Ex-CHED chair Licuanan: Other people want my job

Former Commission on Higher Education (CHED) chairperson Dr. Patricia Licuanan said several factors contributed to her decision to leave the agency.

"There are people who want my job. So they may have been one force," Licuanan said in an exclusive interview on Bawal ang Pasaway kay Mareng Winnie on Monday night.

She said people within the CHED, including some of its commissioners, and politicians may have contributed to her supposed ouster from her post.

She added that these politicians allegedly wanted to score "pogi" points with President Rodrigo Duterte.

Licuanan cited the resignation call of some commissioners including dismissed CHED executive director Julito Vitriolo.

"I think, in my resignation, there are three major forces wherein one was internal to CHED, and this is the same thing that happened to me last year, they asked for my resignation and that was led by Attorney Vitriolo so he's still at it," she said.

She also mentioned Puwersa ng Bayaning Atleta (PBA) Party-list Representative Jericho Nograles, who had criticized her for going on supposedly excessive trips amid a delays in the release of funds to scholars under the K-12 transition program.

The lawmaker had alleged that Licuanan signed her own travel authority for her trips abroad, but later on admitted that he made a mistake upon learning that the former CHED chief's trips were approved by Malacañang.

Licuanan said she was determined to fight for her principles and finish her term until she received a phone call from Malacañang.

"For a while, I was really trying to argue that I'm innocent, that's wrong. I can take investigation. But I thought about it...for the next six months, it will be like this," she said.

Licuanan's term as CHED chairperson was supposed to end in July this year.

On January 15, during the flag ceremony at the CHED office, she announced that she was resigning. —ALG/NB, GMA News