Senator Loren Legarda reaffirmed her dedication to supporting initiatives that enhance the University of the Philippines’ capacity to serve the Filipino people, during the turnover of the newly renovated UP Visayas auditorium in Iloilo City on 9 August 2025.

“As an alumna and as a four-term senator, I will remain committed to ensuring that UP has the facilities, programs, research, and cultural infrastructure it needs to serve the nation,” Legarda said.

The senator, a proud Iskolar ng Bayan, previously supported the restoration of the UPV Little Theater in 2017, the multi-phase construction of the Multi-Purpose Building for the UP High School in 2019, and the ongoing completion of the Administrative Services Building.

Legarda also facilitated the expansion and operationalization of the UP Visayas Pandan campus in Antique, including the completion of the Extension Building in Barangay Nauring.

Beyond infrastructure, she backed the UP Visayas Museum of Arts and Cultural Heritage and its partnership with the Lopez Museum and Library, as well as cultural mapping projects in Panay and Negros and the publication of books on indigenous knowledge.

“With our continued partnership, we affirm that through the University of the Philippines, the country is repaid many times over—in knowledge, in culture, and in service,” Legarda added.

She emphasized the practical impact of these investments: “How many research outputs guide ordinances; how many cultural assets are integrated into tourism and education plans; how fisherfolk incomes rise after training; and how actively the public participates in the life of the University.”

“This is how the work of UP Visayas reaches the ordinary Filipino: in the classroom that shapes the mind, in the research that improves livelihoods, in the culture that preserves our soul,” Legarda said.