Speech for the Turnover Ceremonies
February 10, 2011
Quezon Hall
The Chairperson and other Members of the Board of Regents, Dr. Patricia Licuanan,
Regent and Representative Sonny Angara,Regent Magdaleno Albarracin, Regent Ida
Dalmacio, Regent Clodualdo Cabrera, Regent Reynato Puno, Regent Elizabeth
Siguion-Reyna, former UP President Francisco Nemenzo, Representative Teddy
Casiño, President-Elect Alfredo Pascual, Chancellors, Deans, Directors, Colleagues
and Friends, Good Morning
Six years ago, on this same day, I stood at this exact same spot to participate in a
turnover ceremony. The difference is that I was at the receiving end of the turnover at
that time. My secret wish on that day was that I would be able to finish my six-year term.
Today, my wish has been granted because in a little while I shall be at the giving end -
turning over the authority and responsibility of the office to the incoming president Fred
Pascual.
When I took over as UP President from Dodong Nemenzo in 2005, I never saw myself
as being in competition against my predecessors. For after all, we were one in our
vision and aspiration for excellence, leadership, service and academic freedom for the
University.
I saw myself as continuing their work, taking it further, steering it through its next stage
of development. The added bonus was that in my six-year term I had the benefit of
advice from three former UP Presidents – Edgardo Angara, Jose Abueva, Francisco
Nemenzo. To them I extend my deepest thanks and appreciation.
Immediately after assuming office, my team of Vice-Presidents and Secretary sat down
to finalize our ten-point agenda. It was that agenda that guided us through our six-year
term. Today I shall pass on to my successor the End-of Term Report which is a record
of accomplishments of the collective leadership of the University in the last six years. I
say collective leadership because I, alone, would not have been able to do much
without the cooperation and support of the regents, the chancellors, the vice-presidents,
the deans and directors, the faculty, the staff, the students and the alumni.
It is not the time to enumerate all that we have done – the End-of Term Report should
take care of that. But I hope you will grant me a little time to highlight some of our
accomplishments. I promise to be brief and mention only 4 items.
1. The UP Charter
Finally, after many long years of discussions, consultations, debates within the UP
community and within the halls of Congress, Act No. 1870 which created the University
of the Philippines in 1908 was amended. On April 29, 2008, or less than two months
before UP’s 100th birthday, President Arroyo signed into law RA Act 9500, “An Act to
Strengthen the University of the Philippines as the National University.” The passage of
this new Charter was cheered by the entire UP community including the UP alumni from
all over the Philippines and around the world. The struggle for a new UP Charter took
almost a quarter of a century, spanned the terms of five UP Presidents, and involved
students who were not yet babies or were not born yet when the first campus
consultations began in the 80s.
Today we say the struggle has been well worth it. With this new Charter we are officially
the country’s national university, a formal recognition of UP’s place in higher education
in the country. The first thing we did after the signing of the law was to mount an
information dissemination campaign to explain to the entire UP community the
provisions of the new Charter and their implications. The actual implementation of the
new Charter is a long process but we have made progress. The details are in our report.
2. The Centennial Celebration
After my election as President, I was invariably described as the first woman president
and UP’s centennial president. Both descriptions intimidated me as they raised a lot of
expectations of me from within and outside the UP community. That I was UP’s
centennial president was even more intimidating – everyone was expecting the
celebration not only to be a big success but a celebration like no other, for after all, this
event happens only once in a hundred years.
Fortunately for me, there was the UP Centennial Commission chaired by Senator
Angara, the same person who led the University during its Diamond Jubilee celebration.
Every single member of the Commission put in their time, their hearts, even their
personal resources to ensure the celebration’s success. If I worked very hard to raise
funds for UP, it was because I was only trying to match the dedication and eagerness of
the Centennial Commission members to serve their Alma Mater.
Three things I wish to mention about the centennial celebrations:
First: The centennial lecture series was the first of its kind in the University’s history.
Twenty nine lectures throughout the centennial year by scholars, distinguished
individuals, including Nobel Prize winners, experts, and friends. Twenty nine lectures
beamed live to all UP campuses, became the basis for UP’s grand conference in 2009
to plan UP’s direction in its second century. In that conference we agreed that we need
to secure our status as a research university.
Second: The centennial fundraising which brought in almost P6.2 Billion from 2005 until
mid 2009 which was our cutoff date for the centennial fundraising. This amount of P6.2
Billion exceeded our target of P5 Billion. Note, however, that while there was a cutoff
date for fundraising which we did for the purpose of determining what could be
attributed to the centennial celebration, UP’s fundraising efforts continues to this day.
