USJ-R Balamban campus opens

CEBU, Philippines – On its first year of operations, the Balamban campus of the University of San Jose-Recoletos offers Grades 1 to 5 in the elementary level and first to second year for the secondary level.

In a statement, it was learned that “growing student population is currently composed of over 300 enrollees” – 189 for grade school and 114 for high school - and that construction works for other buildings would continue until Phase 1 of the project is completed.

The new campus constructed by the Cebu Industrial Park Developers, Inc. and Tsuneishi Heavy Industries in barangay Arpili, and now being operated by USJ-R through industry-academe partnership, saw its blessing and inauguration yesterday.

Over 200 guests composed of the Aboitiz Group, representatives of the developer and shipbuilding firm, USJ-R Board of Trustees, and officials of the Department of Education and the local government unit attended the launch.

Construction works on a 12.7-hectare campus lot were made possible through a Memorandum of Understanding that Andoni Aboitiz, president of CIPDI; Kenji Kawano, former THI chairman of the Board; and Rev. Fr. Lauro Larlar, chairman of the USJ-R Board of Trustees, signed last July 4, 2008. The signing was witnessed by Balamban Mayor Alex Binghay and Arpili barangay captain Primo Paulin. Groundbreaking took place last September 4.

Further, it was learned that under the said MOU, the developer and the shipbuilding firm “agreed to build a school that would provide accessible and affordable education to their respective employees, their employees’ immediate families and Balamban residents.”

USJ-R takes care of establishing, operating and the maintaining of the educational institution in keeping with its enduring commitment to providing quality Christian community-oriented education. Also, the Balamban campus will be home to the Colleges of Engineering and Nursing, each equipped with modern laboratory and classroom instructional resources and facilities.

The industrial park developer offered the parcel of land where the school is now located, while Tsuneishi offered to construct the buildings and facilities.

Site development and building construction began in September last year and was completed last month, just in time for the opening of schoolyear 2009-2010. The industry-academe partnership of the USJ-R with Tsuneishi and CIPDI accentuates further their commitment to social responsibility, the heart and substance of academic pursuit of any institution of learning.

CIPDI, a joint venture between the Aboitiz Group through AboitizLand and Tsuneishi Holdings, Inc. of Japan, is the developer and manager of West Cebu Industrial Park - a 202-hectare industrial facility in Balamban that caters to medium-to-heavy industries such as shipbuilding and ship recycling facilities while Tsuneishi builds merchant ships of up to 100,000 deadweight tons using the same high quality shipbuilding technologies and standards as those in Tsuneishi, Japan. — Maria Eleanor E. Valeros (THE FREEMAN)