I played small role in East Timor scholarship program - CHED head

MANILA, Philippines - Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairman Emmanuel Angeles reiterated yesterday that it was the East Timor government and its scholars who made the choice of where to enroll in, saying that he merely played a small role in the scholarship program.

Angeles added that it was Philippine Ambassador to East Timor Francisco Cepeda who made the decision on the coverage of the scholarship program only within universities in Region 3 (Central Luzon).

Angeles was reacting to a graft complaint filed against him by a “concerned citizen” before the Office of the Ombudsman accusing him of giving undue benefits to the Angeles University Foundation (AUF) in Pampanga where the bulk of the East Timor scholars – 36 out of a total 109 – are currently enrolled in.

Reliable sources told The STAR that Angeles, who was appointed to the CHED top post in August 2008, allegedly assumed supervision over the CHED-East Timor scholarship program last January and promptly issued guidelines that placed the AUF in a good position to benefit from the program.

Among the guidelines, the sources said, was for the program to cover only universities in Central Luzon, which includes the provinces of Pampanga, Tarlac, Bulacan and Nueva Ecija.

The AUF, of which Angeles was a chancellor and president before his appointment to CHED, was in the list of universities submitted to the East Timor government from which it could select where to send its scholars.

But Angeles said he saw nothing wrong in CHED’s inclusion of the AUF in the list of universities where the Timorese scholars can enroll in.

He said the AUF has had a good academic history, pointing out that it has been one of the country’s 23 “centers of excellence” in higher education “for a long time already.”

Angeles also clarified that the AUF is not owned by his family, saying, “We donated it to a foundation.”

Angeles said Paciano Aniceto currently chairs the foundation. He declined to say though if a member of his family is in the AUF’s board of trustees. “It’s up to you if you still want to check that out,” he said.