Shortly after the College’s official statement on the “Thesis for Sale” issue was released, AK Paras, the complainant of the “Thesis for Sale” allegation, published a Facebook post last Jan. 28 that called out Benilde Chancellor Robert Tang to straighten facts.
In his post, Paras rebutted Tang’s statements about his association to the College. According to Mr. Tang in the official statement, “as in fact, he was not enrolled in a thesis course, he was on absence without leave (AWOL) on the First Term of School Year 2018-2019 and he is not a bona fide student of the College, effective Second Term of School Year 2018-2019.”
Paras argued that he was enrolled in the thesis course Export Project 1 (EXPROJ1) on the third term of the same year of allegation, however, has filed a leave of absence (LOA) on the first month through his mother, “so technically I was “enrolled in a thesis course” at one point,” Paras said.
“What I have an issue about is your statement that I’m not enrolled on a thesis course and that I was on an absence without leave (AWOL). These are BLATANT LIES. I don’t know where you got those fake information from. But I’m sure you will say that you got it from the Registrar’s Office, the primary source of all student records, to probably say that your source is legitimate,” Paras added.
Paras also affirmed that he did file the complaint, having emailed a soft copy of the document to the Dean, in addition to a hard copy of the document being submitted to the Dean’s office via the ad hoc President of the Central Student Government (CSG).
“With all due respect Sir Tang, the complaint is not “alleged.” There was an actual complaint that I filed to the Dean through the Central Student Government. How can you say that it is “alleged” if there is really one? Please do not try to dismiss the validity that there was an actual complaint that was filed. I even emailed the Dean a soft copy of the complaint, aside from the hard copy that I asked the ad hoc President of the Central Student Government at that time to submit to the Dean’s office,” Paras stated.
Regarding Mr. Tang’s statement on the complaint being “a collection of alleged experiences of identified students who did not submit written statements,” Paras replied, “Yes, my complaint was written in narrative form. I narrated, as detailed as possible, the events when the students confided to me and some friends the transactions that they entered into regarding their thesis. But all those [narratives] were backed up by documentary evidence confirming that what these students said to me in person are all true.”
“The accuracy of my statements will be proven by the documentary evidence pertaining to the students’ confessions,” Paras added.
Moreover, Paras denied there were insufficiency of the documentary evidence, he assured in his post that the first complaint was filed last October 3, 2019. However, new developments were not attached in the original formal complaint as the College refuses to work with him directly.
“How can we submit this documentary evidence if Benilde administration [does] not even want to talk to me and work hand-in-hand with me to get to the bottom of this?” Paras emphasized.
Paras also disclosed the name of the faculty member who he accused to be part of the concern. However, as chancellor Tang explained in his statement, the College authorities have already sent a Notice to Explain to the said faculty member, whose written explanation is currently being reviewed by the Human Resources Services.
In an exclusive interview with The Benildean, Paras spoke of another witness from a third thesis group who came forward regarding the issue.
The witness revealed that a number of “slots” would be available to groups who opted to pay to pass their thesis, however, the “middleman” they transacted with said that all slots were already taken somewhere during this time, according to the third witness, the middleman was transacting with around 13 to 14 thesis groups. Additionally, as opposed to the P20,000 the previous witnesses had allegedly paid for their thesis, the third witness spoke to two middlemen who set different amounts. The first charged an amount P25,000, while the latter charged P32,000.
Moreover, the third witness also affirmed that there are two other faculty members from the Export Management Program who took part in the issue, whom they referred to as “the Holy Trinity” of Export Management Program, whereas students who opted to have an “easy way out” they must go through these three faculty members.
According to Paras when asked whether all these witnesses have done their thesis, “All three of them said that they made their thesis paper to some extent, but paid/was offered to not complete it and just be automatically passed,” he said. Whereas, all three of them are pointing out at the same faculty member.
Paras also stated that he had sent a 62-page complaint to the Chairperson of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Mr. Prospero De Vera via email last Jan. 14. De Vera confirmed that he had received the email when he was featured and interviewed in an episode of TV Patrol, which aired last Jan. 24.
The College assures that investigation is currently underway, and Paras hopes for the College to make the right decision regarding the involved professor.
