CENTRAL Philippine University (CPU) used to boast of “the central spirit,” no doubt because of the unusual unity of its alumni in its upkeep. It is an open secret that well-off Centralians here and abroad donate millions of pesos yearly, enabling the university to maintain high standard at least tuition cost to the students.

This school year, however, enrollment has dwindled to its lowest in the past ten years – down to 11,000 from a high of 14,000 (rounded off). Where have the 3,000 gone?

Interpretation: The “central spirit” has gone away due to a controversy hounding the university presidency – no thanks to the manipulative board of trustees controlled by a rich Chinese chairman, Alfonso Uy. Some people call him a Chinese Mafioso but I won’t; he is better known as owner of Amigo Terrace Hotel, Amigo Shipping and Foremost Milling Company.

Using the July 3, 2008 expiration of the term of office of President Juanito M. Acanto as alibi, the minority Uy group – 6 out of 15 members – virtually installed beyond its legal authority a strange “mammal” they call “management committee” to temporarily take over the presidency. Former CPU and Siliman University President Agustin Pulido heads this three-man management committee (MC).

It’s not only the majority of the board of trustees that has been bypassed but the CPU Corporation, too. Of the 65 corporation members, the majority of 48 voted against the MC installation.

Legal luminaries like former SEC chairman Perfecto Yasay have questioned the legality of the “forcible entry” of the MC as violation of both the Corporation Code of the Philippines and of the CPU Constitution and By-Laws. Under the corporation law, they say, the incumbent president would remain president in holdover status in case of failure of election and until his successor would have been elected.

Indeed, there had been attempts to elect a new president but to no avail because no candidate had garnered at least 10 votes of the 15-man board of trustees. Despite that failure of election, among the candidates, Acanto still bagged the highest number of votes — five.

Ergo, millionaire Alfonso Uy bearded the MC to appoint an American citizen as new university president.

What? An American president? Does it not violate the Constitution, too?

I don’t know how Uy is related to this former Filipino who is now an American citizen. The only thing we know about Teddy Robles is that he is an engineer and professor at Milwaukee School of Engineering in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.
Uy has good contacts kuno to help Robles regain his Philippine citizenship by the time the latter assumes the CPU presidency on November 3, 2008. He would set foot on CPU ground for a few days before returning to Milwaukee.

Henceforth he would be a jet setter swinging back and forth! At whose expense?

You see, adding complication to this mayhem, Robles’ retirement at the Milwaukee school won’t be due until March 2009. Hurray, he would be “double-jobbing” at the same time in two different countries between November this year and March next year! Uy, masuwerte itong bata ni Uy!

The CPU faculty is no doubt demoralized at the thought of having a complete stranger outsmarting the legitimate aspirants to the CPU presidency. If we know nothing about this Teddy Robles apart from his being an engineering professor in a remote foreign college, it’s because the man has never shone in the local academic firmament. That he has had no managerial experience even in kindergarten school would make him a square peg in a round hole at CPU.

Why has Dr. Acanto and other dyed-in-the-wool Centralians not filed any legal action against Alfonso Uy and the abusive management committee for exercising powers that do not belong to them?

The answer came to me one day while viewing the CPU-TV channel, where he said something like this, “Of more paramount importance is the image of CPU as a Christian institution.”

I wish I could believe the humble lawyer-PhD. But CPU is now slowly slipping away from that Baptist image to that of a business enterprise – no sweat — for the greedy few who, I heard, are already doing private business inside the campus.

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