 Good morning, Mr. President. Good to see you again. Yes, after some time. Yes. I'd like to ask you and probably probe into the person as Alfredo Pascual, the 20th UP President of the University of the Philippines. And the first thing I'd like to ask you is probably to describe yourself as an individual, as a person. Probably first, how you started at the university as a student and how did you get into UP? Wow. Do I have to bear my soul because that's where my real personality lies, you know. People have seen me so they know how I look and that's the outward personality. But anyway, yeah, UP has always been a dream for me. I studied in a public school for my elementary grades and towards the end of our graduation where I finished the valedictorian, I was already eyeing to go to UP. So I took the entrance test at the UP high school. I passed, I was admitted. But my mother was so concerned because she kept on reading in the papers, you know, the kind of activism that was already starting in the early 60s, you know. And she was concerned that because she was very, you know, I don't know to use the popular term there that time at the Bout Catholic, you know. So she wanted me to have a Catholic high school education. So she asked me to also apply at UST high school and I got in as well. And when the decision time came, of course, I was still very young then I go by the pleasure of my parents, you know, particularly my mother. So I went to UST where I also finished at the top of my class and I said there's no holding back now, you know, I have to be in UP. And at that time, valedictorians have automatic admission in UP. So I didn't have to take the UP cap. So that was one argument I gave and there's a attached scholarship to that. But in addition, I also earned a scholarship competitively from the, at that time, the NSDB, National Science Development Board, which is now the OSD scholarship. So there was no more barrier at the time. After high school, I thought I could decide for myself. Well, I came to UP and right there and then I, my first year, I joined the nationally score and did my rounds of engagement with the people. I was going around Tondo at the time, you know, at the time when there was still a smoky mountain in that place. So that's where I got exposed to the true living conditions of the mass base for people. And that kind of exposure has made a permanent impression on me, which I up to now, you know, still defines my choices. So I was an active student follower initially and then leader eventually. I joined the debate workshop and eventually we organized it into a debating society and I led the group, you know. I was also active in student politics. I ran for the student council at the time with the party consisting of the so-called activists of the time, you know. It may second year, I was a member of Kambatang Makabaya, you know. And we got together and formed a party to compete for the student council election. At the time, you know, there was only one student council for the entire UP that covered all the campuses. So that means campaigning in the Liman during the day in Manila in the late afternoon and los baños in the evening. That was quite an experience, you know. And I would sleep with friends on the floor of their dormitory rooms in los baños, you know, because too late to come back to Manila. Our party had only seven out of the 12 positions. So I won together with another colleague, two of us, got to the student council. And girl, it was a time of affirmation and we were part of that. Well, eventually I got hooked up in my course because I was late by a semester, so I had to focus. And I practically dropped all other activities to focus on my thesis. I was then taking up chemistry. And in my last semester, after completing one semester of my thesis, one of the faculty members in the department of chemistry then went on maternity leave and I was asked by the chair of the department to assume a teaching role. I told him I've not graduated yet. Said, anyway, I'll talk to your thesis advisor and see what we can do. Because I was to be appointed as instructor, so I should have a bachelor's degree at least, you know, at the time. But anyway, I was well in progress as far as completing my thesis. So the department chair reached an agreement with my thesis advisor so that I could be given a grade and be considered already a graduate. So I was reviewing my transcript lately. And I noticed, yeah, in fact, I had the grades of two semesters of thesis being given in just the first semester. And that enabled me to teach. But then after I graduated and while I was teaching, I was applying at research institutions of the government at that time. I remember I tried to apply at NIST, National Institute of Science and Technology. Being an NSDB scholar, I thought I had the obligation to render service to the government. I presented myself and I was told by the interviewer that I was asked, do you really want to work here? I said, yes, yeah, it's my obligation. But we can only make you an apprentice, you know. You might become so unhappy here, you know, you've been a very active student leader, you might not fit, you know. Then I said, you know, if you insist, and if you give me a waiver of my obligation, I will probably not insist, you know, of working here. So I was given a waiver and I got carried by my friends, you know, to prepare for admission in an MBA program. So I took the so-called GMAT, which was the Graduate Management Admission Test, which is a global test and I passed it and I was admitted at UP College of Business. So that's also my second alma mater in UP, and I finished my MBA while working at the same time in another company in fall places, Tondo. You know, I was working with Procter & Gamble and it has its manufacturing facilities in Tondo. And I was back dealing with the people whom I interacted with in my youth, you know, in my early part of my youth, you know, first year in UP, second year as well. That was a short stint, two years. Then I finished my MBA and one of my professors then who also worked in Procter & Gamble said that in manufacturing, you do one year of work, the second year is just a repeat, you know. So you stay here 10 years, it will be one year experience times 10. You need to go somewhere else, you know. And he was then working already in the