Prayer rally held vs president of P’sinan university

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan — Some 2,000 students, faculty members and non-teaching personnel of the Pangasinan State University (PSU), carrying placards and streamers, staged a prayer rally yesterday to press for the resignation and investigation of the school’s president on allegations of graft and corruption.

The rallysists came from PSU campuses here and in the towns of Sta. Maria, Bayambang and Binmaley and the cities of San Carlos and Urdaneta. Nobody joined from the PSU campus in Sta. Maria town where Dr. Rodolfo Asanion, the university president, hails from.

Wearing red armed bands and ribbons, the rallyists braved the heat of the sun as they marched from the provincial capitol here to the PSU campus.

The municipal government earlier granted them a permit to hold a prayer rally inside the school yesterday, starting at 8 a.m.

But in a letter, Victoriano Estira, PSU vice president for administration, insisted that the municipal government "has no jurisdiction over the use of university facilities."

Dr. Benigno Castro, PSU vice president for academic affairs, said they have forwarded their complaint against Asanion to the regional office of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

"There’s a strong indication (that) our allegations are true. The CHED is slow-footed in acting on our complaint so we decided to hold this rally," he said.

Castro said they would ask the Ombudsman or the National Bureau of Investigation to look into their allegations against Asanion should the CHED fail to act on their complaint fairly.

Asanion was not around to answer the allegations. Reporters tried to locate him but were told that he was in Manila.

Erwin de la Rosa, former PSU information officer and now Asanion’s assistant, said the beleaguered university president will hold a press conference today to air his side.

De la Rosa said Asanion phoned him after lunch yesterday to inquire about the rally, and he told him that it was peaceful.

The PSU president is appointed by the school’s board of regents and enjoys a six-year term. Asanion got his second term in February last year.

The PSU, which was founded in 1979, has about 10,000 students and 600 faculty members.