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The RQAT visited Foundation University last week and looked into the College of Nursing facilities, the qualifications of their teachers and other requirements.

In the exit-interview with the FU administration, the RQAT said the College of Nursing has complied with the requirements under the areas of evaluation and also submitted recommendations to further improve the College.

The team of evaluators was composed of Dr. Josefino A. Ronquillo, Dr. Daisy R. Palompon and Prof. Florenda F. Cabatit.

Dr. Eva Melon, FU vice president for academic affairs, said they look forward to being accredited with the PAASCU because this is an important step in improving the quality of education offered at the College of Nursing as well as the University.

Prof. Nenita Tayko, dean of the FU College of Nursing, said they are now accepting applicants for the coming school year.

1. “Annual Meetings – The annual meetings of the members shall be held at the principal office of the association on the 2nd Saturday of December of each year. The President (Dick Emperado) shall render his annual report to the members regarding the activities of the association. The election of directors shall also be held during this regular meeting…The fiscal year of the Association shall be from January 1st to December 31st of each year.”
Comment: Since the meeting and election of directors held in 2006, or more than five years ago, no subsequent meeting or election was held. The current officers of NORFA are therefore overstaying. Dick Emperado has failed to render any “annual report to the members regarding the activities of the association” as required.

2. “Board of Trustees – The corporate powers of the association, its business conducted and its property controlled by the Board of Trustees…The trustees shall hold office for one year and until their successors are duly elected and qualified.”
Comment: With no elections held for more than five years, the current trustees are likewise overstaying.

3. Officers – “The officers of the association shall be a President, a Vice-President, a Secretary, and a Treasurer. They shall be elected by the Board of Trustees from among themselves…All officers of the association shall hold office for one year and until their successors are duly elected and qualified.”
Comment: The current officers of NORFA are also overstaying because they are supposed to hold office for only one year.

4. “Functions and Powers of Officers – The President (Dick Emperado) shall be the Chief Executive Officer of the association. He shall preside in all meetings of the members of the association and the board of trustees…He shall execute all resolutions of the Board of Trustees…He shall submit to the Board as soon as possible after the close of each fiscal year, and to the members of each annual meeting, a complete report on the activities and operations of the association for the fiscal year under his term…The Secretary shall give all notices required by these by-laws and keep minutes of all meetings of the members and the Board of Trustees in a book kept for the purpose…He shall have custody of the members register and the correspondence files of the association…The Treasurer shall have charge of the funds, receipts and disbursements of the association…He shall keep and have charge of the book of accounts…”
Comment: Foundation University has not received nor is in possession of any tangible documentary evidence manifesting compliance by the current officers of NORFA of having performed their functions and powers as prescribed in the association’s By-Laws, for the past more than five years.

5. “Members – The board shall determine the qualification of an applicant for membership…(who shall have) the following rights: a) To exercise the right to vote on all matters relating to the affairs of the association; b) To be eligible to any elective or appointive office of the association; c) To participate in all deliberations/meetings of the association…(e) To examine all the records or books of the association during business hours.”

“Duties and Responsibilities of Members – a) To obey and comply with the by-laws, rules and regulations that may be promulgated by the association from time to time; b) To attend all meetings of the association; and to pay membership dues and other assessments of the association.”
Comment: In the company of a former official of FU, I attended the meeting of NORFA held at the El Camino restaurant for the purpose of electing its new set of officers sometime in 2006. Despite FU’s vigorous football program, I never knew if the University was a member of NORFA. So, I inquired and was told that we need to pay our membership fee to become a member. Last year, on June 6, 2011, with OR # 0255, we paid the grand sum of P500 which included arrears covering the period June 6, 2007- June 6, 2011.

I have raised questions regarding the roster of members of NORFA . Last year, I informed Emparado that FU is willing to host a general assembly of members just so that we could get our acts together. We reached out to Emperado, invited him to grace the various football and futsal tournaments that FU had organized, gave him the honor to address the crowd and award prizes to the winners. We posted streamers at games venue to honor him as special guest. But he treated our magnanimous gestures and goodwill with cavalier posturing.