A total of 197 professorial chairs were established or upgraded. These do not include
the centennial chairs established by the campuses from their own funds. Four hundred
eight new scholarship programs were established with some of these programs offering
up to more than 50 slots. One scholarship program supports more than a hundred
scholars. In 2010, for example, 20 percent or close to 10,000 of our undergraduate
students have enjoyed scholarship grants from government and private sources, as
wells as financial assistance from the University through the Socialized Tuition and
Financial Assistance Program.
Funds raised from government and the private sector have enabled UP to undertake
massive infrastructure development in all campuses particularly in UP Diliman where 15
new buildings are currently under construction. Over the last six years, the budget for
infrastructure development has exceeded the P2.8 Billion mark. Equipment purchases
amounted to P1.1 Billion.
Third: the Centennial celebration provided the occasion for all the members of the
academic community and especially our alumni to feel “pride of place.” The UP spirit
came very much alive - never have we seen such an outpouring of support from
everyone including friends who are not even part of UP. The Centennial celebration
made us even more aware of UP’s durability as an institution, made us feel the
admiration and respect the public has for our Alma Mater.
3. On UP’s Science and Technology Thrust
Fully aware that a large scientific manpower base is crucial to a country’s progress and
development, we set out to do our share in producing the critical mass of scientists and
engineers to help improve our country’s global competitiveness.
Our student profile is unlike the national enrollment profile of 40 percent students
enrolled in education and business-related programs. More than half of our students are
enrolled in science and engineering courses and we now see an increasing trend in
graduate enrollment in the sciences and engineering.
At the start of our term we formulated our research agenda on emerging fields in
science and technology agenda with the help of our scientists and engineers from all
the campuses. Our emerging fields initiatives are meant to improve the quality,
productivity and impact of scientific research for the generation of new knowledge
expected of a national university in the 21st century. We were determined to implement
an efficient utilization of funds by ensuring a more focused research thrust and by
prioritizing high impact research. We presented our agenda to DOST. I am pleased to
report that over the last six years, we received a total of almost P1.2 Billion from the
DOST for research.
This is in addition to the support from the National Government for the establishment of
the National Science Complex and the Engineering Research and Development for
Technology.
The National Science Complex was the result of lobby efforts of UP alumni here and
abroad and the assistance of our friends in Congress, especially Representative Luis
Villafuerte. The budget of P1.7 billion from national government has been fully
released. Dean Caesar Saloma has done an excellent job of making sure the complex
will rise.
On the other hand, the ERDT Program is the brainchild of former Dean Rowena
Guevara and her colleagues from the College of Engineering. The project, which
includes the following components: scholarship grants to produce 596 master’s and 112
doctoral graduates by 2014, faculty development, infrastructure development and
research, received a total budget of P3.0 Billion. Again I would like to acknowledge the
support of our friends and alumni in Congress especially Senator Angara who
continues to argue and make sure project funding is sustained.
At the same time we established a reward and award program – the Scientific
Productivity Program to recognize the productivity and performance of our scientists
and engineers. We realize we needed to have an incentive system so that they will be
motivated to stay and contribute to our efforts to strengthen our science and technology
programs. But we also made sure we did not forget our artists. We established a
counterpart program – the Artist Productivity System to recognize our artists who many
say, and I would totally agree, are truly world class.
We have also partnered with the private sector to promote R&D linkages among
industry, government and academe and generate new technologies. The partnership is
not just about raising funds – rather it is also about providing a venue for the
transformation of innovative ideas into cutting-edge commercial products, giving our
faculty and students access to world-class learning laboratories. The UP-Ayala
Technohub, a concept planted during President Nemenzo’s term and implemented
during our term is now a reality.
4. Faculty, Student and Staff Benefits
The improvement of the welfare of the faculty, students and staff was among our major
concerns when we came on board in 2005 and thereafter. I recall that during the search
process for UP President in 2004, there was never a forum where the issue of faculty,
student and staff welfare did not come out. Complaints about the low salaries and
inadequate incentives and benefits dominated any discussion on welfare.
Our administration worked continuously to improve the existing incentive programs and
establish new ones. Consider the following:
We declared promotion seasons in the University four times during our
term. One in 2005, and each year during the last three years of our term.
We replenished the fund for doctoral studies by setting aside P108 million
to support our young faculty to enable them to pursue doctoral studies
here and abroad.