Pioneer Investment Bank in the country, Bank of Development Corporation, invited me to join the firm. And that's where I got for the first time my exposure to finance, you know. It was really financial engineering, not the usual banking. I didn't work with a commercial bank. We dealt with commercial banks. But this investment banking is making what looks like an impossible financing situation doable. So that was financial engineering. And I stayed in that field for eight years. And eventually, the calling I had for teaching came back and I went full-time teaching at the Asian Institute of Management, where I spent nine years, you know, as a professor of finance. But prior to that, let me just also emphasize my commitment to teaching or my passion for teaching, is that after I finished my MBA, I was invited by the head of the Management Engineering Department of Ateneo de Manila University. They invited me to teach part-time. And I did it, you know. It was an early morning class. And I would go to Ateneo Loyola, do my class for an hour, and then drive to Makati for my job in an investment bank. So I was doing that for four years, or five years, you know, part-time teaching, until it could no longer be reconcilable with the growing duties that I had. Okay, then I went full-time teaching, and that was up to now, I always tell my wife and my kids, you know, the best years of my life, you know. Being a full-time professor at the Asian Institute of Management, where I had the freedom to be my own. I think that's the syndrome of academics. They don't want bosses. And that has always been me, you know, if you want to know who I am, I don't want to deal with a boss, you know. Maybe if I were the boss, it's fine, you know, as eventually I was able to become. So the teaching job is what gave me that freedom, okay, what we all love, you know. We are an academic field, so-called academic freedom, the freedom to, you know, indulge ourselves in discovery, indulging our curiosities, our curious mind, and always striving, you know, to live the life of the mind. But eventually, when I was in AIM, I was invited to be a consultant in the Asian Development Bank, and at that time they were starting a new program. It was a program to help develop the private sector in the developing countries of Asia. Since I had almost ten years of experience in the private sector prior to teaching in AIM, you know, and I developed a specialization and finance. I fitted a bill, you know, and I joined ADB to start, that's a pioneering effort on our part to start the department. And eventually I wrote the strategy for ADB on the development of the private sector in the various developing countries of Asia. While in ADB, I never neglected my links to UP. When I was right after graduation from chemistry, I joined the Alumni Association of the Chemistry Graduates, we called it UP Chemistry Alumni Foundation. We organized it as a foundation. I was on the board and served as a treasurer as well. And when I was in the UP Chemistry Alumni Foundation, the president then told me that perhaps I should join the UP Alumni Association Board, you know. And I did run because the president was already an ex-official member. He said, so there will be two of us from chemistry on the board of the UP Alumni Association. So that was, I think, sometime in the 80s. So I had my first three-year term as a board member of the UP Alumni Association. When I was in ADB, it was very busy schedule. Even in AIM, it was a very busy schedule. I must have spent a third of my life outside the country because we were doing, remember, AIM then was considered a very regional institution. So we had the operation in the various Asian countries. And we would run programs in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Taiwan. So I spent a third of my life outside the country when I was in AIM. More so when I got to ADB because the work covered the whole of Asia. And there were a lot of travels also to our donors located in the industrialized countries in North America and Europe. So I didn't have much time to really focus on the responsibilities of being a board member of the UP Alumni Association. But eventually I got invited again because I was about to retire already because retirement age at ADB is 60. So I joined again the board of the UP Alumni Association as a member of the board. And the president then, of course, could only be president one term. Then they were looking who could be a candidate for the next president of the UPAA. Since I have retired already at that time, they thought I had time on my hands. They asked me to run for the position and I did and I made it. And as president of the UP Alumni Association, as you may know, you become automatically a member of the board of UP. So that's the connection. How I eventually ended up being directly involved in the governance of the university at the level of the governing board, the UP Board of Regents. And that's where I was able to see how my alma mater really was at that time compared to what I've seen in many other countries. When I was in AIM, I used to collaborate with universities in other countries. When I was in UP, we were supporting the development of education. So I had a good idea of what a good university or what I eventually say as a great university should be. So when I was in UP, I tried to inject many of those things including governance practices that I learned from my previous engagements. One interesting example was the UP Town Center. People look at it as my project, but actually it's an old project that has always been there. And when I was on the board, an offer from the developer came in on an unsolicited basis. And it was presented to the board. I was sitting and we were being asked to approve or accept the unsolicited proposal. Coming from where I was having spent 19 years of my life dealing with public-private partnership. I thought that was not the right way to do it. It has to be an open competitive bidding basis. So I opposed the proposal and of course I was reminded that normally the alumni region is supposed to be supportive of the administration. Why are you not? I said, fine, if it fits my concept of how things should be done, I will be supportive, but not this time. So I had to convince the rest of the board, and after I think two or three meetings, I was eventually