U.P. President asks for help in raising P47 million for U.P.'s laboratory school (UPIS) school building overhaul project

U.P. President Pascual briefs invitees to a merienda at Executive House where he briefed them about plans to raise funds for overhauling the existing K-6 structures of UPIS inside U.P. Diliman

Schematic diagram for the complete overhaul of the Narra Dormitory which will make way for the high school of UPIS

By Chanda Shahani 

University of the Philippines (U.P.) President Alfredo E. Pascual asked today for support from University of the Philippines Integrated School (UPIS) alumni, legislators and other interested parties for donor funds totalling PhP 47 million which will allow the overhaul and rebuilding of the existing U.P. Elementary School (K-6) inside the U.P. Diliman campus as part of an overall package which includes the transfer of the high school from Katipunan Road to the former Narra Residence Hall.

"The dream of coming up with a U.P. Integrated School is about to be realized," Pascual said at a merienda he hosted at Executive House at U.P. Diliman this afternoon for UPIS alumni and other interested parties. He said that in the late 1990s there were plans to transfer the high school of  UPIS from its location along Katipunan Avenue to the main academic zone of U.P. Diliman so that it would be closer to the U.P. College of education and the elementary school of UPIS.

UPIS is a laboratory school of the College of Education at U.P. Diliman with several prominent personalities having gone to school there or its predecessor school in Manila which was the U.P. Elementary School and the U.P. High School. The Diliman Diary has extensively covered the issue of the commercialization of the UPIS site along Katipunan Avenue, and our several articles on the subject may be accessed by typing in "UPIS" in this blog's search engine.

AyalaLand, Inc. won the rights to lease the UPIS property through open competitive bidding at terms which were much better than what U.P. received from AyalaLand, Inc. which leased U.P.-owned property along Commonwealth Avenue which is now the site of U.P.-Ayala Technohub, said U.P. Vice-President for Development Elvira A. Zamora, a professor administration at U.P. Diliman, who was also present at the briefing given by President Pascual.

President Pascual explained that as part of the overall package, AyalaLand, Inc. agreed to put up front PhP 180 million, which will be enough to put up the high school of UPIS where the former Narra Residence Hall now stands (please see the second picture for the schematic diagram of this). AyalaLand, Inc. also is giving some PhP 40 million for the grade school, which is not enough for U.P., since it plans to come up with an almost new structure which would require an additional PhP 47 million, bringing up the cost to overhaul the existing grade school to PhP 87 million.

The site of the former UPIS will be a town center that will be utilized for mixed use. It will be also a place for technology and business integrators which will cater to the private sector, especially techno entrepreneurs. “This will allow us to kill a number of birds with one stone,” Pascual said. There will also be an entertainment and town center, which will benefit the university community, he said.

In terms of the high school there is no problem because PhP 180 million has been raised with about 40 million also being raised that can be realigned for the elementary school but more needs to be added to this.

Former College of Architecture Dean Christopher Espina, who now heads the Campus Planning Office assured members of the audience that the new structures would be built in accordance to the national Building Code, and would take into account any possible minor earthquake faults within the area. He explained that the major fault line is the Marikina Valley Fault Line which does not cut through U.P. campus.

Espina said that the buildings would be well-landscaped, shaded and would incorporate as much green technology as possible, and would incorporate cistern tanks that would collect "grey rainwater" in order to help lessen U.P.'s carbon footprint.

Dr. Zamora said that the timetable for the construction of the new high school building would be within the next two to three months with the completion being timed for the opening of classes in the first semester or June, 2012 and with a backup plan of opening the new facility in the second semester of 2012-2013.

President Pascual said that U.P. Diliman was able to justify the retention of UPIS because as a laboratory school, it was intrumental in fulfilling the mission of the university by allowing U.P. College of Education faculty and its students to test and refine learning theories and programs.

He said that the high school attached to U.P. Cebu College could be retained by reinventing it as a high school for the arts with a concentration in high technology and animation.

UPIS currently has a student population of 1100 for K to 10 and can easily modify its programs to accommodate K to 12 should this plan be finalized by national government authorities, according to Ronaldo M. Jose, the principal of UPIS.

