Assistant Dean and Student Welfare and Development Board (SWDB) coordinator Nancy Taberara admitted that no formal hearing has been done four months following the event of the 50,000-peso issue in an interview last February 21.
Two separate hearings were scheduled and cancelled due to activities in the Faculty of Arts and Letters (AB). The faculty were not able to "match up" their schedules to hold a "fact-finding session," as well. Taberara also informed that all members of the SWDB would have to be called upon for the hearings.
Each member of the student council prepared their narratives on what supposedly transpired. "The next thing to be done is to call these people individually...to verify their pronouncements." She said that as a coordinator of the SWDB, she went through the narratives and consulted legal experts, the opinions of which she abstained from divulging. "The SWDB do not have a lead. We only know the narratives [given by the persons concerned]."
During the dialogue, she announced that no observers would be allowed on the hearings. Some students expressed indignation to this. One student from 4Philosophy debated with the student council and the Board of Majors for this prohibition some moments before the event was adjourned. Taberara was not present during such discussion, but when asked about the hearings earlier in the event, she commented that it is "quite unfair" to think that the hearings might be "rigged" and conducted "with no objectivity."
The two delayed hearings were scheduled last December and January, respectively. They did not take place because the administration was "overtaken" by the activities associated with the preparation for the Papal visit. The SWDB was in-charge of the human shield of students who volunteered to help keep order during Pope Francis' stay in the university.
Taberara stated that she prefers to call it "fact-finding sessions" instead of "hearings." She said that there was no complainant like in proper legal proceedings because of the AB students' concern on what happened to the "stolen" 50,000 pesos, as well as the question of who could be the perpetrator, the students, as a collectively body, have presented the issue to the administrators.
Taberara noticed from the questions of the students during the Speak Up dialogue last February 10 that the inquirers "seem like they feel that someone...may actually be guilty." She indicated that such musings are "unfair" to their fellow students they accuse when there is still no verdict on the case.
"In a way, I would say yes [that the AB forum was enough to satisfy the concerns and sentiments of the AB student body] because the students were very enthusiastic and...very spontaneous in their questions," she concluded. But she is not sure whether or not all AB students were "well represented" during the forum. She perceived some questions as being "personal" and "individual."
"There were not really that much concerns." The focus was on the 50,000-peso issue, the late equipment, the professors, and the Type B uniform, as she enumerated.
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