We submitted to Emperado our complaints regarding the behavior of two NORFA coaches whom we wanted to be banned for inflicting violence on FU coaches. These complaints were ignored by him and in a gesture of complete un-mindfulness of the ethics of sports, one of the coaches continue to coach the NORFA U23 football team.

This summer, NORFA failed to field a single team in the PFF Football Caravan held in Talisay City. FU fielded an U12 and U14 teams without any assistance from NORFA. Worse, Dick Emperado, as President of NORFA, ignored the request of the PFF to organize a team of U13 girls to participate in the National Eliminations Tournament to select members of the national team that will compete in Vietnam in November.

PFF had to contact Foundation University to form the team. Within 24 hours, a 15-member team of U13 girls from football clubs in the Province was formed, had only two days to train together, yet managed to bring home the 3rd place trophy. Four of the girls are now undergoing a one-month training in Manila as potential members of the national team. FU funded the participation of these U13 girls which included transportation, meals, snacks and incidental expenses of the 15 players. The Manager of Anthonies Football Club of Dumaguete City, whose daughter was part of the team, took care of buying the other personal necessities of the young girls.

And this brings up the question, shouldn’t Dick Emperado, given his mediocre performance as NORFA president, resign and allow the Vice-President, Mayor Chiquiting Sagarbarria, to take over his place?

With Mayor Sagarbarria at the helm and his brother-in-law, Dodo Bustamante who single-handedly is actually the one keeping NORFA operational, the Association will gain the respectability and support it needs to promote football, the sport that is currently a national passion.

Only Mayor Chiquiting Sagarbarria, as President of NORFA, can save football in Negros Oriental. He should take over karon dayon because of the forthcoming Philippine National Games that will be held here starting May 26, 2012.

Needless to say, I will submit a copy of this piece to Mr. Mariano “Nonong” Araneta, President of the Philippine Football Federation, to seek his support of this campaign aimed at making Negros Oriental a partner of the PFF in pursuing the FIFA vision:
“The Future is Asia.”

The sharing of technology took place during a three-day workshop at the UPV Tacloban campus last week. The workshop was initiated by UPV-Tacloban Dean Margarita de la Cruz, who invited a team from Foundation University to do the workshop.

(Faculty and staff of UP Tacloban watch as Foundation University College of Agriculture Dean Mark Espedilla explains the process of hydroponics or soil-less gardening.)

De la Cruz had seen the BMG and Hydroponics up close during a visit to Foundation University in Dumaguete last year and organized the workshop to introduce the technology in her campus.

FU President Dr. Mira Sinco sent Engr. Mark Espedilla, dean of the FU College of Agriculture; Dr. Aparicio Mequi, coordinator of university environment programs and Alex Pal, consultant for university advancement, to speak before some 30 UPV-TC faculty and staff on the theme Green Environment: Zero Waste Management Seminar Workshop from April 17-19.

“We sent our administrators to UPV-TC as our Ambassadors of Caring and Sharing and we are happy that even a small institution like ours has something to share with the world,” Sinco said. She noted that Foundation University also has a special link with the University of the Philippines as Dr. Vicente G. Sinco, who founded the Foundation Institute in 1949, also served as the eighth president of UP from 1958-1962.

Other institutions have also indicated their interest to learn of the environmental and agricultural technology that is being used at FU. “This is a technology that we have not perfected yet–there is much we can learn from each other,” Dr. Mequi said during the BMG workshop. The design of the BMG, Mequi noted, continues to improve as more and more people use it.

Aside from talking about waste management and agricultural technology, the speakers at the seminar-workshop also discussed Health and Wellness and the communication component of a total environment program.

(FU College of Agriculture Dean Mark Espedilla (2nd from left) and UP Visayas Tacloban College Dean Margarita dela Cruz (3rd from right), flanked by UP Tacloban faculty and staff, test the prototype of the Bio-Mechanical Goat at the UP Tacloban campus)

The workshop participants were so interested in learning about the BMG and hydroponics that in one session, they even forgot that it was already lunchtime, said Dean Espedilla.

