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The road toward the presidency of the country’s largest university
in Mindanao for Dr. Macapado Muslim was riddled with politics and
intrigue.
The post eluded Muslim although he was the top
choice of the Search Committee tasked to select the president of
Mindanao State University System (MSUS).
In 2005, a Malacañang-authorized search
committee, chaired by former Commissioner Christina Padolina of the
Commission on Higher Education, recommended Muslim to succeed Dr.
Camar Umpa. But national police general Ricardo de Leon was
unexpectedly appointed by President Gloria Arroyo as transition
president.
The reason given for his appointment was to
restore peace and order in the university. Malacañang’s
appointment of de Leon as acting president was widely criticized. De
Leon, who did not have the qualifications required, was not one of
the 21 nominees screened by the search committee.
After two and a half years, Muslim was finally
appointed and installed on January 31. During the turnover ceremony
at the Main Campus in Marawi City, he graciously acknowledged the
positive contributions of de Leon in improving the Marawi Campus and
his resource generation initiatives.
Muslim appealed for support among the
administrators and the faculty, 3,100 of whom are serving in 10
campuses in Mindanao. Mindanao State has about 53,000 students,
making it the third-largest state university in the country.
Muslim said he envisions a university “that is
more vibrant not only in instruction but also in research and
extension [or] community service; MSU that is stronger not only in
terms of the value of academic excellence but also in terms of
societal relevance and affirmative action for the Muslims and other
ethnic minorities in ‘Minsupala’ [Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan];
MSU that operates and grows synergistically, with its component
campuses growing in their respective region-specific concerns and
areas of comparative strength and advantage, and sharing with each
other their capabilities competitive in the 21st century; and MSU
under a leadership enjoying high levels of respectability and
credibility.”
Muslim, a native of Marawi City, is an alumnus
of the Mindanao State. He received his master’s in public
administration from the University of the Philippines. He obtained
his master’s and doctorate in political science from the
University of Hawaii as an East-West Center scholar. Muslim was a
chancellor of Mindanao State in General Santos City for 11 years and
was a concurrent member of the MSU Board of Regents.
He told an audience at Mindanao State, “As
your new president, I will be your caring, highly accessible,
responsible and effective big brother, not only to the Muslim
students of MSU but also to the Christian and Lumad students.”
The soft-spoken Muslim specialized on
multiculturalism. His landmark publication is The Moro Armed
Struggle in the Philippines: The Nonviolent Autonomy Alternative. He
also wrote Towards a Nonkilling Society in the Philippines: The Need
for Multiculturalist Governance, Sustaining the Constituency for
Moro Autonomy, ACCORD: An International Journal of Peace
Initiatives, and The GRP-MNLF Peace Agreement: A Preliminary
Assessment of its Implementation, for the Philippine Journal of
Public Administration.
Mindanao State University was established in
Marawi City on September 1, 1961. It is the only university in the
Philippines with a special mandate to integrate the cultural
communities, specially the Muslims into the mainstream Philippine
society.
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