BONTOC, Mountain Province – The Board of Trustees of the Mountain Polytechnic College approved the recommendation of a three-man independent investigating committee created by the Commission on Higher Education to dismiss all complaints filed against Dr. Nieves A. Dacyon, president of the State-run higher education institution, for “want of prima facie case.”
In its 109-page recommendation, the independent investigating committee composed of Dr. Freddie Bernal, former CHED-Cordillera regional director, Dr. LauroTacbas, president of the University of North Philippines and Marife Flores, noted that students, faculty and the community have gone extra-legally, like disruption of classes, rallies by some government employees but participation of politicians heightened the clamor for Dacyon’s resignation and request for the designation of an officer-in-charge.
“While the right to ask for redress of grievance is respected in this jurisdiction, it must not be so overwhelming exercise to go beyond what the law, the rules and reasons require. The exhaustion of legal remedies by directing complaints before the competent fora has not been exercised,” the report stated.
It added that filing and tension led to unrest in the institution.
“For its part, the committee had seen the case in the legal perspective and decided the case based on the evidence on record. We are not persuaded by the complaints,” the report cited.
On the issue of appointments by the president, the committee said all of Dacyon’s appointees and designations passed through the regular process of the personnel selection board and that she exercised her wide latitude of discretion pursuant to civil service rules and regulations in selecting the right person for the office plus the fact that the appointments were all approved by the board of trustees.
“The rule is that an appointment is essentially a discretionary act, performed by an officer in whom it is vested according to his or her best judgment, the only condition being that the appointee should possess all the qualifications required,” the committee report cited.
The report stated the committee is not persuaded by the mere allegations posed by the witnesses. The presumption of regularity in the performance of official duties enjoyed by Dacyon cannot be disregarded by mere allegations. Mere allegations are not proof.
The committee ruled many of the complained acts were done in the exercise of management prerogatives and such prerogative is left for management to decide, no matter how unpopular they would be. Again, it is left to management’s exercise of their best lights, which are not within the competence of the complainants to decide.
The committee said participation or non-participation in festivals by a College administrator does not amount to an administrative or criminal offense and Dacyon’s non-participation in the previous staging of the Lang-ay Festival as alleged by former Gov. and Rep. MaximoDalog is a non-issue in the case filed against her before the board.
With respect to the imposition of fees, the committee found this in order considering that collection of school fees are supported by board resolutions, and were within the coverage of CHED Memorandum Order No. 14.
Upon learning of the dismissal of the numerous complaints filed against her before the board, Dacyon said that the independent investigating team was able to prove that the allegations against her when they tried to oust her were baseless, unfounded and unfair and that the same were tainted with politics.
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