Marcos reappoints CHED chief De Vera
MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has reappointed Commission on Higher Education chairman J. Prospero de Vera III to his post, Malacañang announced Saturday.
De Vera has expressed views aligned with Vice President Sara Duterte, who is concurrently education secretary, particularly on the revival of the mandatory participation in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program and the review of the K-12 curriculum.
The CHED chief is a known supporter of Marcos and Duterte, and even came under fire for endorsing them during a voters’ education forum co-organized by the commission.
But one of the issues that Duterte and De Vera do not necessarily see eye-to-eye with is the return of students to traditional face-to-face classes, with the CHED chief declaring last year that the commission has decided to continue “flexible learning” from “school year 2021 and thereafter,” while the vice president wants in-person learning to make a comeback this year.
De Vera was criticized for this position particularly by former Rep. Sarah Elago (Kabataan party-list) who argued that flexible learning “has taken a toll on students and teachers’ health and well-being,” but he hit back by saying that his detractors do not understand what flexible learning is.
De Vera first served as CHED’s officer-in-charge in January 2018 and was subsequently appointed by then President Rodrigo Duterte as its chairperson nine months after.
Aside from being CHED chief, De Vera is also an adviser of the Philippine negotiating panel with the communist rebels and commissioner of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
He is also a professor of public administration at the University of the Philippines, where he served as its vice president for public affairs from 2011 to 2016. — with a report from Kristine Joy Patag
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