Former CHED chairman's last order branded as illegal

MANILA, Philippines - An education lawyer branded as illegal the last-minute order of outgoing Commission on Higher Education (CHED) chairman Emmanuel Angeles to require all state universities and colleges (SUCs) to get a CHED permit or authority for all their course programs, especially those that entail licensure examinations.

Lawyer Ulpiano Sarmiento III, a former congressman and now dean of the San Beda College Law School, said the CHED directive effectively tries to put SUCs under the authority of the commission.

“The policy that state universities and colleges must now submit themselves to the regulatory authority of the CHED has no basis on law,” Sarmiento stressed.

Sarmiento issued the statement in reaction to a CHED notice published in some newspapers yesterday.

The notice states the directive to all SUCs “to secure a permit or authority from the CHED for their board programs and the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) shall not admit applicants for licensure examination from educational institutions that will not comply with this directive.”

“Moreover, graduates of a particular board program without authority from CHED shall not be issued a Special Order which is a requirement by the PRC to allow graduates to take board examinations,” said the order of Angeles, who was formerly the president of the Angeles University Foundation that is controlled by his family.

Sarmiento also said Angeles should not invoke a Department of Justice (DOJ) legal opinion which had supported the position that local government funded and run universities and colleges are under the authority of the CHED.

“The DOJ opinion cited by the chairman actually pertains only to CHED jurisdiction and authority over local universities and colleges and other non-chartered schools that were established and/or created by local government units, through corresponding local ordinances issued by the appropriate Sanggunian councils,” Sarmiento said.

“The said DOJ opinion did not deal with the SUCs that are created or established through national legislation by no less than both houses of the Philippine Congress – the House of Representatives and the Senate,” Sarmiento said.

“In the first place, as stated earlier, state universities and colleges come into existence not through the pleasure of CHED but through legislation.  They are legislated into existence. No CHED memorandum or circular can repeal, modify or detract from legislation,” Sarmiento said.

“Chairman Angeles’ advisers should have taught him that. Precisely because they are legislated into existence, the powers of their governing boards are also determined by law,” he added.