University of the Philippines (UP) alumni have been stumped by the action of UP President Angelo “Jijil” Jimenez to change the university motto of “Honor and Excellence,” adding “Service,” as if service had not been part of the university’s duties in the past 116 years.
Jimenez, a lawyer who worked for the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) was appointed UP president with the support of his relative who happened to be married to a big politician, and the votes of other politicians who comprise the pressure blocs in the 11-member board. He even got the nod from a fraternity that traditionally meddles in the election of UP president, junking one of their own in the process and questioning whether loyalty still matters.
Yet, Jimenez is now confronted with a labor dispute within UP that his propagandists can hardly paper over, or sweep under the rug at the UP Executive House or at the administration building. This issue ranges the entire UP administration against four foreign professors who were hired directly by the university and are, strictly, not exchange professors who are tenured and whose pay comes from their universities.
In years past, these exchange professors, mainly from the US, resided in good-looking bungalows, and had their own cars in Diliman and can hold tetes-a-tete with Filipino professors in Areas 1, 2 and in the vicinity of the Executive House. Foreign students had better accommodations at the UP International Center (UPIC) opposite the now-gone UP Gym, and they had a “lutong bahay” Thai “resto” within the compound or could just walk to the UP Drive-In restaurant nearby. The gym is gone, the drive-in now lives in fond memory, and the UPIC is being refurbished. The protesting foreign UP profs must be a hardy lot for challenging the “service” element in the new motto of Jimenez, who wants the university to “serve” national development goals that are at cross-purposes with the goals the UP community believes must be pursued. For one, Jimenez will hardly be able to justify why the sauce for the gander is not the sauce for the goose.
In their May 30, 2024 letter to UP Diliman Chancellor Edgardo Carlo Vistan II, who himself reportedly has limited academic experience but was lucky enough to be appointed UP Diliman Chancellor, Associate Professor Kimberly A. Plomp of the UP School of Archaeology and head of the UPSA Human Osteoarcheology Laboratory, Lisa Elena Goddard-Paz, assistant professorial fellow of the Department of Art Studies, College of Arts and Letters (CAL), Juan C. Rofes, associate professor UP School of Archaeology and head of the UPSA Zooarchaeology Laboratory, member of the UP UC Committee of Faculty Development and Welfare, and member of the UPSA Academic Personnel Committee, and Kyungmin Bae, assistant professorial fellow, Department of Linguistics, College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP),protested their “exclusion from certain, if not all, benefits and privileges allotted to regular faculty members.”
The issue revolves around Memorandum No. OVCAA-ECA 18-091 issued on January 22, 2018 by Dr. Evangeline C. Amor, then the vice chancellor for academic affairs, who said the Board of Regents (BOR) had approved the award of the titles of Professorial Fellow, Associate Professorial Fellow and Assistant Professorial Fellow to Filipino experts and dual citizens with excellent track record in developing “the country’s different branches of knowledge.” The memo also revealed that UP hopes to invite foreign experts “to perform teaching/mentorship or specialized research function or to special technical projects for a specified number of years beyond the usual period for Visiting Professors.”
In sum, the memo bestows titles that only apply to Filipinos and dual citizens and invites foreign experts to teach, undertake research and conduct technical projects for a specified number of years beyond the usual period for visiting professors. The memo proves UP’s dire need ramp up teaching, research and technical projects for the long haul, which should elate directly-hired foreign professors. What is troubling is that the protesting educators insist that UP Diliman made decisions regarding them “that lack transparency, accountability, and good organizational management.” Furthermore, foreign faculty members have to cope with serious, even life-threatening, illness, with little or no medical support. Worse, they claim, UP Diliman has denied vacation leave to foreign faculty members and they were also denied the chance to act as main advisers to students.
They bewailed the fact that they are not being treated as equals of their Filipino colleagues, and this speaks volumes about the “service” aspect of Jimenez’s motto. It would be horrible, of course, for Jimenez and his underlings to strip these foreign faculty members of their employment and denied their bonuses under the law. Since they were direct hires, at least UP under Jimenez should comply with international labor covenants and grant them their benefits under the law. It smacks of barbarism for UP to strip them of their employee status without as much as a by your leave. Once denied employee status, these foreign faculty members would lose their work visas and their chance to find jobs in the country they consider their home. The gothic treatment they received under the Jimenez administration speaks badly of a university that doesn’t serve its own constituents and doesn’t respect basic human rights, but dishes out human wrongs.
