CHED in trouble over science research project

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) is apparently in trouble over their ambitious but expensive five-year, P10 billion Philippine-California Advanced Research Institutes (PCARI) research projects where it supposedly tied up with the University of California-Berkeley, as well as the University of the Philippines, and several local Philippine private universities to come up with various breakthrough innovations and products to cure major global illnesses, as well as solve information technology (IT) global challenges.

Irregularities surrounding the project has led to the irrevocable resignation of Carmina Alonzo, director of CHED’s Administrative and Financial Services (AFS), as member of the CHED Bids and Awards Committee, in connection with the PCARI project, last month.

In a letter to CHED chairperson Patricia Licuanan dated last September 17, Alonzo said her irrevocable resignation was triggered by an advice from lawyer in the Commission on Audit (COA) to do so in connection with the serious irregularities surrounding the P10 billion PCARI project.

In her irrevocable resignation, Alonzo sought to relieve herself from BAC functions, and also of any involvement in the PCARI transactions.

Alonzo, who was appointed to CHED by Licuanan from the Department of Labor and Employment-National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB), said that leading the questions about the project was CHED’s jurisdiction on research activities, which she said was supposed to be under the mandate of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

This question, she said, had been raised in the CHED budget pre-plenary hearing in Congress last August 27, when it was noted that the PICARI had earlier been started as a DOST proposed program pushed by the group headed by Filipino Silicon Valley entrepreneur Dado Banatao.