UP Cebu breaks ground at SRP

By Princess Dawn H. Felicitas

Saturday, September 24, 2011

THE University of the Philippines (UP) will start the construction of its graduate facility at the South Road Properties (SRP), more than two years after the Cebu City Government donated the lot.

Yesterday, top officials, teachers and students of UP held a groundbreaking ceremony for the UP Professional School Cebu.

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The groundbreaking ceremony was part of UP Cebu’s first year anniversary celebration as an autonomous college.

UP President Alfredo Pascual believes that the UP Professional School Cebu will be a “good catalyst” for the development of the SRP.

“I foresee that UP will be able to attract locators in this big area. UP will play a catalystic role in the sense that we will provide the initial development,” he said.

Pascual said the graduate school at the SRP is the first in the region and the second in the whole country.

The first professional school of UP, he said, is in Fort Bonifacio in Taguig, Metro Manila that houses the college of law, college of engineering, college of business administration, school of statistics, and the UP open university.

Programs

Acting Dean of UP Cebu Dr. Ritchelita Galapate said the graduate school at the SRP will offer a master’s degree in business administration and continuing education in the English language, among others.

Galapate also said it will house the UP Innovation Center for technology businesses, which will promote programs in computational science, including computer software, informatics, product design, packaging, communications design, management sciences, mathematics and the arts and humanities for the Visayan and the Asean Region.

Asked what took them so long to build the school, Pascual cited funding constraints.

“The funding was an issue,” he told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday.

Pascual said it was just only last year that UP decided to allocate funds that totaled P30 million for the implementation of the project.

Aside from the budget that UP has set aside, Pascual disclosed that Sen. Serge Osmeña III has appropriated P30 million from his Priority Development Assistance Fund for the project.

Additional funding

“He (Osmeña) said he will help us get additional funding, particularly for the construction of the buildings,” he added.

The UP Professional School Cebu will have three buildings that include the academic building, which will cost P100 million, Pascual said. The costs of the other structures have yet to be determined.

Pascual said they are targeting to finish the academic building early next year, while the remaining buildings will be built in the next three years.

In March 2009, the City Government, through then mayor now Rep. Tomas Osmeña (Cebu City, south district), donated the five-hectare SRP lot to UP.

As stated in the deed of donation, UP is required to develop the donated property into a graduate school within three years.

Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on September 24, 2011.