Due process in Avila ouster

In her column, “Kicked out on trumped-up charges” (Inquirer, 9/17/11), UP Diliman professor and Inquirer columnist Solita Collas-Monsod made gross misrepresentations and baseless assertions, bordering on malice.

As one of the original teacher-complainants against Dr. Enrique Avila, defendant in UP ADT Case No. 2011-01, I question Monsod’s honesty in accusing us and other UP officials of concocting trumped-up charges against Avila.

Monsod is implying that our witnesses lied under oath, that we fabricated our evidence, and that UP officials ignored the basic tenets of due process despite the possibility of judicial review. That is far from the truth.

Monsod failed to mention that it took over five months for the whole process of investigation and trial to be concluded, following the Uniform Rules on Administrative Cases in the Civil Service (URACCS) which mandates a “speedy, fair and judicious disposition of cases.”

Avila was found guilty of gross neglect of duty and Ernesto Pineda of grave misconduct. It was concluded that they violated rules and regulations in the disposition of university property when they granted, without compensation to UP and with unusual dispatch, a request by a private condominium developer to use a substantial portion of UP property to extend its construction site and as dumping site for excavated construction dirt.

Avila was also found guilty of grave misconduct for violating Republic Act 9184 by appointing an unqualified person (Pineda) to a Bids and Awards Committee of the college. Also, he was found guilty of gross neglect of duty for using tuition increment in paying for personnel bonus.

Pineda was likewise found guilty of gross neglect of duty for buying materials and causing the repair of two buildings in the college without public bidding sans lawful justification.

Thus, contrary to Monsod’s claims, Avila and Pineda were kicked out not “for doing their jobs too well” (to use her words). They were kicked out after they were found guilty of those specific charges which, curiously, Monsod seemed to have deliberately missed out in her column.

I challenge Monsod to come to UP Cebu and spend some time to look at the physical evidence, examine our case documents, and immerse with the UP Cebu faculty, staff and students. She should not simply rely on the say-so of accessible or tainted sources—like Avila’s former underling Prof. Raymund Fernandez. From the start of this issue, Fernandez has been using his column space in Cebu Daily News to defend Avila and to malign the complainants, without disclosing to his readers the underlying personal and professional interests he has in the outcome of this case.

—PROF. PHOEBE ZOE SANCHEZ, assistant professor 7, Social Sciences Division,

University of the Philippines Cebu