UP student regent probed for missing P15-M fund for building repair

The former Student Regent of the state-run University of the Philippines is now in hot water for allegedly embezzling a P15-million-fund intended for the renovation of a student-run building.

UP President Francisco Nemenzo has tasked a two-member panel composed of Prof. Marvic M.V.F. Leonen, university general counsel and Prof. Martin Gregorio, vice president for administration, to investigate the culpability of Hannah Eunice Serana, 22, a senior political science student of the UP College in Cebu City.

Documents gathered by The STAR indicate that the Office of the President released the fund last Oct. 24 to a private foundation headed by the outgoing student regent.

The foundation, originally called the Office of the Student Regent Foundation, with address at Dumlao Building, No. 72 Bukidnon St., Bago Bantay, Quezon City, was later renamed the Student Welfare and Programs Foundation. Sources at the university said the foundation was put up with members of the Serana family as incorporators.

The fund was intended for the rehabilitation of Vinzons Hall at the UP’s Diliman campus, which houses the offices of various student organizations, including those of the Office of the Student Regent, the University Student Council and the Philippine Collegian, the official campus newspaper.

The P15-million fund, released through the Land Bank of the Philippines, was the Office of the President’s contribution to the P38-million project.

The foundation was supposed to raise the remaining P23 million.

The STAR obtained copies of the disbursement voucher and an acknowledgement receipt bearing Serana’s signature. The signature indicates that she received a P15-million check (number 91353) from the Office of the President.

Documents furnished The STAR also show that Serana had negotiated with Undersecretary Demetrio L. Ignacio of the PMS for the release of the fund.

The project was supposed to start within 15 days of the release of the money, which was drawn from the President’s Social Fund. It was to be completed in 240 days.

Under a memorandum of agreement the foundation supposedly forged with the Presidential Management Staff, an annex to Vinzons’ Hall was to be refurnished. When completed, the annex was to be named Estrada Hall after its benefactor, the then President Joseph Ejercito Estrada.

"Until now, the project has yet to start," said Women’s studies graduate student Katherine Bugayong, 24, Serana’s successor as Student Regent.

She told The STAR they got wind of the anomaly when the Presidential Management Staff called her office early this week to inquire about the project. "We didn’t know money had been released until we got the call."

She said her office is preparing graft charges against Serana, a fellow member of STAND-UP, a student political bloc in the university espousing national democracy.

Bugayong said her office is investigating reports that the Serana family has recently acquired two new houses, one in Tandang Sora, Quezon City, and another in Cebu City, and a new Honda car.

The discovery of the anomaly has sparked cries of protest from many student organizations in the Diliman campus, which have been decrying the allegedly undemocratic process involved in the selection of the student regent.

According to Samasa, an alliance of student groups based in the Diliman campus, the Office of the Student Regent lacks mechanisms of accountability.

"The office stands as an all-powerful office without being accountable to its constituents," said SJ San Juan., who heads the alliance. "We have long been clamoring for direct election of the student regent."

The Student Regent represents the university’s 50,000 students in the Board of Regents. The Student Regent is elected to the BOR by the Katipunan ng Sanguniang Mag-aaral sa UP (Kasama sa UP), an assembly of student councils from the university’s constituent campuses, and serves a one-year term. Kasama is dominated by the STAND-UP party.

San Juan said the anomaly is an eye-opener for students in the university. "It is unfortunate that a student regent known for her activist views should fall from grace this way," he said.

The financial scandal has given the university yet another blackeye.

Only recently, its name was dragged into the "juetenggate" scandal after Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson revealed the alleged direct links of Mr. Estrada’s family to illegal gambling.

In one of his exposes, he said Mr. Estrada used the Erap Muslim Youth Foundation to channel funds from illegal gambling to his bank accounts.

The foundation was headed by his brother-in-law, Prof. Raul De Guzman, who sits as university regent. It also has for its incorporators, two other professors connected with the state university.

"What she did was illegal," said Prof. Gregorio, who is also secretary to the 12-member UP Board of Regents, the highest policy-making body of the state university. "She or her family used the name of the university, and the office she represented, without the university’s consent."

He said Serana conceived of the project without consulting university officials. Prof Martin said he had spoken to the former student regent, asking her to account for the money. "This is such a tragedy," he said, "the office she represented is the highest post any UP student could aspire for."

He said once the fact-finding panel has gathered enough evidence against Serana, he will have no choice but to recommend the filing of charges against her.

Prof. Gregorio said Serana could only say her brother had turned over the money to the private contractor the foundation had hired to work on the project.

Her brother, Jose Ian, is a student at the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP).

"She has to account for it," Prof. Gregorio said, "the money does not belong to her or to her family."