UP Tacloban Dean dela Cruz, who is a Gawad Bayani ng Kalikasan Awardee, said that the seminar-workshop proved very informative and interesting. Dela Cruz transformed the school’s green house into a hydroponics facility while several faculty and staff were also eyeing the possibility of replicating the small projects in their homes.

Dela Cruz, who also chairs the Guiuan Development Foundation in Guiuan, Samar, said the technology shared by Foundation University could even benefit the people of Samar.

The BMG has also been replicated and introduced on a municipal scale in Manjuyod town, in what is called “The Manjuyod Experiment.” The experiment, started by then Governor Jose “Petit” Baldado, is an attempt to encourage zero waste management in the town’s barangays. In the course of the experiment, BMG users have made improvisations in its design.

“Before FU VP for Finance & Administration Dean Sinco left for Hawaii, he instructed FU football coaches Vladimir Villacora, Geraldine Cabrera, Carl Cabetinga, and James Rubio to meet with their SU counterparts, and suggest that a women’s division be included in the tournament with FU underwriting the cost, as well as providing the venue for competition.

“On Jan. 10, I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email from FU coach Cabrera that they wanted to discuss the status of the women’s category of the Silliman Football Cup…’

“That meeting with Coach Cendrome, in-charge of the SU Football Cup women’s division and Coach Sienes for the men’s division, will become part of my happy memories in sports.”

Six teams participated in this inaugural staging of the SU Football Cup women’s division. The championship match was won by the NORFA Ladies Football Club beating FU with the score of 3-1.

The Perpetual Trophy, suggested by Coaches Sienes and Cendrome, was donated by FU President Dr. Mira D. Sinco. It was designed by the FU IYSPeace staff and crafted by Ben Cubalan, head of the FU Carpentry Shop, showing the seal of the two institutions held up by two hands, symbolizing the unity and friendship that this sporting event had forged between Siliman University and Foundation University.

FU VP for Finance & Administration and SU Athletics Directress Miriam Ramacho awarded the medals and the Perpetual Trophy to the winners.

Sports, indeed, is a wonderful instrument of peace.

Meanwhile, in the men’s division where 14 teams took part, the FU team, joining the tournament for the first time, brought home the Perpetual Trophy, after beating Old Skuls in a hard-fought game, to the tune of 1-0.

Now, the bad news. Our local NORFA U-23 football team was badly thrashed by its counterpart NOCFA in the U-23 Suzuki-Visayas qualifying round played last Sunday at the Filomeno Cimafranca Ballfield with a score of 4-1.

This lopsided score is a wake -up call for our local football officials to start working and put some semblance of a development program in place.

We at FU have persistently called for the holding of an organizational meeting of the members of NORFA so that we could get our acts together. But our pleas for the past three years have been ignored.

Football is marching time in Negros Oriental while the rest of the country is surging forward like neighbors Bacolod and Cebu.

The other bad news is that according to my contacts at the PSC, our local officials have backed out from hosting the Philippine National Games scheduled in May.

We have lost an opportunity to resurrect the dead “white elephant” of a Perdices Stadium.

Silliman University and Foundation University had both successfully hosted the UniGames and the PRISAA in the past. Perhaps, if these two institutions, with their collective resources and experience in hosting sporting events, were tapped, and with the support of the LGUs, we could have brought the PNG to Negros Oriental and our City of Gentle People. Sayang.

Taken from Dumaguete Metropost / Dr. Aparicio Mequi

The top-rated Dumaguete Adventure Marathon is living up to its objective to promote the “City of Gentle People” and Negros Oriental as a tourism destination. And this provokes the question: “What has our local government officials done or are doing to promote tourism in response to the provisions of the National Tourism Act of 2009 or Republic Act 9593, signed by former President Arroyo during the ‘One Visayas Summit on Climate Change’ on May 13, 2009, and declaring it a national policy for tourism to be one of the country’s engines of investment and employment, and of growth and national development?’”

