BishopAccountability.org
	He's Being '?shooed like a Dog' Sun.Star [Philippines] December 30, 2006 http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/ceb/2006/12/30/news/he.s.being.shooed.like.a.dog..html Feeling like a dog being shooed away, outgoing Cebu City Schools Superintendent Leonilo Oliva asked for more time to pack his things and clear all his liabilities before he moves out. Oliva said he will not defy his transfer order but he still needs to properly turn over all the supplies, equipment and service vehicle assigned to him before he leaves. Sun.Star Cebu tried to reach him for an interview, but he declined to comment on the issue to avoid further controversies. In a radio dyLA interview yesterday afternoon, Oliva said the Department of Education (DepEd) 7 cannot expect him to move to Lapu-Lapu City immediately after receiving an official copy of his transfer order only last Wednesday. “I’m not saying that I will not transfer. It’s just that I wish they will not send me away in a hurry. They should give me time. I’m like a dog being shooed away when I only received the order this week. They also wanted me to leave now,” he said. DepEd 7 Director Carolino Mordeno is reportedly planning to write Oliva a letter reminding him of Education Secretary Jesli Lapuz’s order transferring him to the Lapu-Lapu City Schools Division “effective immediately.” Mandaue City Schools Superintendent Lorna Rances will replace Oliva in Cebu City. Lapu-Lapu City Schools Superintendent Serenia Uy will replace Rances. In the same radio interview, Oliva also said he does not believe that he is being moved because he has been overstaying in Cebu City. Oliva has been city superintendent since 1993. Under DepEd’s rules, a superintendent may stay in his post up to five years only. “Why are they questioning the length of my stay only this time? When I was on my seventh or eighth year, why didn’t they transfer me on the account that I’ve been overstaying if that is their reason?” he said. Oliva further said that the transfer order might even be questioned because having been appointed by former president Fidel Ramos as superintendent specifically in Cebu City, he cannot be easily transferred elsewhere. Oliva said, though, that he has no plans of questioning the order, and that he will comply with it once he completes his inventory. Mayor Tomas Osme?a has been openly criticizing Oliva for reportedly being stubborn, but it was only after the Abellana National School (ANS) incident that he formally requested for the official’s relief. Last Nov. 13 and 14, some 20 ANS students complained that a priest harassed them during a religious activity in their school that Oliva authorized.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.