(Left to right) PENRO Representative Aimee Flores BSEcon; Teresa Silan; UPAA Dir. Neil Andrew N. Nocon, BSHumanEco ‘91; Kate Louis Origenes; Flore Jean Torres; Cavinti Administrator Rick Jayson Tatlonghari, BSF ‘92; Mar Khin Maraña, BSF; CENRO-Sta. Cruz Representative Elisa Apolinario-De Vera, BSF; For. Jiferson Mondragon, and NGP Regional Coordinator For. Herminigildo Jocson, BSF ‘82/MS SURP ‘89. Photo from the UPAA-LB.
The members of the University of the Philippines Alumni Association (UPAA) Los Baños Chapter participated in the Tree Planting and Growing Activity of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)-Region IV-A CALABARZON and the A. Nocon Realty and Development Corporation (ANRDC) at the 571-hectare National Greening Program (NGP) plantation area in Barangay Cansuso, Cavinti, Laguna on December 4, 2020.
The event was organized by the DENR-NGP and the ANRDC in cooperation with the Local Government Unit of Cavinti, Laguna, which supports the UPAA Los Baños Chapter and President Eni Laserna’s program to protect the environment and preserve our watershed ecosystem.
(From left) Aimee Flores, UPAA Dir. Neil Andrew N. Nocon, Admin. Rick Jayson Tatlonghari; Teresa Silan; Kate Louis Origenes; Elisa Apolinario-De Vera; For. Herminigildo Jocson; Mar Khin Maraña; Flore Jean Torres; and For. Jiferson Mondragon
IF YOU consider yourself always updated on developments in the investment and banking space in the country, you might have heard of Tonik Digital Bank, Inc. earlier this year.
Tonik Bank (launched
in beta mode in November 2020 and set to have its commercial launch in
the first quarter of 2021), is the first all-digital bank in the
Philippines and in Southeast Asia. It was established by Tonik Financial
Pte. Ltd. Singapore, a financial technology company.
Heading
the operations here in the Philippines is Maria Lourdes Jocelyn “Long”
Pineda, a Dabawenya who graduated with a degree in Business
Administration from the Ateneo de Davao University (AdDU).
Long’s
parents were well-known figures in the Davao City landscape – her
father, Mariano S. Solis Sr., used to be the chief of police of Davao
City during the administration of the late mayor (later congressman)
Elias B. Lopez; her mother, Lourdes Cura-Solis, was known for her
philanthropy and was a Datu Bago Awardee of Davao City, a University of
Santo Tomas Golden Awardee and the founder of Davao Boys Town.
Before
joining Tonik, Pineda had over 25 years of financial inclusion
experience in the Philippines and in different global emerging markets
in Asia and Latin America.
After graduating from AdDU, she took her Masters in Business Administration from the University of the Philippines Diliman.
Pineda
started her career in an investment bank and later moved to working
with a government agency involved in grassroots lending during the time
of former president Ferdinand Marcos until the year of the Edsa
revolution. After the Edsa revolution, she went into entrepreneurship
and established a gym along Ilustre Street, just on the floor above the
then Garmon Theater.
Her
Slim & Trim ran successfully from 1986 to 2000. Many didn’t know
this about her, but in those years, she wasn’t just an entrepreneur
owning a gym in Davao City, she was also a licensed gym instructor and a
powerlifter.
In those 15 years, Pineda was also an active member
of Datba (Davao All-Terrain Bikers Association), a group of mountain
bike aficionados in Davao City. She was their first female member.
While managing Slim & Trim and being physically active, she also had Japanese takeout counters in several malls in the city.
It
seems like banking wouldn’t let go of Pineda that easily. Their family
then owned a rural bank in Davao del Norte and she was asked to assist
its operations as compliance officer. Her daily schedule would start
with a 7 a.m aerobics class at Slim & Trim, travel to Davao del
Norte to oversee the bank’s operations, and then head back to Davao City
for a 6 p.m. aerobics class again.
After a hiatus from the
corporate world, she was invited to join the Microenterprise Access to
Banking Services (Mabs), a USAid-supported microfinance program as a
regional manager for Visayas. This was when her banking career started
to blossom yet again as after her stint with Mabs, she was then hired as
senior director by Boston-based Accion International. Here, she helped
set up the microfinance individual lending operations of Accion partners
in India where she was based for two years.
