|
NEWLY
installed Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM)
president Adel Tamano vowed Thursday to bring the
institution to greater heights of academic excellence
during his term.
Speaking
before some of the country’s national leaders who
attended his investiture at PLM’s Justo Albert
Auditorium, Tamano, former spokesman of the United
Opposition, said investing in education will secure the
country’s future, as he called for adequate government
support for students to excel.
Tamano,
37, becomes the seventh president and first Muslim head
of PLM, a learning institution fully subsidized by the
local government of Manila.
Among
those who witnessed Tamano’s investiture were Senate
President Manny Villar, Sens. Aquilino Pimentel Jr.,
Jinggoy Estrada, Benigno Aquino III, San Juan Mayor JV
Ejercito and actress Susan Roces.
“PLM is
presently ranked by the Philippine Regulatory
Commission, in terms of passing the professional
accreditation board exams, as third in nursing, second
in accountancy and second in architecture. The lesson
here is simple: with adequate government support, our
students can excel,” he said.
As
university president, Tamano vowed to “modernize” and
“computerize” PLM to provide students access to computer
and Internet for free.
He said
there are 390 free Internet stations as well as wi-fi
facilities for the use of teachers and students. He
projected that the university will have 150 more
computers by year 2010.
Tamano
also intends to initiate the drafting of a
best-practices manual for local colleges and make it a
project of the Association of Local Colleges and
Universities.
According to Tamano, faculty and student academic
development will figure high in his priorities.
He said
PLM will undergo a thorough refurbishing of existing
facilities like the repair of the school gymnasium, the
creation of a faculty lounge, a health and wellness
center and additional classrooms.
“Without
proper education, Filipinos will not have the skills
needed to compete for jobs in the increasingly
competitive global marketplace,” he said.
“Without
proper education, multinational corporations and
international businesses will hesitate to invest in the
Philippines, especially if we lose our competitive
advantage in English,” he added.
Tamano
said the people cannot participate intelligently in the
national discourse as well as in governance, and will
thus be unable to choose the best leaders for the
country without proper education.
Tamano
is the first Filipino Muslim who studied under a Harvard
Law Scholarship. He comes from a long line of law
practitioners, from his grandfather down to his father
and uncles.
The
eighth of nine children of the late senator Mamintal
Tamano and Haja Putri Zorayda Abbas Tamano, Tamano vowed
to carry out a stunning transformation of the city’s
premier state university.
He
earned his law degree (Juris Doctor, 1995) and his
bachelor’s degree (AB Economics, 1992) from the Ateneo
de Manila University. In 2003, he received his master’s
degree in Public Administration from the University of
the Philippines. After his Harvard scholarship, Tamano
returned to the country to teach and practice law.
Tamano
writes a newspaper column. |
