* Message on the occasion of the 63rd Foundation Day of Northwestern Visayan Colleges on February 26 by Dr.-Ing. Adolfo Jesus R. Gopez, President, FEATI University.
I am deeply honoured and at the same time humbled to be invited to address all of you on such an important occasion for your venerable institution. I greet and congratulate the administration, staff, faculty members, students and stakeholders of Northwestern Visayan Colleges which has ably served the community of Kalibo, the Province of Aklan and the surrounding region for the last 63 years. Today, your institution continues to be one of the pillars of development and progress in the region. And FEATI University is delighted to be a part of all of these now.
On this happy occasion, even as FEATI University conveys it’s thanks to NVC for its continuing partnership in offering a joint program in Aircraft Maintenance Technology (AMT), we would call your attention to the indications that we are with you in the medium to long term. NVC was the first of our partners in what was then an experimental endeavor meant to offer our courses in the regions without diminishing from the FEATI experience. With our experience with you, we have, in fact, been able to replicate this partnership in Clark Polytechnic in Region 3 and in Palawan, in the far-flung area of Region 4A.
Today with our newly acquired aircraft grade equipment, tools and instruments, with our able faculty and very soon with our flying assets, our intentions to make our partnership grow should now be very evident. It is our desire to not only continue to offer the joint AMT program with you, we envision it to be a benchmark program that will produce highly qualified and employable graduates, a program that will be held up as an example of service to the students and to their parents. At the end of their studies, we would like our graduates, as well as their parents to say that the time and resources they devoted to finishing from our program were more than worth it. That is why our Board of Trustees, and in particular, our Vice Chairman of the Board and CEO, Mr. Francisco A. Segovia has spared no expense or effort in upgrading our capabilities in our joint AMT program.
We would not have been able to do all this without the vital contribution that you, and NVC, have already made and continue to make. By welcoming us in your inner sanctum, by agreeing to work with us, and by providing a vital part of the service to the students: the General Education, you have not only enabled our partnership but you have created a friendship that will, undoubtedly outlast anything that we could all propose or create in this endeavour. We therefore, thank you sincerely for welcoming a stranger, FEATI University in your midst and transforming this stranger into a partner and most importantly, into a friend.
But we have no intentions of resting on our collective laurels. At this very moment, our efforts in FEATI University are focused and directed at Accreditation. In May 2010, we passed our consultancy visit and we are now in the thick of our preparations for the accreditation visit in the third quarter of 2011. We intend to move on the appropriate level of Accreditation that will enable our partnership to offer BS programs needed by your community and region. We are also following the developments in the efforts for our country to join the Washington Accord. The accrediting body we have selected is actively working with the Philippine Technological Council, the umbrella organization of licensed engineers in the country which will be the Philippine signatory to the Washington Accord. This proximity to the accrediting body working with PTC should enable FEATI University to qualify for the Washington Accord, making our graduates acceptable to the member countries of the Accord. This would also have a positive effect on graduates of our joint programs.
We are also aware of your local efforts aimed at preserving and restoring the environment while allowing development. Our institution, is located beside a suffering river and it is no coincidence that we have been able to obtain DOST funding for focused studies on the water and sediment of Pasig River, as well as initial efforts at bioremediation. Knowing that NVC and its officials have their own noteworthy experiences in similar efforts on the restoration of the environment, this is an area for the possible growth of our partnership. We could start by exchanging and sharing information in the technical and sociological aspects of "saving" rivers and in working with the communities affected or served by these rivers. There is much to be learned in this area, such as in people’s attitudes, beliefs and values as related to the environment, in general, and to rivers and their immediate environs, in particular.
There are other opportunities for expanding our partnership that I believe will soon be explored, such as your Hotel and Restaurant Management and our Tourism Management programs. While I recall mentions of these programs in the past we have not yet initiated anything in this area. So let us continue to discuss and explore.
It appears therefore, that while our relationship has deepened, in our joint activities and programs, we have actually, barely scratched the surface.
In closing, I again thank NVC for its valuable partnership for welcoming us to work with them. We will continue to work to be deserving of this partnership and warm friendship. /MP
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