Ex-regent Angelo Jimenez named new UP president

The University of the Philippines (UP) Board of Regents on Friday named former regent Angelo Jimenez as the 22nd president of the country's premier state university.

"Angelo Jimenez is the 22nd President of the University of the Philippines," said Tinig ng Plaridel, the official student publication of the UP College of Mass Communication, on Facebook.

"Beginning in 2023, the former Duterte-appointed UP regent will serve a six-year term as chief officer of the nation's premier state university," it said.

Jimenez will replace outgoing UP president Danilo Concepcion who will end his term in February 2023.

The other nominees were UP Diliman chancellor Fidel Nemenzo, former UP Los Baños chancellor Fernando Sanchez Jr., Catanduanes State University president Patrick Alain Azanza, former 1-Edukasyon representative Salvador Belaro Jr., and former UP Diliman vice chancellor for research and development Benito Pacheco.

According to a statement by the UP Media and Public Relations Office, Jimenez was chosen by the 11-member BOR, the highest policymaking body in the UP System, after "intensive deliberations" and interviews with the six contenders.

BOR head and Commission on Higher Education chairperson Prospero de Vera told reporters that his vote was guided by "the interest of higher education and the interest of CHED."

"In his vision paper, Jimenez stated that UP 'must strive to become a global university.' Specifically, UP must lead as a research university by focusing on graduate and post-graduate programs and academic linkages; and as a public service university through extension service to the government and industry," the UP MPRO said.

"UP must also advocate for an Open Data Policy. UP must likewise help raise the quality of undergraduate education in other SUCs (state universities and colleges), embrace digital transformation in learning and management, defend and enhance academic freedom in UP."

The incoming UP president earned his sociology and law degrees from the university, where he served on the BOR twice, first as a student regent in 1992, and then as a regent from 2016 to 2021.

Jimenez, a former acting deputy administrator of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration and a lawyer, received his master's degree in public management from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. —LDF/VBL, GMA Integrated News