by Arlyn VCD Palisoc Romualdo, UP MPRO
The UP Diliman College of Engineering (COE) held a reception for donors who funded the establishment of one professorial chair and provided additional support for four existing professorial chairs, on March 15 at the National Engineering Center.
The newly established endowment was for the Honorio T. and Elisa F. Allado Professorial Chair in Civil Engineering, donated by the Allado Construction Company, Inc. According to the deed of donation which was signed that day, the company, through the creation of the professorial chair, “desires to honor its late founder, a distinguished alumnus of UP belonging to BS Civil Engineering Class of 1934, and his late wife, Elisa.” The annual amount of P120,000 will be awarded by the company starting in the next academic year, with a pledge to fund the professorial chair for at least five years. In his message, President Ramon F. Allado of the Allado Construction Company, Inc. talked of how his father loved construction. He asked COE to produce more graduates highly adept at construction management as they were truly needed by the industry.
The four professorial chairs which received additional funding were: the UP President Vidal Tan Professorial Chair in Engineering, the Dean Crisostomo A. Ortigas Professorial Chair in Engineering, the Alejandro Melchor Professorial Chair in Engineering, and the Ambrosio Magsaysay Professorial Chair in Engineering.
The UP Alumni Engineers (UPAE) donated P1.2 million to support the Tan and Ortigas Professorial Chairs, the deed of which was also signed that day. The amount of P120,000 will be given annually to each chair holder for a period of five years, starting in the next academic year. Both endowments started with funds from the Ford Foundation and were established by the UP Board of Regents (BOR) in its 829th meeting on January 25, 1973. The chairs were originally named “The Vidal A. Tan Professorial Chair in Environmental Engineering” and “The Crisostomo A. Ortigas Professorial Chair in Materials Sciences.” UPAE President Adrian Arias said that the donation was made up of “small contributions” from members of the alumni group.
The other chair established during that BOR meeting in 1973 was “The Alejandro Melchor Sr. Professorial Chair in Systems Engineering,” which also began with a Ford Foundation donation. Additional funds to this professorial chair were given by COE alumnus, former regent, and Senior Executive Vice President and Vice Chairman Magdaleno B. Albarracin Jr. of the Philippine Investment Management Consultants, Inc., along with fellow alumnus and chairman of D.M. Consunji, Inc., Isidro A. Consunji. The deed of donation was signed on July 21, 2016. Albarracin said that a large part of who he was and what he has achieved was due to his UP education. Consunji, meanwhile, particularly addressed COE Dean Rizalinda de Leon when he said, “You can count on us—not just in the present, but in the future.”
The Magsaysay Professorial Chair started with a P150,000 donation from the daughter of Ambrosio Magsaysay, renowned artist Anita Magsaysay-Ho, and was established by the BOR in its 980th meeting on August 29, 1985. Magsaysay was appointed instructor of graphics in 1911, when COE was only two years old. The University of the Philippines Bulletin No. 15, published in 1932, listed Magsaysay as “Professor and Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering” under the COE’s “Faculty of Instruction.” He is co-founder of A. Magsaysay Inc. His remaining children and grandchildren continue to fund the endowment, with the latest deed of donation signed on July 21, 2016. Magsaysay’s granddaughter, Mariane Magsaysay-Pratte, delivered a message on behalf of their family. She said that she hoped more would be like her grandfather, who was a pensionado or government scholar sent to the United States to earn his college degree but chose to come back to the Philippines after he graduated so he could serve the country.
UP President Danilo L. Concepcion, who thanked the donors on behalf of the University, said, “Professorial chairs are not just monetary awards for us here in UP; they are gifts of hope and confidence in our faculty. These are acts of compassion that tell them we—you as donors and UP as the implementing body—believe in their capability to achieve more than what they already have.” He went on to say that these endowments for faculty development encouraged the conduct of advanced research and inspired further excellence in the mentoring of future engineers. (Arlyn VCD Palisoc Romualdo, UP MPRO)
For more photos of the event, please click through the album here.
Source: https://www.up.edu.ph/index.php/coe-honors-professorial-chair-donors