By
Erlindo Agwilang Jr.
Rep. Maximo B. Dalog of the Lone District of
Mountain Province wants to amend Republic Act 10583, the law converting
Mountain Province State Polytechnic College
(MPSPC) into state
university to be
known as Mountain
Province State University with
campuses in municipalities of Tadian, Bauko, Paracelis and Barlig.
Under House Bill No. 6321 filed Dec.
8, Dalog introduced amendments to
Republic Act 10583 by
extending deadline for the institution’s compliance with requirements
from Jan. 1, 2016 to Jan. 1, 2019 and at the same time transfer the main campus
located at Bontoc to Tadian.
This development arose
after the Commission on Higher Education revealed at the hearing of the
House Committee on Higher and Technical Education last Dec. 7 MPSPC has yet to
comply substantially with remaining requirements in research, faculty
qualifications, library assets and laboratory apparatus.
CHED’s newest update
on the SUC’s compliance with requirements for university status reads: “Based
on the findings of the Task Group during the latest visit on November 2015,
there are serious efforts made to comply with the CHED requirements. However,
there is need
for the college
to exert more
efforts towards complying
with the requirements for
a strong research
program, faculty qualifications, adequate
library resources and adequate library equipment.”
Lawyer Carmelita Y.
Sison, director for legal services noted significant improvement of MPSPC
from CHED’s last
visit.
She said
there is already
50-75% fulfillment ofMPSPC as
it complied with accreditation, linkages and
outreach, including
academic policies, systems
and procedures.
Along these
operational requirements, the institution needs to resolve minor
deficiencies as it lacks one more international linkage by presenting evidence
to verify the exact terms of reference of linkage other than the memorandum of
understanding submitted.
For faculty
requirement, CHED said
the program head
for engineering and
faculty teaching the professional courses
have no relevant
MBA and master’s
degree in Engineering.
It also noted that the
institution needs to comply with required minimum number of books and journal
subscriptions for IT, engineering, accountancy, and nursing programs.
Though there
are newly-acquired facilities
in chemistry, physics and
biology laboratories, the school needs licensed software for the information
technology program with
better internet connectivity in all campuses.
Meanwhile, the reason
for the transfer of main campus from Bontoc to Tadian was because of land area
requirement of CHED. Bontoc campus has only about 0.3963 hectares while Tadian
campus has 8.5729 hectares which is far above the land area required by CHED
for main campuses.
In his explanatory note, Dalog said the current
main campus has a limited space for expansion and
development thus the need to relocate it to Tadian which has more extensive and
comprehensive area.
The seat of governance
though in administering the affairs of the institution will remain at the
Bontoc campus.
“Considering further
that the MPSPC-Bontoc campus is located in the Central Town of Bontoc where the
seat of provincial and also where the national offices are located, it would be
easier and more convenient for the seat of governance of the MPSPC to be
located at the Bontoc Campus to efficiently and regularly deal with the provincial
and national offices,” Dalog added.
The explanatory note
of HB 6321 also reads: “Follow up reports submitted to the CHED on the status
of conversion reveals that there has already been substantial compliance on the
part of MPSPC. However, since we are fast-approaching the January 1, 2016
deadline, there is a need to extend said period to ensure that the MPSPC is
given the opportunity to comply with the remaining requirements and so as not
to waste time and resources spent by the college in trying to meet the
conditions set forth in RA 10583.”
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