According its website UPIS is the basic education unit of UP Diliman. Other autonomoindividuals.us universities of UP maintain their own basic education units. UP Los Baños has UP Rural High School. UP Visayas has two high schools - one in Cebu and another in Iloilo. Aside from being the oldest of all basic education units in the UP System, UPIS is the only one offering both primary and secondary education.

“Hello Narra, Goodbye Katipunan” - An invitation to all Alumni, Students, Parents and other interested individuals.

The UP High, Prep, Elementary and Integrated School Foundation, Inc. will be having an event "Hello Narra, Goodbye Katipunan" on Friday, August 26, 2011, 7:00 p.m. at the UP Integrated School Multipurpose Hall, Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City.

The dinner program will present the future UPIS K-12 developments including the forthcoming transfer from its present site in Katipunan to the old Narra dorm site inside the UP Campus. The event aims to rally the support of our alumni to nurture and sustain excellence of UPIS.

Those who are interested in donating to the Foundation, which is raising the PhP 47 million for UPIS may contact Dr. Marvie M. Abesamis at marviea@gmail.com or cell phone number 0917 8102335

Photos by: Chanda Shahani

(Chanda Shahani is the editor of the Diliman Diary. An A.B. Comparative Literature graduate from U.P. Diliman, he also has a Master's degree in Entrepreneurship from the Asian Institute of Management and is a former business page reporter for the Philippine STAR).

Save UPIS, Save our children’s RIGHT to education.

Editor's note: We are posting the following petition in line with our policy of providing access to those with alternative points of view, and because it discusses many topics that we deem to be relevant to the Diliman community. We hope that at least some of the points will ultimately become points of discussion and debate, which is healthy for the democratic governance of any institution. We note that the previous U.P. Administration railroaded, through its administration-dominated Board of Regents, the approval of the long-term lease of the University of the Philippines Integrated School. Maybe it is this secretive end-of-days approval and the trampling of the U.P. Charter itself (R.A. 9500), which cries out - even if belatedly - for real consultations with all affected sectors before a project of this financial magnitude is implemented, and which has led to a growing body of disaffected U.P.I.S. alumni questioning the project when implementation is about to begin, for no public consultations of any consequence have ever been implemented. It is only with the utmost sensitivity to the feelings of these disaffected U.P.I.S. alumni, that the new administration of U.P. President Alfredo E. Pascual can seek to allay the concerns of the U.P.I.S. alumni.

Large real estate corporations are currently waiting for the Department of Finance to approve the implementing rules for real estate investment trusts (REITs), which allow investors to invest directly in Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE)-listed real estate projects (rather than in the shares of the company itself). Such projects, potentially including the U.P.I.S. project, which will be operated by Ayala Land, Inc. fall within the probable time frame of co-implementation of the U.P.I.S. project and the approval by the DOF of REITs (the estimated period is 2011-2012). Ayala Land, Inc., should it finance this project via REITs, will be dependent on financing derived from large and small investors, and these REITs are themselves vulnerable to losses in share prices, if there are untied loose ends (such as restive and unconsulted sectors who remain unconvinced that this is a good project). Ultimately, it is in the best interests of Ayala Land, Inc. and the new U.P. Administration to make sure that Ayala Land projects are all above board when it comes to the University of the Philippines, because a lack of consultation of the affected sectors not only is in violation of R.A. 9500, but the share prices of Ayala Land, Inc., considered a blue chip stock in the Philippine Stock Exchange, are subject to a pummeling if the investing public, made up of large and small investors, including large foreign investors, sees a large, well-regarded company "slipping" in the all-important area of corporate governance, which under international best business practices, really calls for communities and affected sectors to be consulted properly and respectfully by the project proponents, even if there was no U.P. Charter requiring this.

Please sign this petition if you want to oppose commercialization of our schools and keep our right to education.
All the underlying issues are discussed below.
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This is a petition to our University of the Philippines President, Alfredo Pascual and to our Philippine President Ninoy Aquino.
From concerned Filipino citizens- students and parents alike, speaking in behalf of all the universities in the country.
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Save UPIS, Save our children’s RIGHT to education.


During most of  GMA’s term, 154 out of 264 State Universities and Collegess (SUCs)(1), including  the University of the Philippines(2) were converted from a state to a national university.

