Message of UP Mindanao Chancellor Lyre Anni Murao

06 June 2022

Good morning to everyone. Today is my 98th day in office and in two days I will reach 100 days. First of all, I would like to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for welcoming me into the administration and helping me facilitate the mission and the vision of this new administration.

For the past 98 days, I have found new treasures. I have seen resilient, passionate, and kind people. I have seen the genuineness in their hearts. Thank you for these people. I hope we can continue. You are jewels of the university.

To be honest, this is a very challenging task for me. This is a new challenge for me but, you know, as I journey through this new phase in the past few days I have also met people, some of them in high positions, in the same boat as well, who have taken on the same challenges and I found inspiration in them. Because despite these new challenges I saw in them the determination to move forward and to bring these challenges really to heart and accomplish something that is worthwhile in the society’s institutions that we serve. I would take on the challenge as well and we bring up something worthwhile for our institution within the next years. Now we have started crafting our strategic directions for the next years. I’m really glad that we have started that. We are working on the skeleton and in the past days, we have now placed the meat. Because I am a biologist and my examples are biological in nature. So the skeleton is there so now we have to put the organs, the muscles, into the plan so that it will take shape. And it’s now taking shape and I’d like to thank everyone who has participated in shaping our strategic plan. In the next days we will continue to work on the plan. Making a strategic plan is not easy. It is going to take a while. It's going to be a long process. It will take some iteration but I will ask for your patience as we get through this arduous but successful experience for us. Because once we have this plan before us and we know where we are going, we are now guided on what to do in the next few years.

Pardon me if we have some difficulties but it will be for the general good, nevertheless. Thank you, everyone, who has contributed to making that plan and in the next few days, we will bring that plan to different units so you can comment further on how we can contribute to implementing our strategic direction in the next three years.

But while we are doing that I’m glad to say that our university has continued to move forward with different accomplishments and I’d like to cite some of these accomplishments for us.

 For our academic degree programs, we have started opening our face-to-face for our thesis students and our graduating students. Our existing programs with their revised curriculum have been approved at the University System level. Our graduating students will become graduates. [Note: The date of UP Mindanao’s 24th Commencement Exercises is 19 July 2022]

 The UP Mindanao University Council is scheduled to give its approval for the Bachelor in Sports Science on 25 June 2022.  [Note: The approval of the Board of Regents follows.] 

Our research programs were visited by the Department of Science and Technology’s Undersecretary Rowena Guevara on 28 May 2022. As you may have noticed, we have experienced a boom in our research activities in the university and there are challenges to that, nevertheless, we are glad that UP Mindanao is now being brought into the frontline in research and development for our public offerings. 

We have received a lot of recognition. We start with Assistant Professor Kriza Calumba  [Department of Food Science and Chemistry] who was awarded as Outstanding Young Agri Scientist in May in the AGREA Young Agri-Laureate Awards 2022. [Note: Prof. Calumba’s research specialty is probiotic food]

BA Communication and Media Arts student Edwin Priete was awarded First Prize for “Kolors,” his entry to the Department of Social Welfare & Development’s Lilas sa Onse Short Film Festival in May.

Our Professor Isidoro Malaque III received a Special Citation Award of the Australian Alumni Excellence Awards from the Australian Embassy in the Philippines in June. [Note: Prof. Malaque was cited for having “contributed new knowledge in the built environment and led in the re-opening of the post-graduate program in Urban and Regional Planning in the University of the Philippines Mindanao.”]

Our very own NICER program got an Outstanding NICER award from the Department of Science and Technology on 27 May 2022. 

[Note: UP Mindanao and its co-implementing agency, Malayan Colleges Mindanao, and collaborators of the Center for Applied Modeling, Data Analytics, and Bioinformatics for Decision Support Systems in Health (AMDABiDSS-Health) were awarded as Outstanding Niche Center in the Region (NICER) for Research & Development by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) on 27 May 2022. AMDABiDSS-Health was cited for its “enhanced disease surveillance via phylogenomics, epidemiology, and data analytics, successfully demonstrated during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, and its partnership with the Department of Health-Davao Center for Health Development to produce a data-driven response in mitigating the transmission of COVID-19.”]

For our partnerships, we have different agreements and partnerships signed. One of which is the Department of Trade and Industry’s I-Strike program. This collaboration with the Department of Trade & Industry was facilitated by the School of Management.  

[Note: The memorandum of understanding signed on 21 April 2022 brings together 14 public and private Higher Educational Institutions, five National Government Agencies, and two NGOs, to implement the Innovation for Business Recovery (IBR) Plan, and other innovation-related Research & Development programs under the Innovation through Science, Technology, and Risk-resilient based Initiatives toward a Knowledge Economy - Davao Regional Inclusive Innovation Center (iSTRIKE - Davao RIIC).] 

We signed an agreement with the Philippine Sports Commission and the Davao City government for the improvement of the Davao City-UP Sports Complex facility and program for our Aquatic Center.

Most recently we have partnered with the Davao City government for the site development of the Davao City Public Hospital which the University will benefit from, eventually.

Next week we shall have an agreement-signing in the UP System with the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao’s Ministry of Basic Technical and Higher Education which shall initiate a series of extension programs that will create an engagement for the University of the Philippines Mindanao.

For our welfare, we have now crafted protocols for Alert Level 1 and we have provided RT-PCR testing for our personnel and I’m glad to say that up to now so far there has been no additional COVID positive patient coming from up Mindanao except for one in the past three months which is a good accomplishment.

We are also now finalizing our guidelines for our accreditation of the different tricycle drivers organizations in the community for our transportation and standardized tariff. 

For our resources, we have received augmentation funds from the UP System for the different projects including the extension of the Philippine Genome Center Mindanao, the Technology Transfer and Business Development Office, as well as the Student Academic Information System.  Recently the detailed items will finally be transferred to UP Mindanao. [Note: The detailed items refer to personnel positions from UP Diliman which have been re-assigned to UP Mindanao]

Finally, we have constantly complied 100% with the timely submission of employees’ Daily Time Records and Certificates of Service which is a requirement of the Civil Service Commission.

 All of these accomplishments were actually efforts of different individuals, of various teams. This is not my own effort but your effort. As we move forward, as we try to pave our way to accomplish our strategic plans in the coming years, it is very important to remember that we can only move forward through our collective efforts.

As former US President Ronald Reagan said, “There is no limit that one can accomplish if you are willing to let someone else get the credit.” So all the credit goes to you and all the credit will be given back to you in the next years.

 I hope that we will continue to imbibe this kind of mentality and culture —that we will only move forward if we continue to work together— and it’s only through our collective effort that the university will continue to grow into where it should be the next few years.

 Thank you let's continue to support our programs and projects for the next years as we move forward.

 Good morning, everyone!