By Prof. Janet R. Valdez, PhD, FRIEDr
OIC College President – Bulacan Polytechnic College School Year 2023-2024
Mission impossible.
Precious friends and renowned advisers discouraged me from the mission a couple of
times due to a number of reasons: state of the campuses when I came in, the barriotic culture
and laid-back system, financial constraints, the lack of support, and a lot of other things.
Solutions optimistically drive the challenges away from these few of my favorite
accomplishments.
Locating the institution in the international academic map. Mr. Kyung Hyo Kim, the
International Vice President of Family Peace Association (FPA), and Mr. Youngjun Kim, Vice
Chairman of the United Press International (UPI), paid separate visits at the main campus to
meet and greet the students, as well as, scanned the institution for possible opportunities for
partnerships and projects.
Since FPA is a sister organization of the Global Peace Foundation Inc., select faculty
members were treated to a pompous accommodation at a five-star hotel during the Global
Peace Foundation’s Awards and Gala Night where they met its Regional President, Mr. Ingill
Ra, and former President of Guatemala Pres. Vinicio Cerezo. The momentous event introduced
the faculty members to the delegates from the different parts of the world.
The Founder and Chairman of the Global Peace Foundation, Inc. and Family Peace
Association, Dr. Hyun Jin Preston Moon, had a chance of knowing the select faculty members
and the polytechnic college.
Thus, fourteen (14) of the personnel were invited; however, only four (4) made it at the
Family Peace International Conference in South Korea in February, 2024. Moreover, during the
First Asia-Pacific Family Peace Association Leadership Conference fourteen (14) personnel and
thirteen (13) students were billeted at the historic Manila Hotel for three (3) days and nights. The
students, who performed a street dance, shared the stage with world-renowned opera singers
and the famous Bayanihan Dance Troupe during the fiesta extravaganza.
The personnel and students got the chance to interact and exchange addresses with
international delegates who were mostly from the academe integrating the mantra “one family
under God, one family at a time” in their profession.
Preparation and registration of the Off-Campuses. The seven (7) off-campuses of
the college had been registered to offer TESDA courses as extension of the main campus. As
such, the off-campuses had been registered as an institution authorized to offer the TESDA
courses. For some reasons, the registration lapsed. TESDA required the extension campuses
to be registered individually for them to continue offering the courses. Without the registration,
the extension campuses can not open the school year and the campuses would be at halt. It
was a big challenge since the college had to work on the budget submitted from the previous
year. The college had to work on a submitted budget that did not include the registration of the
extension campuses. Added to the challenge posed by the lack of budget was the untimely
demise of the budget officer, whose service included the amazing skills of putting pieces
together to make ends meet. The death called for a quick decision to have someone take the
responsibility and avoid the discontinuation of the operations, such as the budget hearing, the
processing of financial obligations, and the costs entailed in the preparation and mandated
registration of the courses. Should these things not be put in motion, the off-campuses can not
start with its new school year. Fortunately though, the heads of the campuses willingly soiled
their hands to work wonders and magically produced the needed tools and equipment.
Moreover, the TESDA focal person of the institution was ever-supportive, superbly able,
appropriately-networked, and knowledgeable on the ins and outs of the process; thus, one by
one the off- campuses got their individual registration. And the cliche’ “it is better late than
never” was sweetly tasted when the campuses opened its first day of class!
Creation of the 1 st Diploma Course at the College and in the Region. Before I started
performing the job, I presented the vision of creating ladderized diploma courses to the Boss, to
the administrator of the province who expressed similar ideas, and to the four (4) members of
the screening committee, who, ‘interestingly’, three (3) of whom were all officers of the college.
The diploma courses would be bundled as independent TESDA courses which upon completion
may lead to the four-year degree courses offered at the main campus. The students could go in
and out while completing the course. Upon completion of the TESDA course, they could find a
job, pause from school, and once settled, they could enroll again and continue. This could boost
the enrollment at the off-campuses which could, also, offer the same diploma courses with the
provision of the required tools and equipment. Thus, before the registration of the TESDA
courses at the off-campuses. the main campus of the college, which had been existing for fifty-
two (52) years, had to register its course offerings and bundle them as a diploma course. Just a
day before I left, the certificate of registration, the first (1 st ) diploma course in the region, arrived.
God’s stroke of fate!
Unifying the Institutional School Calendar. The eight (8) campuses, although
carrying the same name, planned their school calendars separately. During my stay, we unified
and institutionalized the calendar during the 2023 Team-Building Activity to catch up on the
School Year 2023-2024. We worked collaboratively on the School Year 2024-2025 via Google
form on filling up the days for the entire institution. Each office should anchor on the submitted
school calendar of the registrar to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for their
planned programs and activities. All vice presidents could access the calendar and the offices
affiliated to them. This provided an over-all view of the current school year and the scheduling of
activities without coinciding with one another. It should allow a harmonious and cooperative
spirit among the stakeholders.
Centralization of the Budget. The most difficult hurdle was in the finger-pointings and
accusations smeared at each other due to the departmental and separate collections and
income-generating activities at the institution over the years. It was mud-slinging here and there
silently and secretly crawling in the vines of the rumor-mongers; thus, there are personnel who
could not look at each other eye-to-eye or who could smile at each other, but, with malicious
thoughts at the back of their minds.
To stop the unhealthy relationship, the tranparent centralization of the budget was
discussed and implemented. All financial transactions had to be done at the office of the vice
president for finance with the cashier receiving and releasing the cash payments. However, in
matters of income-generating activities that had been practiced throughout the years, the
cashier nor anyone from the office would not want to take responsibility. I wondered how they
did this in the previous years! The response was that the collection was scattered among the
campuses, the departments, the programs, the student organizations, the Office of
Administration and Finance, and, who knows (?).
The newly-appointed vice president for finance laboriously created a spreadsheet where
all the financial transactions could be transparently viewed on actual time. We had to
persistently request someone to sacrifice in temporarily safeguarding the school development
funds from income-generating projects until a protocol would be in place and approved by the
Board of Trustees. Thus, the collection was centralized.
Hold your breath and wait for Part Two of Mission Accomplished!