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CABANATUAN CITY — The Nueva Ecija University of Science
and Technology (NEUST) conferred recently the degree Doctor
of Humanities, honoris causa, on Bernardo O. “Ka Bernie”
Dizon, recognizing him for his numerous scientific
breakthroughs in the culture of high-value fruit trees
utilizing multiple-rooted technology.
Ka Bernie is the first
agriculturist-po-mologist in the country to be conferred
such doctorate degree and the first “Uli-rang Ama”
awardee in the field of agriculture. He was also the first
non-PhD, non-UP (University of the
Philippines
) graduate fruit specialist of the National Fruit Team of
the PCARRD, Department of Science and Technology.
The NEUST board of regents, headed by its president, Hilario
C. Ortiz, announced the conferment during the commencement
exercises of the 73rd Degree and 89th Degree Program held at
the main campus here.
Guest of honor during the ceremony was Department of
Agriculture Region 3 Director Redentor S. Gatus.
Dr. Emmanuel Y. Angeles, Commis-sion on Higher Education (CHED)
chairman, said Dizon “truly deserves the honor and
prestige of Doctor of Humanities” whom the CHED “holds
in the highest esteem for his integrity, probity and
dedication as a noted pomologist.”
NEUST board secretary Angel
Pangilinan who read the citation, cited Dizon’s
“phenomenal breakthroughs in the field of agriculture with
regard to the culture of grapes, durians, rambutans,
mangos-teens, lanzones, lychees, longans, imported and local
varieties of mangoes,
Davao
pummelo and other exotic fruit trees.”
It added that through the
multiple-rooted technology which combines native seedlings
with imported varieties of high-value fruit trees, he had
drastically “shortened the gestation period of the fruit
trees” from five to seven years, to just about three
years. Some of Dizon’s modified seedling varieties – the
Thailand Chocanan – had yielded fruits from 18 to under 14
months.
Dr. Ortiz hailed Dizon as “a hands-on agriculturist, a
propagator of exotic fruit-bearing trees that will help
resolve poverty, unemployment and the partner of the
government in food production and sustenance and
socio-economic development.”
Witnesses to the conferment were his wife Eufemia, and their
children, Garry (an agriculturist), Danny (a doctor of
medicine), Bernardo II (an electronics engineer), and
Bernardo III (a business administration graduate).
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