No. 364 September - October 2017 Concepcion vows to ease faculty and staff promotion and regularization, Dr. Padilla reappointed UP Manila Chancellor restore old buildings, and build another PGH, CM at Diliman Dr. Carmencita D. Padilla, 9th chancellor of UP Manila, was reappointed to a second term by the UP Board of Regents during its 1331st meeting held on 18 October 2017. She will serve from 1 November 2017 to 31 October 2020. Dr. Padilla is the third woman chancellor of the University and the fourth to enjoy a second term since 1983. She was the lone nominee for the post after a two-month search conducted by a Search Committee (SC) created by UP President Danilo Concepcion, together with the SCs for UP Los Banos and UP Visayas chancellors. The UP Manila SC was chaired by Prof. Lourdes Abadingo, former secretary of UP, the BOR, and former Faculty Regent. Meanwhile, Chancellor Padilla recently received the “5th R. Rodney Howell Award for Excellence in Newborn Health” in Minneapolis UP President Danilo Concepcion presents his vision, plans and programs for the next six years during his investiture held at the (Minnesota, USA). The award is in recognition of her University Theater, UP Diliman. leadership in improving the lives of newborns and in her visionary work in enhancing human genetics, Atty. Danilo L. Concepcion was vivid proof that UP’s founders another as a people sharing the same metabolic research, and newborn screening, not formally installed as the 21st president understood that creating a great future. Truth, reason, and respect have just in the Philippines, but around the world. of the University of the Philippines in university would mean stepping out been the prime casualties in these The award is named after an outstanding investiture rites held on September of one’s own moorings into a true exchanges, which I am sure you have pediatrician and leader in newborn screening 20, 2017 at the University Theater, UP community of minds. Such, he added, witnessed—if not participated in— since the 1960s. Dr. Howell is a Professor in the Diliman, Quezon City. are the hallmarks of UP from the start online,” Conception stated. Department of Pediatrics, Chairman Emeritus of He started his speech by recalling - difference and diversity, dissension He took a dig at social media, Pediatrics, and Member of the John P. Hussman the pledge of UP’s first President, Dr. and debate, especially since the saying that it is becoming the Institute for Human Genomics at the University of Murray Bartlett in 1911, that UP would University Council was first set up and stalking ground of some of the most Miami Miller School of Medicine. not be merely a copy of its Western the ability to harmonize differences to unsociable people one could come Below is a summary of achievements of the models but would be a “University forge a way forward. across. Stating that the university Padilla administration during the past three years. for Filipinos” devoted to providing “Both at the national and remains, in many ways, a microcosm “the intellectual and moral leadership university levels, it is becoming of a much larger society, he lamented Excellence in Academics and Research essential to social salvation and difficult to push any agenda forward that some of the caustic and deeply From November 2014, the administration progressive national development.” without being subjected to intense, divisive rhetoric has come to infect UP, ensured that the faculty and research staff have greater With Bartlett being an American sometimes malicious, but also often not just the students but the faculty, opportunities to become excellent. Under the research and a Protestant pastor, the UP necessary scrutiny. In many instances, staff, and administrators as well. administration grants, there was an increase of 48% president said that the irony offers we have stopped talking to one CONCEPCION | PAGE 3 ► in the amount given compared to 2013. This grant is given to faculty regardless of status for oral presentation of papers in local or international conferences. STATEMENT ON MEDICAL CANNABIS LEGALIZATION adults, in improving painful spasms in Multiple Sclerosis, and the The current limited evidence to safeguard these, in the guise of management of treatment-resistant on the efficacy of Medical Cannabis, forwarding research and providing epilepsy in the pediatric age group. the strong evidence on its harmful access to medical cannabis. However, the current evidence is still effects, as well as its negative insufficient to fulfill drug regulatory health impact in the face of Our statements: approval requirements. There increasing Cannabis potency makes 1. We recognize that some patients are studies showing that acute legalization of Medical Cannabis who do not respond to standard Cannabis use leads to increased risk in the country a serious threat to treatment may benefit from Medical of motor vehicular accidents when public health. Cannabis. However, there is no need driving under its influence. Chronic We, the Technical Working for any new legislation to allow Cannabis use impairs cognition Group on Medical Cannabis access to Cannabis as there are and neurodevelopment, increases Legalization and Concerned already existing national policies the risk of psychosis and can lead Faculty Members of the University with mechanisms that will allow to dependence, addiction, and of the Philippines Manila, express access to Cannabis for medical use substance abuse. our strongest objection to House in a research setting. 