The University’s Administrative Non-Teaching Employees Union (ANTEU) elected its new set of officers and members of its Board of Directors (BOD) on Monday (June 21) via an online voting system to ensure health protocols are observed.
The new set of ANTEU officers are led by Moh’d Asrin Tabao, a planning officer of the OVCPD who ran under the CASSANGA Party that promised to be the partner for development of staff members.
“Allow us to be your voice to represent and uplift your rights and our rights as a Union. Let us be involved in every sound-judgment decision of the Management and prove to them the importance of the Union, the heart of every organization,” said Tabao during a Zoom teleconference held on June 23.
Tabao’s party won all but two seats in the Union’s set of officers. However, in the seven-seat BOD, CASSANGA only managed one spot .
CASSANGA’s Jonaim Dipatuan (CASS), Settie Sahara Mutia (IPDM), and Merle Sumaylo (CASS) were elected Vice President, Secretary, and Social Manager, respectively.
Glenda Almacen (OASA) and Victoria Panes (PSD) from the party led by Owen Lopez were elected Treasurer and Auditor, respectively.
Merlyn Salimbangon of the CBAA is CASSANGA’s lone representative in the BOD.
The rest of the directors are Richard Micubo (ICTC), Genevieve Benegrado (OASA), Fern Aster Medina (Accounting Division), Bainorah Amate (OVCRE-DR), Vera Mae Cabatana (PPD), and Eddie Sumile (OVCRE-TAPU).
Of these, five belong to the Lopez line-up while Amate ran as an independent candidate.
CASSANGA is the only official party that joined the election according to the ANTEU’s election committee.
Heading the election and tabulation was the election committee chairperson, Ms. Saakia A. Ananggo (OSDS).
Two hundred sixty-six (266) of the 324-strong ANTEU participated in the online voting.
An ongoing call for applications offers young peacebuilders a free short course on the intersection of youth, peacebuilding, and sustainability. The short course is designed by the Seeds for Mindanao Advocacy and Youth Leadership (SMAYL), with support from the U.S. Mission to ASEAN and Cultural Vista. SMAYL is one of the recipients of the 2021 Seeds for the Future Award, competing with over 600 applicants from across Southeast Asia. The Young Southeast Asian Leadership Initiative (YSEALI) Seeds for the Future Small Grants Competition funds up to $15,000 of each grantee project.
SMAYL is the brainchild of MSU-IIT’s Political Science faculty, Dr. Primitivo Cabanes Ragandang III, along with Dr. Mary Koren Witting Acuesa and Mr. Charl Mark Ane. The three all hail from Northern Mindanao and have been into youth peacebuilding for many years. For 2021, they will implement a project that aims to empower young peacebuilders through a youth leadership program. The project also aims at providing a venue to understand the Mindanao conflict, the second-oldest conflict in the planet albeit not well-understood even among Filipinos.
The short course is built around the global recognition of youth’s integral role in peacebuilding, as manifested in the passage of United Nation’s Resolution 2250 (in 2015) and 2535 (in 2020). But while young peacebuilders have captured the spotlight among peacebuilding practitioners, funders, and scholars internationally, there is prevalent unsustainability among youth peacebuilding initiatives, thus the need to develop a locally grown support system for young peacebuilders. Such a ‘local turn’ in peacebuilding empowers the locals and is also linked to peacebuilding sustainability.
This 54-hour short course is coupled with an online learning hub. It generally aims to provide regular support, feedbacking, and eventually establish a network of young peacebuilders in the region. The program offers young peacebuilding a hybridized short course geared towards developing an action agenda on the intersection of youth, peace, and sustainability.
The short course is a hybrid of self-paced and live teleconferencing sessions. Self-paced sessions allow the participants to access and comply with the course content at any time within the three-day module schedule. Live teleconferencing via Zoom enable the participants to engage with the speaker and course mates in a real-time interactive session.
Deadline for applications is 31 May 2021. For more information about SMAYL and the short course application, visit them on Facebook and the link for application.
About a year of implementing its quality management system, the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) has been recommended for the ISO 9001:2015 certification.
