UPMin’s UPGRADE is named Outstanding Incubator

Written by Rene Estremera. Posted in Report


The UPGRADE team	Richard Day

The IDEAS-Davao consortium named the University of the Philippines (UP) Mindanao’s UPGRADE as Outstanding Incubator and its center manager Richard Day as Outstanding Rainmaker at the Davao Startup Champion Awards Night, held on August 14, 2022, at the culmination of the first Davao Startup Week.

IDEAS-Davao, the Innovation and Development Accelerators Consortium for Startups in Davao, is a non-profit consortium of private and public universities, agencies, and firms dedicated to creating a startup ecosystem in the region.

UPGRADE, or the University of the Philippines Growing and Developing Enterprises, is UP Mindanao’s Technology Business Incubator (TBI) dedicated to helping social enterprises and business startups. In addition, it has forged partnerships with national government agencies, NGOs, civil society organizations, and over 17 global partners.

UPGRADE currently implements the Department of Science and Technology’s “Handholding Starting Incubators from Higher Education Institutions for Readiness towards Innovation and Technopreneurship” (HIHEIRIT PA MORE).

Rainmaker Richard Day, for his part, has successfully gained approvals for proposals with a total value of P39 million, such as the IDEAS-Davao consortium, the HIHEIRIT PA MORE, and the “Women-Helping-Women: Innovating Social Enterprises.”

In other awards, Sureplus, a social enterprise that resells, repurposes, and reallocates surplus food to minimize food wastage and hunger, was awarded Startup of the Year.

IDEAS-Davao awarded Mugna Technologies as Outstanding Startup Champion in the Private Sector and the Department of Trade and Industry for the Public Sector.

In addition, the Bloom cafe was named Best Coworking Space.

Trophies of appreciation were awarded to representatives of partners Philippine Women’s College, DevCon Davao, Women in AI Philippines, WordPress Davao, ShopSuki, Bits Circle, AgriDom, and Coffee for Peace.

In closing, UP Mindanao’s technology transfer chief Lynda Buenaobra reported that IDEAS-Davao undertook 17 preparatory and main events in August for the Davao Startup Week. For his part, Asst. Prof. Miguel Guillermo, IDEAS-Davao project lead, said, “I declare the doors wide open for the Davao startup community.”

Chancellor's Report: July 2022 Highlights

Written by Rene Estremera. Posted in Report

UP Mindanao July 2022 PAC Report.v3

Read the Chancellor's Report: July Highlights here: https://bit.ly/3T5x0H5

Creative works show Philippine-Japan relations

Written by Rene Estremera. Posted in Report

The Philippine Federation of Japanese Government Scholars (PhilaJames) celebrated Philippine-Japan Friendship Day 2022 with an exhibit on the theme “Strengthening Friendship Through Artworks.” Dr. Mercidita Villamayor, a dean of Bukidnon State University, and Atty Malu Viva, both Philajames scholars, opened the exhibit on July 30, 2022.

The exhibit shows the twin themes of Filipino and Japanese life through the paintings of visual artist Teody Boylie Perez, a Philajames scholar and associate professor at the University of the Philippines (UP) Mindanao Department of Humanities.

The Filipino paintings feature Prof. Perez’s recurrent themes of life in marginalized communities and the indigenous people. “Fisherman’s Village,” at eight feet wide and three feet high, is the biggest work on display. In addition, his GSIS painting competition finalist, “Life Goes On,” is featured in the exhibit.

The Japanese paintings feature rural communities and ancient locations, which the artist produced during his six-year residency as a masteral and doctoral scholar in Japan.

Prof. Perez also delivered two lectures on the historical development of art in Japan and the Philippines compared to the Western world to further enrich appreciation of the Philippine-Japan relationship.

The exhibit, the artist’s 15th solo exhibit, is located in his residence and gallery in Ulas, Davao City.

Prof Perez has exhibited his paintings and artworks of Davao community life in Japan, China, and the USA, earning him a Datu Bago Award from the Davao City government.

