The College of Law of UP Diliman started the year 2011 with a flurry of activities on the auspicious date of January 11, 2011, to celebrate its centennial. These included groundbreaking ceremonies for a student dormitory, the inauguration of two renovated rooms, conferment of an honorary doctorate to a prominent alumnus, and dinner for a College Centennial Commission and Board of Advisers.
The occasion was also an opportunity to announce the construction of a UP satellite campus in Taguig City, which would house an extension and graduate school of the College of Law, among other extensions of UP professional schools.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the Law student dormitory was held on the vacant lot along Apacible Street between the Chapel of the Holy Sacrifice and the Kalayaan Dormitory. According to College of Law Dean Marvic MVF Leonen, student housing at UPD has been particularly difficult for law students because they have always been last in priority. Thus the idea of a dormitory was broached during a meeting of the UP Law Alumni Association. The project got the support of Law alumni in the current Senate.
Leonen envisions the dormitory, which is expected to be finished within the year, to be a sanctuary of “gender fairness, peace, and sharing”; a community where law students share hopes, dreams, and values; and where law will be seen not only as one taught in a grand manner but also lived in a grand manner. UP Law Centennial Commission Chair, Sen. Edgardo Angara told personal anecdotes which highlighted the importance of dormitories and expressed the hope that the new building will represent “the continuity of law” into contemporary times and be-come an iconic landmark. President Emerlinda Roman congratulated the College for embarking on the dormitory project, which she said is in line with the project of developing UP as a graduate university.
On behalf of the students, Law Student Government President Teresa Ira Maris Guanzon expressed gratitude to the donors and leaders of the dormitory project. She explained that law students need a dormitory suited to their need for silence, late nights in the library, group studies, and food.
Senator Edgardo Angara, Law Student Government Pres.
Teresa Ira Maris Guanzon, Pres. Roman, College of Law
Dean Marvic Leonen, Faculty Regent Ida Dalmacio, and
Law Centennial Commission member former Chief Justice
Hilario Davide bury a time capsule during groundbreaking
rites for the UP College of Law Centennial Dormitory, as
former College of Law Dean Salvador Carlota (at right,
behind Davide) looks on.
Following the groundbreaking was the inauguration of the office of the dean and Library Meeting Room 1, both of which were renovated under the auspices of UP Law Class 1985, which is currently celebrating its own 25th anniversary. The class was represented by its president, Atty. J. Conrado Castro.
The afternoon was marked with the conferment of an honorary doctorate to alumnus and former Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno, followed by his lecture. The day’s activities culminated with a faculty dinner with the UP Law Centennial Commission and Board of Advisers at the Executive House in UPD.
These events were attended by new Faculty Regent Ida Dalmacio, UP System and UP Diliman officials, past and present officials of the College of Law, faculty members, students, and alumni.
UP Law Class 1985 President J. Conrado Castro, Dean
Marvic Leonen, and President Roman cut the ribbon to
inaugurate the refurbished Office of the Dean at Malcolm Hall.
The year 2011 has been declared by President Benigno Aquino III as “University of the Philippines College of Law Centennial Year” by virtue of Presidential Proclamation No. 32 on September 9, 2010. January 2011 was the College’s centennial month. The celebration explores the theme, “The College of Law and the Challenges to Phi-lippine Law at the Beginning of the Second Century.” In the words of Dean Leonen, the college “not only celebrate[s] UP Law’s distinctive history, but also… renew[s] the institution’s commitment as the country’s bastion of legal education.” Leonen also reiterated the faculty’s role as legal acade-mics and public intellectuals.
Presidential Proclamation No. 32 authorizes the creation of the Centennial Com-mission to assist Dean Leonen in planning centennial programs and activities. The members were appointed by President Roman. Sen. Angara serves as chair, Dean Leonen as convenor, and Associate Dean Patricia Salvador Daway as head of the secretariat. The members include Sen. Franklin Drilon, Sen. Richard Gordon, Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Chief Justice Puno, Justice Ameurfina Melencio Herrera, Justice Flerida Ruth P. Romero, Justice Antonio Carpio, and student government President Guanzon.
The Commission has held seven meetings and has approved the adoption of a UP Law centennial logo, the issuance of commemorative stamps, legal tender and coins, as well as fund-raising activities for the UP Law Fund, among others, for 2011. According to its schedule, UP Law will have a full year, including a massive Law Centennial textbook project, more books, a new website, lecture series and conferences, a triathlon, a musical presentation, and a grand alumni homecoming on November 11, 2011.
Also scheduled in April is the ground-breaking of a UP satellite campus in Taguig. UP Law will be a major sponsor of the project through funds sourced from government and donations. According to President Roman, the campus will also house professional schools in Business Administration, Engineering, and Statistics. Sen. Angara said the campus is expected to produce interdisciplinary experts or new “Filipino renaissance men”, well-versed in the sciences, management, and law.
Dean Leonen described the campus as sitting on a 4,000 square meter lot in Fort Bonifacio, a good area for the recruitment of students, exposure to the business environment, the development of a commercial law program, and the pursuit of higher law studies and internationalization.
Leonen then gave details on the sourcing of the targeted P300 million for the construction of the satellite campus and for other major centennial projects of textbook writing, dormitory construction, and faculty development.
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