able to convince the majority of the board and we rejected the unsolicited proposal and opened a public bidding for the development of that high school campus. We didn't call it yet UP Town Center at the time. And eventually it was a very successful bidding process. But while the bidding process was going on, the call for nomination to the position of UP President was announced. And my board, the UPAA board, said that they were all watching who are the names coming up. And they tried to egg me into going for it on the basis that my international exposure could perhaps help introduce some reforms and innovations in the university. And my financial expertise, having done finance work since two years after I left college, since I finished my MBA, they said that I might be able to contribute. And they did submit my nomination, the whole board. And I was not ready to just accept it because my wife and I have already lined up three travels abroad, having retired, just retired from ADB. I thought that we should now, we've done a lot of trips before but these were all business trips, do long vacation trips. There were three trips coming up. At the time they submitted the nomination, which I have not accepted yet. So we went to Shanghai for the World Expo and I told my wife, you know, I really have to make a decision on this. Why don't you go ahead and go to the World Expo, I will stay in the hotel and really think this over. I mulled over it, you know, see whether that's how I should spend my retirement years because I was already committed to retire. I have bought a few books on retirement but I said, you know, I owe it to myself, you know, and to my university, my alma mater, you know. I don't want to be called an alumnus of a university that we cannot be proud of, you know. So I said, I think I should be able to contribute. So I sent in my consent or acceptance of the nomination a few minutes before the deadline, you know. The university secretary then kept on reminding me, you know, that if that didn't get through you would not have been officially accepted as a nominee. She said it came just five minutes before the 5 p.m. deadline of that day. So I was there. In the meantime, I already, as a regent at the time, I was trying to really understand, you know, how the university was, you know, and what are the big challenges, you know, and what are the strengths that can be enhanced and which are the weaknesses that should be addressed. I reviewed the minutes of all faculty conferences. One thing I noticed is that the same issues were coming up every time, you know, from one faculty conference to another. I said, you know, they know the problems. And in fact, the solutions are there, you know. But why are the solutions not being implemented, you know. I mentioned this in my vision statement, you know, that perhaps what is needed here is really just to implement what people in UP already know. So which would lead me to an interesting question? Maybe, I mean, the benefit of your experience is such that having been in the Board of Regents as alumni association representative, you had an early peek into the nature, into the problems, and probably the potential solutions of the University of the Philippines. And having that as a background, fast track to having been elected as the UP president, what vision did you have or did you bring, did you introduce into the University having learned from all those years that you were sitting in as Board of Regents? Well, what I brought was a challenge to the University, you know. Well, we always look at the past as the glorious days, you know. So we can only think of, you know, regaining that greatness. I remember UP as a student, as a great university. It was the topmost university in the country and the topmost university in the region, you know. And how do, why do I say this, you know. In my travels, I've come across UP alumni, Malaysians, Indonesians, Indians, and from other nationalities. And they were, at the time, that was already 20, I finished my term in ADBED 2008, you know. During all those times they were, because they were alumnus, you know. I mean alumni of the university. So they were concerned also. And they asked me, what happened to our university? We have many alumni in Indonesia and I was posted in Indonesia for about one and a half years. I interacted with them, in fact I organized them into an alumni association. And they were concerned, you know, met somebody in Malaysia and same feedback, you know. And then we were watching the ranking of universities. And at one point, up to now beat us in the ranking, you know. I don't know how, but it happened. And also alarmed, you know. In fact, that was the major trigger to my, finally, you know, agreeing to accept the nomination. To be able to see how I could help, you know, bring UP back to the greatness we always remember UP. For when we were students and, you know, in the early years of my being an alumni of UP and being active in the alumni association. Well, by the way, after UP Chemistry Alumni Foundation, I became president also of the UP MBA Society. So I've always been active. So the link, my link to UP has been maintained all throughout my working life, you know. So it is not as if I just decided to come back, you know. I've always been there, you know. So I challenge UP to, again, launch itself on the path of greatness, you know. On the path of a great university in the 21st century. I always say in the 21st century, because people say, are you saying we were not great before? Yeah, we were great before. Precisely why the challenge is there. I'm not saying UP was not great. I want to make it great now, you know. No, UP was great. But then, I don't know what happened in between. Now we need to launch UP or relaunch UP on the path of being a great university in the 21st century, which we were not. And up to now we're still struggling, but we're on the rise, as you may know. The ranking of UP has started towards the end of my term, you know. Because the basis of the ranking is the cumulative output for the past five to six years. Five years for publications, six years for citation, you know. This is the more stringent times higher education ranking. So that's the challenge that I posed to UP, which became my challenge to myself, you know. If I were to take leadership of this