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Month: March 2022
By Hazel P. Villa, Anne Cortez, Rosemarie Felimon, Amabel Siason
ILOILO City — A representative of the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union from Universidad de Deusto visited the West Visayas State University (WVSU) on March 28, 2022 in view of a cooperation for the exchange of students and/or academic staff.
Dr. Edurne Bartolome, a social scientist and PhD lecturer at the Universidad de Deusto paid a courtesy call to the Office of WVSU President Joselito Villaruz, currently represented by OIC President Celina Gellada.
She was also welcomed by Project FORTH (Formation of Teachers in Challenged Areas) Coordinator and WVSU Vice President Ma. Asuncion Christine Dequilla and Project FORTH trainer and module writer Dr. Purita Bilbao who will be accompanying Dr. Bartolome in Iloilo and Aklan until April 1, 2022 when she returns to Spain.
WVSU and University of Deusto’s agreement “commits to respect the quality requirements of the Erasmus Charter for Higher Education in all aspects of the organization and management of the mobility, in particular the recognition of the credits (or equivalent) awarded to students by the partner institution.”
The above Inter-institutional agreement 2021-2022 has the University of Deusto assessing applicants of WVSU in a selection process of who best fits the academic offerings of the said University whereas University of Deusto sends its students and professors to WVSU.
Signing the agreement for University of Deusto was Dr. Alex Rayon Jerez, vice rector for International Relations and for WVSU, Ms. Edel Carmela Subong-Csoka, director of the International and Local Linkages Office. /PN
March 10, 2022 marks another milestone in the industry of Darag Native Chicken as the first Darag Chicken hub dubbed as ‘Abing’s Darag Chicken Trading’ was launched.
Abing’s Darag Chicken Trading owner, Mrs. Mae Gerbacia (current President of Panay Darag Chicken Breeders Association/PADABA), named the hub after Dr. Bernabe Cocjin’s nickname ‘Abing.’
Dr. Cocjin, the Darag ‘guru’ and a former President of West Visayas State University, purified the Darag stock by inbreeding them for eight generations through the support of DOST-PCAARRD (Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development).
Abing’s Darag Chicken Trading is located at the WVSU Cooperative Complex, Corner E. Lopez – Mission Road, La Paz, Iloilo City. The hub completes the value chain of Darag production and marketing. They welcome Darag raisers and business-minded Ilongos for buying and selling transactions. They serve palatable Darag menus (lechon, tinola, fried, grilled, crispy, linabugan, inasal, timuom, etc). Moreover, they also sell dressed Darag Chicken.
With the launching of Abing’s Darag trading hub, the stakeholders expect that Darag production and business will be extra propelled and contribute to the region’s immediate economic recovery from the pandemic.
Important guests attended the launching spearheaded by PADABA, included Engr. Remelyn Recoter, Regional Executive Director of Department of Agriculture VI; Dr. Joselito Villaruz, WVSU President IV; Dr. Greta Gabinete, Vice President for Research, Innovation, and Extension; Dr. Ricky Becodo, WVSU Extension Director; Mr. Inigo D. Garingalao, Iloilo City Agriculturist; WVSU Darag Researchers and Experts (Dr. George Roxas, and Dr. Helen Genandoy); WVSU Multi-Purpose Cooperative; WESVAARRDEC; and representatives from WVSU faculty and staff. Of course, Dr. Abing Cocjin was there with individual Darag raisers from various points of Region VI.
Two senators – Pia Cayetano and Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan – voted against SB 2239 on third reading. Only Cayetano consistently opposed the bill and said she was “beyond disappointed and beyond saddened” by its approval. Three days after the bill hurdled the Senate, the DOH slammed the “retrogressive” measure that “undermines the country’s progress in tobacco and control,” saying that it puts Filipino youth at risk. If passed into law, the bill will “expose our youth to harmful and addictive substances by making vapor products enticing and easily accessible,” the press release read. The bill stripped the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the regulatory authority over e-cigarettes and its components as a consequence of their reclassification as consumer products falling under the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). To health experts, the measure involves public health issues and should have stayed with the FDA for regulation, adding that people should not wait for vaping-related deaths to happen when parallel harms with traditional tobacco have already been proven in studies. After the sessions resume on January 17, the Senate and the House will harmonize their respective versions of the bill and ratify the conference committee report, then submit an enrolled copy to Malacañang. The DOH, FDA, several medical professional organizations and health experts, youth groups and tobacco control advocates are counting on the president to stick to his anti-smoking and anti-vaping position and veto the proposed law that defies the policy he laid down in 2019.
Read whole article HERE.
West Visayas State University is one of the 31 HEIs across 8 ASEAN countries, and 5 European states engaged in CALOHEA Project. The Project measures Competences and Learning Outcomes in Higher Education in Asia, a Project of the Erasmus+ Programme. It is coordinated by the University of Groningen in the Netherlands with the ASEAN University Network (AUN) partner agency.
CALOHEA operates through three Subject Area Groups: Civil Engineering, Medicine, and Teacher Education. Contributing to the internationalization of higher education institutions in South-East Asia, The Project is developing a series of interrelated measures in three Key Recognition Mechanisms:
- The creation and use of regional subject-specific qualifications and assessment reference frameworks to permit greater comparability of institutional degree program profiles
- Installment of the culture of Student Workload Measurement as an integral part of curriculum design
- Implementation of authentic assessment of internationally comparable Learning Outcomes in degree programs