3. Studies on the Legalization of Bills 6517, 180, and 4477 proposing 2. To date, there is no sufficient Medical Cannabis have shown to legalize Medical Cannabis. evidence on the efficacy of the an increase in Cannabis use and The three bills filed in Congress in Cannabis plant in the treatment of dependence and diversion to 2017, 2016, and 2014 clearly threaten any disease. There is emerging data recreational use; in effect increasing Chancellor Padilla receives her Rodney Howell Award the health and safety of the Filipinos on the efficacy of Medical Cannabis for Excellence in Newborn Health access to a deleterious substance and the institutions established in the treatment of chronic pain in CANNABIS | PAGE 2 ► UP MANILA CHANCELLOR | PAGE 5 ► 2 college/unit beats UP MANILA NEWSLETTER www.upm.edu.ph VP Bautista recounts pioneering researches of physician father; tertiary government hospital; Observational Category – Dr. Fides Roxanne Castor, echoes impact of health research at PGH Research forum A comparison of actual versus estimated that while indeed the volume of Philippine their work, the impact of medical research weights among Filipino children at the publications has been low, their quality has on real people became more palpable to Pediatric ER of PGH using the original and been high especially for medicine. her with the serendipitous discovery of the updated APLS, Mercy and Broselow tape: A She commended the interdisciplinary role of his father’s research in saving a life. prospective study; Case Report Category nature of these publications: the field of She recalled that long after his father’s – Dr. Evangeline Capul, Bizarre Bezoars in medicine interacted with the agricultural death, when she was director of the UP CIDS children: A report of two cases and literature and biological sciences as well as the in the 1990s and starting a multidisciplinary review; Systematic Review/Meta-analysis social sciences. This only shows, according action research in Misamis, the newest Category – Dr. Marc Denver Tiongson, to her, that the approach to problems in CIDS research fellow from the College of Red cell distribution width and mortality in health and wellness as well as in other Engineering—who has since become an patients with acute coronary syndrome: A dimensions of life should really be holistic Academician of the National Academy of meta-analysis on prognosis. and integrative. The resulting medical Science and Technology but at the time had For the Residents Research Forum, the solutions and policies from such approach just returned from studying the waterworks winners are: Observational Category, top have contributed significantly to the of California—asked upon hearing her winner is Dr. Maetrix Ocon, The prevalence UP Vice President for Academic Affairs quality and greater longevity of human life. maiden name if she knew her father. of risk factors that lead to chronic disabling Cynthia Rose Banzon-Bautista She thanked PGH Director Gerardo Legaspi “When I answered in the affirmative, diseases among PGH admiinistrators and The 2017 PGH Annual Research for his decision to invest P16M for research. he told me how indebted he was to him fiscal employees; Case Report Category – Dr. Forum kicked off on October 9, 2017 “It made me reaffirm my deep because a long time ago, he was very sick Patricia Naclanceno, Malignant Acanthosis with an inspiring message from UP Vice appreciation of the life work of my father. with schistosomiasis, having acquired the Nigricans and tripe palms in a patient with President for Academic Affairs Dr. Cynthia After graduating from the UP College disease while swimming in the waters of metastatic endometrial adenocarcinoma; Rose Bautista, former director of the UP of Medicine in 1949, my father chose to Mindanao. At that time, my father’s team Systematic Review/Meta-analysis Category Center for Integrative Studies (CIDS). devote himself to pioneering research on was just experimenting on a treatment. To – Ms. Marla Keziah Legion, Compassion Acknowledging the fecundity of schistosomiasis—when the disease was still make a long story short, the experimental satisfaction and compassion fatigue among the field of medical research, Bautista outside the radar of funders and when he treatment worked for our Academician, nurses in a tertiary hospital. cited Scopus data from 2009 to 2010 in relentlessly complained that social science enabling him to move on with his studies For the Nursing Research Contest, the Philippines showing medicine as the researchers in population-related projects and pursue a productive academic career.” the top winner is Ms.