university, and I'm challenging the university to be great, that means the challenge is on me, you know. That's my vision. And through to my training as a manager, having done my MBA and my experience as an executive, we needed to do a strategic plan. And that's exactly what my executive team and myself did to do the UP strategic plan 2011-2017. And I was trying to ask the old-timers here to see where we can link up with the past by them showing me the past strategic plans. And they were not able to show me any past strategic plans, you know. So that's how, you know, I got to formulate my vision. The concern that we were not great anymore based on interactions with our alumni, not only in the Philippines but outside, based on that ranking, you know, where I don't know how, you know, we were beaten by another university in the Philippines, you know. So as a university leader, 2011-2017, and you were saying you wanted to shape University of the Philippines to be a 21st century university, could you tell us what probably were key points and key programs that you tried to translate and operationalize based on that vision of UP being a 21st century? You know, I was so happy to see, you know, that our legislators had the vision themselves, you know, what UP should be. When they amended the charter of UP and called it a bill to strengthen the National University, and they formally called us in that charter the National University, the only one in the country up to now. And I essentially said we need to realize all the mandates of UP as enshrined in the charter, which happened to be the same criteria that's being used by the ranking agency, research, internationalization, teaching. So I was guided, of course, by these ranking criteria. Just to go back, the ranking business or the ranking practices came about the first decade of the 21st century, you know. And at that time UP said I was on the board, you know. I told the board, you know, we need to be concerned about the ranking of UP and we have to do something about it. And the administration at that time said no, we don't want to be ranked, you know. And based on my interaction with others, they said why should we allow others to rank us? We are the best university, you know, in the country. But I said you need to benchmark UP, not with the other universities in the country, but with the top universities in our neighboring countries, we're being left behind by miles, you know. And I said, okay, if we are to consider ranking for UP, let it be just UP Dileman. I said, I will not agree. Why? Because if it will just be UP Dileman that will be included in the ranking, the resources will all be focused on UP Dileman. But UP is not just UP Dileman, you know. UP at that time already had seven constituent universities, you know. We're a system of seven constituent universities. It should be all or nothing, you know. That was my belief and that is what I followed eventually when they took the reins of the university. We worked on the ranking of UP as the whole system, not just UP Dileman. And eventually we proved ourselves right, you know. Because it helped by that move alone, you know, it became imperative for me as the leader of the university to make sure that we pull up the other campuses, the other CUs, constituent universities, that is, particularly the younger and smaller ones, you know. So what programs did you introduce as a president to be able to pull up the entirety of the university? Well, firstly, I have to convince everybody that UP plays an important role in the country, you know. We're not just UP for ourselves, you know. We are UP for the nation. So we come up with the tagline, you know. That's why we came up with the tagline. UP shaping minds that shape the nation, you know. So we always keep in mind, you know. We're producing leaders for the nation and leaders not just political leaders, but leaders in all fields, you know. All fields of science, all fields of humanities and the arts, you know, et cetera. And then the next one is for people to start thinking that UP is not just UP Dileman, if they are in Dileman or UP Las Baños, if they are in Las Baños, because we are one UP, you know. Guided by one charter, all committed to the same values of honor and excellence, you know. So I came up with this slogan, one university, one UP, which eventually got shortened to one UP, you know. Which became our so-called catch call, you know. And that was a paradigm that guided many of my decisions, the one UP paradigm, you know. Well, I'll jump to the sharing of income, of our income earning properties. You know, among the campuses, Dileman had the most valuable land that can be developed into income earning properties. And we have the Technohub and now UP Town Center. I made the decision, which was confirmed eventually by, of course, the Chancellor of UP Dileman and the Board, that the earnings of these facilities will not just go to UP Dileman, you know. It will be a certain percentage to UP Dileman, but the balance will be distributed to the other CEOs. Would you consider that as a bold move? Up to now, I hear people are questioning it, you know, how it happened that way. And the logic was this. When UP started, we were one UP, in fact. We were not a system. The transformation of UP into a system happened in the time of SP Lopez when he was president. And it happened because of the pressure of UP Los Baños trying to secede from UP. So instead of allowing UP Los Baños to secede, why don't we organize a system of autonomous universities? So the term then was autonomous universities, you know. Okay. And the model, apparently, was the University of California system where you have University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles, et cetera. And I said, UP was one then. So the property of each and every campus, you know, is shared by all. Okay. Now that we have been transformed into a system, it doesn't mean that, you know, all the properties in Dileman belong to UP Dileman, you know. There are still communal properties, you know, owned by the system, effectively. Okay. That was the logic, you know. So it cannot be claimed 100%. The earnings of these properties cannot be earned 100%. It cannot be claimed 100% by UP Dileman, because they were communal properties. So that shows your... Yeah, my commitment to one UP. Yes, your commitment