After a grueling two-day virtual audit by an external certifying body on March 29-30, 2021, MSU-IIT was assessed to satisfactorily conform to the ISO 9001:2015 requirements.
MSU-IIT has aspired to make quality assurance the cornerstone of its processes and has committed to pursue ISO 9001:2015 certification to be one of the quality frameworks by which it can achieve this.
The application for ISO 9001:2015 certification is in compliance with Executive Order No. 605 dated February 23, 2007 – Institutionalizing the Structure, Mechanisms, and Standards to Implement the Government Quality Management Program, and reinforcing Administrative Order No. 161, series of 2006” (MSU-IIT, 2020, p. 2) – Institutionalizing Quality Management System in Government.
The establishment of the Quality Management System and the preparation for the third-party audit amidst the COVID-19 pandemic was well-supported by the top management under the leadership of the Chancellor, Dr. Sukarno D. Tanggol. His leadership was complemented by the teamwork and hard work of the various academic and administrative units of the University.
“The university has been striving for excellence in public service, and getting the certification is confirmation that MSU-IIT has robust and well-defined procedures in place, established with quality and transparency in mind,” Tanggol said.
“I laud the men and women of MSU-IIT for their outstanding work. Integrating the attitude of quality in everything that we do and continuously challenging ourselves to improve our management system is key to keeping that certification,” he added.
MSU-IIT started its efforts to prepare for ISO 9001:2015 Certification in 2015. These efforts were intensified in 2019 with a series of training, coordination meetings, and documentation of identified processes involving the delivery of quality education to its clientele – the students.
Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corporation (MMPC) donated to MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology (IIT) a 2020 Xpander Cross to be used as a training vehicle under the School-Industry Tie-up Program for Automotive Technology of MMPC.
The donation was also made as part of MMPC’s corporate social responsibility and to demonstrate its socio-civic consciousness.
The donation was executed through a Memorandum of Understanding and a Deed of Donation between MMPC, represented by its Senior Vice President, Mr. Yasuki Maruyama, and MSU-IIT, represented by Chancellor Sukarno D. Tanggol.
“Industry-academe linkage is very important in the pursuit of the tri-mandate of instruction, research, and extension. In MSU-IIT, our partnership with the industry goes beyond OJT and employment purposes,” Chancellor Tanggol said.
In the agreement, both parties agreed to create a mutually beneficial arrangement where they can perform their respective mandates and attain their respective objectives; to design and implement the programs pertaining to the on-site training of the automotive instructors and students of MSU – IIT; and for MMPC to assist MSU – IIT in improving its training workshop area, among other things.
The agreement also stipulated the roles and responsibilities of both parties who shall jointly implement the said program for the automotive technology instructors of MSU – IIT. The program is designed to provide essential training to automotive instructors and students of MSU – IIT in order to enhance and upgrade their knowledge, theories, skills and competencies in automotive technology.
To ensure that the training vehicle shall only be utilized for the purpose that it is donated, MMPC imposed certain conditions in the Deed of Donation that the Xpander Cross should not be used for any personal or private interest other than training purposes under the tie-up program.
The deed also specified that MSU-IIT shall ensure that the training vehicle is kept in good working condition at all times.
The training vehicle was formally turned over to the University on December 17, 2020 through a virtual program. MMPC’s Senior Vice President Maruyama and Senior Manager Gideon C. Bruno turned over the ceremonial key to representatives of MSU-IIT, namely, College of Engineering and Technology Dean Noel Estoperez, Asst. Dean Erman Marajas, Assoc. Prof. Samson F. Amba, Jr., and Asst. Prof. Lad Labrada of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Technology.
The MSU-IIT team picked up the Xpander Cross on March 27, 2020 at Cagayan de Oro City and brought it to the campus.
An online forum on women and violent extremism was held via Zoom on March 24 as part of the celebration of Women’s Month and UN Women’s Day.
The activity was organized by the Institute for Peace and Development in Mindanao (IPDM) and the Department of Political Science and Center of Local Governance Studies of the College of Arts and Social Sciences.
The forum explored the roles played by women in the continuing rise of violent extremism including the motivations behind their various role-adoptions.
