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Silliman Pools Donations for Typhoon Ondoy Victims Silliman University is coordinating some efforts to secure donations in cash and in kind for the victims of the floods caused by typhoon Ondoy, particularly in Luzon. The University is committing an initial amount of P100,000 from its resources, with a portion of it coming from its budget for Christmas party. A memo has already been issued to enjoin the different academic and service units to spare some amount from their respective operational budgets, on top of individual voluntary contributions from faculty and staff members. Silliman alumni chapters in the country and abroad are also being encouraged to support continuing relief and rescue operations. To facilitate donations, drop-off points have been identified: Alumni Affairs Office, Office of Student Affairs and Silliman University Church. These donations of clothing, food items, and other goods will be shipped to Manila within the week. Financial donations shall be receipted by the University and sent to the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Philippine National Red Cross. Silliman enjoins members of both Silliman and the larger community to extend assistance in whatever form to those affected by the floods. While typhoon Ondoy did not bring flooding to Dumaguete, Silliman University still feels that it is affected. It looks as this time of calamity as a call to humanize education and translate social consciousness into action to show how much we are a part of the Filipino nation. The Silliman team will continue to monitor the situation in the affected areas in the next weeks and assess how best it can assist in rehabilitation efforts. It may require some pains and sacrifices to help others; but, at this time, many others are in pain and are suffering. [ Back to top ] [ Home ] World Bank (WB) Country Director Mr. Bert Hofman explained the global financial crisis to an audience largely composed of Silliman students and remained optimistic about a positive growth for the world economy. Mr. Hofman was the lecturer of the 2nd Annual Eminent Lecture Series held August 26 at the Luce Auditorium on the topic “Prospects of Recovery from the Global Financial Crisis in the Next 2 Years.” With 18 years of experience in the WB, 15 of which spent in the Asian region, Mr. Hofman, however, admitted that even with post-crisis projections and forecasts, there is still uncertainty as to the shape of the world economy in the next years. But he said the global financial crisis – the largest crisis since the Great Depression in the 1930s – has brought some significant outcomes that brought about policy reforms and a more practical mentality towards investments. Mr. Hofman said there are “initial signs of recovery”, especially for developing countries like the Philippines. These signs are consistent with his description of developing countries as picking up in the world economy, catching up with member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). “But the prelude to the crisis is as important as the crisis itself,” he said, although admitted that determining the real cause of the crisis is a subject of a long continuing debate. Mr. Hofman said the crisis can be attributed to a combination of factors. He cited globalization as one of them. Since the 1990s, a large number of developing countries, like China and India, started to jump into globalization, and this, he said, made available a relatively large number of inexpensive goods in the world economy. “As a consequence, this led to a dramatic drop of inflationary pressures on the world economy…and opened a large case for policy makers in the world to have much more lax monetary policies without consequences of inflation,” Mr. Hofman explained. With the availability of cheap goods, monetary policies allowed for low interest rates, prompting banks to become “adventurous”. This gave rise to financial innovations which pushed for riskier investments. One of the beneficiaries of financial innovations was the housing sector. But in 2006, when the US market turned sour and the default rates on subprime mortgages started to rise, the financial market started to wobble. “Financial innovations meant that the risk that started in the housing market was spread out though the financial system in a way that only very few understood,” Mr. Hofman said. This later led lending rates to rise unprecedentedly, from an interbank interest rate that used to be minimal and relied on trust. In the early 2008, it became a liquidity crisis, which dramatically stopped lending to investment banks. He cited Lehman Brothers, an investment bank, which default in September 2008 caught the international media’s attention. “It was so connected to other parts of the financial market that it dragged the financial system down,” Mr. Hofman said. Mr. Hofman explained that transparency became an issue. The investments and risks involved were so sliced up and redistributed that nobody knew who was bearing the risk. But he said while the global financial crisis was unprecedented, the response was unprecedented as well. “The enormous volatility in the financial market and the enormous change in the policy rates of the federal reserves are truly unprecedented not just for its depth and its suddenness in the financial world but for the enormous reaction that has happened. And this has saved us from a repeat of the Great Depression,” he said. What made a difference was the swift policy reaction of individual countries and the coordinated response among the major players in the world economy, he added. It was in 2009 when talks about recovery started to take place. On imposing tighter regulations to arrest the effects of the global financial crisis, Mr. Hofman said these usually cause lesser availability of credit which translates