University of the Philippines Mindanao (UPMin) teams were in Basilan on May 1-5, 2023, to orient and prepare Grade 11 students for the UP College Admission Test (UPCAT) to be held nationwide on June 3-4, 2023. This followed the UP Office of Admissions’s decision to open UPCAT Test Centers in these underserved regions as requested by the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) and the Ugnayan ng Pahinungod Mindanao, the UP’s volunteer service unit in UPMin. The UPMin Pahinungod’s Affirmative Action Program (AAP) team gave UPCAT Orientations and Simulations to students from different schools who converged in Lamitan National High School (NHS), Maluso NHS, and Basilan NHS.

The Lamitan City BARMM Ministry of Basic Higher & Technical Education’s (MBHTE) Division Superintendent, Dr. Myra Makabung, Administrative Officer Mr. Efren Lindio, and their team coordinated the UPMin team’s visits in the province, which is composed of one Department of Education and two MBHTE divisions. Basilan MBHTE Schools Superintendent Dr. Tim Undain-Sanchez and counterpart Isabela City DepEd Superintendent Dr. Julieto Fernandez also welcomed the UPMin team’s visit. UPMin School of Management’s Assistant Professor Rodgessa Lopez, Ugnayan ng Pahinungod Mindanao Director Michael Gatela, and Associate Marie Lyn Cayunda constituted the Basilan team. 

The University of the Philippines Mindanao is poised to devise a stronger response to effective management of existing diseases and emerging health threats in Mindanao as a newly-appointed regional hub of the UP Resilience Institute, UP’s center for comprehensive disaster risk reduction and management.

Biomathematics expert Prof. May Anne Mata said establishing a disease watch and analytics unit in UPMin aims to harness this UP constituent university’s expertise in mathematical modeling, data analytics, and genomics to address public health concerns.

UP’s Board of Regents recently approved in its 1378th Meeting the establishment of UPMin’s Center for Disease Watch and Analytics (DiWA) as a regional unit of the UP Resilience Institute.

In her letter to former UP President Danilo Concepcion and UP Resilience Insitute Director Mahar Lagmay, Prof. Mata said, “Mindanao has experienced long-standing neglect, slow economic development, and poverty due to political conflicts. With this context, a resilient public health program is a challenge. 

Mindanao needs a hub or satellite for health resiliency, and establishing UP Mindanao’s Center for Disease Watch and Analytics (DiWA Center) is essential to maintaining our active partnership with Local Government Units and local agencies for public health and disease management. 

By being a satellite and hub of the UP Resilience Institute, UPMin’s DiWA Center can sustain and expand the scope of its research initiatives and technical services to its stakeholders in public health governance. This is through knowledge generation, sharing, services, and technological innovation. Its ultimate goal is to build health-resilient communities in the entire Mindanao.” 

The DiWA Center began as the DOST-NICER Center for Applied Modeling, Data Analytics, and Bioinformatics for Decision Support Systems in Health (AMDABiDSS-Health), which focused on generating solutions to strengthen the local responses to COVID-19. 

The center developed the Disease Watch (DiWa) app, an online planning tool for pandemic management. The DiWa app featured dashboards for risk management, vulnerability scoring index tools, risk maps, and molecular community trackers. The DiWA app proved its merit by assisting several Mindanao regions in their campaign against the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“The Department of Health’s (DOH) regional officers have expressed their desire for UPMin’s continuing technical assistance,” said Prof. Mata. 

DOH-XI Regional Director Annabelle Yumang signed an agreement with UP for the use of the DiWa app on November 28, 2022.  

DiWA Center’s programs address the sustainable goals of good health and well-being, sanitation, fostering innovation, building sustainable communities, poverty alleviation, and partnerships for the goals.

Meanwhile, UPMin has developed new degree programs related to public health, such as Data Science, Sports, and Human Movement Science. In addition, it has continuing research in health communication and a prospective medical education program. 

Top image: The logo of UPMin's new Center for Disease Watch & Analytics

By: Janessa V. Villota

Philippine Genome Center (PGC) Mindanao in UP Mindanao embarks on a new research partnership designed to develop solutions and strategies to primary health problems of women and children in Mindanao.

