Students of UP Visayas may be considered as trail blazers in the creation of the ‘Do It Yourself’ face shields in the country. The initiative started after UPV student Hannah Labrador and her doctor mom introduced the idea to students stranded in the dormitories and boarding houses and supplied them with raw materials. The production started during the third week of March 2020.

UP Visayas has facilitated the safe return home of 13 students on May 22. The students who are residents of Passi City, Capiz, Aklan and Mindoro Oriental boarded the UPV bus at 6:10 AM. The bus had its final stop in Caticlan to enable Mindoro-bound students to get a boat from there enroute to their respective homes.

The tricycle drivers and laundrywomen have long been a part of the UP Visayas community in Miagao since the campus opened in 1989.  The drivers ferry faculty, staff and students around the sprawling campus and the town proper. The laundrywomen service the students staying at the dorms as well as residents living in the staff houses.

UP Visayas is continuously endeavoring to assist its students who are stranded in Miagao and Iloilo City campuses who wish to return to their places of residence now that the Second Semester has ended. Chancellor Ricardo Babaran has directed the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Administration and the OSA to take charge of the whole initiative.

Dr. Philip Ian Padilla with his UP Visayas team of Public Health experts and ThinkWell Philippines are optimistic that Western Visayas can transition with caution to General Community Quarantine based on the Policy Note No. 2 (Public Health Data Analysis and Recommendations for Western Visayas as of April 30, 2020) they have issued.

Workers of the UPV Employees Cooperative (UPVEC/Coop) welcomed the collaboration with the UPV Administration to provide food services to students and campus residents during the enhanced community quarantine. The Coop management acceded to the request of UPV administration to continue its operations even as strict adherence to government guidelines on health and safety during the health emergency was seriously taken into consideration.