In the same forum, the former President also noted that the “Visayas region is the country’s tourism center.”

To ensure that the DAM will have a real international flavor and committed foreign participants, we have communicated with the Philippine secretariat of the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) based in Davao City to partner with Foundation University in the staging of the event.

Letters have been sent to EAGA Executive Director Dr. Janet Lopoz, and Secretary Lualhati Antonino, chairperson of the Mindanao Development Authority to which the BIMP-EAGA is an attached agency.

“BIMP-EAGA was launched in 1994 as a Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippine cooperation initiative, all of which are member-countries of the regional Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The objective behind its creation is to accelerate economic development in the four countries’ “focus areas” which, although geographically distant from their national capitals, are in strategic proximity to each other, in one of the world’s most resource-rich regions. The BIMP-EAGA initiative is market-driven, and operates through a decentralized organization structure involving the four governments and the private sector.

BIMP-EAGA cooperation aims to increase trade, tourism and investments with and outside the sub-region by: 1) facilitating the free movement of people, goods, and services; 2) making the best use of common infrastructure and natural resources; 3) taking the fullest advantage of economic complementation.

“BIMP-EAGA covers a land area of 1.6 million square kilometers and has a combined population of 57.5 million. It comprises the entire sultanate of Brunei Darussalam; the provinces of Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku, West Papua, and Papua in Indonesia; the states of Sabah and Sarawak, the federal territory of Labuan in Malaysia; the island of Mindanao and the province of Palawan in the Philippines.

“The subregion has exceptional natural resources, encompassing two of the world’s largest rainforests (in Borneo and Papua), and biodiverse marine systems in the South China Sea, Celebes Sea and Sulu Sea. BIMP-EAGA has a long history of participation in the global economy, stretching back to the silk route and spice trade between Europe, China, and other parts of Asia. EAGA supplies the export markets of ASEAN, North and South Asia, and the Middle East, following the expansion of its air, shipping and land transport links and the development of investment incentives.”

As DAM organizer, FU has informed the Philippine secretariat in Davao that the marathon aims to promote a culture of rice conservation under its “Rice is Life” program in partnership with the Asia Rice Foundation, Philippine Rice Research Institute, and the Department of Agriculture.

Thus, the guidelines for participating countries include: a) runners must be rice farmers or their sons and daughters; b) entitlements to discounted airfare, free accommodations, meals and snacks for four days in the 21km half and 42km full marathons, a coach, and a head of the team; and c) possible lay-over arrangements in Cebu City, courtesy of Cebu’s tourism body.

Dr. Lopoz informed me she ”Just got the initial feedback from the tech division handling the EAGA. They find it interesting. The discussion yesterday was how to connect it with other EAGA activities so that it becomes part of the EAGA loop such as the EAGA ride for peace, marathon, jamboree and other EAGA sports tourism events and youth development.”

We eagerly anticipate this partnership between the DAM and EAGA for two reasons: firstly, the international projection of Negros Oriental and Dumaguerte City as wholesome tourism destinations, and secondly, expanding and sharing with other countries FU’s institutional corporate social responsibility aimed at creating a culture of rice conservation as a strategy to meet one of the MDG — the eradication of hunger and poverty.

Taken from Dumaguete Metropost / Dr. Aparicio Mequi

Henry Lim Bon Liong is this year’s commencement speaker of Foundation University.

Not well known in academic circles and even in the business sector in the likes of Gokongwei, Tan Caktiong, Sia, or Uytengsu, Henry Lim Bon Liong is founder and chief executive officer of SL Agritech Corp., a relatively newbie in the agri-business, but is now the largest and most aggressive producer of hybrid rice in the Philippines — a feat which earned him the moniker “Rice Man of the Philippines.”

Henry Lim Bon Liong belongs to one of the migrant Chinese families in the Philippines, son of Maria Co Chiao Ti Lim and Lim Seh Leng. The family lived in a one–room apartment without any toilet, and they couldn’t speak Tagalog. Through sheer hard work and determination, his father started Sterling Bookbinding and Sterling Family Photo Album, and subsequently, the family gained Filipino citizenship. In 1976, Henry’s father died and as the eldest, Henry took over the business.