Though this may seem like a harmless name change,  this move, a.k.a.“rationalization” is nothing but detrimental to the state of our education.

As a national university,  the school ceases to be a responsibility of the state and is thus tasked to earn money for its keep - making it a money making business(3) rather than an institution in the service of its people.

You may wonder, how such a change could have been allowed by its academic administrators, the guardians of our learning.

In this, you need to follow the money.  For each school converted to a national university, you have to ask- 

"Were those who voted in its favor given special positions as profit recipients of this anomaly?"

"Could a busines-oriented school be so bad?",  you may ask.

Emerlinda Roman, then incumbent UP President reasons that it is a good discipline  for universities to be trained in the realities of business and economics.

Though this may be so,  this is the price we have to pay:

1. NO MONEY,  NO STUDY Education, which used to be the right of every deserving child is now a privilege of the financially capable few.
In UP, the 300% tuition fee increase(4) resulted in the non-admission of 1/3 of its students(5), who, even though passed the academe’s stringent examination, failed the business entity’s financial requirement.

• Take the case of a freshman Chemistry student from a minority group in Cotabato.(6)
  His father, has set aside money from their meagre income  to ensure that his bright son gets a life different from his own.  They were welcomed by a 300% tuition fee increase, which they had to produce in a few days.  Unable to come up with the amount, the son dropped out, downtrodden, dreams of a better life gone.
  A bright mind left to stagnate.  A parent’s strife, rendered futile.

The open slot that he leaves is now taken up by a foreign student(7) who finds the tuition fee, a meager amount compared to what they have to pay in their country(8).
Our gift of education to the world? Or hope denied to our countrymen.

2. FACULTY THINKS MONEY, NOT CURRICULUM
The faculty, now tasked to make ends meet- has business as its primary function rather than how to continuously improve the curriculum.

Faculty meetings are about budgets and ideas on fundraisers while the school syllabus stays stagnant.

3. SOCIALLY IMBALANCED STUDY
Though it is important to propagate courses that support our business infrastructure as Business Administration, Engineering, Law-  courses needed in the positive well balanced development of our country and people are overlooked- as Education,  Fine Arts, Community Development.
The UP School of Education is downsized even as there is a gnawing need for more teachers.  The resulting downsizing of UPIS, a laboratory school that helps UP Ed students, our future teachers in designing a better syllabus, is a direct casualty of this shift in priorities.
Projecting into the future, we will become a consumerist nation, devoid of  social and cultural values that give life its true rich meaning.

4. SCHOOL FOR SALE (9)
Take a tour of UP and you will find that the independent community of old now gives way to advertising.

• All the pebbles of the academic oval are engraved with names of donors.
• The rooms are named after brands and companies who gave a sizeable donation.

Though I commend those who gave financial support to the school, I also believe that true giving is selfless and anonymous.

Time was when we named our edifices after heroes, people who made selfless contributions to higher learning.

Now, we name them after the highest bidder.

This practice has gone to the extreme with the lease of Technohub. 

What was misrepresented to be a science and technology incubator, is now a business and commercial center- rented at a discount of 177Million over 25 years, which is only 8% of fair market value(10) to the school’s preferred business partners.

And now, UPIS…(click here to see Save UPIS video)

• the school, dilapidated as they reasoned, will be transferred to an even smaller, burnt remnant of a residence hall.  A token alm is given, hardly enough for its repairs.
• The students, will be downsized as a result of the uprofitable, deprioritized and downsized Colege of Education
• The sprawling grounds, used to be the site of youth sports activities will be replaced by a commercial mall.

All this, so that UP can add a meager P34Mill/year (11), a tiny drop to the P12Bill budget deficit that the government cannot provide.

Can the Philippine government REALLY not provide?

UP needs P18 Bill in 2011 to function but it only received P5.5Bill, a further decrease of P1.4 Bill  from the previous year.  (12)

With a total education budget of  2.8% of GDP (2008) (13) , the Philippine government, consistently allots less than half of the prescribed minimum of 6% set by UNESCO Delors Commission for developing countries.

The government,  they say is bankrupt and has no more money to give.  Is it really?