Through aggressive and continuing lobby efforts and despite the fact that
we have secured our exemption from the Salary Standardization Law,
national government has agreed to include UP in all the salary increases
declared by government. By 2012 we shall have doubled the salaries of
our faculty. In 2005 when we took over the highest paid faculty was
receiving only P31.000 per month. Now the highest paid receives
P57,000, and by 2012, his salary would have reached P80,000. Add to
this the professorial chairs whose number and amount of honoraria we
have increased to reward our most productive faculty members
We have increased our lecturers’ honoraria twice during our term.
We have upgraded the benefits for our esteemed Professors Emeritus
We have granted sick leave benefits to our faculty members in the spirit of
equity as they do not enjoy, as the administrative staff do, the
accumulation of sick leave credits
We have established a financial assistance program for hospitalization
expenses of all our faculty and staff in the amount of P200,000 per
person.
For the students, we have increased the number of scholarship grants,
increased the stipend for financial assistance.
New student dormitories have been constructed in Diliman and Tacloban.
New dormitories will be constructed in Manila, Los Baños, Diliman with
funds already secured for the purpose. Massive repair and renovation of
dorms have been undertaken in Diliman and Mindanao. In Baguio there
now stands a Student Center and Alumni Building. In Los Baños, a new
gym has been completed.
We have estimated that over the last six years, we paid out a total of P1.5 Billion in
benefits and incentives to the faculty and staff. Over P1 Billion for the staff and about
half a billion for the faculty.
In last Monday’s issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, there appeared a statement that
UP’s coffers have been depleted. I do not know the motive or the basis of the person
who said that. But I wish to share this with you: Last month, I submitted to the Board of
Regents during our meeting the University’s balance sheet that compares the audited
2005 figures with our figures as of September 2010.These figures have been submitted
to COA. Between 2005 and 2010 UP’s assets have increased fromP27.3 Billion to
P37.4 Billion. We are leaving a cash balance of roughlyP13.5 Billion
Colleagues and friends: I have arrived at the end of this 6-year journey. When I
undertook to stand at the helm of the country’s premier university as it completed its
100th year and entered its second century, I had no illusions that it would be an easy
task.
Today I make no attempt to mask the fact that there were times when I was sorely tried.
If I persevered, it was because of the reassurances of support that I continued to
receive from majority of the UP community—from its most humble to its most
distinguished and respected members—and my confidence in the fact that I had never
wavered from what I saw as my mandate.
I am grateful to those who stood by us through both the heady days of our Centennial
celebrations, and the sobering periods of conflict. I am particularly grateful to those
who, even when they might have disagreed with particular policies or decisions of our
administration, were one with us in our determination not to allow disagreements to
descend to the level of the petty, the malicious, the irresponsible and the irrational,
which dishonors us all as academics, as well as the University to which we belong.
The mistakes that we made were never made in bad faith or from selfish interests. And I
sincerely hope that even those who judge us most harshly will grant this to be true.
My colleagues and co-workers, students, and friends, before I take my leave, I wish to
thank the Board of Regents, particularly those members who assisted us in our struggle
to obtain approval of our new Charter; and who agreed to serve as members of the UP
Centennial Commission, and put the wisdom of their years of experience, and their
extensive networks, at our disposal, and steered us successfully through our Centennial
Celebrations.
I thank most especially, my Executive Staff, the Vice Presidents and the Secretary of
the University and the Board of Regents, who shared the dream, and, who, in serving
the University, sacrificed not just time and energy, but opportunities to earn recognition,
both national and international, for their own scholarly and creative projects.
I thank the members of President’s Advisory Council—the Chancellors of the
constituent universities, who, through their cooperation, dedication, and leadership,
gave shape to the dream.
I thank the College Deans, whom I have always regarded as the University’s backbone;
the directors and other university administrators; the members of the faculty—its gifted
scientists and artists, its distinguished scholars and members of the different
professions—who are the magnet drawing successive generations of young Filipinos to
our campuses; our loyal support staff; our alumni, who continue to provide invaluable
support for their alma mater; and our students, on whom we pin our highest hopes.
I share our success with the staff of my office – the Office of the President, with the staff
of the offices of the vice-presidents, the Office of the Secretary of the University and of
the Board of Regents, and with my aide and driver. They made life in Quezon Hall
better and happier for they were always there to help, never minding if work went
beyond office hours.
It has been my unique privilege and responsibility to serve as UP’s first woman
president and as its Centennial president. I hope I have proven worthy of the honor and
the trust.
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