Henry Lim studied at Letran College, the University of the Asia & the Pacific, and at the University of the Philippines where he obtained a degree in mechanical engineering.

Through his astute and entrepreneurial genius, Sterling Paper Products Ent., Inc. diversified to other businesses which include a conglomerate of successful business enterprises ranging from greeting cards, school and office supplies, toys, real estate, call center, importation of office supplies, and agribusiness in such companies as: CBS Inc. (Central Book Store); Straight Lines International Inc.; (greeting cards, gift wrappers, puzzles, board games and wall charts); Expressions Stationary Shop Inc.; SP Properties Inc.; Expressions Center for Learning; SL Agritech Corp.; Mart One Discount Store; and Sterling Global Call Center Inc. Sterling products are exported to Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Egypt, Latin America, South America and the United States.

Among Lim’s business ventures, SL Agritech Corp. — a company engaged in the research, development and production of superior hybrid rice seeds, and which supplies agri-chemical and corn products — is probably “closest to his heart”.

He loves to relate his story on how he, with some divine intervention, got involved in hybrid rice production.

In 1998, Lim met the ‘Father of Hybrid Rice’ and China’s National Treasure, a recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award, Prof. Yuan Long Ping, who encouraged and taught him how to produce a variety of rice that promises to increase the yield of farmers.

The Professor sent his scientists to the Philippines to teach Lim the technology of developing hybrid rice varieties suitable to the Philippines’ condition.

To promote the development, commercialization, and growth of hybrid rice technology in the country, Henry put up SL Agritech Corp., named after his father. The venture was not an instant success.

Lim’s first trial crop was in a 40-hectare area in Laguna. The International Rice Research Institute provided him rice seeds. He invested heavily on research which was a failure in the beginning. For two years, SL Agritech produced promising varieties but could not stabilize the parental line.

In a vehicular accident involving his family, he lost his mother and brother, but he survived despite suffering several injuries himself. Two months after this incident, Lim was about to give up pursuing the hybrid rice venture when one early morning of January 17, 2001, “Professor Zhang, our lead scientist in the field, saw my mother, as if in a dream, and she directed him to go to the rice fields to inspect the rice flowers. It took him all morning to look at all the flowers in the 40-hectare field. Just the day before, his inspection produced a negative result, and they were about to clear the fields to start all over again. That morning, with the guidance of my mother, he found what he was looking for in Plot no. 8,” Lim narrates. He decided to call the hybrid variety SL8H after his father (Lim Seh Leng) and Plot no. 8.

As an offshoot of the government’s drive to disseminate hybrid rice technology, the Hybrid Rice Commercialization Program was formally launched in 2001, and ties among SL Agritech Corp., the Department of Agriculture, and the Philippine Rice Research Institute were forged.

To date, the company has three other seed production farms with a total land size of 1,500 hectares. As of 2004, it has distributed hybrid rice seeds to about 100,000 hectares of farmland, almost 50 percent of the 230,000 hectares of hybrid rice area in the country.

The success of SL-8H led to the company’s accreditation by institutions like the IRRI, PhilRice, and the National Seed Industry Council.

In 2002, the Anvil Executive Club, a business organization of young Filipino Chinese entrepreneurs cited Lim for his “entrepreneurial leadership efforts in bringing China’s famous rice hybrid technology to rural Filipino farmers and for supporting the National Government’s goal of rice-sufficiency and agricultural technology.”

He was also cited for his philanthropic involvement in donating over 20 public school buildings to rural barangays in Bulacan and Cavite under the program “Operation Barrio Schools.”

In 2005, he was recognized as one of the “Emerging Master Entrepreneurs” by the SGV Foundation Ernst & Young Entrepreneurs of tThe Year Philippines Program.

