JEDDAH, 1 September 2006 — The Office of the Ombudsman has found Kadatuan Palot Usop, the former Philippine consul general in Jeddah, criminally liable for seizing control of the management of the International Philippine School in Jeddah (IPSJ) four years ago, a report by the INQ7.net said yesterday.
In a 25-page decision, Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez ruled that Usop violated the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act when he illegally inducted a new set of officers to the IPSJ board without holding an election and when the three-year term of the incumbent board had yet to expire, said the INQ7.net report.
The case stemmed from a complaint filed by Edgardo Alcantara and Linogaranao Mapandi, members of the IPSJ board of trustees, who also accused Usop of appointing himself as chairman of the board, and installed Fidel Hernandez, then president of the Parents-Teachers Council, as vice chairman.
Such act, the complaint said, was prohibited by the board’s constitution and by-laws.
In his response, Usop denied the allegations, citing a letter written to him by 200 parents of IPSJ students of their decision to dissolve the board of trustees and giving Hernandez the mandate to form a new board.
But the Ombudsman, pointed that the 200 parents who signed in the letter did not “constitute the majority of the total membership of the assembly,” which is about 1,200, “thus its resolution to dissolve the incumbent board has no legal effect.”
Gutierrez added that Usop has shown “manifest partiality, evident bad faith and/or gross inexcusable negligence” when he inducted the Hernandez board despite the glaring irregularities in its constitution, causing a “whimsical defiance of established law, rules and regulations and the outbreak of hostilities of the school,” according to the report.
The Ombudsman is expected to file the charges in the Sandiganbayan court.
Based on previous reports by Arab News, the controversial IPSJ takeover happened on Nov. 13, 2002, after two weeks of wrangling in which the group of Hernandez physically seized control of the school. Hernandez and his group accused the Saudi Ministry of Education-backed trustees led by Efren Rodriguez of overstaying, refusing to come up with a financial statement, and calling a parents assembly, all in violation of the IPSJ constitution and by-laws.
“I’ve assumed the chairmanship of the school management under the direction of the Philippine government,” Usop told Arab News after he addressed the school staff, faculty and parents about the consulate’s takeover.
“The direction was given to me to take control of the school in a bid to restore normalcy and solvency,” Usop said.
Despite the refusal of the MOE to recognize Usop’s authority over the school, he went on to appoint himself as chairman, to the dismay of the group of Hernandez.
In 2003 when Usop took almost total control of the school, some members of the Hernandez group complained to some officials in Manila, prompting a lawmaker from Lanao del Sur province to demand his recall from Jeddah.
In August of that year, he was unceremoniously dismissed from his post by then Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople.
Usop, who was replaced by Consul General Pendosina N. Lomondot, was later assigned to another post in Africa.
