Speech of Senator Loren Legarda Turnover Ceremony for the Rehabilitation of the UP Visayas Auditorium

Speech of Senator Loren Legarda
Turnover Ceremony for the Rehabilitation of the UP Visayas Auditorium
09 August 2025

Thank you for bringing this rehabilitation to completion with rigor and dedication. As a proud Iskolar ng Bayan, I have worked to support projects that strengthen the University's capacity to serve. Here in UP Visayas, I have supported various projects, including the restoration of the UPV Little Theater in 2017, the multi-phase construction of the Multi-Purpose Building for the UP High School in 2019, and the ongoing completion of the Administrative Services Building, among others. And today, we turn over the rehabilitated UP Visayas Auditorium, an element of a larger investment that delivers lasting value to the Filipino people.

In my home province of Antique, I have brought UP's reach closer to the people. We ensured resources for the expansion and operationalization of the UP Visayas Pandan campus and the ongoing completion of the Extension Building in Barangay Nauring. These enable young people to study in fields critical to their communities while remaining at home, improving incomes, and strengthening local industries.

I have also ensured that scholarship flows back to the people as knowledge they can use. We invested in the UP Visayas Museum of Arts and Cultural Heritage and its collaboration with the Lopez Museum and Library; in the cultural mapping of Panay and Negros; and in the publication of various books on indigenous knowledge that we will be launching later today. These enrich teaching materials, deepen cultural competencies, and give communities recognition for their heritage. These projects form a complete system: facilities that host learning, operational support that sustains delivery, and culture and research that inform identity and policy. The value of these investments can be

measured through practical indicators: how many research outputs guide ordinances; how many cultural assets are integrated into tourism and education plans; how fisherfolk incomes rise after training; and how actively the public participates in the life of the University.

This is how the work of UP Visayas reaches the ordinary Filipino: in the classroom that shapes the mind, in the research that improves livelihoods, in the culture that preserves our soul.

As an alumna and as a four-term Senator, I will remain committed to ensuring that UP has the facilities, programs, research, and cultural infrastructure it needs to serve the nation. With our continued partnership, we affirm that through the University of the Philippines, the country is repaid many times over--in knowledge, in culture, and in service.

Madamo gid nga salamat at isang luntiang

Pilipinas sa ating lahat!

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