to one UP. And my commitment to pull up the others. Because at the time, in 2011, I inherited a budget that was lower than the previous year. You know, we were suffering a declining budget, you know. That's why there were a lot of relays, you know, not to budget cut and all the things, you know. I said, we need to go back to the original concept behind establishing the different campus. And this is the concept of each campus having a specialization, you know. UP Manila, medical sciences, you know. UP Los Baños, agricultural and eventually veterinary and forestry. And UP Visayas, ocean sciences and fisheries. Okay. And the smaller campuses, you know, Baguio, the indigenous culture of the north, Mindanao, indigenous culture of the south. And the Visayas, similarly, well, Visayas already officially, Simbu, to take care of the central Visayas. And of course, there is Tacloban, which is part of Visayas, to take care of preserving the culture of eastern Visayas. The UP Open University, our unit that is able to run classes without the students coming to the campus and joining face-to-face classes. But it could be face-to-face also, but through electronic means. Okay. So we need to make use of what we have here and further develop its capability to deliver open, distance learning modules and courses and degree programs. Okay. For the benefit of those who may not have the opportunity or the resources to spend full-time on UP campuses. Very important in our real world now, because we're now producing young people who are digital natives, you know. And for them, they might find it more effective to learn making use of apps, making use of games, making use of online interactions, then attending classes and listening to lectures of professors on a face-to-face basis. The concept is that dilliman should not be the gauge for excellence. Because when I was going around the campuses, they always said, sir, apart from dilliman, you know, all the resources in the past have gone to dilliman, you know. And that's true, you know. Very little development has been supported, you know, had been supported in the other campuses. They're always trying to benchmark themselves with dilliman. Why should you do that? I told them, you develop your own niches and you become excellent in your respective niches. And all of you, all the CUs will be excellent unto themselves, you know, and by themselves without having to look up to dilliman as a benchmark, you know, and trying to just hang on the reputation of the whole UP system. Each of you should develop that state of being excellent in your respective areas of specialization. And that was the principle we followed, you know. In fact, when I would allocate resources, if they would ask me for money, they have to justify it on the basis of how it will support the development of their niche. Earlier you spoke of dreaming of UP as a 21st century university to move in that direction. How did you conceptualize and operationalize UP as a technological learning university? A great university has been in the definition of various authors, you know. World Bank has done a book on this, you know. It should be one that is a what's called nowadays the research university, you know. So a purely teaching university cannot be a great university. Why? Because to be a great university, you should push the frontier of knowledge, okay. You should be engaged in discovery, invention, innovation. For what? For the nation and for humanity as a whole, okay. Because a teaching university, yes, you produce future leaders. Aside from that, what else do you contribute to the country? The concept of a university or the university has always been linked to industry, you know. The beginnings of the university was in the time of the guilds in Europe, you know. Where apprentices are trained by the guilds, you know. But they're all linked to being trained to be able to contribute to the economy. And then the concept of corporatized university came, you know. Made independent, autonomous from whom? Two major institutions then, the state and the church, okay. So the concept of academic freedom came about precisely to protect the scholars in the university from the intrusion of the state and the church, okay. But the view is that the scholar will have the academic freedom to pursue their curiosities, and, you know, indulge themselves in the life of the mind. But for what? To be able to eventually come up with discoveries and inventions that they can share with society, okay. So to be a great university is to be able to produce leaders that your teaching function. But also to be able to contribute to knowledge, the form of new knowledge that is from discoveries, from inventions, through innovations. And with this contribute to the development of society as a whole. But since a university operates in the context of a nation, so the first beneficiaries will be those in the nation. You're known to be an expert, an excellent financial management person. Could you tell us, could you talk about how you applied your expertise on financial management and bring this to benefit the university and eventually the nation and eventually the poor students who are in the university? Finance is not just bringing in resources, you know. Finance, I remember in my turnover speech, you know, I talked about working to bring resources into UP. But I cautioned the audience then, you know, saying that if I succeed in doing this, let's make sure that we don't waste the resources which we have now and which will be given to us. So financial management is not just about bringing in resources, but also making sure that the resources that you now have and that you will get, further get will be utilized efficiently and effectively. How do they do it? Firstly, I transformed the concept of budgeting. I noticed that budgeting in UP when I came in was simply an exercise to have something to present to the government for purposes of government allocating funds to UP. It was not linked to strategy, the budget is a planning tool. Its purpose is to make sure that the resources being managed are contributing to the attainment of the vision, of the objectives enshrined in the strategic plan. So the process has been modified, reformed so that it's a three-year rolling plan that each CU needed to present. I don't know whether they're continuing