Tension at NORSU again University OIC bars entry of “suspended” president

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines – Tension erupted again at the Negros Oriental State University when its officer-in-charge, Doctor Peter Dayot, ordered the guards to bar returning suspended president, Dr. Don Vicente Real, from entering the campus.

Real went to the NORSU on Friday after serving the 90-day preventive suspension imposed on him by the Board of Regents three months ago, and insisted on entering his former office, along with his aide Marx Iturralde.

Dayot however said he could not allow Real from entering the campus because the BOR, in a meeting last December 29 in Manila, has extended the preventive suspension period of the beleaguered president.

Real was able to go inside the campus, prompting Dayot to order the guards to padlock the gates. Real was forced to stay and sleep overnight inside his office.

Dayot told reporters that Real can go out, but the guards must make sure he will be barred from entering again the campus until January 22, when the supposed extension of the suspension will expire, depending again on the BOR decision.

Iturralde, for his part, said Real has effectively and physically re-assumed his position as NORSU president after religiously complying with the preventive suspension, which the president believed was not a penalty.

Real said that, even if he has returned as president, the investigation is still beyond his influence, the case being with the Solicitor General's Office and under the watchful supervision of the BOR. He said his lawyers told him there was no legal impediment for him to take back his office.

Dayot, on the other hand, admitted the existence of a management crisis in NORSU, and that he is only doing his job as an OIC, bound to implement the BOR order lest he will be charged with dereliction of duty.

In a hurriedly called press conference on Monday, Dayot said prohibiting Real from entering the campus was done per BOR Resolution 138, extending the suspension for 17 days due to the delay in the start of a formal investigation on the administrative charges filed against the president.

Lawyer Vicente dela Plaza, counsel of Dayot, said it was not for his client to determine if the BOR order is legal or illegal, adding that with the extended suspension Real can only enter the campus if the latter can show another resolution from the board lifting such order or if the court would allow him free access to the university.

Meanwhile, charges may be filed against Real for his alleged forcible entry in the NORSU campus on Saturday in violation of the extension of his preventive suspension. The BOR shall decide if charges shall be filed against him, as this incident was already recorded in the police blotter and the university logbook, said dela Plaza.

NORSU's chief security officer Rosalinda Abellon, a retired police officer herself, disclosed that an inventory has been conducted on documents allegedly intercepted by security men before Real could load these to his vehicle as he was about to exit the campus the following day.

On the other hand, City Councilor Nilo Sayson, a member of the BOR representing the NORSU alumni, was also barred from entering the campus, even if he was there only to help pacify the tense situation there at the time, upon request by at least two faculty members.

Sayson said he invoked his right as a person in authority, as BOR member, as city councilor, as assistant commandant of the NORSU ROTC and as chairman of the university's peace and order committee, but was unaware of the order extending the suspension of Real.