Newly-installed UP President Danilo Concepcion has introduced the members of his executive team in his acceptance speech during the ceremonial turnover of the university leadership on February 10 at Quezon Hall, UP Diliman. Oath-taking of the Vice Presidents and the Secretary of the University took place at the Office of the President right after the ceremony.
The 21st UP President has reappointed three officials from the previous administration to continue serving as part of his executive team. They are Vice President for Planning and Finance Joselito Florendo, who is from the UP Diliman Cesar EA Virata School of Business-Department of Accounting and Finance; Vice President for Development Elvira Zamora, also from the same School, but from the Department of Business Administration; and Vice President for Legal Affairs Hector Danny Uy, from the UP Diliman College of Law.
The Executive Vice President post will be occupied by Dr. Teodoro Herbosa, former undersecretary of the Department of Health, 3rd Vice President of the UP Alumni Association, and professor at the UP Manila College of Medicine. Vice President for Academic Affairs is Dr. Cynthia Rose Bautista, former commissioner of the Commission on Higher Education and professor at the UP Diliman College of Social Sciences and Philosophy-Department of Sociology. Dr. Nestor Yunque, professor at the UP Visayas College of Arts and Sciences-Division of Biological Sciences and former UP Visayas Vice Chancellor for Administration, has been appointed by Concepcion as the Vice President for Administration.
Vice President for Public Affairs (VPPA) is Dr. Jose Dalisay Jr., a professor at the UP Diliman College of Arts and Letters-Department of English and Comparative Literature who previously held the VPPA position under the administration of former UP President Francisco Nemenzo. Atty. Roberto Lara, a 1987 graduate of the UP Diliman College of Law who is engaged in private practice, has been appointed as the Secretary of the University and of the Board of Regents.
Prior to assuming the presidency, Concepcion was the executive director of the UP Bonifacio Global City campus. He also served as Vice President for Legal Affairs in the administration of his predecessor, Alfredo Pascual. From 2000-2002, he was president of De La Salle Araneta University.
Concepcion earned his Master of Laws degree from the University of London in 1986 as a Chevening Scholar of the United Kingdom government. He graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree, cum laude, from UP Diliman in 1983. In 1979, he finished his Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Engineering degree, summa cum laude, in De La Salle Araneta University. He also topped the licensure examination for agricultural engineers that year.
The new UP president’s platform is the redefinition of UP’s culture, enhancing the time-honored traditions of honor and excellence to include compassion—a virtue he considers as “UP’s moral core as the national university.”
To “engender compassion in [UP’s] culture,” Concepcion has enumerated five key points in his vision paper: the academic thrust should reflect its concern for the welfare of its primary constituency—the nation, the admission and financial aid system should respond to the needs of all deserving students; efficient and effective services must be delivered to UP’s constituency within the campuses and meaningful support extended to all its personnel; as UP’s contribution to prudent management of public resources, creative ways must be conceived to boost its income without abandoning the campaign for increased government subsidy; and UP should contribute to national development.
He will serve a term of six years.
