By Ahikam Pasion/PNA
LINGAYEN, Pangasinan — The Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) has requested the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to examine the legality of the reappointment of Dr. Dexter Buted as president of the Pangasinan State University (PSU).
The provincial board forwarded its request to CHED Chairman, Dr. Prospero de Vera III through Provincial Resolution No. 2016-2018 authored by Board Member Jeremy Agerico Rosario, which was approved on Monday.
According to the provincial resolution, the PSU Board of Regent (BOR), through Resolution No. 84, series of 2018, reappointed Buted as university president for another term despite the Ombudsman’s decision to suspend him for being guilty after an administrative case was filed against Buted and another person.
Rosario, in his speech during their regular session, emphasized the SP’s legislative measure where his reappointment should be void from the start. Buted was declared persona non grata in Pangasinan since 2016.
Buted’s persona non grata status was declared through Provincial Resolution No. 505-2016 after his non-appearance when he was summoned by the SP to answer an alleged malpractice in the university’s on-the-job training program.
Rosario added the PSU-BOR resolution is in direct conflict with CHED Memorandum Order No. 16, which stipulates that presidents of state universities and colleges (SUC) who are undergoing evaluation for a second term, must not have been convicted of any administrative offense or crime.
“This is the very reason why we escalated this to the CHED. (To know) if he (Buted), a man convicted of an administrative offense, would be qualified to serve another term as university president,” he said.
Buted and PSU Binmaley Campus Executive Director Marcelo Gutierrez Jr. were suspended by the Office of the Ombudsman in 2017 after being found guilty of oppression.
This was based on an April 2016 complaint filed by a Ricardo Tapia, a PSU-Binmaley faculty member, who was forced by Buted and Gutierrez to comply with his reassignment to PSU Urdaneta City Campus despite an appeal he filed at the Civil Service Commission (CSC).
The CSC regional office dismissed Tapia’s appeal, but it was eventually reversed by the CSC Central Office.
Tapia’s salary still remained withheld and he was “arbitrarily dismissed,” prompting him to file a case at the Ombudsman.
