Nograles urges Congress probe into ‘CHED malpractices’

PBA party-list Representative Jericho Nograles on Saturday said Congress should investigate the supposed delay in the release of tuition fees for scholars of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

Nograles said in a statement that CHED has only released tuitioni fees of its scholars, mostly teachers pursuing masteral and doctorate degrees, on the first semester of 2016.

"The question is: where di the money go? These funds have been alloted to CHED so why cant Chair [Patricia] Licuanan release the funds?" the lawmaker said.

He also said that “thousands of CHED K-12 Transition Scholars have not received their living allowances since 2016.”

Nograles said Congress "should investigate" the supposed "CHED malpractices."

"Congress barely managed to raise the needed funds for our free college education law. Every single centavo of this fund should be used judiciously," Nograles said.

He said the funds must be released since Congress and President Rodrigo Duterte has approved the law which would provide free college education to all state and local universities and colleges and all TESDA-run schools nationwide.

In a statement signed by Licuanan on Dec. 22, 2017, CHED said it “acknowledges that the delays have caused pain to our scholars, many of whom rely on the living allowances for the daily subsistence of their families.”

It said that the release the funds had been slowed down by the volume of documents, the CHEd internal system’s not being designed to take in a large quantity of scholarship administration, discrepancies in requirements, additional requirements from the Commission on Audit, and the delays in submission of such requirements.

'Globetrotter'

In the same statement, Nograles reiterated his earlier accusation that Licuanan had made several trips abroad by issuing travel authorities for herself.

The lawmaker said he has documents that would prove that Licuanan approved her own requests for "Authority to Travel Abroad."

In a statement, also released on Saturday, Licuanan reiterated that her trips abroad were approved by the Office of the President.

“I get a travel authority from the Office of the President for all my travel including personal trips. This is well documented. I issue travel authorities for all CHED officials but not for myself,” she said.

“It appears that what Rep. Nograles shared on his Facebook account as basis for his accusations is the internal Authority to Travel Abroad, which is routinely used to process the funds and is an attachment for securing Malacañang approval,” Licuanan added.

The CHED said that according to Lily Fried Milla, the agency's internal affairs staff director, the official travels of Licuanan are "are covered by appropriate travel authorities from the Executive Secretary and signed by Deputy Executive Secretary Menardo Guevarra.”

It added that according to Milla, Licuanan is allowed to travel business class for long-haul flights "as warranted under OP Memorandum Circular No. 7, s.2010 and because of her vertigo.” —Nicole-Anne C. Lagrimas/ALG, GMA News