MEDIA RELEASE 28 February 2008 Reference: PROF. JUDY M. TAGUIWALO, Ph.D. Associate Professor Chair, University Council Committee on Faculty Welfare, Conduct and Development Mobile Phone: 09167829666 UP Diliman Council of Professors declares “Gloria Must Go” The University Council (UC) of the University of the Philippines Diliman , the council of professors, associate professors and assistant professors, in a special meeting last February 27, 2008 unanimously adopted two resolutions on the current political crisis entitled “Gloria Must Go” and “UP Faculty Demand the Resignation of Romulo Neri as CHEd Chair.” Below this media release are the two UC statements which can also be downloaded from www.upd.edu.ph . The University Council also approved the motion for UP Diliman to participate in the February 29 Interfaith Prayer Assembly in Makati. The UP contingent composed of faculty, students, research, extension and professional staff and administrative staff will assemble on Friday, February 29, 2008 at 1pm at Quezon Hall, UP Diliman for a press conference and short program before proceeding to Makati. MEDIA COVERAGE IS REQUESTED. GMA MUST GO! A Statement of the University Council of the University of the Philippines Diliman Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has no basis to continue in office. On 13 July 2005, at the height of the Garci Scandal, the University Council (UC) of the University of the Philippines Diliman—called on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to resign immediately. She did not resign. The UC observed that all her acts are “a direct assault on nearly all the values we hold sacred in the academe.” Since then, there has been an unprecedented number of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances – which includes two U.P. students, Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan. Corruption in the highest places continues unabated and remains unaddressed. Institutions which were created by the Constitution or the law to safeguard accountability have either been ineffective or rendered ineffective. Official government response to requests for information on matters of public concern has been to thwart the truth either by the invocation of Executive Privilege or by threats issued to the working media. The exercise of basic freedoms has been met with repressive measures such the Calibrated Pre-emptive Response (CPR) and Presidential Proclamation 1017. This criminal regime resorts to kidnapping and massive bribery to prevent the truth from coming out. Despite GMA's insistence that she does not tolerate corruption, she has been forced by public pressure to admit that she knew about the kickbacks long before the Senate investigations on the NBN-ZTE deal. As a result, she has entrapped herself in a web of lies. When GMA is caught lying, she either stonewalls or orders an investigation which churns out prefabricated results. These actions are in stark contrast with two objectives which are cherished by the University – getting at the truth and forging a democratic society. Both of these are obviously anathema to GMA. Public Office is a public trust. All public officials are accountable to the people at all times. This is one of the core principles enshrined in our Constitution. The President’s previous silence on the anomalous NBN-ZTE deal and her belated admission of prior knowledge violate this core principle. This is only the latest of her violations. As an academic community we know that the truth cannot be found in Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. In UP’s Centennial year, the faculty continues to uphold its tradition of being one with our people. We commit ourselves to the struggle to build a progressive society and a responsible and accountable government which subscribes to the principle that sovereignty resides in the people and all governmental authority emanates from them. But first, GMA must go! UP Faculty Demand Resignation of Romulo Neri as CHEd Chair While scandal after scandal has once again been piling up on Malacañang's doorstep, former NEDA Director General Romulo Neri's service as Chairman of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) has quietly been extended by Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo another six months until August 2008. During the first week of February 2008, Malacañang did everything in its power to help both Neri and ex-NEDA consultant Engr. Rodolfo Lozada, Jr. to evade the Senate arrest warrants which were issued against them for having snubbed a scheduled Senate hearing on the tainted National Broadband Network – Zhong Xing Telecom Equipment (NBN-ZTE) deal. While Mrs. Macapagal-Arroyo’s "good boy" Neri flaunted his success at "hiding out" until he secured a TRO from the Supreme Court, Lozada, though kidnapped and intimidated, chose to follow the dictates of his own conscience and come clean on the NBN-ZTE scandal. During his Senate testimony, Lozada repeatedly aired his respect for Neri but he also candidly and very honestly gave out damning details on how Neri purportedly conducted his work at NEDA. Most interesting of all was Neri's explicit directive to avoid implicating the "First Gentleman" (and therefore Malacañang) in the scandal and his instruction to Lozada, not simply to work within the law, but to "moderate the greed" of Abalos and the First Gentleman. Lozada will find out soon enough, what kind of a person Neri is when the latter saves his own skin and leaves him hanging alone. One will recall the convenient excuse called "Executive Privilege" which Neri ceaselessly invoked the last time he appeared in the Senate in order to avoid having to lie about details of Malacañang's involvement in the NBN deal. Neri may perhaps be seen as a striking example of a cowardly bureaucrat who cannot stand up for the truth when faced with the "dark side of the state," but, in truth, he has become much more than that. He has also become both a functionary and a beneficiary of a hopelessly corrupt system. That he went to such great lengths to evade the truth in order to protect his patrons implicates him directly in the latter’s crimes. Due to Lozada's testimony, the word "Commission" in "Commission on Higher Education" now takes on a more insidious meaning. Neri has lost whatever trace of credibility he may have previously had as a career official. We recall that in keeping with Malacañang's skewed notion of "grassroots consultation," he convened the Education Summit which excluded the participation of representative organizations of teachers and students and instead saw them violently dispersed by the police from the premises of the Summit. Neri not only lacks the minimum formal requirement for his current position as Chairman of the CHEd (not being a PhD holder), he is now also deficient in the most important qualification. He has lost all moral high ground required of a person entrusted with reviving the country's decaying higher education system. Furthermore, as UP faculty, we cannot accept that Neri, as head of CHEd, continues to chair the UP Board of Regents, the highest policy making body of the University of the Philippines. We therefore demand Romulo Neri's immediate resignation as Chairman of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd)!