It was while she was
based in India that the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC)
invited her to come back to the Philippines to set up RCBC’s
microfinance operation. This is when she decided to come back home.
“Filipinos
should give back to the country. I thought it’s time to introduce to
the Philippine banking space the technology on microfinance I have
learned from working with Accion in India and Latin America,” Pineda
said.
She joined RCBC as senior vice president spearheading the
unibank’s microfinance initiative. She was initially seconded as the
chief executive officer of the President Jose P. Laurel Rural Bank in
Batangas (a rural bank that RCBC had acquired), while at the same time
doing the initial groundwork for setting up Rizal Microbank, the
microfinance thrift bank of RCBC.
It was around this time that
she also decided to take an executive course on Strategic leadership on
microfinance at the Harvard Business School in Boston, USA.
“MBA
is good in your 20s when you are building up your career, but when
you’re older, it’s better to take executive courses to enhance one’s
skill set,” she said.
At RCBC, she headed the bank’s microfinance
initiative. She was also the founding president of Rizal Microbank, the
banking subsidiary of RCBC that focused on microfinance and financial
inclusion. She steered Rizal Microbank until her retirement in 2016.
After
these banking years, she decided to go home to Davao City and focus on
something else she loved best and to take a pause from banking.
Microfinance
and financial inclusion, however, remained something she was passionate
about, thus, she went into independent consulting and continued to
provide her technical skills to various institutions wanting to
contribute to financial inclusion in the country.
She became the
lead independent director of BDO Network Bank, a Go Negosyo mentor, and
an international consultant for MicroKonsult before accepting the post
of president and country manager for Tonik Digital Bank, Inc.
In
all those years in the banking industry, Pineda didn’t seem to mind
working in an environment that was largely dominated by men.
“I
deal with my colleagues as an executive, not as a woman. I also find it
easier to deal with men because they’re more straightforward than women.
Women tend to sugarcoat so they don’t hurt your feelings, but with
guys, they usually say what they think so it’s really simple,” said
Pineda, who added that her mountain biking days surrounded by male
friends also helped.
Heading an all-digital bank is not easy and
required a lot of tech skills upgrade for Pineda, but her three banker
daughters, the youngest being 25 years old, helped her a lot. She is
also married to a banker.
“I like that at Tonik, I am surrounded
by young people. The average age in the office is 27 years old. With
young people, it’s easy to think out of the box and that, for me, is
interesting. I am forced to be techy and to keep up with the times,” she
said.
Six out of the ten people selected by Stargate People Asia as People of the Year 2021, including two special awardees, are alumni of the University of the Philippines (UP). This was announced last December 12.
The UP alumni selected as People of the Year 2021 are: UP Philippine General Hospital director, Dr. Gerardo D. Legaspi; Philippine Star Editor-in-Chief Ana Marie Pamintuan, who graduated from the UP Diliman College of Mass Communication; President, CEO and Director of Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. Cesar Grospe Romero, who earned his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering, cum laude, from UP Diliman; and Cavite Governor Juanito Victor “Jonvic” Catibayan Remulla Jr., who earned his undergraduate degree in Philosophy from UP Diliman. The two chosen as Special Awardees are: Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” G. Robredo and Department of Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon M. Lopez, both of whom earned their undergraduate degrees in Economics from UP Diliman.
According to Stargate People Asia’s caption on Facebook: “From battling the pandemic to uplifting others in the face of calamities, to bringing opportunities to countless Filipinos in search for greener pastures, these ‘People of the Year’ awardees continue to spread a contagion of hope.”
The discovery of a new “spectacular, stunningly beautiful” orchid species in the Philippines was announced today, bringing new excitement to the fields of horticulture, biology, and conservation. The orchid was discovered in Bukidnon by Dr. Miguel David de Leon, a retinal surgeon and field biologist from Cagayan de Oro, and was named Aerides upcmae, after Dr. de Leon’s alma mater, the University of the Philippines College of Medicine.
The new species was published in the Orchideen Journal by Dr. de Leon along with co-authors Martin Motes, Jim Cootes, and Derek Cabactulan. “There are more than 1,100 orchid species in the Philippines and only 11 of these are Aerides species,” according to Cabactulan, “but Aerides upcmae is the most surprising of all the Philippine Aerides. It belongs to a section that has not been found outside of its range in mainland Southeast Asia.”
