UPLB Chancellor Expresses Support by Los Baños Science Community to Duterte Administration

Los Baños, Laguna — University of the Philippines-Los Baños (UPLB) Chancellor Dr. Fernando Sanchez Jr welcomed on Wednesday secretaries Emmanuel Piñol (Agriculture) and Ismael Sueño (Interior and Local Government) and the agriculture official delegation in their first out-of-town visit to the science community here.

Los Baños Mayor Cesar Perez also expressed the local government appreciation for the high-level visits of the newly-assumed officials of President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), University of the Philippines Los Baños campus and the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA).

Piñol’s entourage included Undersecretaries Segfredo Serrano for Policy and Planning; Bernadette Romulo-Puyat for Administration and Finance and Chief-of-Staff; Engr. Ariel Cayanan for Operations; Evelyn Lavinia for Agribusiness and High Value Crops; Retired Commodore Eduardo Gongona for Fisheries and concurrent Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) executive director; lawyer Princess Ranibai Delangalen for Special Concerns and other DA officials.

Sanchez also thanked the government official delegation for the knowledge-sharing engagement, orientations and briefings “in the community of scholars and scientists nurtured in the foothills of Mt. Makiling.”

Sanchez expressed the Los Baños science community support to the mission and goals of Pres. Duterte in increasing agricultural productivity throughout the country.

“With scientists from IRRI, experts from SEARCA and researchers from other government agencies such as PhilRice, DOST, DENR here in Los Baños, no other place in the country can compose the critical mass of technocrats who can be harnessed to push forward an agriculture research agenda to strengthen the country’s position as an economic tiger,” Sanchez said.

He also offered that “our human resources and technologies are at the disposal of the President as we have found here a common ground, a common agenda to fulfil.”

He underscored that increasing the country’s productivity will lead to a rising standard of living in the countryside where majority of the country’s poor reside and “as it affects all of us, there is no reason for us not to collaborate, cooperate with each other.”

He added that the science community’s work for the next six years under Pres. Duterte’s administration has been set for each institution.

“It becomes incumbent upon us to act together so we can contribute to the country’s pursuit for real inclusive development,” Sanchez said.

Sanchez and some university officials also hosted a briefing and overview on the university’s agricultural program initiatives and academic research on food security. (PNA) JMC/SAUL E. PA-A/EBP