The University of the Philippines Diliman, through the Confucius Institute (UPD-CI), entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) in “teaching Chinese language and culture to schools” of LCP member cities on Oct. 4 at the Office of the Chancellor.

Representing UPD were Chancellor Michael L. Tan, CI director Dr. Lourdes T. Nepomuceno and CI Chinese director Dr. Jimmy Jianping Wu. Representing the League were National President Mayor Edgardo D. Pamintuan and Executive Director Atty. Shereen Gail Yu-Pamintuan.

The agreement describes the CI as a “collaborative educational and service partnership between UPD, Xiamen University and Confucius Institute Headquarters of China (Hanban) based on the shared values and visions with regard to Chinese education and cultural training.” It  was established at UPD on Dec. 7, 2014 through an agreement between UP and the CI Headquarters of China.

Meanwhile, the LCP “serves as the unified voice of cities advocating policies and continuing autonomy, promoting capacity-building and best practice sharing and strengthening internal and external linkages to lift the nation out of poverty.” It is a not for profit and non-partisan organization of 145 cities in the Philippines duly registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In particular, the collaboration involves “designing programs that will provide Chinese language and culture learning to City Colleges, upgrade the quality of Chinese language instruction through immersion programs in China, capacity-building for teachers and student and faculty scholarship grants in the Chinese language,” according to the memorandum.

According to Nepomuceno, Angeles City in Pampanga will be the initial training site.