UP at SRP

As part of her administration, President Emerlinda Roman has always remembered to put the needs of the University of the Philippines (UP) Cebu College as priority.

We are, therefore, very happy that during her term, she has added another first to the many firsts that she has accomplished to date. She is the first lady President of UP. She is also the UP Centennial President and the President who witnessed the signing of a new UP Charter.

Last Tuesday, she steered UP once again to another first: the signing of the Cebu City SRP land donation to UP last Tuesday. That widens the horizon for providing quality education to the best minds of this country. The proposed UP area at the SRP intends to offer programs as well that will be relevant to address the challenges of the region. May UP provide the beacon of relevant inexpensive but quality education for this part of our country!

One of the dreams I have as a UPian is to have the equivalent of the UP-Philippine General Hospital ( UP-PGH) in Cebu. We are sorely in need of a public hospital that is not only efficient but one that offers quality health services and training at very affordable maka-masa terms, especially for the most needy.

We wonder if that can be part of the dream as well of our present UP leadership and community. We do not only wish to have better health provision for the UP community. We wish for better, efficient and reasonable public service-oriented health provision and education to be available to as many as can be serviced throughout the Visayas and Mindanao.

Can you imagine doctors and nurses who will prioritize the needs of the poor? Can you imagine nursing and medicine to be offered at abot-kaya rates, especially to the best and the brightest among the financially challenged? Can you imagine a very well managed public hospital right in Cebu City?

Then people will not have to go to Manila to be treated. Then the poor can have a better chance to be properly served. As an educational institution, who knows what pioneering researches and studies can be produced if there were a UP-PGH in Cebu?

Perhaps that is a project worth the budget of the politicos of the Visayas, even of Mindanao. Perhaps even the international community may wish to ask their governments to come with their grants to put up the UP-PGH of the Visayas here in Cebu?

Is this a dream that is impossible to attain? We do not think so.

Of course, we appreciate the present services rendered by health institutions and schools to the public. We feel, however, UP-PGH will up the scale in terms of service, quality, accessibility, and affordability, among other benefits.

What do you think?

No harm in dreaming, for after all, dreams are for free. Who knows? We may yet have that UP-PGH in our midst, the public hospital for all, sooner than we expect.

No one anticipated UP would be at the SRP. Will UP-PGH of Cebu not be far behind?

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