UST RECTOR Fr. Herminio Dagohoy, O.P. is set to end his term as the University’s 96th Rector, and will take a leave of absence on Jan. 14, 2020, he told University administrators Friday.
“I am leaving the University without any tarnish to its reputation,” he said during the University’s Christmas party for administrators.
During his homily in the opening Mass for this year’s Paskuhan festivities last Dec. 2, Dagohoy thanked the UST community as he urged Thomasians to “look back and remember, and to anticipate.”
“I thank you for being a wonderful community, and we thank God for all the blessings we have received over the last seven years,” he said.
“[May we] anticipate with joy and with hope the blessings which will come our way in the next four or eight years,” he added.
Sources told the Varsitarian that UST Growling Tigers head coach Aldin Ayo apologized to Dagohoy for not fulfilling the Rector’s wish for UST to win a basketball crown before he steps down.
Ayo was tapped to call shots for the Tigers in January 2018. The Tigers fell short as they finished as runners up to the Ateneo Blue Eagles in UAAP Season 82.
Vice Rector Fr. Richard Ang, O.P. will assume the post of acting rector.
Before being named Rector, Dagohoy was internal auditor and director of finance and administration of UST Hospital.
The process of selecting the next rector is outlined in the UST General Statutes. Any Filipino member of the Dominican Order holding a civil or ecclesiastical doctorate degree is eligible to become rector.
After a convocation of the University’s Dominican friars, the UST vice chancellor, Fr. Napoleon B. Sipalay Jr., O.P., will approve the terna or list of three candidates and present it to the Academic Senate, which will then scrutinize and rank the candidates.
The Senate is composed of the Vice Chancellor, who is the provincial or head of the Dominican Province of the Philippines, and the University’s vice rectors, deans and secretary-general.
The vice chancellor then transmits the ranked list to the Board of Trustees, whose members include the vice rectors, the secretary general and other Dominican friars.
The names and credentials of the chosen candidates will later be submitted to the Master of the Order and University chancellor, Fr. Gerard Timoner III, O.P., who will endorse the ranked list of candidates to the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education for final evaluation.
The Holy See will then issue the declaration “nihil obstat,” Latin for “nothing obstructs” or “there is no obstacle,” and gives the name of the top nominee back to the Master of the Order, who makes the official appointment.
