Tag: Andre Arnold T. Santiago

AFTER a decade-long delay, the Students’ Code will soon be on the Rector's table.

Outgoing Central Student Council (CSC) President Gab Kintanar said in an interview that the code will be submitted to Rector Fr. Herminio Dagohoy, O.P. after being signed by the CSC Central Board consisting of the CSC president and the local student council presidents, and Prof. Evelyn Songco, assistant to the rector for student affairs. The code is with Songco at present.

When the Rector approves the code, he will then endorse it to the Council of Regents and the Academic Senate, said Artlets student council president Henry Villamiel. If it passes muster, the code will be submitted to the student body for a plebiscite.

UST IS set to terminate the services of full-time and tenured faculty members who would fail to earn a master’s degree by the end of the academic year.

School officials set the deadline in compliance with Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) Memorandum No. 46, requiring such faculty members to have at least a master’s degree by this year so the university could keep its autonomous status.

Autonomy means independence from regular monitoring and evaluation by CHEd, freedom to set academic calendars, and the privilege to revise its curriculum and to establish branches or satellite campuses, among others.

THE IMPASSE between administrators and the faculty union over employment terms threatens to be a repeat of the labor troubles experienced by the University more than two decades ago.

Disagreements between the University of Santo Tomas Faculty Union (USTFU) and the UST administration over a new, five-year collective bargaining agreement (CBA) have led to a deadlock, which could be a prelude to a strike.

A FORMER Budget secretary thinks President Aquino was bluffing when he said last Aug. 23 that he would abolish the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), popularly known as “pork barrel.”

It was an insincere attempt to resolve the issue, said UP economist Benjamin Diokno, former secretary of the Department of Budget and Management under the administration of President Joseph Estrada who’s now Manila mayor.

The President drew flak over his Aug. 23 announcement, which was interpreted as not abolishing PDAF per se but instead introducing a “modified” system of pork barrel.

PDAF has become a bribe from the president for lawmakers to be lenient in their constitutional duty to scrutinize carefully the national budget, Diokno said.

WILL K to 12 boost Filipino graduates’ marketability?

President Aquino signed last May 15 the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013, the law mandatory to the K to 12 program, extending basic education to 12 years.

Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) Commissioner Cynthia Bautista said the new law will somehow “level” Filipino students with students in other countries. Filipino students usually fall short in terms of competency due to lack of education, she said.

“Filipinos will get jobs in Asia but they will be vulnerable to sub-optimal conditions because they lack two years,” said Bautista.

The additional two years will allow Filipino graduates to continue their studies abroad, she added.