Law dean Danilo Concepcion is new UP president

University of the Philippines College of Law Dean Danilo Concepcion on Tuesday was elected  the new president of the country’s premier state university.

Concepcion, who will replace outgoing president Alfredo Pascual, was elected the 21st UP president by the 11-member Board of Regents, besting five other nominees. He is also the executive director of the UP Bonifacio Global City campus.

Concepcion finished agricultural engineering at the De La Salle-Araneta University in 1979. He took up law at UP in 1983 and was a topnotcher in the bar examinations.

Concepcion also served as associate commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission from 1996 to 2000. After serving as president of DLSU-Araneta, he returned to UP in 2002 as associate dean of College of Law and head of the UP Law Center and Director of the Institute of Judicial Administration until May 2006.

Other candidates for the post were UP vice president for academic affairs Gisela Concepcion, Science Undersecretary for research and development Rowena Cristina Guevara, UP Diliman vice chancellor for academic affairs Benito Pacheco, public administration professor J. Prospero de Vera III, and UP Diliman National Institute of Physics professor Caesar Saloma.

Incumbent UP Diliman Chancellor Michael Tan was initially included in the nominees but was later disqualified due to age requirement.

Pascual’s six-year term will expire in February 2017. JE/rga