DLSU officials, led by president and chancellor Br. Ricardo Laguda (fifth from left), board member Charlie Rufino (fourth from left) and Ramon del Rosario (third from right), break ground for the soon-to-rise campus at Bonifacio Global City.
De La Salle University (DLSU) is set to open by the third quarter of 2015 its new P350-million campus located on a narrow strip of land along University Parkway within Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City.
DLSU officials and members of the Rufino family led on Friday the ceremonial groundbreaking for the 1,395-square-meter future home of the university’s College of Law, as well as professional and continuing education courses, including graduate programs of Ramon V. del Rosario College of Business.
The university won last year’s bidding conducted by the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) for the long-term lease and development of the only remaining vacant lot at Bonifacio Global City’s so-called institutional area. The property is adjacent to the Manila Japanese School and near The British School Manila and International School Manila.
University president and chancellor Br. Ricardo P. Laguda FSC told the Inquirer they planned to complete 80 percent of the seven-story building by September next year.
“We will open the classrooms first. The offices will follow,” he said.
He was hopeful the facility would make education more accessible, especially to law students.
“We aim to produce new movers and shakers to help in nation- and church-building,” Laguda said.
The facility will have 18 classrooms, an auditorium, a library and a number of small discussion rooms. It also hopes to get a “five-star” rating from the Philippine Green Building Council’s Berde Rating
System.
Construction will start as soon as the necessary building permits are acquired, said Levy V. Espiritu, president of contractor Datem Inc.
DLSU trustee Carlos
“Charlie” S. Rufino said in a separate interview that the construction of the building would cost around P350 million. Funding would be provided by the university, as well as donors and sponsors like the Rufino family. But he declined to disclose the amount of the financial donation from his family.
Rufino said the Bonifacio Global City campus was “closer to the target students” of DLSU’s law and business courses—“professionals who don’t have to travel from their places of work,” such as the business hubs in the cities of Makati and Taguig.
To acknowledge the generosity of the Rufinos, Laguda said they would name the building after the “EVER” Rufino siblings—Ernesto, Vicente, Ester (Galvez) and Rafael—who steered the family into prominence in business.
For Charlie Rufino, a DLSU alumnus like his father Vicente and his own son Raymond, giving back to their alma mater was just a small token of gratitude for the valuable lessons they learned from the university.
“We were taught to have a fantastic moral base, especially when you went into business. We learned high ethics and morality,” he said.