this, but at that time they present their plan for the next three years, make sure how it supports the strategic plan and the more detailed plan for the coming year, which will provide the budget for the coming year. And request for funds should be justified on the basis of whether the plans to be supported by the funds are in line with the strategic plan. So that's one aspect of financial management that I brought in. The other is how do you sell or how do you generate funds? When I was going around as a candidate for president and then a member of the board, the president, and eventually in my early days as president, I've always been told that the problem of the university was money. I said from where I came from, money has never been the issue. There's a lot of money floating around. What we need to do is convince people that UP deserves to get the money, because in my experience as an investment banker and a development banker for 30 years, almost 20 years in ADB, 8 years in investment banking, I have not seen a worthy project not being implemented because of funding. A good project to package it well, to present it well, will always get funding. That's the kind of principle I followed when I came as the head of the university. Think about how we can sell UP and what did they do? I noticed that in the past, I participated in the budget process, and I was on the board because we would review the budget for presentation to the government and to Congress. There was a heavy emphasis on right. I was looking back, seeing a lot of materials, manifestos, articles in the Collegian, in papers about it is the right of UP to get funding from the government because it's a state university, it's a national university. It's fine, that may be true, but why should it be funded beyond that? Because not everybody might recognize that we have the right. And don't others have the right as well? How about healthcare? How about basic education? And there's just a given pie to be shared. How do you get a bigger share of the pie? That's the issue. Even if the government recognizes that you all have the right to be funded by the state, but where will the resources come from, especially those days? In fact, UP was suffering from budget cuts in the years up to my first year in the university. So I said, the way I would sell UP is to say UP is so vital to the country that if you don't help UP, you are in effect not helping the country by showing what UP has done. I looked again at my presentation that I sent to the president of the country at that time. And I started by highlighting all the achievements, all the contributions, the major ones of UP to the country. The policy studies we have done, the leaders that we have produced, the UP faculty who have served the government, the research outputs have eventually been used. These are all assets of UP that mean the... The logic is that, hey, government, this is UP. Why should you finance it? Because every time you need an expert, you go to UP to fill up a bureaucratic post. And of course, many of the political leaders are UP alumni. This is what UP has been contributing to the country. This is our plan on how to ensure we're able to maintain this contribution. Now, give us the funding. Now, speaking of the benefits that were going to UP, that have gone to UP, could you tell us about how you manage and how you operationalize, for example, exactly how all of these benefits benefited and gained well-being for the constituents of the university? Before going into that, let me just highlight a couple of experiences. When I said, let's make sure we don't waste resources entrusted to us by the government. In my first few weeks, I was visited by Manila Water Vishals. Pia Curtis called to me as the new president. And I innocently asked, how much is the annual water bill of UP Dileman? And I was told it was 72 million a year, 72 million a year. I thought hard. I said, isn't that too much? Okay, through to my own logical way of doing things, I once searched for a benchmark and I asked, is it a 10-year-old under you as well? How much is the bill of a 10-year-old? 10-year-old? One-fourth of the bill being paid by UP. Okay, let's normalize it for population. How much is the population of UP Dileman? So I did my mental arithmetic. So I said, we assume UP is managing their water resources efficiently. UP, and we are as well, we should be paying only double what UP is paying. So we should be paying only 36 million a year instead of 72 million. So I called the Chancellor of UP Dileman at that time. Review all the water bills of each and every building in Dileman. There were more than 100 buildings. And it's not because of illegal connections of residents. We found out that there were many of the old buildings were paying water bills way out of expectation. For example, Pavilion 2 of Palma Hall. Pavilion 2 is where I spent four years of my life as a student in UP. When I was president of the UP Alumni Association, it burned down. So we had to transfer all the facilities and the people to the new building of the Institute of Chemistry, even if it was not completed yet. So in other words, Pavilion 2 was vacant. There was nobody there, nobody was using it. What was the bill? 500,000 a month. Times 12, 6 million a year. Being paid by Pavilion 2 of Palma Hall per water with no benefit to anyone. But there is a benefit, I will tell you. Anyway, I told them, cut the line immediately. They cut the line. And then next month, I called the chancellor, how much is the bill now? Still 300,000, what? Where did they cut the line? They cut the line near the entrance. Where's the meter? The meter is at the other end of the building. I said cut the line where the meter is. When that was done, the bill went down to a minimum of a few hundred just to maintain it. A few hundred pesos. Okay, that's an example. Okay, next example, International Center. Remember International Center, it's now being rebuilt. That was a project that I funded during my time. But you know how long it takes to do projects in government. The water bill was so much, I asked the chancellor, divided by the number of residents, how much will it translate to? 2,800 pesos per student per month. How much is the dorm fee? 800 pesos per month. In other words, UP Diliman was paying 2,000 pesos more than the dorm fee. And the story