More than a few eyebrows were raised when news broke that former Catanduanes State University President and now Governor Patrick Alain T. Azanza had been proclaimed president-elect of the CatSU Federated Alumni Association last week.
Running unopposed during the elections held Dec. 3, 2025, Azanza gains a seat as alumni representative in the CatSU Board of Regents, the university’s highest governing body.
In a press release, the university said the governor has challenged the newly elected officers to develop a university-wide project that will benefit all colleges.
Azanza also committed to ensuring equal opportunities for the CatSU Panganiban Campus during his four-year term and expressed full support for the leadership of CatSU President Dr. Gemma G. Acedo, including initiatives to open new programs such as radiologic technology, medical technology and the College of Medicine.
Other elected officers include former alumni association president Atty. Ramil Joselito B. Tamayo, vice president; Dr. Joseph G. Zafe, secretary; Fidel A. Vegim, treasurer; Engr. Renato T. Chong, auditor; and Ferdinand M. Brizo, public relations officer.
According to university insiders, the governor’s camp fielded loyal candidates for president in all of the colleges, with all but two running unopposed, while Azanza was elected president of the laboratory high school alumni which participated in the elections for the very first time.
Tamayo is Azanza’s trusted political adviser and Capitol chief of staff. Chong, a former planning officer at CatSU has been appointed by Azanza as Engineer III at the Provincial Engineering Office while media man Brizo transferred to CatSU during Azanza’s stint as president.
Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Memorandum Order No. 03, series of 2001, provides the revised Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) for Republic Act 8292 that specifies the uniform composition and powers of the governing boards of chartered state universities and colleges, among others.
Under said memo, the governing board of SUCs like CatSU is composed of the chairman of CHED as chairman, the SUC President as vice chairman, and the Senate Education Committee chairman, House Committee on Higher and Technical Education chairman, NEDA Regional Director, DOST Regional Director, two private sector representatives, the president of the Supreme Student Council, and the president of the Federation of Alumni Association.
The same IRR states that the FAA president in SUCs with multiple campus shall preferably be previous graduates of tertiary programs.
The only exception cited in the IRR that allows the election of high school alumni as president of the alumni association is in the case of new chartered SUCs which have yet to produce graduates in the tertiary level.
In fact, when Tamayo was elected FAA president in October 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, all nine of those who were elected directors for the two-year term were from the eight colleges at the main campus and the Panganiban campus.
This changed in 2022, more than a year after the election of Azanza as CstSU president in June 2021.
On Oct. 24, 2022, Atty. Tamayo called for a special meeting of the Federated Alumni Association board of directors then composed of Tamayo, Fidel A. Vegim as vice president, Nestor SR. Robles as treasurer, Eduardo D. Peña as auditor, Eddie S. Million, Erickson T. Salazar, Joel T. Olfindo and Eulalia T. Talaran.
During said meeting, it was disclosed that the new By-Laws of the CatSU FAA was duly approved and ratified more than a year earlier on September 2021, amending the pro-forma By-laws that provided for a one-year term only and setting the term of office of the BOD to four years “as confirmed and approved by President Dr. Patrick Alain T. Azanza in his Certificate of Oath of Office dated October 13, 2021.”
The Tamayo board subsequently approved the lengthened term of office starting from Oct. 10, 2021 to Oct. 10, 2025.
It was not explained why the October 7-8, 2021 election for the BOD specified a term of two years from 2020-2022 if the alumni association had indeed approved an amendment of the By-laws during the previous month.
A university official who requested anonymity also stated that at that time, then President Azanza questioned the policy of awarding the Outstanding Alumnus Award to a graduate of a bachelor’s degree as standard practice in Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs).
He stressed that as a former FAA officer, he was never made aware of the By-laws amendment or participated in its approval or ratification.
Another source also claimed that eventually, the president approved the inclusion of the high school alumni association president as among the officers of the FAA.
The governor’s ‘backdoor’ entry into the Board of Regents brings to three the number of politician-members, aside from the Senate Education committee chair and the House Higher and Technical Education committee chair.
If one considers political affiliation, one of the two private sector representatives is the son of the former governor while the other is allied with the current chief executive.
A political observer said that if Azanza’s election as high school alumni president is questioned, he could simply resign from his post, at which point the vice president – his chief of staff and FAA vice president Atty. Tamayo – gets to sit as regent for another four years.