Lim is often asked if a hybrid is the same as GMO, and he explains that a hybrid is never a GMO, and that the term “hybrid” simply means getting the very superior parental lines and putting the two together because the rice has always been a self-pollinating plant. Inside the small rice flower are both the male and female, so there is no cross-pollination.

SL Agritech’s vision, “rice technology for mankind,” is something that Henry Lim takes to heart. He is convinced that the technology he had introduced could be an answer to the country’s widespread poverty and hunger.

He said he also believes that the technology can generate more jobs and improve Filipino farmers’ economic and living conditions.

Moreover, the technology uses environment-friendly farming and pest management practices to help preserve agricultural land for generations to come.

“I would like to help farmers improve their standard of living, and make our country self-sufficient in food, especially rice, and when that happens, I will consider it the greatest accomplishment in my life,” says Lim.

Foundation University’s six-year old advocacy aimed at creating a culture of rice conservation under its “Rice is Life” Program as a strategy to achieve one of the Millennium Development Goals, the eradication of hunger and poverty, jives perfectly with Henry Lim Bon Liong’s personal and business philosophy.

Taken from Dumaguete Metropost / Dr. Aparicio Mequi

Mr. Lim is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the SL Agritech Corp. (SLAC), the leading research development and production of superior hybrid rice in the country.

He will address the 415 graduating University students at the Sofia Soller Sinco Hall at 3 p.m., which will be covered live on SkyCable and Fil Products Cable TV.

This year’s batch has one Magna Cum Laude in the person of Christopher Marco, from the College of Business Administration’s B.S. Accountancy program.

There are also 14 Cum Laudes this year. They are Michael John Sola, Lynn Francine Batalan, Raymark Anthony Saloria, Merazil Gabutero, Cristine May Delan, Je-Ann Carias, Margie Lorejo, Leigh Ann Torres, Jemarie Murallo, Hyagrace Tolero, Radhiya Ababon, Pureza Nema Catalonia and Jela Mae Tanilon.

Mr. Lim’s address is expected to touch on modern trends in business and agriculture.

With farmers getting as much as 12 tons per hectare with SLAC’s hybrid rice variety SL8H, agriculture experts see the country gaining self-sufficiency in rice by 2013.

The government has a goal of expanding hybrid rice coverage of 500,000 to 700,000 hectares by 2013 from the current coverage of 375,000 hectares.

Taken from Dumaguete Metropost

The FU Student Government led the selection process and endorsed the names to the Office of University Advancement and the Office of Student Life.

The students who received scholarships ranging from P6,200 to P9,000 were Aaron Abueva, Analou Abueva, Percy Jane Acaso, Rhel Alberio, Donalyn Baybay, Leigh Boncales, Exelyn Cadelina, Je-Ann Carias, Jona Carias, Genesis Co, Elpie Ebarita, Marci lee Guivencan, Ian Jamandron and Charles Macay.

FU Advancement Officer Amy Villanueva said the money came from an on-line fund-raising campaign called the Sendong Scholarship Initiative and from the proceeds of two paintings by FU Resident Artist Hersley-Ven Casero.

Some donors gave not just their money but exhibited their talent to raise funds. A musician, Ryan Villanueva, held a guitar concert in his neighborhood in Cumberland, Maryland, USA and sold CDs of his songs and donated the proceeds.

Casero, on the other hand, was inspired to make two paintings after the storm. He made his biggest painting entitled “2012 (The Year of the Dragon)”. The painting showed a dragon dominating Dumaguete’s Rizal Boulevard, which also showed people of all shapes, sizes and expressions who had gathered there in the afternoon of December 17, after Sendong struck Dumaguete and the Province of Negros Oriental.

Casero also made a smaller painting of photographers entitled “1000 Pictures Per Second.”

The paintings were then sold in Dumaguete’s first-ever auction-benefit last February 26 under the auspices of the FU Advancement Office. Casero donated all the proceeds to the Sendong victims and for victims of the February 6 earthquake, through the Department of Social Welfare and Development Office in Dumaguete City.

The Advancement Office initiated the fund campaign immediately after the December 17 storm, after concerns were raised that some students may not be able to continue with their studies because of the damage they sustained.

