U.P. College of Medicine Alumnus asks U.P. President to Resign

The Diliman Diary has been copy furnished an email sent by Martin D. Bautista, M.D. to U.P. President Emerlinda R. Roman on the U.P. PGH issue. We are posting this below in view of great interest by our readers in this topic.

Re: Tenure of Board of RegentsTuesday, March 2, 2010 9:35 AM

Dear Dr. Roman,

I am Martin D Bautista (BS Zoology '84, Doctor of Medicine '89). The PGH Director controversy exemplifies what is wrong in our country. What should have been a simple matter of respecting the results of an election has been turned into political travesty once again. I have always regarded you as a fair and independent person. Your leadership these past 2 months however as well as the bandwagon obedience of all the Gloria Arroyo appointees compels me to remind all of you that you are answerable to the Filipino people and not to whoever appointed you.

Before the Board of Regents voted for the next PGH Director last December 18, 2009, a vote was taken to determine whether the Student Regent was qualified to participate. She was deemed qualified and the result favored Dr Jose Gonzales. Regent Abraham Sarmiento subsequently lodged a protest.

I have profound respect for Justice Sarmiento primarily because of the ultimate sacrifice his son Ditto willingly bestowed upon us fighting the corruption and cronyism during the Marcos dictatorship. We honor our Martyrs when we defend with all our might, their integrity and idealism.

Perhaps by coincidence, the battle cry of LABAN UPPGH was written by Ditto Sarmiento more than 30 years ago: Kung hindi tayo ang kikilos, sino ang kikilos? Kung hindi tayo ang kikibo, sino ang kikibo? Kung hindi ngayon, kailan pa?

I am bitterly disappointed with you Dr. Roman. All the knowledge I learned in UP will be useless if I do not fight for justice. While the easier path to tread would be that of silence and acquiescence, I choose to give meaning to all our UP Heroes who unrelentingly pursued justice.

I respectfully ask you to resign.


Martin D Bautista, MD


(Please note: Dr. Bautista's email address, Dr. Roman's email address and the email addresses of other individuals who were copy furnished this email were expunged from this post in order to protect their privacy).