1st LYCEUM CAMPUS OUTSIDE LUZON EYED IN DAVAO CITY
- KARINA V. CANEDO
- Apr 1, 2017
- 2 min read
THE first Mindanao campus of Lyceum University of the Philippines (LUP) is eyed to be built in Davao City. Lyceum University of the Philippines president Peter Laurel during a privilege hour in the session of the 18th City Council on Tuesday, March 28, confirmed that the LUP campus is eyed to be built soon within the city.
"It will be the first campus outside of Luzon. We have (campuses) in Batangas, Laguna, Cavite, Makati, Manila, and now we would like to put one in Davao City," he said.
Laurel said the idea of building a campus in the city came from a conversation with then Davao City mayor and now President Rodrigo Duterte.
"Two years ago, we went to Davao, hindi pa presidente si Duterte (Duterte was not yet the president), and we made a courtesy call on him, and he said that being our graduate, he said maganda daw sana magkaroon ng school dito (it might be a good idea to build a campus here)," Laurel said.
He added that before, they were looking at Cebu as prospect area but they are now looking at Davao City.
"We never thought of it, we were looking at Cebu out of Luzon, we looked around, [then] we saw how Davao City is and we realized that this is the city," he added. He said they bought an eight-hectare property in front of the Jose Maria College for the construction of the school.
"It is eight hectares but only three hectares will be initially developed as a university," he said.
He said they will not offer grade school and they are studying whether they will offer Grades 11 or 12.
"We are very happy that we know there are a lot of good schools coming in, in additional to the many good schools that are already here but given that Davao is expanding so much, ito na pala ang (this is the) capital city of the Philippines, so we really see the potential to really put a center of excellence for the People of Mindanao and Davao City and we hope to open by 2018," he said.
Laurel added they are hoping to start the construction of the school in the next few weeks. He said LUP will offer hotel and room management and hospitality, business courses, information technology, medical technology, maritime, and Engineering. He said they primarily chose Davao for its peace and order and since President Rodrigo Duterte is a graduate of LUP and the big potential for the entire island of Mindanao.
"We see that with peace and order comes the economic benefits so we would like to play a role in the education side of nation building," Laurel said.
Read more: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/davao/local-news/2017/03/28/1st-lyceum-campus-outside-luzon-eyed-davao-city-533603
