The University of the Philippines Board of Regents has named former faculty regent Angelo Jimenez as the 22nd president of the country’s 114-year-old premier state university.
“Angelo Jimenez is the 22nd President of the University of the Philippines,” said Tinig ng Plaridel, the official publication of the UP College of Mass Communication, on Facebook.
“Beginning in 2023, the former Duterte-appointed UP regent will serve a six-year term as chief officer of the nation’s premier state university,” it said.
Jimenez, a lawyer, will replace outgoing UP President Danilo Concepcion, who will end his term in February 2023.
Others nominated by the board for the post were UP Diliman chancellor Fidel Nemenzo, former UP Los Baños chancellor Fernando Sanchez Jr., Catanduanes State University president Patrick Alain Azanza, former 1-Edukasyon representative Salvador Belaro Jr., and former UP Diliman vice chancellor for research and development Benito Pacheco.
Jimenez, an expert on Philippine overseas labor issues and global migration, served with distinction in the Department of Labor and Employment and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.
He received two presidential citations for his efforts in safeguarding overseas Filipino workers or OFWs in Middle East flash points, including Kuwait and Iraq. He also served as labor attaché in Japan.
He served as a UP Regent from November 2017 to July 2021.
The Philippine Collegian, the University of the Philippines Diliman’s official student paper, and other student groups, in a rare move, endorsed chancellor Nemenzo for the university president position.
UP Diliman Student Council Chairperson Latrell Felix earlier said the selection of the next UP president was “crucial” because it would “reflect how the university will proceed in the next six years.”
The University of the Philippines is the country’s national university. The premier institution of higher learning was established in 1908 and is now a university system composed of eight constituent universities located in 17 campuses all over the archipelago.
As of 2020, the Commission on Higher Education has declared 41 units of the university as Centers of Excellence, while five units have been declared as Centers of Development.
The Board of Regents is the highest governing body in the UP System.
Its members are drawn from both the university and the private and public sectors, and is currently chaired by Commission on Higher Education chairman Prospero de Vera.