went on and on. All the dorms were leakages. So that was the big challenge. We started doing temporary solutions. I told them to tie the leaks with rubber tape. Eventually, we were able to do this, but I had to work quickly on finding the money to do the replacement of the pipes. Actually, I was able to get from Malacanyang. Because at that time, I had already convened the budget secretary. So we were able to solve it. I checked a few years afterwards. Diliman was already saving 25 million pesos a year just on water in Diliman. And with that experience, the other campuses did their own work and their respective. And like PGH, two years upon paid water bills now, they were able to pay and they are now enjoying lower bill. So what's the related story to water leakage in Pabilion 2? Earlier on, I was asking again to save money, where can we get free water for watering or so many gardens and the big loans of UP Diliman? They said there is a natural spring beside what they call that NSRI across Pabilion 1 and 2, there is NSRI. There are many migratory birds already in the natural spring. And true enough, there were migratory birds. Oh really, then let's make use of that water, I said. I got curious. After we cut the leak out of Pabilion 2, I got curious and asked, how is the natural spring? Sir, it has dried up. So all along, we were paying to maintain a natural spring at the rate of 6 million a year. Who knows for how many years that leakage has been going on. It must have been decades because migratory birds do not develop association with the place unless they have gone there many years before, over the years. Anyway, if there was something wrong with water consumption and the bill we pay for water, there must be something wrong again, also with electricity. So again, I asked the chancellor to give me the water bill of each and every building. 109 buildings, they told me eventually 39, in 39 buildings, UP Dileman was paying an amount higher than actual consumption. Why? Because the builders of those old buildings contracted a higher capacity for the buildings. So there is what's called a minimum power demand bill that the building is paying. So even if actual consumption is below that minimum committed rate, still the minimum is paid. The worst situation was where UP Dileman was paying four times the actual energy usage. So having said all this big and small, what would you consider to coaxialize the term between 2011 to 2017 as probably the legacy that you rendered to UP when you were president? In the area of evidence, of course, I will claim because the evidence will show that I was able to really convince government to commit resources to UP, not in a small way but in a very substantial way. I was able to convince the government and I kept on saying this and I keep repeating this when I deliver my presentation in hearings of Congress and Senate that the budget of UP is not an expense but an investment that yields copious dividends for the country. The MOE budget of UP increased from 700,000 including PGHs to 2.8 million pesos to 2.8 million. That's four times. But academic units, I always separate the budget of PGHs from the academic units of UP. The academic units of UP got a much more increase in MOE from 400 million to 2 billion, that's five times. So it is the... Increase. Not only the efficiency and the utilization of resources that came to UP but it translates into a thousand fold of what the university could do. In my first year there was no money for capital outlay. When I finished my term we were able to raise 14 billion pesos of budget for capital outlay and this enabled me to allocate funds to about more than 80 new buildings across the system, 80 new buildings and more than 60 major renovations. But also in the spirit of the academic contributions, the efficiency and the resource, the sound use of resource mean also the university that is able to engage in the mission that it performs. Because in deciding which to fund I gave priority to capital outlay that will help us pursue the other pillar of my administration which was to transform UP into a research university. So we gave priority. The very first project I funded was a one billion peso commitment to put up the National Institutes of Health Building. And now it's serving the nation. Which has contributed, as you may have read all over the papers now, the quick diagnostic kit for COVID-19. That particular project, that particular diagnostic kit I supported the development of when I was in office. So I think you have presented to us, you have shared with us the details, the operationalization which is magnificent. It reflects the skill, the talent of the manager, the manager of a national university. But there is one other aspect that I'd like to relate to you quickly because another pillar of my administration is to strengthen the capability of UP to deliver public service. That's another area where I also supported a lot of projects where I built institutions. TBUP is one of those. But more importantly, the Resilience Institute. There is now the hub of information and activities related to our effort to mitigate and address the risks of climate change. And others, including now the Enshrine UP Padaion, the UP Padaion Public Service Office. Public Service, yeah. That's there. Which at one point was under you. And this means that through the small isolated building blocks that you supported through the programs, through the projects, put together all of this, translate actually and have started to be felt that indeed as a manager, you have moved the University of the Philippines to be a huge contributor to what public service means using the talent, using the skills, albeit probably with resources that continue to demand for even more support for a national university. Yeah, I think once in a while, UP should have somebody who would bring a fresh look to the university. I was told this by one of the regents then, who has passed former president of UP, Senator Angara, told me that because we were discussing about my presidency and like him, he was coming in not from the faculty but from outside. He said that it might be good. So once in a while, turn UP on its head by bringing in somebody who will look at it differently. But I still... And that's a trend now in many international or U.S. universities to bring presidents