Escudero and the UP presidency
Escudero now wants to control UP through Jimenez, who will keep UP misled and misguided into believing that everything about the Marcos family is evil.
Daily TribuneEscudero now wants to control UP through Jimenez, who will keep UP misled and misguided into believing that everything about the Marcos family is evil.
The University of the Philippines Board of Regents will elect a new UP President on 9 December 2022.
Senator Francis "Chiz" Escudero is an ex officio member of the UP BOR being the chairman of the Senate Committee on Education. Escudero is maneuvering the UP BOR to install a rabid pinklawan — Angelo "Jijil"Jimenez.
A labor lawyer, Jimenez is a devout follower of the Aquino family and the Liberal Party of Leni Robredo-Kiko Pangilinan. He is a former UP regent, appointed by President Noynoy Aquino.
Jimenez was a member of the UP BOR when the UP allowed the use of over a hectare of prime land in the UP Diliman campus for a martial law museum. That museum is to showcase the alleged abuses committed by the martial law administration of the late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., a known foe of the Aquino family.
Aside from glorifying the communists who fought martial law and who tried to overthrow the government and replace it with one subservient to the communist party in China, the UP martial law museum will also portray ex-President and communist coddler Corazon Cojuangco Aquino as the icon of Philippine democracy.
Past commentaries published in this newspaper discussed why Mrs. Aquino is not an icon of democracy.
Outside of his being a pro-Aquino, pro-Liberal Party UP regent, Jimenez has no actual experience in UP administrative work.
If elected UP President, Jimenez will use his influence in the labor sector to make UP a hotbed of radical, violent opposition to President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. and the Marcos family.
Escudero and Jimenez are members of the same UP fraternity that counts the woefully misinformed LP President, Congressman Edcel Lagman, a critic of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., and ex-President Rodrigo Duterte. From the way he speaks in public, Lagman's political sympathies are with the reds.
It will also be recalled that in the 2016 vice presidential election where Bongbong Marcos and Escudero were rival candidates, Escudero called Bongbong Marcos names. In his political advertisements, Escudero branded Bongbong's father a dictator.
The two-faced Escudero conveniently hid the fact that his own father, the late Salvador Escudero, was a cabinet minister of the late President Marcos Sr. The Escudero family enjoyed political power, comfort, and privilege under Marcos Sr.
Escudero now wants to control UP through Jimenez, who will keep UP misled and misguided into believing that everything about the Marcos family is evil. Perhaps, Escudero wants the UP BOR, under Jimenez, to bestow on him an honorary doctorate degree, too.
In a previous commentary published in this newspaper, it was revealed why the communists are eyeing the UP presidency. They have everything to lose if the UP leadership does not land in the hands of either a communist or a red sympathizer.
Escudero's influence has apparently extended to outgoing UP President Danilo Concepcion, an ex officio member of the UP BOR. Reliable sources reveal that Escudero has asked Concepcion to vote for Jimenez, and that Concepcion agreed to do so because he owes Escudero a "debt of gratitude."
What the details of that "debt of gratitude" Concepcion owes Escudero are, remain a mystery.
Several UP alumni score Concepcion for accommodating Escudero. They said, and rightly so, that Concepcion should vote for the candidate for the next UP President who is right and experienced for the job, and not pay a "debt of gratitude."
Undoubtedly, Concepcion is politicizing UP.
Escudero is likewise believed to have convinced Prospero de Vera, the chairman of the Commission on Higher Education and ex officio UP regent, to vote for Jimenez.
Perhaps, de Vera thinks that by siding with Escudero, who chairs the Senate Committee on Education, he can keep his job as CHEd chairperson for the predictable future. That means, of course, that he must vote for Jimenez, Escudero's anointed one.
The signs indicate that Jimenez is unfit to be UP President.