UP Visayas is on board in the management of the oil spill crisis that has recently struck the Iloilo City and province as well as the province of Guimaras after a power barge operated by the energy arm of Filipino multinational company, Ayala Corporation, spilled nearly 270,000 litres of bunker fuel off the coast of Iloilo City on July 3, 2020.

UP Hamili Brotherhood and UP Hamilia Sisterhood stepped up and did their share to serve the community while the country is battling the COVID-19 pandemic.

UP Visayas continues in its efforts to get its stranded students home due to COVID-19. Today, June 3, 2020, 42 students were sent off. They were transported by the UPV bus from the Miagao campus and taken to the pier in Fort San Pedro where they will board the 2GO ferry boat bound for Cagayan de Oro. From there, the students who are going to various destinations, will be fetched by their respective LGUs. Prior arrangements for this were done by UPV and by the students themselves before their departure.

A faculty member and a researcher of the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, UP Visayas (UPV-CFOS) earned their doctorate degrees in the United States (US) in Spring 2020.

One hundred test kits were donated to the Eastern Visayas Regional Covid-19 Testing Center (EVRCTC) on 10 June through the Detect 100 – Sponsor a Test Kit Project organized by UP Maanyag, Batch 2007 of the University of the Philippines Visayas Tacloban College (UPVTC).

Heroes emerge during times of crisis. The one brought about by COVID-19 has shaped UP Visayas’ College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences faculty Dr. Victor Marco Emmanuel “Noel” Ferriols into nothing short of contemporary public health hero. Not one to show-off his achievements, this low key Director of the Philippine Genome Center – Visayas played a critical role in setting up several COVID-19 Testing Center in Western Visayas harnessing the resources and connections of the research facility.

Pandan was the first municipality in mainland Antique that registered a confirmed case of Covid-19 patient. Unfortunately, it was dubbed as the “ground zero” of the province due to the increasing number of Covid-positive cases. As a fourth-class municipality with limited resources and manpower, it was a huge challenge for the Local Government Unit (LGU) how to fight this health crisis. This led to their call for dagyaw, a term used to refer to the collective effort that brought together Pandananons composed of government agencies, civil society organizations, private businesses, and individuals in addressing the pandemic.

UP Visayas alumni again played heroes and took in their care 14 Ilonggo students from UP Diliman who were unable to go home before the lockdown was implemented.

The UP Men’s Basketball Team and the San Beda Red Lions were supposed to play exhibition games on March 14 to 15 2020 in Passi City and Iloilo City. On February 5, 2020, iAmUPHi, in partnership with the UPAA Iloilo Chapter and a local sports organizer were finalizing plans for the games including a dinner for the teams at the Casa Real that was to be hosted by Iloilo Provincial Governor Arthur Defensor, Jr. Everybody was busy preparing for the big event. But fate had a bigger plan.