Benjie De Yro Published 2:23 PM October 7, 2016 Updated: 2:23 PM October 7, 2016
Like her namesake of a freedom fighter Filipino Princess, Urduja AlvaradoTejada of DOST-Central Office has always been on the warpath against poverty in the countryside and elsewhere.
She has always been on a full battle gear armed with all the technologies this country can muster to transfer them to those wanting to shake off low productivity.
With her new job as President of the Cagayan State University, a school she dearly loved as she is one of its products, what’s in store for this amiable woman?
Dedication and commitment best describe Jaye, a term of endearment, who virtually rose from the ranks, to be one of the fulcrums of technology in this country, a feat not new to a women like her who have become as competitive as ever with men.
She believes in the power of women amidst the equality of gender. As the keeper of the technology flame in this part of the world, she knew how big and challenging her new task would be.
“Being a woman is already a challenge in itself,” the new CSU President tells The Northern Forum.
Like the rest of the gang (read powerful women in the Philippines), Jaye is always on the go beating deadlines, eternally attending all sorts of meetings and seminars here and abroad while juggling her roles between government worker and as a family woman.
What she assures, she delivers and always walks her extra mile hoping that thru her agency’s interventions, the people will finally be snatched from the claws of poverty and ignorance.
The various projects she led have addressed the need to empower communities and to harness the full potentials of those earlier left behind. Yet, despite government limitations, she pursued projects never before seen in recent years. She went on to develop aquaculture, despite the advent of climate change, which has generated an average annual income of Ph70 million for fish farmers in Cagayan Valley alone.
She strengthened marketability and productivity of traditional agricultural products to include home-based economic activities. As a woman and a woman-mover, she says her clients have become the adrenalin rush while her personal and official family are her emotional backbone.
While she has reaped awards and recognitions from possibly all the available awards in this country for an official like her, she has taken all of them as only footnotes to her personal and professional gratification to serve the marginalized.
Now she is faced with another challenge of a lifetime where, during the Presidential candidates for CSU presentation, she was the only contender who presented her vision of the university as a key player in Asian academy in the next few years.
For Dr. Urduja Tejada, her being a government worker is temporary but her mission to serve is permanent.