CHED asks PNP, Napolcom to investigate police officers in MPSPC prexy's resignation

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) has asked the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Police Commission (Napolcom) to investigate at least four police officers from the PNP in Bontoc municipality in Mountain Province who played a role in the forced resignation of the president of the Mount Province State Polytechnic College (MPSPC) last July 1. In two separate letters sent to PNP chief Director General Raul Bacalzo, and Napolcom vice chairperson and executive officer Eduardo Escueta, CHED chairman Dr. Patricia Licuanan said that there was a need to probe the extent of the participation of police officers of Bontoc PNP in the incident, and their failure to prevent the anarchy that prevailed during the July 1 incident. It was learned that students and faculty members of the said state school had staged a protest rally last July 1 at the height of which they forced its president, Dr. Nieves Dacyon, to resign by using threats and intimidation. Dacyon, it was learned, was further intimidated into resigning under duress, when at least four officers from Bontoc PNP came to escort her out of the school campus. “This Commission would like to raise its concern on the unlawful and improper way of addressing grievances such as the incident at MPSPC which may embolden disgruntled sectors in other state colleges and universities with similar intentions to employ the same means and thus, threaten academic independence and integrity in our higher education institutions,” Licuanan said.