A LEADING educational institution in the north have expressed its intention to be a leader in disaster risk reduction and management through its newest masteral course.

Coinciding with the University of Baguio's 70th year of service in education, UB Academic Affairs vice president Dr. Armando Castaneda reiterated the timely importance of having this new educational program.

"The DRRM masteral course is a composition of so many aspects from organization, emergency response, special technical training for reactions to different challenges like earthquakes, storms, floods, with the goal of where, who, and how should we coordinate. It have been developed to have an efficient maximization and management of resources," Castañeda said.

The DRRM masteral course which is the first course offered in Luzon by UB started last year with 20 enrollees coming from diverse field of expertise.

Although there is a possibility to incorporate within the present National Service Training Program some approaches related to DRRM, UB is still awaiting the latest update on the NSTP program taking into consideration the suggestion of President Duterte on reverting the program back to ROTC.

"Since this is a national program where there is a law that implements it, the university will do its best to comply with whatever the mandates of the contents and the implementation of the course. Our hands are tied as to the particular approach for programs we will have," Castañeda explained.

At present, the university has 13,874 students with 43 programs offered, aside from 21 accredited programs by the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities Commission on Accreditation, which is the highest in the Cordillera region.