June 18, 2007 marked the 99th founding anniversary of the University of the Philippines. President Emerlinda R. Roman kicked off the Centennial celebrations by delivering the Foundation Day lecture in UP Manila, the original site of the university, at the College of Medicine, one of the five core units that formed the nascent university.

President Roman’s lecture titled “PGH as the National University Hospital: Stepping into the Future” also celebrated the Centennial of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH)—being the 10th series of the PGH Centennial Orations—and the 40th of UP Manila (UPM) as the Health Sciences Center.

Over at Diliman, celebrations began with “Isang Daan sa Isandaan,” a free concert held at the UP Theater at 7 p.m. Distinguished university alumni from the music industry such as Heber Bartolome and Ryan Cayabyab, as well as several of UP’s dance and chorale groups, performed in the colorful event.

At UP Los Banos (UPLB), a motorcade led by officials after the flag-raising ceremony did the rounds of the Lower Campus starting from AG Samonte Hall and ending up at the Student Union Building. At the Freedom Park, Chancellor Luis Rey Velasco released the UP Centennial Logo, which was lifted by balloons.

The UP Centennial Commission plans to raise a total of P5 billion. A good portion of this amount is earmarked for professorial chairs, research and creative grants, research dissemination grants, and fellowships.

President Roman is inviting alumni from all around the world to support the endeavor and has expressed her plans to reorganize the Friends of UP Foundation to make the work of arranging meetings for overseas alumni organizations a lot easier. There is also a move to have UP accredited with the Give2Asia network of the Asia Foundation to facilitate donors from the US and Canada. The UP Centennial Commission hopes to generate a total of P700 million in alumni donations.

The Centennial celebrations will carry the theme “UP: Excellence, Leadership, and Service in the Next 100 Years.” The theme represents the University’s goal toward developing a wider expanse of research in different branches of knowledge. UP hopes to further strengthen its programs especially in Science and Technology and to generate feasible strategies which will aid the nation’s economic growth.

It’s all systems go!

(From The Oblation, Vol.1, No.1, July 2007)