• Pork barrel allowance (including hidden budgetary insertions) is at P87Billion, up by P23 Billion from previous year (14)
• From which GMA, alone as a congresswoman receives P2Billion (15)
• Defense budget, 

Sign the petition here.

Ayala Land, Inc. files disclosure report to SEC on redevelopment of 7.4 ha. UPIS property along Katipunan Avenue

Editor's note: We are embedding below the corporate disclosure report submitted by Ayala Land, Inc. to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding Ayala Land's winning of the right to redevelop the University of the Philippines Inetgrated School (UPIS) property along Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City. Under SEC rules which stress transparency, publicly listed corporations such as Ayala Land must immediately inform the SEC of any major projects or developments which may have an impact on its stock prices, for the benefit of the investing public and institutional investors.

 (To zoom in on the graphics, just click on them)

Last Minute Frenzy of Approved Land Deals Highlights U.P. President Roman's Last-ever Board of Regents Meeting on January 27

A frenzy of real estate deals by the U.P. Board of Regents (BOR) dominated the proceedings of Outgoing U.P. President Emerlinda R. Roman's  last meeting at the BOR on January 27.

According to the Facebook page of Student Regent Jaque Eroles, the BOR approved the following real estate deals: The LoveNature! Park in UPV-Miagao, the Solar Power Plant Project in UPLB, and the AyalaLand lease in UPIS land were all approved today at Roman's last BOR meeting.

The Diliman Diary will be updating this dispatch as more details become available.

UPIS Benefit Concert for UPIS Student Raigene Busi on February 4, 2011

ROCK4RAI, a benefit concert for University of the Philippines Integrated School (UPIS) student Raigene Busi, will be held on February 4, from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., at the UPIS parking lot. 

Rock4Rai, which will feature about 50 performers, including UPIS bands, aims to raise funds for the recovery of Rai, a fourth-year student of the school who was struck by a motorcycle on December 17. Since the accident, Rai has been confined at the Philippine General Hospital where her father, a single parent, works as an administrative assistant. Rai suffered serious injuries, leaving her in the surgery intensive care unit until her transfer to an isolation room in the trauma ward only recently. 

She battled lung and kidney infection and was dependent on a respirator for several weeks. Doctors also removed her spleen and pancreas after both organs sustained heavy damage due to the accident. On Tuesday, Rai underwent a colostomy after she developed a block in her large intestines. 

Doctors continue to watch her closely and are waiting for her condition to further improve before they start working on her other injuries—two broken ribs, plus a break in her collarbone and left arm. 

For tickets to Rock4Rai, contact May Datuin at 0917-5840760. Those who want to help out the family may call Rai’s father, Raymundo Busi, at 0919-4610592. Donations may be coursed through his DBP bank account (account name Raymundo Busi, account number 5053784109).

U.P.'s Staff Regent says "Swiss Challenge" rules will apply to Ayala Land, Inc.'s proposed privatization of the U.P. Integrated School Property

Staff Regent Clodualdo "Buboy" Cabrera

(Source: Facebook page
of Laban PGH Movement)

By Chanda Shahani

It's confirmed. "Swiss Challenge" rules will apply in the evaluation by the University of the Philippines (U.P.) Board of Regents (BOR) of the unsolicted proposal by Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI) to take over the U.P. Integrated School (UPIS) along Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City and transfer UPIS to the now non-operational Narra Residence Hall located inside the U.P. Diliman Campus, also in the same city.

According to U.P. Staff Regent Clodualdo "Buboy" Cabrera, the proposed conversion of the 20 hectare UPIS property was an unsolicited proposal submitted by ALI and discussed as part of the agenda of the May 27, 2010 BOR meeting held at Quezon Hall at U.P. Diliman.

Under the Swiss Challenge system as it is practised in the Philippines (See Diliman Diary, May 26, 2010), the government grants the original project proponent a predefined advantage through a point system in a competitive bidding process. This allows third parties to make better offers or "challenges." The original proponent then has the right to match a superior offer (http://tinyurl.com/3yow9r8). 

Cabrera said the proposal was still in its preliminary stages, and thus not enough time had elapsed for other interested competitors to submit their own proposals; given that the BOR was still in the process of evaluating and reacting to the original ALI proposal.

