Alumni Milestones

Dr. Regina Pascua Berba, head of the PGH Hospital Infection Control Unit (HICU), is one of the Filipino Women’s Network (FWN) 2022 Most Influential Filipina Women in the World in the Innovators and Thought Leaders Category.

Dr. Berba is an infectious disease specialist, researcher, and professor at the UP College of Medicine. She also chairs the Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee and is the head of the UP-PRIME TB DOTS and the UP Leptospirosis Taskforce. She is known as the ‘science’ behind the PGH Crisis Management Team and has led in transforming UPM-PGH into a COVID referral center.

“We were the go-to-hospital and took care of hundreds of COVID-19 patients and I was in charge of making sure that our hospital was safe not only for our patients, but also for the thousands of dedicated frontliners, doctors, nurses, support staff, UP faculty, trainees, and students,” recounted Dr. Berba in heading the COVID treatment protocols of UPM-PGH.

She asserted that in many ways, the things she and her team at HICU did in PGH defined how the country responded to the pandemic since their developed protocols would be cascaded to the platforms of social media and to other hospitals in the country. Dr. Berba spoke in several Stop C.O.V.I.D. Deaths webinar series, sharing her knowledge and expertise.

Dr. Berba was awarded the PeopleAsia’s “People of the Year 2022” on April 2022 and 2019 Distinguished Researcher by the Philippine College of Physicians for her researches on HIV and infection control.

Source: https://www.upm.edu.ph/node/4029

The University of the Philippines Alumni Association (UPAA) has chosen Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman as its most distinguished alumnus for 2022.

The award is the highest honor that is bestowed on a graduate of the University of the Philippines.

The UPAA announced in its website that “heading the elite group of University of the Philippines graduates is Albay Rep. Edcel C. Lagman (AB, 1962 cum laude; Bachelor of Laws, 1966) who has been named the year’s UPAA Most Distinguished Alumnus.”

Under its guidelines, the UPAA Most Distinguished Alumni Award is conferred on alumni “who have demonstrated, in their chosen field of endeavor, exceptional achievements and outstanding contributions that bring about substantial benefits to society and distinct honor to the university.

Recognition is given to achievements and contributions that impact the community in which the alumni are or have been active, whether this is at the local, national or international level.”

In its Sept. 20, the UPAA stated that “the UPAA Board of Directors is proud to announce that you are the recipient of the 2022 UPAA Most Distinguished Alumnus Award in recognition of your leadership and achievements in your field, and contributions that create change to benefit the lives of many.”

Lagman is recognized as a conscientious, credible and articulate opposition leader in the House of Representatives where he was minority leader in the 13th Congress, the leader of the Magnificent-7 opposition group in the 17th Congress, and remains an independent opposition member in the current 19th Congress.

He principally authored landmark laws, such as Republic Act 6657 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law, RA9346 abolishing the death penalty, RA 10868 or the Centenarian Act, various labor statutes for the benefit of the workingman and a triumvirate of human rights legislation which included RA 9745 or the Anti-Torture Act, RA 10353 or the Criminalization of Enforced Disappearance Act and RA 10368 or the Compensation to Martial Law Victims Act. Rio N. Araja

The Albay solon is also acknowledged as the father of the Reproductive Health Act or RA 10354 and a principal author of RA 11569 or the Prevention of Child Marriage Law. He is currently the President of the Liberal Party.

Source: https://manilastandard.net/news/national/314273617/lagman-is-up-most-distinguished-alumni.html

By Leander C. Domingo

THE University of the Philippines Los Baños Alumni Association (UPLBAA) has conferred the Multi-Generation UPLB Alumni Award to the family of Dr. Glenn Gregorio, director of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca).

According to the UPLBAA, this special recognition is bestowed on families who have produced three or more successive generations of exemplary UPLB alumni in their respective fields.

The Gregorio family with three generations of UPLB graduates is one of the recipients of the said award.

They are the late Dr. Rizalino Gregorio (BS Agriculture in honor curriculum, 1958; MS Agricultural Engineering, 1972); his son Dr. Glenn Gregorio (BS Agriculture, 1986; MS Plant Breeding, 1991; Ph.D. Genetics, 1997) and daughter-in-law Myla Beatriz Gregorio (BS Sugar Technology, 1989; MS Biochemistry, 1995); and grandchildren Michaia Bea Gregorio-Tamago (BA Communication Arts, 2016 cum laude), Phoebe Liwai Gregorio (BS Civil Engineering, 2020), and Patricia Lois Gregorio (BA Communication Arts, 2022 magna cum laude).

From 1954 to 1962, the late elder Gregorio worked at UPLB, starting as student assistant and was hired as research assistant and assistant instructor after graduation. He then transferred to Central Mindanao University (CMU) as instructor and rose to professor 6 at the College of Engineering where he also became the dean in 1978 after completing his Ph.D. degree in Agricultural Engineering at Purdue University. From 1985 to 1986, he became the CMU vice president and vice president for administration and officer-in-charge president from 1987 to 1988 before his retirement after serving the government for 48 years.

A professor at the UPLB College of Agriculture and Food Science and Academician at the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), Philippines, the younger Gregorio is also the current chairman of the Philippine Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) Technical Panel for Agriculture and steering committee member of the Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA)-Biotechnology Program.

In 2021, he was named one of the United Nations Food Systems Champions and Filipino Faces of Biotechnology. Dr. Gregorio has a highly decorated career and is a respected scientist who has published more than 120 scientific journals, book chapters, policy papers, and manuals.

Among his numerous awards are Ten Outstanding Youth Scientists of the Philippines (TOYS), Outstanding Young Scientist (OYS) in the field of Genetics, Honorary Foreign Scientist of the Rural Development Administration of Korea, The Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) Philippines, Ho Chi Minh Medal award for “Having Great Contribution to the cause of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam.”

Dr. Gregorio is also an agri-entrepreneur, farmer, and co-founder of Binhi Inc., an agri-research start-up company on micropropagation and seed business.

Sharing the second generation spot with Dr. Gregorio is his wife Myla Beatriz Audije who worked at the UPLB National Institute of Biotechnology and Applied Microbiology before becoming a stay-at-home mom in 1997, homeschooling their six children. To augment her role as a breastfeeding advocate, she is now pursuing her Ph.D. in Human Nutrition.

Three of Gregorio’s daughters comprised the third generation awardees.

Myla graduated cum laude with a BA Communication Arts degree in 2016 and served as project staff at the UPLB Technology Transfer and Business Development Office between 2018 and 2021 and is currently a freelancer in 2018-2021; Phoebe Liwai, a licensed civil engineer, is currently an instructor at the UPLB College of Engineering and Agro-Industrial Technology; and Patricia Lois, graduated magna cum laude with a BA Communication Arts degree in August 2022.

The Multi-Generation UPLB Alumni Award was conferred on Oct. 8, 2022 during the 104th Loyalty Day and Alumni Homecoming: Strengthening the Partnership between UPLB and Alumni for Progressive Communities.

Dr. Fernando Sanchez Jr., Searca governing board chair (2016-2018); Dr. Djuara Lubis, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)-Searca scholar; Dr. Ericson Dela Cruz, Philippine Carabao Center (PCC)-Searca scholar; and Forester Eriberto Saños and Dethsackda Manikham, who are Searca alumni, were among the UPLBAA awardees.

Source: https://www.manilatimes.net/2022/10/20/campus-press/multi-generation-uplb-alumni-award-conferred-on-searca-directors-family