QUEZON CITY, Philippines (Eagle News) — Commission on Higher Education chair Patricia Licuanan declared she was resigning during Monday’s flag raising ceremony of CHED in its head office in Quezon City, even as no less than President Rodrigo Duterte himself said that he has dismissed the CHED chair.
“I have dismissed Licuanan today, doon sa CHED,” the President said on Monday in his speech during the inauguration of the new crime laboratory building in Davao City.
Earlier, Licuanan said that she received a call from Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea over the weekend asking her to resign.
Licuanan’s term should have been up to July 2018.
“Over the weekend I received a call for Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea asking me to resign as chairperson of the Commission on Higher Education. While my term by law ends in July 2018, I have decided it is time to go,” she said.
“It has become obvious that there are persons determined to get me out of CHED by hurling false and baseless accusations against me in what appears to be a fishing expedition and well-orchestrated move in media,” she added.
Licuanan has been accused of going on trips abroad without Malacanang’s approval.
But Licuanan said that these were merely “made up” by people who want her out of CHED.
“The accusations hurled against me – excessive travel, then traveling without permission from Malacanan, now misuse of K to 12 transition funds for teachers – are all false and made up by people in CHED who want me out,” Licuanan said.
“I have also ceased to be effective as I am almost always outvoted in Commission en Banc meetings,” she added.
(Eagle News Service)