DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 11 Sept) – The investiture of the 22nd President of the University of the Philippines (UP), Angelo Azura Jimenez, the first Mindanawon to lead the state university system, will be held at 9 a.m. on Thursday, September 14 at the Atrium of the UP Mindanao campus in Mintal, this city.
The UP System comprises UP Diliman, UP Los Banos, UP Manila, UP Visayas, UP Mindanao, UP Baguio, UP Cebu, UP Tacloban and UP Open University.
Jimenez, a lawyer who hails from Butuan City in Agusan del Norte, describes himself as a “Manobo and a Christian lowlander at the same time.” He was conferred the title of Datu in 2007 by elders who named him “Datu Mankalagan” or “Great Spirit.”
Jimenez’ investiture, seven months after he assumed the Presidency of the 115-year old UP on February 10, is one of three historic events lined up on September 13 to 15.
On Wednesday, September 13, UP will host the UP-Bangsamoro Development Program Consultation from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Dusit Thani Residences Davao “to discuss opportunities for collaboration aiming to improve the socio-economic conditions of the Bangsamoro and Mindanao.”
Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim, interim Chief Minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) will be around along with other regional officials. The BARMM is currently run by the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), the transition government until June 30, 2025, when the first elected officials of the Bangsamoro Parliament, are sworn into office.
According to UP’s press release, included in the consultation is the creation of a UP-Bangsamoro Development Program, “which would be the first of its kind between the University, the BARMM government and local government units, and development NGOs and SUCs (state universities and colleges) in the region.”
The BARMM comprises the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, the cities of Marawi, Lamitan and Cotabato and the Special Geographic Area (SGA) comprising 63 villages in six North Cotabato towns that voted for inclusion in the BARMM.
The development program, it noted, is “envisioned to serve as an avenue of convergence between UP and the Bangsamoro for co-creating opportunities and collaborative action to strengthen human capital and improve socio-economic conditions of the Bangsamoro,” the press release said.
It said Mindanao is envisioned as the country’s agri-industrial center, but its growth and development have remained uneven, “hampered by such issues as poverty, social conflicts, criminality and social unrest.”
It cited the BARMM’s poverty incidence dropped from 52.6% in 2018 to 29.95% in 2021 but noted that the region “still ranks among the lowest in the Human Development Index list of Philippine regions and provinces.”
A memorandum of understanding between the University and the BTA will be presented by the UP to its partners in the transition government.
On Friday, September 15, the first UP-initiated summit of state universities and colleges across the country, “Pagtutulay, Pagtutuloy: The 1st UP-SUC Summit
Strengthening Partnerships in Philippine Public Higher Education,” aims to boost engagement and partnerships in the Philippines’ higher education sector.
With this series of events. UP “sets itself squarely upon the path” to become the national university Jimenez envisions: “a public service university doing what we can for others as Iskolar para sa bayan.”
Jimenez of Butuan
Jimenez holds the record of being the first UP Student Regent to be elected UP President, and the first Mindanawon to lead the UP System.
An article on Jimenez which was posted on the UP Forum website, quoted him as saying: “Growing up in Butuan, you are close to family, close to church, and close to your friends on a day-to-day basis. We grew up in a very supporting, nurturing environment where there is much trust and very little distrust or suspicion of each other’s motives.”
“My family has been there for over a hundred years, and I am a native of the city itself. I am a Manobo and a Christian lowlander at the same time,” Jimenez said.
He said his Mindanao roots are integral to his UP Presidency. He recalled in an interview with UP Forum that several people reminded him he is the first UP President from Mindanao “and I was amazed, actually surprised, maybe a little bit shocked. It’s something significant to our people. I never realized that my election would resonate in Mindanao.”
The UP website article quoted Jimenez as saying that “Finally, one of their own has become a UP president” and that he wanted, in his own little way, to “remind UP where its ultimate loyalty belongs; and, I couldn’t imagine a more marginalized community than our IPs (Indigenous Peoples) in the mountains where there has been an ongoing conflict and there still is right now.”
As a student in UP Diliman, Jimenez joined the Philippine Collegian where he served as Features editor. He also wrote poetry, and many of his poems were published in the Collegian and the Collegian Folio Magazine.
Jimenez was Associate Editor of the Collegian from 1987 to 1988 and was national president of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP). He also served as chair of the University Student Council from 1991 to 1992, leading rallies against the renewal of the Military Bases Agreement with the United States. In 1992, he was elected UP Student Regent.
He would return to the UP Board of Regents as a Malacañang appointee, from 2016 to 2021. Concurrently, he served as Trustee of the UP Foundation, Inc.
Jimenez worked in government, mostly in labor-related posts, from 1993 to 2007, and even served as labor attache to Japan, Kuwait, and Iraq from 1999 to 2003. (MindaNews)
