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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 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.