‘Servant prince of peace’

A week before Christmas last year, I bumped into a long-time friend, retired Police Gen.Ricardo "Dick" De Leon. He just flew in from Mindanao to spend Christmas with his family in Manila. Immediately after his retirement from the service as a three-star Police General in September 2005, President Arroyo appointed him as "acting" president of the Mindanao State University (MSU) System. So for the past 15 months now, De Leon has been leading this state-run academic institution known as the University of the Philippines (UP) of the South.

Being based at the MSU main campus in Marawi City in Lanao del Sur for quite a while, he excitedly talked about the new environment that he now lives in. He used to be the area commander, though, in Mindanao during his stint in the police service. So, he is not a total stranger when he was assigned to serve the government again in this part of the country where Muslim secessionist hostilities still rage sporadically and clan wars erupt every now and then.

The MSU main campus is situated within the city proper of Marawi which is regarded as the "only Islamic City" in the Philippines because 98 percent of its people are Maranao. Notwithstanding this, the MSU boasts of a 50-50 Muslim and Christian population ratio in student as well as faculty make-up as it serves as the UP of the South for elementary, high school, and college education. To date, the MSU has seven campuses all over Mindanao – Sulu, Tawi-tawi, Maguindanao, Iligan City, Gen.Santos City, Sultan Naga Dimaporo in Lanao del Norte and the main campus of Marawi City. It has a population of 60,000 students, 14,000 of whom are enroled in college at the MSU in Marawi City.

Aside from being the MSU president, he told me, he also now carries with him a newly conferred title of "Datu A Romapenet sa Mindanao" or Prince of Peace in Mindanao. I used to call him Gen. Dick. Now, perhaps, I can call him Datu Dick. He was given this title last Dec.12 by the various tribe leaders in acknowledgement of his efforts to bring about the "Vision 2020" in the mandate of the MSU when this was established in 1961. As envisioned in the MSU Charter, the University is supposed to become the "social laboratory for integration" for Christians, Lumads and Muslims. Thus, it was put up not only to serve quality education but also to promote the cultural heritage of Mindanao folks.

It was in his stewardship of the MSU that an Institute of Peace and Development in Mindanao has been included as a formal course in the masters’ degree program offered in this state-run university. He earned his "Prince of Peace" title for his accomplishments and achievements in so short a time in being able to transform the violence-prone MSU compound into a "peace university."

He is no stranger, though, to the peace process. In fact, he acquired in 1999 a doctorate’s degree in peace and development from the Bicol University, also situated in yet another hotbed of insurgency in our country. When the Palace first asked him to go to the MSU, it was made clear to him that his experience in the police is most needed to institute reforms and solutions to security-related problems in this institution of learning.

Upon his assumption to office, the first problem he had to deal with was the P1.1 million a month in expenses to keep 237 "peacekeeping force" personnel being shouldered in the payroll of the MSU. Like any other state colleges and universities, MSU gets subsidy from the annual budget of the national government.

A former law enforcer himself, he believes the MSU has no business to keep "peacekeeping force" personnel. He did away with this expense item that resulted to savings in the financial books of the MSU. Thus, he said, these savings were used to pay the unpaid salaries of contractual employees and likewise upgraded the salary of the MSU professors.

Without compromising the relative peace he has so far restored at the MSU, he faces a very tough challenge to come up with a win-win formula that will enable the MSU regain much of its 1,000 hectares of landholdings that have been reduced to mere 120 hectares. The MSU lands have been taken over by squatters who have built permanent and concrete structures that they claim as their own. The cost of recovering these lands will certainly be high and he is not about to ignite war over land ownership with the many Muslim family settlers who have taken over these real estate properties around the campus.

In the meantime, the MSU found support from the Office of the President in the P30 million financial assistance released last year to help defray the cost of improvements of some of the University facilities. So far, 24 new classrooms have been constructed. In fact, Saudi Arabian Prince Bandar bin Sultan had been invited to inaugurate the upgraded facilities in November last year. Local problems in Saudi, however, kept the Prince from traveling to the Philippines for this event. The invitation was extended anew to the Saudi Prince whenever he would be available.

While UP announced earlier the approval of 300 percent increase in tuition fees, he cited that the MSU has no similar plans. I was surprised to learn that MSU charges only P85 tuition for 21 units per semester, or a student pays only P4.50 per unit. Despite meager resources, the MSU also provides dormitory facilities for some 1,000 university scholars who pay a minimal fee of P250 per semester (which is equivalent to four months), or P80 a month.

Although the cost of education is artificially kept low through government subsidy, Datu Dick is proud of the fact that MSU produce graduates who can compete globally in acquired skills and training. In the nursing board examinations in June last year which was marred by the "nursing leakage" scandal in Metro Manila and Baguio City, he said, all 50 MSU nursing graduates who took these nursing exams passed, for a 100 percent batting average for the MSU.

Even if he wears a new hat as a "Datu," the 57-year old Dick remains a Catholic. But religion has nothing to do with his being recognized for his efforts to promote peace in that part of our country through provision of quality education. He is the 11th president of the MSU to date and is only the second Christian president of the university. The first was Antonio Isidro who was the first president of the MSU. But Datu Dick is holding the MSU presidency with a six-year term, in "acting" capacity still. For him, the MSU has become a "missionary" work he has to pursue in the name of peace. Hence, he calls himself "servant prince of peace."

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