with unconventional background because the challenges have changed. In the past, state-owned universities here in the U.S., they just wait for the funding to get... The challenge really was just focus on delivering the academic function and the research function. But now it's... We're experiencing innovation, technology, the growth of technology. The technology is changing very fast. I've not talked about the number of technology business incubators that have been set up. I've not talked about the enabling environment that I created to facilitate innovation and research in UP. Firstly, the adoption, the approval of the intellectual property rights policy of UP. The first thing I paid attention to, because without that, we cannot incentivize our faculty. And then I created the technology transfer and business development office at once signal that we're doing this innovation to eventually parlay them to the economy through commercialization. And then I created the laboratories. I mentioned NIH. There is the Philippine Genome Center and another major funding commitment, 300 million. They now have their own building. And I was adding up. I have committed close to 700 million for the rehabilitation of... and refurbishing a number of laboratories across the system. And then I encouraged the setting up of the technology business incubators in Cebu, in Dileman, particularly in the College of Engineering in Dileman. Well, UP is now in the midst of rapidly changing environment. The technological developments are coming in rapidly. And a lot of changes will probably be called for to make UP to remain effective as a learning institution. One area I think that will require significant attention of the current administration in UP is this issue of the digital transformation of UP, which I've started, and I've laid out future-proof fiber optic network to link different buildings in the different campuses. And also there are information systems that we have implemented. This infrastructure or the cyber infrastructure will now provide the support, the base, for digitizing the activities of the university. So that's one thing that I'd like to emphasize. If you ask me about what I would love to see future administrations and even the current administration should be focusing on. So all this, you have to have a system approach. Cannot be, you know, thinker one here, you know, like you're talking about bringing resources. You're going to just be bringing resources without making sure that those resources are used efficiently and directed to the right uses. And the right uses would be dictated by a strategic plan. You should know exactly what we're doing and where we want to bring the university. Looking back and having done your own contributions, what could you say to probably the University of the Philippines now? And what is there? Are we in step to the 21st century challenges? Are we on our way? And what more challenges do you want to say to the incumbent and to the next generation of leaders? I think what I have achieved is what I committed to do, which was to launch UP on the path of a great university in the 21st century. But the path doesn't end at one point, you know. The path moves on. And the bar is always going higher, you know. So there's no stopping. And as I said, you know, when I came in, I helped continue building the edifice, which is UP. My successors, you know, should also put their contribution. I think we have to think in terms of continuity. And it is the board of pretense that should provide the control for that continuity. Because there is always an urge for a new leader to bring his own mark or her own mark to the university. That's fine, but it can be done in the context of a clear vision for the university, clear strategy, which is adjusted to suit the time, to suit the changing environment. But the direction should always be clear, you know. And I would really be very happy to see that there will be continuity in UP, even with the changes in leadership. Let's not follow what has been happening to our country, you know. Where every time there is a change in administration, it's a shift. We're starting again from square one, you know. That should not be the case. But we're starting to see also continuity. The planning department of the government, you know, is now making sure that they are able to impose a long-term vision. Remember Ambition 2040? It used to be just five-year, six-year, ten-year rolling plan. Now it's a much longer 25-year plan at the time it was developed. So I think that should be the approach. And that's where governance comes in. And the governance is the responsibility of the board. Okay? And one thing about governance in UP, I also highlighted this when I was on the board, you know. Both when I was a regent and more so when I became president and co-chair of the Board of Regents. That UP should be viewed as an entity that has its own life, you know. And the members of the board, although they're in there as representatives of certain sectors. Okay? Students representing the studentry, the faculty representing the professors, the staff representing admin staff, alumni, the alumni, et cetera, congress, appointees of the president. They're not there to represent the interests of their respective sectors. They are there to represent the perspective of their sectors so that decisions can be made in a way that takes into account these varying perspectives. But in the end, the decision has to be made on the basis of what is for the best interests of the institution. Not for the best interests of the students, not for the best interests of staff or faculty, not their parochial interests. But the interests of the institution as they benefit from this interest of the institution. That's governance, you know. And up to now, as you may have noted, after I left UP, I focused on governance, but mainly corporate governance, you know, since I've gone back to the corporate world, you know. But the essence of governance is the same, you know. And it has to be exercised at the top, the governing board. That's right. So with that, we'd like to thank you. And we hope, of course, you are. We expect you to continue to become a continuing guardian of the university as an alumnus forever. So thank you very much President Alfredo Pasqual, UP President 2011 to 2017. Thank you.