SR row 'confuses' UP-PGH - Gonzales
Wednesday, 03 February 2010 01:35 PM Merck Maguddayao

The latest controversy hounding the University of the
Philippines' (UP) Student Regent (SR) has resulted to “confusion” and
the “derailment” of the functions of the UP-Philippine General
Hospital (UP-PGH), according to Dr. Jose Gonzales, the Director-elect
of the country's biggest public hospital.

“I thought everything was alright after the oath-taking. I’d been
functioning as director since then,” Gonzales said on Gmanews.tv. “The
PGH community is already confused. We need to move on. It really
derails our mentality that we are thinking of this [controversy] while
we are working,” he added, referring to the UP Board of Regents' (BOR)
decision last January 5 to put on hold his directorship, which was
instead given to UP Manila (which houses UP-PGH) Chancellor Ramon
Arcadio, who sits as officer-in-charge.

Gonzales was elected as UP-PGH Director last 18 December 2009 by UP's
highest-policy-making body via a simple majority of 6-5. The six
regents who voted for Gonzales were BOR Chair Emmanuel Angeles,
Senator Mar Roxas, Alumni Regent Alfredo Pascual, Staff Regent Buboy
Cabrera, Faculty Regent Judy Taguiwalo, and SR Charisse Bernardine
Banez. Meanwhile, the five regents who voted in favor of Gonzales' co-
nominee incumbent UP-PGH Director Dr. Carmelo Alfiler were BOR Vice-
Chair and UP President Emerlinda Roman, Representative Cynthia Villar,
and Malacanang-appointed regents Abraham Sarmiento, Nelia Gonzalez,
and Francis Chua.

Gonzalez was supposed to take his oath of office last January 4 but
the oath-taking was postponed by Roman in lieu of a protest filed by
Sarmiento with the BOR, questioning the legitimacy of UP Los Banos
(UPLB)-based Banez after UPLB Chancellor Luis Rey Velasco “confirmed”
that the SR was not officially enrolled in the second semester or
academic year 2009-2010.

“They are sacrificing the patients," Gonzales said while adding that
the directorship row affected the hospital's officials, staff, and
patients.

A UP Manila medicine student seconded Gonzales' notion, saying that UP-
PGH is “functionally paralyzed” and that the hospital “cannot start
new programs” because the “chair isn't official.”
Students' stand

Meanwhile, student organizations took a stand days after the removal
of their regent.

In a joint statement, the national democratic-led League of Filipino
Students (LFS) and AnakBayan (AB) condemned the removal of Banez and
dismissed it as an “administration maneuver” since Alfiler “wants PGH
to be privatized,” which is allegedly “the aim of Malacanang.”

The groups added that the UP administration used “technicalities” to
remove Banez and that UPLB Chancellor Velasco “barred” Banez from
enrolling because she is “critical in denouncing the widespread
repression inside the [UPLB] campus.” Banez is a member of the UPLB-
based Sakbayan party, which is affiliated with LFS and AB.

Furthermore, the UP Visayas-based Sandigan para sa Mag-aaral at
Sambayanan Party Alliance (SAMASA-PA), a national democratic-leaning
student alliance, said that “Bañez’s unseating effectively removes our
lone student representative” in the BOR and “it opens the door to the
implementation of more anti-student and anti-people policies in the
university.”

“The ouster of SR Bañez must therefore be understood in the context of
her outstanding track record as a student leader. Throughout her term,
SR Bañez has been steadfast in upholding the students’ rights and
interests within and outside the BOR,” SAMASA-PA said in a statement.

Meanwhile, UP-Kaisa, a UP Diliman-based student party and affiliated
with the Left political center Sanlakas, called for “quick” selection
of an “interim Student Regent.” The said party also called for the
“changing” of the rules in selecting the SR “to make the Office of the
Student Regent more responsible, professional, and democratic.”

The BOR is highest policy-making body of the entire UP System, which
includes UP-hosted public facilities like the UP-PGH. The SR, which is
currently vacant, is the lone representative of the students in the
"country's premier state university" and exercises co-equal power with
the other regents.