The UP Alumni Association (UPAA) announces the recognition of all UP Alumni Health Frontliners throughout the world, whether living or deceased, as the 2020 UPAA Most Distinguished Alumni Awardees.
Without exception, regardless of degree, year of graduation, profession or occupation, all are University of the Philippines alumni who, despite the hazards to their personal health and safety, and without regard for reward or remuneration, continued to courageously perform their duties in their respective lines of work in the midst of the global pandemic during the year 2020.
No other potential awardees in 2020 could have matched the collective heroic deeds of the UP Alumni Health Frontliners in the first year of the pandemic. Although there were many tributes given by other organizations in that year, the UPAA, being the principal award-giving body among UP alumni groups, now takes the stage to voice its own accolade.
By not singling out any individual frontliner, the UPAA singularly honors all UP alumni worldwide who have manifested, at the risk of their own lives, the cherished ideals of excellence and service ingrained in them by the Alma Mater.
To emphasize the uniqueness and great significance of their selection, no award for any other category was considered for 2020. Unanimously approved by the members of the UPAA Board of Directors, the award will be acknowledged in the Special 2021 UPAA Yearbook and a special awarding program to be announced sometime later.
A marker and a sculpture by UPAA awardee Junyee commemorating the 2020 Most Distinguished Alumni Awardees will be installed at Ang Bahay ng Alumni in the UP Diliman campus and mini-replicas thereof distributed to the other constituent universities of the UP System.