Due to habitat destruction and overcollection, it is especially rare to find large and highly attractive orchid species such as Aerides upcmae
in the Philippine wilderness. Orchids reflect ecological health and are
considered a sensitive bioindicator because they do not tolerate change
easily.
Moreover, the value to the horticultural field of this new discovery cannot be underestimated. Cootes, a prolific author considered to be the foremost authority on Philippine orchids, is confident that “this is an attractive addition to the hybrid ventures of many orchid nurseries. Efforts should be made to ensure that Aerides upcmae is preserved as the most important species that it is.”
For Dr. de Leon, selecting a name was personally significant: “The orchid genus Aerides literally means ‘children of the air.’ Naming this new species of Aerides after the UP College of Medicine is quite fitting for my Class 1995 and all of UPCM are children of our alma mater, schooled and nurtured by her not just for five academic years but for life.
“Academic excellence, moral virtues and selfless service are some of
the hallmarks of UPCM. Throughout history, doctors from the college have
played key roles in serving our country. During peacetime and
wartime—WWII and, now, COVID-19–UP doctors remain charged and ready to
serve,” said Dr. de Leon. “It is with deep affection and gratitude that
Class 1995 honors its alma mater and all of you who are UPCM with this
spectacular species, Aerides upcmae.”
The UPCM Class of 1995 is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. In January, the formal launch of their homecoming year was highlighted by the dedication of two other Aerides species, Aerides turma and Aerides turma fma. anniversarius. The announcement of the discovery of Aerides upcmae was released in time for their final festivities.
Joshua Ansale and Jose Buencamino won top prizes in the recently held 2nd International Composer’s Competition “New Music Generation” held in Nur-Sultan City, Republic of Kazakhstan. Joshua’s piece “Ang Ouroboros” was awarded 1st prize while Jose’s “Pinaginipang Hibla” garnered 2nd prize in the Symphonic Composition category for composers aged 15-25 years old.
In another news, Joshua won the Jovita Fuentes Award for his art song “Kailong Pugad” in the Hiligaynon Art Song Workshop Sponsored by University of San Agustin – Iloilo and National Commission for Culture and the Arts.
Written by Janele Ann Belegal
Edited by Joane V. Serrano
The University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) welcomes the new set of University of the Philippines Open University Alumni Foundation Inc. (UPOUAFI) officers for 2020-2023. The online election of the new set of officers was held from 11 to 15 August 2020.
New graduates and alumni of UPOU
programs participated in the election for the continuity of UPOU alumni
representation in the UP community. Each UPOU alumna/alumnus nominated
three graduates. The 10 nominees with the most number of votes were
qualified for the Officer positions, the election of which was held
during another voting session with the outgoing UPOUAFI Officers.
Here are the newly elected UPOUAFI Officers for 2020-2023:
The UPOUAFI President is Ms. Ma.
Mahalia Cristina B. Marci, a graduate of the Diploma in Language and
Literacy Education (DLLE) of the UPOU Faculty of Education (FEd).
Also a DLLE graduate, Ms. Analiza M. Meliton is the UPOUAFI Vice President.
Mr. Herbert P. Samcho is the Secretary, while Mr. Ericson A. Trinidad is the Treasurer. Both are graduates of DLLE.
A graduate of the UPOU FEd’s Diploma in Science Teaching program, Mr. Renzdy A. Mejilla is the Public Relations Officer.
The UPOUAFI Board of Trustees are:
Ms. Gloria Antczak, DLLE graduate; Mr. Dominic P. Almirez, DLLE
graduate; Ms. Dina Imatong, Diploma in Research and Development
Management graduate; Ms. Johnievic Valdez, Diploma in International
Health graduate; Mr. Melbourne Piccio, Diploma in Social Studies
Education graduate; and Mr. Dhojie N. Yanto, Diploma in Mathematics
Teaching graduate.
The UPOUAFI is a non-stock, non-profit organization constituted by the pioneering alumni of the UPOU. Previously called the UPOU Alumni Association, its first set of officers were elected in February 2001, and in February 2006, UPOU Alumni Association became UPOUAFI.
The UPOU Office of Public Affairs
(OPA) handles UPOU alumni relations and is the designated office to
coordinate with recognized UPOU Alumni Associations during their
activities.
“This guy’s gonna top the board exam. Remember the name, Jomel Lapides.”
It was a friendly banter caught on video among Lapides and his
batchmates from the University of the Philippines (UP) Manila after
taking the board exams for physicians this November.
