In my column last weekend, I wrote about Foundation University boycotting the PRISAA because of our concern that the national officials of this one of the oldest sports leagues in the country are using the Association for promoting personal and political agenda.
This move on our part means that FU will not send its men’s champion beach volleyball team to represent Region 7 in the PRISAA national games scheduled in February next year at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.
In the course of my research for materials that I will use for a Manifesto I was asked to craft and to be signed by concerned PRISAA members signifying their intention to likewise boycott the national games, I came across this blog of Peachy Moraleda, aka Atty. Remelisa Alfelor G. Moraleda, president of Northeastern Philippines University in Bicol. Excerpts of her blog:
PRISAA or First PRISA
Today is a great surprise!
I attended a meeting of the Bicol Foundation on Higher Education. We hosted the meeting again of this organization of higher education institutions in the Bicol Region. Being a quarterly meeting of the organization, it was attended by the officers and board of directors only.
Our agenda list was long. The BFHE is the Regional Association on Higher Education Institutions of the Bicol Region and being such, we discussed how we will go about with the CHED directed Academic and Cultural Competitions related to the CHED National Games. In a nutshell, if SCUAA, LCUAA, and PRISAA are now going to join for the CHED National Games (unified!), the RAHEIs and the NAHEIs are in charge of the academic and cultural competition portion of the games.
The discussion regarding Bicol Region’s participation was quite long so I will not bore anyone reading this with the details, but something really blew me away.
Apparently, the PRISAA national organization has transformed itself into a party-list organization calling itself First PRISA.
I don’t know how this happened. A lot of things are still fuzzy. But suffice it to say that whatever is happening, the guys behind First PRISA are using the PRISAA to build a network of members throughout the country.
Remember, it is part of COMELEC accreditation requirements that a party-list organization has nationwide membership and representation to be classified as such.
Although it seems clear that PRISAA is a different entity from First PRISA, there is no doubt the people they have listed as their regional representatives are the same regional presidents of the local PRISAA.
This is weird and crazy especially for us PRISAA member schools who were never informed of this development.
Honestly, as president of a University, and a paying member of PRISAA, I cannot help but think about the possibility of First PRISA using PRISAA funds to further their cause without the consent of its general membership.
Right now, we — along with several other member schools — are thinking of withdrawing our membership from PRISAA, lest we be used for the political interest of others without our knowledge or consent.
Actually, what I really feel so bad about is how this exhibits how the PRISAA national officers see their members. They see us as minions rather than equals or partners to attain the goals of PRISAA.
I will blog some more about this as soon as I get more information. But still, this thing stinks like after-flood garbage in Marikina.
In my column last week, I wrote: “There are many issues to be raised regarding the management of the PRISAA…such as d) an intriguing party-list whose candidates include (former CHED chairman Emmanuel Angeles’ son), Gabriel Martin L. Angeles, president and CEO of the Angeles University Foundation Medical Center, in the last elections garnering 25,211 with an interesting acronym: 1st PRISA which stands for “First People’s Representative for Indigent Student Athletes.”
Is there a sinister plan of Angeles to use the PRISAA to establish a political base for this party-list?
And continuing, “We call on other member institutions in our University Town to join FU in this campaign to institute reforms in the PRISAA. Other members in other parts of our country are joining us. We look forward to the administration of Silliman University, St. Paul University Dumaguete, NORSU and ACSAT to be one with FU.”
The two biggest and influential higher institutions in the Cordillera Administrative Region — St. Louis University of Baguio and the University of the Cordilleras — have committed to join the boycott.
We anticipate that the Consortium in Higher Education of Negros Oriental will be with FU and the other HEIs who will join the boycott.
