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 bring these challenges 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 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.

Prof. Isidoro Malaque III, Chair of the Department of Architecture, University of the Philippines (UP) Mindanao, received a Special Citation Award of the Australian Alumni Excellence Awards from the Australian Embassy in the Philippines, which was handed over by Australian Ambassador to the Philippines H.E. Steven J. Robinson in ceremonies held on 2 June 2022 in Pasay City, Metro Manila.

The Special Citation Award was presented to Prof. Malaque, a Ph.D. in Architecture (2017) of The University of Adelaide, “for his exceptional achievement and positive contribution to his profession, industry, the community, and his country through his leadership and innovation.” 

“Prof. Malaque 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," said Ambassador Robinson. 

UP Mindanao’s Diploma and Master of Arts degrees in Urban and Regional Planning caters to local government planners making comprehensive land use plans and professional planners in private practice.    

The Australian Embassy in the Philippines organizes the Australia Alumni Excellence Awards to celebrate exceptional achievements of Australia-educated Filipinos under the umbrella organization Australia Global Alumni in the Philippines. A number of UP Mindanao academic and research personnel belong to the Australia Global Alumni in the Philippines. UP Mindanao has working partnerships with the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research and Australian universities.

 The University of the Philippines Mindanao together with its co-implementing agency, Malayan Colleges Mindanao, A Mapúa School, and collaborators of the Center for Applied Modeling, Data Analytics, and Bioinformatics for Decision Support Systems in Health (AMDABiDSS-Health) were awarded as an Outstanding Niche Center in the Region (NICER) for Research & Development in the Science for Change Program Summit-Mindanao Cluster organized by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) on 27 May 2022 in Davao City.

AMDABiDSS-Health was awarded 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 data-driven response in mitigating the transmission of COVID-19,” said the DOST statement.

UP Mindanao chancellor Prof. Lyre Anni Murao, AMDABiDSS program leader Prof. May Anne Mata, and project leader Von Carlo dela Torre received the awards for UP Mindanao and Malayan Colleges Mindanao, A Mapúa School, during the event.