On Thursday, the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) confirmed
that Lapides has again topped the board exams, this time as an aspiring
doctor. Nine years ago, he was first in the board exams for nurses, also
as a UP Manila graduate.
“I am surprised and still in disbelief. We were only praying that I
clinch the Top 10, but Lord gave me more,” said Lapides, 29. “It’s
already a big blessing that I passed the board—it’s just a bonus that I
was among the top.”
Lapides scored 88.67 percent, followed by Patrick Joseph Mabugat
(University of Saint La Salle) and Adrian Emmanuel Teves (University of
Santo Tomas) with 88.58 percent; and Tiffany Uy (UP), Hannah Chito (UP)
and Chino Paolo Samson (Lyceum Northwestern University-Dagupan City,
88.08 percent.
Mabugat and Teves aced the 2014 board exams for medical technologists and physical therapists, respectively.
Uy holds the record for obtaining the highest grade in UP Diliman’s
postwar history with a general weighted average of 1.004 when she
graduated, summa cum laude, in 2015 with a Bachelor of Science in
Biology degree.
75% passing rate
According to the PRC, more than 75 percent or 3,538 out of the 4,704 takers passed in the only board exams held this year amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The results were released a week after the last day of exams
conducted in the cities of Manila, Baguio, Cagayan De Oro, Cebu, Davao,
Iloilo, Legazpi, Lucena, Tacloban, Tuguegarao and Zamboanga.
Cebu Institute of Medicine (CIM) in Cebu City was the top performing
school with all of its 138 takers passing. It was followed by UP (98.63
percent), Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health (98.6 percent),
Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila or PLM (97.58 percent) and UST (95.61
percent).
Dr. Thelma La Rosa–Fernandez, a board trustee and a former dean of CIM, said the results of the exams did not surprise them.
“We have had a number of 100 percent passing rate in the exams for at
least 13 years now. With all the efforts of the administration and the
students, we got it again now,” she told the Inquirer.
“I think it’s the way we teach our students. Our faculty is also the best, plus we have the support of the administration,” she said.
‘Time management’
Asked for his secret on being a board topnotcher, Lapides coyly said it was all about “time management” and lots of prayers. “I just set a time where I will focus on studying so after that, I can do other things [like socializing with friends and batchmates] ,” he said.
At the start of the year, he began reading books to refresh his
memory of the lessons he already took in his med school years. “Little
by little I recalled them, and after succeeding months, I accumulated
enough knowledge,” he said.
It also helped him that his study buddy was his girlfriend, a medicine graduate from PLM, who also passed the exams.
After acing the nursing boards, Lapides returned to UP Philippine
General Hospital in 2012 and worked as a staff nurse at Sentro
Oftalmologico Jose Rizal, its Department of Ophthalmology and Visual
Sciences.
He could have been a nurse working abroad and getting paid monthly at
least ten times the salary he would be receiving here, but he said he
was needed more in this country.
Doctor to the barrio
“I just wanted to serve in our health-care system, but when an opportunity for me to pursue medicine came in 2015, I decided to go with it. I was thinking that as a doctor, I will be helping more people with God using me as his instrument for healing,” Lapides said.
The eldest among three siblings juggled being a night-shift nurse and a med student.
“My father’s pay as a construction worker is not that big. So I promised my parents that I will still provide for the family, and they should not worry about expenses since I would be funding my medical education,” Lapides recalled.
While waiting to take his oath as a licensed physician, Lapides said
he was already preparing to go back to PGH’s ophthalmology department to
take his residency.
He plans on serving in far-flung communities by being one of the doctors to the barrios.
“I need to be here. People would say that I still can serve if I go out of the country, but as of now, I think this is the Lord’s plan for me. The Filipino patients are here waiting to be served,” Lapide said. –WITH A REPORTS FROM ADOR VINCENT MAYOL AND CARLA P. GOMEZ
A graduate of the University of the Philippines-Manila bested more than 3,500 medical students who successfully hurdled the 2020 Physician Licensure Examinations, according to the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC).
Jomel Garcia Lapides garnered a rating of 88.67 percent to finish in first place in the top ten students in the examination that was given earlier this month.
Tiffany Uy, also a UP-Manila graduate and known to break the record of having the highest grade point average in UP in 2015, is in fifth place.