More photos here: https://www.facebook.com/bong.perez.3597/posts/pfbid0jWCKp6kXf3395XZFmWNLJ3z9dBd3x1xfjw12PkWkM715zvdk2sJXp2V1GWdSt3fHl

Disaster-prone Davao City villages urged to codify local plans

Written by Rene Estremera. Posted in Report

A paper by Assoc. Prof. Karen Joyce Cayamanda urged barangay or village groups to share best practices and codify their experiences following flooding and other localized disasters in order to build up apt responses in various areas. Prof. Cayamanda made this recommendation in her paper on risk communication management presented at the 3rd International Conference on Multidisciplinary Industry and Academic Research (ICMIAR) held online on July 29-30, 2022.

Cayamanda said sharing community-based experiences can show how community members react and adapt to disasters and stimulate risk perception and communication among residents, from which community mechanisms can emerge that strengthen the collective responses and increase a community’s resilience against future threats.

Prof. Cayamanda’s paper earned her a “Best Presenter” award at the conference plenary session and acquires renewed relevance in the wake of recent community-level disruptions in her study area and continuing local government efforts to improve their DRRM system.

“The prevalent risk communication system is ‘top-down’ despite local residents' awareness of their vulnerability,” she said.

“In this way, communities can build or discover their own adaptive mechanisms, encourage an active response, and further strengthen the community. Their efforts can complement the traditional ‘top-down’ centralized disaster risk-reduction management (DRRM) approach,” she said.

The ICMIAR conference, with the theme “Sustaining community resilience through education and research,” was organized by the Institute of Industry and Academic Research Incorporated, a registered publisher and continuing professional development provider. It also had sessions focusing on business management and accounting, education management and development studies, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and the humanities and the social sciences.

Recently, Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte told barangays to consolidate similar concerns, including security and disaster response, as the local government drafts its executive-legislative agenda in the next few months.

Traditionally, the local government places a large percentage of its annual budget for disaster response as a part of the Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund.

Rehabilitating Mangrove Ecosystem: A Look at the Oriental Mindoro’s Mangroves

Written by Rene Estremera. Posted in Report

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Several mangrove forests sit by the coast of Oriental Mindoro, Philippines. With their outstretched roots and cover, mangroves provide a great service to the ecosystems and communities near them. They also provide shelter to a wide array of marine and arboreal species, producing some of the most diverse ecosystems in the country. Human communities near these forests have a socio-economic relationship with them, as they can scour for shrimps, crabs, and mollusks to sell for profit. They also provide a buffer during storms and strong tidal waves, which can harm the structures near the mangrove forest. However, coastal erosion, urbanization, aquaculture, agriculture, illegal logging, and sand siltation, among others, pose a threat to the mangroves.

The paper “Regeneration Capacity and Threats to Mangrove Areas on the Southern Coast of Oriental Mindoro, Philippines: Implications to Mangrove Ecosystem Rehabilitation” by Aaron Froilan M. Raganas of UP Mindanao, Nelson M. Pampolina and Annalee Hadsall of UP Los Baños, and Stefan Hotes of Chuo University published in the Biodiversitas Journal of Biological Diversity examines the regeneration capacity of mangrove forests in six areas in Oriental Mindoro: Agsalin, Gloria; Tambong, Bansud; Dayhagan, Bongabong; Dalahican, Roxas; Cabalwa, Mansalay; and Caratao, Bulalacao. Community residents and staff from the Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office (MENRO), Municipal Agriculture Office (MAO), Coastal Resources Management Office (CRMO), and ‘Bantay-dagat’ (coast guards) interviewed said they have observed some of the threats mentioned above in the mangrove areas in their respective municipality.

The study shows that mangroves are highly resilient and may even grow inland in more elevated areas. However, fishpond operations pose the highest threat to the regeneration of the mangroves and should be mitigated or at least minimized. The local government units (LGUs) should closely and constantly monitor the status of the mangrove areas to ensure their protection. The paper also confirms that mangrove-planting programs contribute positively but natural regeneration is still the best as the species composition will likely stay the same and it offers low labor demand, low soil disturbances, and good seedlings growth. Finally, the paper recommends that LGUs look into Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR) in mangrove areas, reclaim abandoned fishponds, and encourage the practice of aquasilviculture system instead of the prevailing destructive fishpond practices.

Read the full article here: https://smujo.id/biodiv/article/view/6012

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