It also aimed to understand the effects of violent extremism on women, especially its interplay with women empowerment, as well as identify policy gaps and women’s programs that could address the present challenges of women in conflict-affected areas.
The forum featured discussants who were from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Pilumbayan, and the University.
Ms. Michelle Espedido of DILG- Region X discussed the National Action Plan for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (NAP-P/CVE). She presented the challenges posed by the continuing threat of violent extremism in the Southern Philippines and the existing PCVE plans, priorities, and interventions, spotlighting the roles and contributions of women.
Ms. Sittie Janine Gamao, a community peace builder and lead convenor of Pilumbayan, an organization striving to empower young women in the Bangsamoro through awareness-raising and knowledge-sharing, presented and discussed the significant role of women on violent extremism in the community level, specifically on the Bangsamoro experience, as actors on opposite ends.
Included in the panel discussion was MSU-IIT’s Vice Chancellor for Research and Extension and Gender and Development focal person, Dr. Jinky Bornales who talked about how women can be empowered by education and technology.
Dr. Bornales also encouraged the participants towards a holistic, collaborative approach, with an emphasis on technology development and innovation, to help bridge the gender gaps in various dimensions and bring impact to the community.
Sociology expert and Peace Research Coordinator of IPDM, Asst. Prof. Arnold Alamon also shared the results of his research entitled Mapping Violent Extremism Projects after the 2017 Marawi Crisis, wherein a mapping out and synthesis of PCVE/PTVE studies and programs/interventions in the BARMM region were done.
Faculty members and students from MSU-IIT’s College of Computer Studies (CCS) and the College of Business Administration and Accountancy (CBAA) wrote papers that were accepted to the first Social Innovation Linkages for Knowledge Exchange Network (SILKEN) conference.
The six papers that were presented on the March 26, 2021 conference held online via Zoom are:
Resource Analysis of E-Labay: A Waste Pickup and Disposal Social Enterprise by Lemuel Clark Velasco, Leila Tomenio, and Althea Nicole Lim;
Market Validation of Medispatch PH: A Medicine Delivery Social Enterprise for Senior Citizens & Persons with Disability by Lemuel Clark Velasco, Marie Silorio, Melyn Pines, Hanifa Abdulrasid, and Rafael Luke Leyco;
Customer Discovery of Student-Founded Social Enterprises Addressing COVID-19 Community Frustrations by Lemuel Clark Velasco, Marlou Xerkxex Rentucan, and Jay Joshua Largo;
Market Validation of a Learning Modules Delivery Service Social Enterprise as a COVID-19 Community Intervention by Lemuel Clark Velasco, Angelic Curaza, and Jaivee Jean Taylaran;
TEENPRENEUR: Iligan City Youth Entrepreneurship Congress and Patigayon Awards by Joana Marie Edera; and
Academic Entrepreneurship in the Philippines: The Interplay of Absorptive Capacity and Innovation on University-based Technology Business Incubators by Marlo Novino.
Attended by more than a hundred international presenters from Europe and Asia, the conference covered presentations on the following topics:
Covid-19 & Social Innovation: Impacts & Opportunities
Corporate Partnerships, CSR & Impact Investment
Understanding Community Partnerships: Best Practice & Creating Impact
Understanding Social Innovation: Sectoral and Country Differences
Communication between stakeholders.
Closing the gap between public, private and third sectors.
Driving bottom-up/community-led social innovation.
Digital transformation
Impact measurement
Social innovation from all fields, including Environment (e.g. Smart Cities and Green Spaces), Technology, Health, Education, Employment etc.
SILKEN is a project of the British Council and a consortium led by Glasgow Caledonian University and the University of Northampton.
MSU-IIT, through the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Extension, is one of SILKEN’s associate partners in the Philippines. As an associate partner, MSU-IIT has been involved in devising and implementing engagement strategies for developing long term and sustainable social innovation networks and knowledge exchange initiatives between universities and institutions. One of these dissemination initiatives that MSU-IIT has been actively involved in is the participation in the SILKEN Conference that serves as a platform where the Institute can share its social innovation projects.