Spearheaded by the Davao Medical School Foundation Inc. (DMSFI), the Research and Development Center for Maternal and Child Health (ReDMaTCH) Program aims to address major health problems among women and children in Mindanao, including childhood stunting, pediatric dengue, and postpartum depression. 

The program aims to understand these major problems through metabolomics, microbiome studies, metagenomics, and bioinformatics analysis. Dr. Genevieve Tupas, ReDMaTCH program leader, said that the program was conceptualized because of the inequality of healthcare delivery among women and children, particularly in Mindanao as compared to Manila. 

Too many women, infants, and children worldwide still have little or no access to essential, quality health services and education, clean air and water, and adequate sanitation and nutrition.  The research collaboration between DMSFI and PGC Mindanao in UP Mindanao gives an opportunity to end preventable deaths among women, children, and adolescents and to greatly improve their health and well-being.

In a message by PGCMin Program Director, Dr. Joel Hassan Tolentino, delivered by PGCMin technical expert, Dr. Aleyla de Cadiz, Dr. Tolentino expressed his excitement to provide the center’s expertise and state-of-the-art facility for the implementation of the program. “We would like to bring about more opportunities and advancements for the people in Mindanao, specifically women, and children”.

PGC Mindanao will provide training, consultation services, genomics-related laboratory services, and PGCMin facility use inside the College of Science and Mathematics, UP Mindanao. 

UP Mindanao Chancellor, Dr. Lyre Anni Murao, is thrilled to enter a close research partnership established between the university and a medical and university institution.  “Through our collaborative work, we hope to contribute to the advancement of science and technology in Mindanao and ultimately create a brighter future for Mindanaoans.”

The RedMaTCH program proposal was first crafted in 2020 with the help of PGC Mindanao, which served as a technical consultant during the development stage of the proposal. In 2022,  the ReDMaTCH program was granted P75 million in research and development funding from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and became one of the 26 Niche Centers in the Regions for Research and Development (NICER) centers in the country supported by the DOST-Science for Change Program (S4CP).

In the photo above: Seated left to right are Dr. Genevieve Tupas (ReDMatCH Program Leader), and Dr. Oliver Victoriano; Atty. Alberto Rafael Aportadera (DMSFI President), Dr. Lyre Anni Murao (UP Mindanao Chancellor), and Dr. Aleyla de Cadiz (PGCMin technical expert) show the Memorandum of Agreement for the RedMaTCH Program on May 15, 2023.

The University of the Philippines President Angelo A. Jimenez has urged the University of the Philippines Mindanao (UPMin) to increase its carrying capacity to 5,000 students within the next six years. 

“We are committed to making UPMin a full spectrum university that offers the relevant skills and professional needs of our island,” said President Jimenez in a recent visit.  

To achieve this target, the UPMin administration has conducted a workshop on how to increase its capacity. The workshop involved the various academic units that crafted a proposal on its new academic offerings and various projects. The said proposal will be submitted to President Jimenez.

The UP Board of Regents (BOR) recently approved two new academic degree programs in its April 3, 2023 meeting. These are the  Bachelor of Science in Data Science and the Master of Science in Human Movement Science. These bring UPMin’s degree programs to 12 undergraduate and seven graduate programs, with more in the pipeline. 

“We have been looking forward to the approval of our new degree programs,” said UPMin Chancellor Lyre Anni Murao. “This is part of UP Mindanao’s commitment to innovate and broaden our academic offerings in response to the emerging demands of the 21st century,” she said.

The proponents earned the approval for the new degree programs from the planning and coordination in recent years, coupled with last-mile efforts through the University Council, the Academic Curriculum Committee, and the President’s Advisory Council. UPMin’s academic units can learn from the program proponents' experiences to expedite their new programs.

The efforts to add more academic offerings are part of Chancellor Murao’s commitment to UPMin’s continuum of strategic plans initiated by her predecessors. This strategy also addresses UPMin’s requirement for additional plantilla items for teaching and non-teaching personnel.