FEU’s De Jesus is DepEd chief

Far Eastern University (FEU) president Edilberto de Jesus is the new secretary of education, a Cabinet post that President Arroyo had originally wanted to give him after she assumed the presidency on January 2001.

De Jesus is expected to be sworn on Sept. 16, before President Arroyo leaves for a three-country European trip.

The STAR had reported on Aug. 18 in a headline story that De Jesus was likely to succeed Raul Roco, who resigned Aug. 13 in protest over Mrs. Arroyo’s order to investigate him for alleged graft complaint filed by the Department of Education (DepEd) employees union.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said yesterday De Jesus requested Malacañang that his official appointment be announced only after he had formally informed the FEU board of trustees that he has accepted the Cabinet appointment.

It was not clear whether he had done so as of yesterday.

Bunye called De Jesus an educator and a "non-politician."

De Jesus, who received a doctorate degree in modern Southeast Asian history from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, was unable to become DepEd secretary when Mrs. Arroyo was forming her first Cabinet because he was already FEU president at the time.

De Jesus, 60, is also president of the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities and a board member of the Ateneo de Manila University where he graduated.

He was President Corazon Aquino’s adviser on rural development from 1988 to 1992, after which he returned to the private sector as FEU president.

De Jesus recently figured in a controversy involving a court case filed by FEU students opposing an alleged money-making "racket" by the FEU administration through changes in the university’s accounting curriculum in the middle of a semester.

De Jesus an ally - students

The student sector did not oppose the appointment of De Jesus with

Raymond Palatino, president of the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP), describing him as more open to dialogue with students compared with other university presidents.

Palatino requested De Jesus to immediately review the Revised Basic Education Curriculum (RBEC).

"We may never agree on issues and we were uncompromising in our criticism on his school’s tuition rates, but when the time came to unite and challenge the Reserve Officer’s Training Course (ROTC), De Jesus was the only school official who openly affiliated himself with our campaign," he said.

Palatino was referring to last year’s strong campaign for the abolition of the ROTC in the wake of the brutal slaying of Mark Chua, an ROTC cadet of the University of Sto. Tomas.

Chua was allegedly killed by the UST ROTC officers in March last year following his exposé on their extortion activities. De Jesus supported the students’ call to abolish ROTC.

Palatino also called on De Jesus to work for the abolition of the Citizens’ Army Training in high school because it was "useless" like the ROTC.

Palatino said the students hoped that De Jesus would keep his communication line open for them.

The NUSP sought a review of the RBEC that Roco implemented in June despite resistance by students’ and teachers’ groups.

The groups claimed that RBEC’s "globalist" orientation may lead to a lost of the Filipino students’ sense of patriotism. They also said that the DepEd did not prepare them adequately for the introduction of the new curriculum.

Meanwhile, a group of congressmen, media people, non-government organizations in the Visayas strongly lobbied for the appointment of Rep. Gerardo Espina from Biliran.

In a statement, Laguna Rep. Joaquin Chipeco Jr., chairman of the 36-member group in the House of Representatives called the Southern Tagalog Alliance, said Espina was qualified to become DepEd secretary despite being a politician. - With Marichu Villanueva, Rico Bautista