Fed up with the massive propaganda attack against their beleaguered Campus Director Arnulfo Olandria, at least 80 teachers, employees and student leaders of the Bohol Island State University (BISU) in Cogtong,Candijay came out in the open yesterday to support for his retention and appealed to Mayor Sergio Amora Jr. to spare the school from politics. In a two-page Position Paper, five college deans, 25 teachers, 10 student leaders including the vice-president of the student government and the editor-in-chief of the student publication, 15 non-academic personnel and 26 other school workers claimed that politics invaded the school campus because of the continued orchestration of Mayor Amora for the removal of Director Olandria who is the father of his political nemesis, Muninicipal Kag. Arnielo Olandria.

The position paper pointed out that the move of Mayor Amora to oust Director Olandria from his position at the BISU Candjay campus has “started before and has intensified after the May 10, 2010 elections”. “We can only surmise that the same is politically motivated and has shown untold divisiveness in the academe which is supposed to be apolitical”, the position paper emphasized. “The only reason for this politically-initiated move is the fact that the son of Campus Director Arnulfo Olandria, Municipal Kagawad Arnielo Olandria, is the political nemesis of Mayor Sergio Amora of Candijay, Bohol”, it added. It was the young Olandria who filed a disqualification case against Mayor Amora at the height of the May 10, 2010 elections.

Meanwhile, as the resolution of the disqualification case against him is expected to come out momentarily, Mayor Amora also intensified his move to oust the father of his political nemesis, Municipal Kagawad Arnielo Olandria, as campus director of the Bohol Island State University (BISU) in Cogtong, Candjay. Mayor Amora personally orchestrated a rally last Thursday in front of BISU Candijay campus by mobilizing municipal employees, casual workers and barangay officials. Incidentally, only five BISU students openly joined the rally while a few faculty members identified with the mayor stayed in the sidelines. Earlier, Mayor Amora sent feelers to reconcile with Director Arnulfo Olandria whose son remains to be his most vocal critic. The position paper clarified that the rally held last Thursday was not initiated and participated in by BISU faculty members, employees and students but was made up mostly of the employees and casual workers of the municipality.

It concluded with an appeal to the Commission on Higher Education though Commissioner William C.Medrano, the BISU Board of Regents, BISU Pres. Elpidio T. Magante and Bohol Gov. Edgar M. Chatto to come up with a peaceful and just settlement of the dispute, through channels, rather than resort to legal shortcuts and circumvention of the rule of law. It also appealed to Mayor Amora to maintain a hands off policy as far as the BISU Candjay Campus is concerned because “the academic tranquility that we enjoyed being a constitutional and statutory guarantee vanished over the past few days simply because politics managed to rear its ugly head inside our campus”.