to lower growth. Optimistic, Mr. Hofman said the emerging world is outgrowing OECDs. This is influenced by the experience of developing nations with regional crises, like the Asian crisis, which, he explained, has led the developing world to open up to more trade and foreign investments to spur up growth and development. Two professors of Marine Biology at Silliman University were in Tamil Nadu, India from August 22 to 30 for a research collaboration project funded by the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia. Drs. Hilconida Calumpong and Janet Estacion, Director and Graduate Coordinator of the Institute of Environmental and Marine Sciences (IEMS), respectively, met with their counterparts in Madras Christian College (MCC) in Chennai and Lady Doak College (LDC) in Madurai. Covered by an UBCHEA Joint Research and Monitoring Grant, their trip included a site visit to Pulicat Lake, the site of biodiversity studies of MCC. They observed MCC’s sampling procedures, collected seagrasses and algae for identification and pressing, and visited interventions (artificial reefs, lobster age culture) undertaken by non-government organizations in the area. Their next days were spent at LDC where a Silliman biology professor, Socorro Parco, is pursuing her graduate studies in microbiology. At LDC, Dr. Calumpong was the keynote speaker at the inauguration of their Research Centre. One of LDC’s faculty, Dr. Rachel Daniel, was a visiting scholar at Silliman under a leadership program funded by UBCHEA. The trip to India of Drs. Calumpong and Estacion also reinforced the partnership of Silliman with LDC and MCC. It was agreed that the three parties will pursue faculty exchange, expand the Regional Consortium in Marine Science to include LDC, and share research progress reports. The Australian Agency for International Development Philippines-Australia Community Assistance Program (AUS-AID PACAP) officially turned over its donation of aquaculture equipment and four sets of books to Silliman University, in a simple ceremony on September 7 at the Dr. Angel C. Alcala Marine Laboratories. Silliman University President Dr. Ben S. Malayang III received the donation, after the signing of the Deed of Donation, from AUS-AID PACAP Programs Coordinator Ms Lourdes Padilla. In his message, Dr. Malayang expressed Silliman’s gratitude for what he considered as a donation that recognizes the University’s strength in the area of marine biology and coastal resource management. He also said the donation supports the University’s thrust of making its programs contribute to a coordinated approach to addressing a gamut of environmental issues and concerns. The donations consisted of four feeding tanks, four algal tanks, three submersible water pumps, an aerator, tank pipings, and four sets of books titled Microfinance Technokits. Ensuring the utilization of the donations is the Institute of Environmental and Marine Sciences (IEMS) headed by its Director, Dr. Hilconida Calumpong. Present during the ceremony were AUS-AID PACAP’s Regional Director Mr. Jojo Fajardo and Area Manager Ms Mariz Limpo, and Sillimans’ Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Betsy Joy Tan, College of Arts and Sciences Dean Prof. Carlos Magtolis Jr. and IEMS Graduate Coordinator Dr. Janet Estacion. [ Back to top ] [ Home ] The Office of the President has appointed a new staff to coordinate the friend-raising and fund-raising initiatives of the University. Mr. Jose Mari Jonathan Antonio, Head of the Student Organizations and Activities Division, has been designated Institutional Advancement Officer. He will oversee the Institutional Advancement Program of Silliman, assisting in promoting and building understanding, lasting relationships, and inspiring philanthropic support towards the achievement of the University’s vision, mission and goals. To be featured soon on the University website is a section that will detail steps on how the University can facilitate the realization of the goal of alumni and friends of Silliman of making their lives relevant to Silliman’s internal and external constituencies. Mr. Antonio can be reached by e-mail at iao@su.edu.ph , or landline at (+63) 35 422-6002 local 224. [ Back to top ] [ Home ] New Chemists [ Back to top ] [ Home ] Project C.U.R.E. (Commission on Urgent Relief & Equipment) was founded in 1987 to help meet the need for medical supplies, equipment and services around the world. Project C.U.R.E. builds sustainable healthcare infrastructure by providing the medical supplies and equipment that medical personnel need to deliver healthcare to their communities. Since its inception, Project C.U.R.E. has delivered medical relief to needy people in more than 120 countries.
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| Siilliman
University, Dumaguete City, 6200 Philippines
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Silliman University Medical Center Foundation, Inc. (SUMCFI) President Mr. Roberto Montebon (first from left) and Silliman University Property Custodian Mr. Manuel Amistoso (second from right) inspects the medical equipment and supplies donated by Project C.U.R.E. (Commission on Urgent Relief and Equipment), a non-government organization based in the United States, through Silliman University. The sea van that contained the donation arrived on August 14, and a formal turnover ceremony was held August 25 at the West Solarium of the SUMCFI. A portion of the shipment went to the Marina Clinic, Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital (NOPH) and the Bayawan City District Hospital. Others in the photo are: (L-R) SUMCFI's General Services Chief Engr. Ferdinand Torno, Bayawan District Hospital Chief Dr. Zosilon Zerrudo, NOPH's administrative head Mrs. Araceli Solis and Chief of Hospital Dr. Felix Sy, and Marina Clinic's Mrs. Dora Bernardez and Dr. Abelix Amor.