President Robles Answers Open Letter from Concerned Alumnus

June 10, 2014

Dear Dr. Ruiz,

Thank you for your email. I have not received any email from you for the last 12 months at least. It is your right to release your email with or without my reply. It appears that information coming from the Philippines are either incomplete or distorted.

On the Diesto case, CPU has been banking with Allied Bank/PNB long before I became president. Nelson is blaming the university for the loss of 2000 pesos in his ATM account and even accusing the university of conniving with the bank. The security of his ATM card is his responsibility. According to the bank’s record and the CCTV recording, a woman was standing in front of the ATM machine at the time the withdrawal was made. The university can’t be responsible for the security of the ATM card of all employees. The person who withdrew the amount knew the pin number of Nelson’s ATM card. The suspension would have been canceled if he apologized to the university. Please read his so called apology and you will know why it is not an apology.

Regarding transparency issues. All transactions are audited internally and also by an external auditor. The internal auditor and accountant visits university projects to make sure that everything is in order. The business office has complete financial records on donations, grants, etc and all disbursements are properly recorded and follow strictly the university guidelines. The BOT receive regular reports on the activities of the administration.

Some people think that I stole money from the university to build my house. They are forgetting that my wife and I worked in the U.S for more than 35 years and we sold our house in Wisconsin before the housing market fell.

The research projects funded by DOST and DA are progressing as expected and have supported the research work of three faculty members and several 4th year students. There developments that will greatly enhance native chicken production. Several LGUs and even DSWD are developing livelihood projects for their constituents with the support of our native chicken project. We are helping the poor not bribing them. For the first time in the history of CPU we harvested 758 sacks of rice in Zarraga farm even though some areas were affected by typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda). Thanks to the dedication of some of our faculty especially in the College of Agriculture. Our research projects are geared towards commercialization and technology transfer to the farmers. There will be more discoveries to make because of the original research grant and the continuing support of DOST, DA and CPU.

Alumni donations made it possible for CPU to provide fishing boats and accessories to 25 beneficiaries. One alumna donated 25 fishing boats. Alumni from Agriculture and students from Business and Accountancy donated more than 20 fishing boats to another village.

The research and publication (International journal) entry of the dean of CARES was the 2013 national winner of the CHED REPUBLICA Award. Qualifiers were from UP, Dilliman, UP, Los Banos, UST, Ateneo de Manila, Ateneo de Davao, De LaSalle and USC.

Thanks for your interest in the developments at CPU. To God be the Glory!

Ted

Teodoro C. Robles, PhD
President
Central Philippine University