IE Alumni Take Center Stage at the 2015 UPAE Homecoming

Three IE alumni were elected to the board of the UP Alumni Engineers, the mother organization of the departmental alumni and fraternal alumni associations, at the November 7, 2015 UPAE Homecoming held at the Ang Bahay ng Alumni. 15 College of Engineering alumni were nominated and eight were elected to replace the eight of 15 directors who were stepping down. Among the eight elected were three IE alumni, namely: Dante M. Briones, IE ‘82, a reelectionist and current UPAE Vice President-External; Adrian S. Arias, IE ‘84; and Adolfo Carlos D. Umali, IE ‘87. They join Nicanor “Nicky” S. Villaseñor III, IE ‘78; and Elise A. del Rosario, IE ’77, currently also UPAE’s Executive Director. That makes 5 of the 15 UPAE directors having IE backgrounds. Not bad given that there are nine engineering institutes and departments in all.

The 2015 Professional Degree Awardee for Industrial Engineering went to UPIEAA’s nominee, Jose Jerome “Jeng” Pascual III, IE ’86 and Shell Philippines Exploration CFO and last year’s ING-FINEX CFO of the Year. Jeng was accompanied by wife Debora “Debbie” Asperas-Pascual, IE ’85. The most distinguished alumnus award went to Leonardo Liongson, ChE ’69, MSES ’73, PhD ’76 and a Professorial Lecturer with the Institute of Civil Engineering.

This year’s homecoming theme was “Engineering Heroes Giving Back”. This was reflected in the annual UPAE yearbook, Ingenium 2015, a 208-page digest, with Jaime “Bing” del Rosario, UPIEAA president, serving as this year’s Editor-in-Chief.

Spotted among the early comers was ex-Prime Minister-and-alumnus Cesar Virata. Also early were the 1965 Golden Jubilarians, led by Filemon “Jun” Uriarte Jr., former DOST Secretary, who came all dressed up in their barongs and filipiniana attire and came up the stage in one cohesive group. The stage was decorated with a Filipiniana theme and the opening number was quite appropriately done by the UP Filipiniana Dance Troupe.

The emcee of the evening was none other than the vivacious and charming Giselle Sanchez, a regular singer, CNN talk show host and comedienne who also happened to be a UP alumna – though from the College of Mass Communications.

One of the highlights of the evening was the introduction of the Study Now Pay Later program of the UPAE, which included a PowerPoint presentation, a video of the first seven beneficiaries to be selected, the contract-signing, and the exciting pledging session led by Vice President-External Dante Briones and Vice President-Internal Levy Espiritu, with alumni and fraternities outbidding each other to pledge P120,000 (or higher) in support of the SNPL program. One of the seven was 3rd year IE student Troy Jerson Canicosa.

Before delivering her own message, Dean Aura C. Matias, IE ’82, informed the crowd that this was going to be her last time to address a UPAE homecoming as CoE Dean since she was going to complete her second and last term by June next year. She then proceeded to outline the gains and accomplishments of the past year.

Of course, no homecoming would be complete without raffle prizes and the 2015 homecoming was no exception. This included a host of small appliances – electric fans, flat irons, steamers, etc. – followed by the three major prizes – microwave oven, ref, and the grand prize of a 40-inch Sony Bravia LED TV, won by IE ‘76 alumnus Benjie Mirasol, who came with IE alumna wife Carina “Wins” Jimenez-Mirasol, IE ‘76.

The programme proceeded like clockwork and finished on the dot, as scheduled. Jessica “Liza” Reyes-Ting, IE ’85 and UPIEAA director, expressed the view of several others who attended, “it was a great evening, and in my opinion much better organized than previous homecomings.” Clearly, a UPAE homecoming night to remember.