Summer classes at Caloocan U not cancelled

Caloocan City Mayor Enrico "Recom" Echiverri announced yesterday that summer classes at the city government-owned and operated University of Caloocan City (UCC) will continue as scheduled.

"Classes will continue as previously scheduled. After diligent inspection of rooms set for renovation by the engineering department, we found out that canceling the summer classes won’t be necessary," the mayor said.

The announcement came even as the mayor yesterday denied earlier reports he ordered the closure of the university and the ouster of UCC president Dr. Orlando Molina from his post Friday afternoon last week.

Echiverri clarified that Molina, the president of Caloocan City’s only public university, was barred from further discharging his duties and was de facto ousted Friday on the strength of a resolution signed by the City Council in March this year yet.

The City Council, through Resolution 1652 Series of 2005, nullified the appointment of all the members of the Board of Regents (BOR) of UCC, formerly Caloocan City Polytechnic College (CCPC), including its president.

In the three-page resolution, the majority councilors cited the non-confirmation of Molina as UCC president by the Sangguniang Panlunsod as the main reason for his ouster.

"Be it resolved as it is hereby resolved, by the Sangguniang Panlunsod in session duly assembled, to nullify the appointment of all the members of the BOR, including the appointment of Dr. Orlando Molina as President of the University of Caloocan City made by former Mayor Reynaldo Malonzo in the absence of the consent of the Sangguniang Panlunsod (SP) as mandated under Paragraph 1, Section 7 of Ordinance 0375 series of 2004 and designating Honorable Mayor Atty. Enrico "Recom" Echiverri to the be temporary president of the UCC," said the councilors.

Amid allegations that the ouster was politically motivated, Molina, being an appointee of Malonzo, former ally and now avowed arch-critic of the incumbent mayor, the Echiverri camp insisted there was no such thing.

Russel Ramirez, secretary to the mayor, told The STAR that Molina’s sacking is a question of law and is beyond politics.

"The truth is Molina was never confirmed (as such) by the council during the term of then Mayor Malonzo. The present council removed him as president and replaced him with Mayor Echiverri until a suitable replacement is found," Ramirez said.

Also, Ramirez said, among the reasons for Molina’s relief was his alleged "cornering of all masteral and doctoral subjects" instead of distributing the teaching load to other professors of the UCC.

He said complaints coming from both professors and students reportedly have reached the office of the mayor.

When asked why it took them only now to implement the resolution approved last month, Ramirez said Echiverri did not want to disrupt the regular school activities including those going into the end of the school year when graduations are held.

Ordinance 0375 passed during the term of Malonzo, and ironically signed by most of the councilors now in the present council, authorized the city government of Caloocan to convert the CCPC into a full-fledged university now the UCC.

Pursuant to the conversion of the college into a university, the then BOR headed by Malonzo passed Board Resolution 0011 Series of 2004 electing Molina as its first president. The board resolution subsequently took effect on March 22, 2004, but "without the confirmation or consent of the council as mandated."

In a separate interview, Molina said he has no other recourse but to seek legal remedy on the problem.

He said he was set to report for work at UCC on Samson Road at around 8:45 a.m. yesterday, but was not allowed to enter the university campus by the public safety office men manning the gate.

"What they are doing is illegal. So I’ll just turn to the courts to resolve the problem," he told The STAR in a phone interview. – With Pete Laude