The son of former National Task Force adviser Dr. Tony Leachon, Jolo, also passed the licensure examinations.
Meanwhile, Cebu Institute of Medicine had 100 percent passing rate, which is the highest among medical schools in the country.
QUEZON CITY, Nov. 23 — Agriculture Secretary William Dar received on November 20, the “Lifetime Excellence Award” given by the Asia Leaders Awards 2020, in recognition of his over four decades of dedicated servant leadership to attain food security, both in the Philippines and in other parts of the world.
Agriculture Secretary William Dar received on November 20, the “Lifetime Excellence Award” given by the Asia Leaders Awards 2020, in recognition of his over four decades of dedicated servant leadership to attain food security, both in the Philippines and in other parts of the world. Photo by DA
“Being a son of farmers in the North, I had never imagined holding a top position in government with the opportunity to serve our farmers and fishers and change their fate,” Secretary Dar said in his acceptance speech.
“I had also never imagined garnering this Lifetime Excellence Award, a prestigious recognition from the Asia Leaders Awards 2020. There is so much more I intend to do for our agriculture sector. Nonetheless, I’m very thankful for recognizing my efforts — and the collective achievements of the Department of Agriculture (DA) — thus far,” he added.
“Servant-leadership is how I have led the past four decades, and how I will be leading the DA in the next two years as we continue to lay a solid foundation for a productive, globally competitive and climate-resilient agriculture,” Secretary Dar said.
“While the ongoing global pandemic makes our work at the DA doubly challenging, I will not rest until the victories I have attained in previous organizations I have led are reflected in the lives of the Filipino farmers and fishers,” he added.
“Guided by our ‘new thinking’ to modernize and industrialize the Philippine agri-fishery sector, we, at the DA, will continue to unlock the sector’s vast untapped potentials and gear it up as one of the country’s primary engines of economic growth. Agriculture will be an attractive sector as a source of income and a hotbed for honing technological sophistication,” he said.
He added that “under my leadership, we at the DA vow to continue performing our duties, anchored on the principles of good governance, transparency, consultative engagement and with a greater sense of urgency.”
A horticulturist by profession and the country’s 45th agriculture chief since June 23, 1898, Secretary Dar was appointed as the first director of the DA’s Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) in 1987 by then Agriculture Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez. Thereafter, he headed the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD), and acting DA secretary in 1998.
He went on to become the first Filipino to lead a global agricultural research center, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), in India, serving an unprecedented three five-year terms as director-general.
For his remarkable leadership at ICRISAT, the government of India conferred on him the MS Swaminathan Award, India’s version of the World Food Prize.
When he returned to the Philippines in 2014, he founded the Inang Lupa Movement that advocated for the modernization and industrialization of Philippine agriculture.
He was appointed by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte in August 2019, and immediately confronted several challenges like the spread of African Swine Fever (ASF), birth pains of the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL), and falling palay prices, and in early 2020, the eruption of Taal volcano, followed by the global Covid-19 pandemic, and recently a series of destructive typhoons that altogether exacted a heavy toll on the country’s food production, supply, and affordability.
The agriculture sector was considered by the country’s economic managers as the saving grace, as it managed to grow by 1.6 percent (%) in the second quarter and 1.2 % in the third quarter 2020, at the height of the community lockdowns imposed by the government to stem the spread of the dreaded Covid-19 virus.
The Lifetime Excellence Award is the third award Secretary Dar has received this year. Two others were the: “Lifetime Contributor Award” by the Asia CEO Awards; and “Presidential Award” by the University of the Philippines Los Baños Alumni Association.
He is one of this year’s 23 recipients of the Asia Leaders Awards (ALA), whose judges include: Gerard Ho, Singapore ambassador to the Philippines; Norman Mohammad, Malaysian ambassador to the Philippines; Hang Dong-man, South Korean ambassador to the Philippines; Abdulgani Macatoman, Trade and Industry undersecretary; Edward Ling, president of the Malaysia Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Philippines; and Elton See Tan of the Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The ALA is one of the largest and respected award-giving bodies from the Philippines with awardees from the Asia-Pacific region. It recognizes the exemplary achievements of technocrats and leaders who make a difference in their own organizations, and go out of their comfort zone to help those in need. The ALA recognizes leaders who inspire others to do better, to help others and be the best in their industries, and at the same time, promote the Philippines as a major business hub and investment destination in Asia. (DA-StratComms)
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