One of the students, Analou Abueva, said they are grateful because while they lost their books, shoes and everything else during the storm, they could still stay in school because of the support of kind-hearted individuals.

Marci Lee Guivencan, on the other hand, said that the money and goodwill donated by people whom they have never even met ”gives us the idea that hope is still around….” She was unable to finish her statement as tears started falling from her eyes.

A mother, Merllene Baybay, also expressed thanks to the faceless donors because they gave hope to her daughter through the scholarship. “My husband lost his job and I support my family by selling banana cue….” She, too, couldn’t finish her statement and sat down teary-eyed.

FU President Dr. Mira Sinco exhorted the scholars to put the money to good use by continuing to do well in their studies.

Dean Marlon Tanilon of the Office of Student Life said he hopes that this initiative planted in the scholars the seed that will encourage them to see their dreams become a reality.

“With this initiative, we are able to show the University’s concern for its students,” Tanilon concluded.

Taken from Dumaguete Metropost / Alex Pal

Third and fourth year students from the FU Department of Architecture & Fine Arts presented their study of Rizal Boulevard, which documented current conditions and envisioned future development plans for now and the next 10 years.

Instructors Ray Villanueva and Val Vinarao led two courses focused on the Boulevard, culminating in the final review.

Four esteemed reviewers were invited to witness the presentations, and provide expert advice and probing questions. Architects Manny Almagro and Rene Armogenia as well as City Administrator William Ablong, and Rev. Carlton “Cobbie” Palm.

Joining the reviewers was Leo Mapicpic from the Friends of the Environment of Negros Oriental (FENOR) and some FU administrators and faculty, including Vice Presidents Victor Vicente “Dean” Sinco, Dr. Eva Melon, as well as Deans Aparicio Mequi, and Marlon Tanilon. The room was primed for a good discussion.

Villanueva initiated the review with the caveat that the students were asked to focus specifically on the coastline between Looc and Tinago. Recognizing that a true Master Plan for Dumaguete would include a much larger area (i.e. from the airport to Robinsons terminal), he said he hoped that the Rizal Boulevard study could be one key part of that overall plan, and that the presentations would “ignite the imagination and excite city advocates and developers about what Rizal Boulevard could be.”

Several themes emerged quickly from the individual presentations: Preserving the Past, Sustainable Development for the Future, and Connections to the City.

Students went into detail describing the many ways that Rizal Boulevard could be enhanced in these regards – ranging from an amphitheater, public memorials, and water treatment facilities, to the finer details of pedestrian cross walks, wheel chair accessibility, and garbage segregation.

Four hours later, the reviewers began to see Rizal Boulevard in a whole new light, as a multi-faceted park with expansive history and future potential.

We shown details we had never noticed before like poor accessibility and lack of shade for vendors.

We excited about integrated water treatment solutions that would clean the shoreline while beautifying the park.

There was also the possibility of pedestrianizing Burgos Street as an open-air market for fruit vendors and small cafes, to better connect the boulevard to the city’s commercial district.

The reviewers were equally engaged, pushing the students to consider the ramifications of their design. “You have come up with a good plan, but you’ll need to answer: 1) how to relocate the informal settlers, 2) how to manage wastewater, and 3) how to redirect heavy traffic (buses and sugar cane trucks) away from Rizal Boulevard,” pointed out Armogenia.

Ablong thanked the students for “integrating livelihood in development plans, especially for the small vendors who have traditionally made the Boulevard their marketplace. Too often, these vendors are missed out by big development plans.”

At one point, Almagro noted, “This is a wake-up call for the City! We should have been doing this 10 years ago, but no one has pushed for it. You students are the forerunners… Foundation University is becoming the center for architecture and design in the Visayas.”

It was a thoroughly enlightening afternoon and very gratifying to see the hard work of the students and instructors come to fruition. Dumaguete has a great resource in the intellect and energy of its campuses – and it is hoped the City will make the most of that service as our community continues to grow.

Taken from Dumaguete Metropost / Amy Villanueva