This was stressed by Atty. Angelo A. Jimenez, President of the University of the Philippines System, during the signing ceremonies of the environmental diplomacy and negotiations last April 29, 2024, at the School of Environmental Science and Management-University of the Philippines Los Baños (SESAM-UPLB) Academic Quadrangle. Atty. Jimenez was the distinguished guest of the event, entitled “Toward a Common Ground: Forging Partnerships for the environment and groundbreaking ceremony for the SESAM Annex Building.” 

Atty. Jimenez is the 22^nd president of the UP System. He said that he studied his first year in the university here in UPLB. He later finished BS Sociology and Bachelor of Laws from UP Diliman. A former resident of the FOREHA dorm, he said he loves the environment and fresh air of UPLB. Now he is proud to see that SESAM is now offering the PhD Environmental Diplomacy and Negotiations program. 

“When I fought for the approval of the PhD program on environmental diplomacy, there were very serious questions about it, the first question is why UPLB? Because we put the word ‘diplomacy’, you talk about people in ties and suits, it is a diplomat-level. But of course, we realized that the world has changed and much of what we know about national security has to do on what we call today as ‘non-traditional security threats,’ and one of the biggest threats today is the threat to planet earth and the environment,” Atty. Jimenez stressed. 

UPLB signed two memoranda, namely a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the National Security Council (NSC), represented by Gen. Benjamin R. Madrigal, Jr. (Ret.), Deputy Director; and a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the Foreign Service Institute, represented by Atty. Francisco Noel R. Fernandez, III, Director General. UPLB was represented by the Chancellor, Dr. Jose V. Camacho, Jr.

After the memoranda signing, SESAM relaunched its website. The SESAM official Facebook Page and the link to the Journal of Environmental Science and Management (JESAM) webpage at the UPLB Journals Online website can now be accessed thru the new SESAM website. New links of interdisciplinary centers and SESAM projects will also be accessed from the school’s website soon. Also during the event, audio visual presentations of the school, PhD EDN and SESAM Annex Building were also shown. 

In the SESAM annex building groundbreaking, Chancellor Camacho said that with the new facility, SESAM will efficiently carry out the instruction and research functions. “This is for our students,” Dr. Camacho said, as SESAM’s population increases and pushes for internationalization.

Dr. Rico C. Ancog, Dean of SESAM thanked the UP System and UPLB officials for the continuing support and he hope that in a few years SESAM will have a new building. “We dreamed and it is now almost a reality,” Dr. Ancog said. He also thanked the previous deans of SESAM who started this endeavor.The Continuing Education and Training Division (CETD) led the facilitation of the memoranda signings and groundbreaking activities. The event invited SESAM students and alumni, university officials, faculty members and partner agencies of the school.