Here are some of the details of the ALI proposal as it currently stands: 

• ALI is proposing a 25-year lease agreement for the UPIS property
• U.P. will get 10% of any commercial building lease revenues
• U.P. will also get 15% of any land lease revenues
• Total leasable office space areas would equal 12,000 square meters
• Total gross leasable retail areas would equal 50,000 square meters
• All told, the entire leasable area under consideration equals 62,000 square meters
• ALI is proposing an overall compensation package to U.P. of PhP 177 million over the entire 25-year period

Regent Cabrera said that he did the math, and found out that the revenue accruing to U.P. came to a measly PhP 9.00 per square meter per month. The Diliman Diary validated the math by dividing PhP 177 million by 25 years and further dividing the product by 62,000 square meters to get a total compensation of PhP 114.00 per square meter year for U.P. Dividing that figure by 12 to get the monthly figure, we got PhP 9.52 per square meter per month for the coffers of U.P.

By way of comparison, Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) accredited properties in Libis, Ortigas and Makati City charge anywhere from a low of PhP 250.00 per square meter per month to a high of PhP 600.00 per square meter per month. If ALI wins the Swiss Challenge, ALI as the building developer, with U.P. concurring, is expected to apply for PEZA accreditation as it has already done so for the the 37.5 hectare North Science and Technology Park, located along Commonwealth Avenue in Diliman where the U.P.-Ayala Land Technohub is located. Even the U.P. Ayala Technohub, which is run by the Ayala Foundation, Inc., and located along C.P. Garcia Avenue, enjoys PEZA status.

According to the PEZA website (http://www.peza.gov.ph/) PEZA benefits include income tax holidays for up to four years, a special 5% tax on gross income (after the income tax holiday), payment exemptions.. Foreign investors will also be granted a permanent residency status upon initial investment of USD 150,000 to any sustainable, local enterprise. These are particularly attractive to business process outsourcing (BPO) companies, given the proximity to quality graduates from U.P. Diliman and elsewhere which will help drive the need of BPOs for comparatively cheap but skilled knowledge economy-based human resources. Since BPO workers are given comparatively higher starting salaries than their counterparts in other industries, ALI's business model hopes to capture back some of the disposable income spent by call center agents and their bosses by ensuring that there enough restaurants, convenience stores and other retail outlets. This is why a mixed-use site is being envisioned, and not just office spaces.

But the bottom-line, said Regent Cabrera, is that U.P. can do much better than the ALI proposal as it now stands, in terms of revenues obtained by U.P. He said that he is not even in favor a Swiss Challenge as he thinks that the UPIS property can be put to better use by constructing dormitory facilities for students or other essential university structures. In fact, a huge secondary market for bedspaces, apartments, houses, etcetra exists now precisely because of the university's inability to provide safe, decent and affordable housing to the entire population of students who needs this service.

Other critics have criticized U.P.'s decision to mimic the overall outsourcing boom in the country by attracting facilities that cater to the low-end call center and outsourcing market which represents a "dumbing down" of the job offerings being promoted by U.P. to U.P. graduates within U.P.'s vicinity. By way of comparison, India, which is the world leader in outsourcing, has already made the shift from BPO development to Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) development. KPO are processes that demand advanced knowledge, analytical interpretation and technical skills as opposed to BPO work which typically entail standardized routine processes and data entry kind of work or sales or order fulfillment work. Given the high level of capabilities of the typical U.P. graduate, there is clearly a mismatch between the types of jobs being offered and the students' capabilities.

In other developments:

The search process for a new U.P. President to replace U.P. President Emerlinda Roman may be said to have already begun by way of Faculty Regent Judy Taguiwalo's recent submission to the BOR for  a proposal to initiate the search process for a new UP President as President Roman's term ends on February 2011. During the 2004 search, the BOR members were already provided relevant documents related to the search process as early as February 2004, Regent Taguiwalo said in an email message to the Diliman Diary. Based on the search process in 2004, the search for a new U.P. President should commence this June and the election should be in November, she added.

(Chanda Shahani is the editor of the Diliman Diary. He has a master's in entrepreneurship (M.E.) from the Asian Institute of Management and is a former business page reporter from the Philippine STAR).