Press Release
February 2, 2011

ANGARA UNVEILS NATIONAL SCIENCE COMPLEX IN UP

Senator Edgardo J. Angara today led the unveiling of the project marker for the new National Science Complex (NSC) at the College of Science in UP Diliman.

The construction of the NSC has a total budget of PhP1.7 Billion, to provide facilities and equipment for the University of the Philippines' College of Science which includes both pure and applied Science and Mathematics courses. Angara, former UP president, said that the NSC had been a long-standing plan which had come into fruition because of the leadership of the University.

"Early on in my term as UP president, we had earmarked 21 hectares of the UP Diliman Campus in the hopes that it will one day give rise to a world-class facility for our scientists. Even then the Arts and Humanities programs of the university was already internationally recognized--that was when we realized that we needed to make Science and Technology one of the priorities for the UP system," explained Angara.

From an unwieldy College of Arts and Sciences, it was during Angara's term as UP President when a three-way split was made among the College of Science, College of Arts and Letters, and College of Social Sciences and Philosophy.

The reason was to give due recognition to the identity of Science as a profession and to its prime importance as an instrument of national development.

Also, the separation allowed for a more effective academic leadership, administration, and coordination of the undergraduate, graduate, and research programs in the Natural and Mathematical Sciences

According to Angara, chair of the Senate Committee on Science and Technology, the mass of scientists produced by UP hold the key to the future of our country.

"We must groom our scientists to spearhead the development of the S&T sector, so that we become globally competitive like our Asian contemporaries. These scientists will provide the change and innovation that our country needs right now.

"What is important now is what we do next. It is up to the academe, both the faculty and the students of the College of Science to translate what they learn from the lab and transform it into something meaningful for the Filipino people," he concluded.

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