14 million each from the redeployed P4.1 billion PDAF in the form of scholarships for their chosen beneficiaries.

ACT party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio also released an audio recording of an executive session of the House committee on appropriations where Licuanan admitted that she was “dealing and accepting the political reality that this is the PDAF,” referring to scholarship fund inserted in the CHEd budget.

The ACT joined the protest action against Licuanan staged by students and staff of the University of the Philippines (UP) in Diliman, Quezon City, held during the monthly meeting on Thursday of the UP Board of Regents. Licuanan heads the board in her capacity as CHEd chair.

The ACT said the CHEd’s allocation of the scholarship money “make students act like beggars asking for alms from congressmen.”