Philippine School of Business Administration – Manila holds Special Graduation Rites for Pioneer MBA-DRM Program Graduates from Quezon City Local Government Scholars
July 22, 2019 – The Philippine School of Business Administration – Manila (PSBA-Manila) held its Special Graduation Rites for its Master in Business Administration Specialization in Disaster Risk Management (MBA-DRM) Program as an extension of its 51st Commencement Exercises last Friday, July 19, 2019 at the President Manuel L. Quezon Ceremonial Hall, 15th Floor, Main Building, Quezon City Hall, Quezon City Compound, Elliptical Road, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines, at 6’oclock in the evening.
Twelve pioneer graduates of the MBA-DRM program received the Pioneering Graduate Award from PSBA-Manila President Dr. Jose Perlata and the Honorable Quezon City Mayor Ma. Josefina “Joy” Belmonte-Alimurung, who was invited as the Commencement Speaker for the event.
In the Honorable Mayor’s speech, she addressed the graduates that she will be relying on them to assist her in decision making, particularly on cancellation of classes, and building disaster resilience, especially to the children of Quezon City. She called for their expertise in developing a program to provide students raincoats and galoshes as to not impact their education.
His Excellency Dr. Aman Rashid, the Ambassador of Pakistan to the Philippines, was also invited and give a message to the graduates. He suggested having participatory classes on disaster resilience for children and parents alike instead of cancelling classes on days of bad weather, where the pioneer graduates can lend their expertise in developing such a program.
Although they were not personally able to come, Office of Civil Defense (OCD) National Capital Region (NCR) Director Romulo Cabantac and Plans and Programs Officer Mr. Marlon Henson Obligado identified this achievement and gave their inspiring message to the graduates and PSBA-Manila to continue their contributions for disaster risk-resiliency and climate-change adaptation, and announced that OCDNCR will be partnering with PSBA-Manila as a practical venue for upcoming MBA-DRM interns. Their message was delivered by Dr. Tabassam Raza, current Associate Dean of the PSBA-Manila Graduate School of Business (GSB) and Director of PSBA-Manila Disaster Risk Management Unit.
Arch. Pedro Rodriguez Jr., Head of the Quezon City Planning Office and MBA-DRM pioneer graduate, rallied his fellow graduates “May [We] Always Build” in his valedictory address.
PSBA-Manila, was also given recognition from the Quezon City local government for pioneering the MBA-DRM program. This recognition was received by Dr. Raza before concluding the rites and calling for the celebratory dinner.
The MBA-DRM Program is the first and only specialization program on DRM in the country anchored on business continuity principles regarding the intensity and frequency of natural and man-made disasters and their negative impact on economy, loss of life, and damage to property. In developing this program, an extensive research led by Dr. Raza found that the destruction caused by disasters was due to the lack of coping and adaptive capacities of personnel and institutions and that Higher Education Institutions have neglected DRM as part of its studies despite the mandate of the Philippine Republic Act No. 10121, or the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010, to “Uphold people’s right to life and property… by addressing the root cause of vulnerability to disasters…”. The research recommended developing a formal education program for specialists as one solution to these effects, which aligns with the Hyogo Framework of 2005-2015 along with its continuation, the Sendai Framework of 2015-2030, both citing that public and private institutions should integrate DRM in their practices.
The MBA-DRM program trains students to be participatory and practice-oriented. It requires students to observe similar programs in PSBA-Manila’s networked universities via foreign travel and to conduct at least two conferences centered on DRM each year, where international experts are invited to talk about the latest trends on disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and sustainable development.
The offering of the MBA-DRM Program, along with practicing its teachings to its institution through its DRM Unit, has allowed PSBA-Manila to nab back-to-back First Place in the NCR Regional Gawad KALASAG Awards 2018 and 2019 for the Higher Education Institutions category. Gawad KALASAG is awarded by the OCD to national institutions and organizations for their outstanding contribution and excellence in disaster risk reduction and management, and humanitarian assistance. The Quezon City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) Council has also consecutively won the award as the best DRRM Council in the NCR.
This pioneer batch of MBA-DRM graduates are all scholars from the Scholarship Youth Development Program (SYDP) of Quezon City and are all local government employees working for Quezon City’s City Planning and Development Office. They are expected to become disaster management experts who will develop and implement risk-sensitive plans for the city. Further, the topics of the theses of these pioneer graduates are also centered on identifying and solving the current problems of Quezon City as approved by the SYDP. Thus, these graduates have already made their fruitful contribution to Quezon City in completing the two-year graduate program. Aside from the 12 pioneer graduates, there are currently 38 scholars from Quezon City who are still enrolled in the program.
Enrollment to the MBA-DRM program of the PSBA-Manila GSB is still ongoing until August 3, 2019 for the 1st Semester of School Year 2019-2020. Interested applicants must be a bachelor degree holder of any course. For more information, call +63-2-310-1032 or visit the PSBA-Manila website at http://psba.edu.
