UP Forum November-December 2012

VOLUME 13 NUMBER 6NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2012

FORUM

5 | Beginnings: University of the Philippines Manila

9 | Understanding, Nurturing and Disseminating Filipino Culture: Folklore Studies in UP

24 | Science and Technology in Diliman in a Capsule

The UP Heritage

s h a p i n g m i n d s t h a t s h a p e t h e n a t i o n

The University moved to the Diliman Campus in December of 1948. (But from the year 1908 when

UP was founded to its centennial year in 2008), the Uni-versity has produced the equivalent of three generations of Filipinos, fifty-six and twenty-one batches of Diliman and Science graduates and three decades of engineering services to the country.

What are the most significant contributions of UP Diliman’s science and technology units to the country’s development and to the global pool of knowledge?

To answer this question, we look into the (achieve-ments not only of the) College of Science but also of the College of Engineering, School of Statistics, College of Home Economics, College of Education,, National

Folklore is the lore of the common people; it serves, from the beginning of our history as a

people, as the root and base of our national culture. Folklore’s intangible elements include artists and

artisans, their artistic and technical skills, the prod-ucts of their skills such as their epics, myths, leg-ends, tales, songs, poems, proverbs, maxims, codes and sociopolitical organization, dances, theater, rituals, festivals, jewelry-making, among others, as well as the entire belief system underlying their

The University of the Philippines came into exis-tence with the passage of Act No. 1870 on June 18,

1908 by the Philippine Legislature. The enabling act called the UP ‘a university for the Philippine Islands’ and gave it the task of providing advanced instruction in literature, philosophy, the sciences and arts.

Under no circumstances was the UP to deny pro-fessional and technical training to any student with regard to age, sex, nationality, religious belief or political affiliation.

The governance of UP was vested in a Board of Regents (BOR), which also selected the UP President. The first five UP Presidents were Murray S. Bartlett (1911-1915), Ignacio B. Villamor (1915-1920), Guy

U N I V E R S I T Y O F T H E P H I L I P P I N E S

2 UP FORUM Volume 13 No. 6 November-December 2012

In Service to the Filipino People

[The following article, half-shortened for this issue, was written in 2008 as intro-ductory chapter to the book, UP in the Time of People Power (UP Press, 2009), to synthesize 100 years of UP’s heritage of service to the nation. The article takes off from the period of People Power that began in 1983 and, in broad strokes, tells how leadership and constituency moved through the times from 1908.-Issue Ed.]

By Ferdinand C. Llanes

The years 1983 to 200(6) were a mo-mentous period, a watershed, in the

history of the University of the Philippines.For the University was swept into

the maelstrom of people power, begin-ning with the assassination of Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. in 1983 and well continuing into the days and aftermath of (PGMA’s) Presidential Proclama-tion 1017 in 2006. The period was also the last quarter of a hundred years of being—and this later time officially becoming—the national university....

But the University was not simply, passively, drawn into the currents of this period. Through it all, spurred on by cherished traditions and emboldened by an awakened citizenry at such an uncom-mon time, the University interacted with various social forces in seeking to trans-form society and...also found itself being likewise transformed....

While nothing of this collective en-gagement, in its scale and impact across a broad segment of time, could be found in previous historical periods, its roots, however, can be traced to the seeds sown in decades past. Since 1908, the seedbed for cultivating commitment to society had been prepared, nurtured by its academic leaders and constituency in the University’s varied forums of inquiry and debate....

The reasons for active social and na-tional engagement are to be found, quite consistently, from 1908 to the present, in the vision and mission of the University’s presidents and in the academic constitu-ency’s praxis of excellence, leadership, and service to the nation. Through the twists and turns...it has all but seemed that the academic community (was) being moved by something bigger than themselves.

Indeed, from Day One of its founda-tion to this very day, the message has always been to achieve excellence and leadership, in the arts and the sciences, in the service of the Filipino people. Early on, the first presidents of the University, liberal-minded academics that they were, enunciated the perspective of a Univer-sity for the Filipino people. The role of the president was truly decisive—in sustaining a vision of service to the na-tion, drawing up relevant programs, and getting the funds, this last one a constant, if often a most exacting, challenge to every president.

(This period of People Power) had been engaging and, at the same time, challenging, evoking the best from its academic leaders and constituency, and especially its presidents, who had to contend with the rising expectations of people power.... But this period also opened a window into the past, reveal-ing continuities, as the University finally

Heritage of Engagement

A Hundred Years of the University

continued on page 3

accomplished tasks that took shape in the previous (decades) such as, significantly, the revision of the UP Charter, a fitting conclusion to 100 years of really being (the) national university.

Bartlett, Villamor, and Benton: A University for the Filipino PeopleThe orientation of the University as an

institution for service to the nation was initially implanted during the administra-tions of Murray S. Bartlett (1911–15), Ignacio B. Villamor (1915–20), and Guy Potter W. Benton (1921–23)....

This orientation was not only ar-ticulated in the presidents’ inaugural declarations but also manifested in the establishment of the Graduate School in Tropical Medicine and Public Health, the nursing training school, or the Agricul-tural Extension Service of the College of Agriculture in Los Baños, all geared toward public service.

It may be argued that the larger context of this orientation was the American colonial policy to complete the pacifica-tion of the population and the co-optation of the Filipino elite, particularly the intelligentsia, and to placate the anti-im-perialist movement in the US mainland. But policies and programs did realize direct service to government agencies and the general public that, gradually and ultimately, came to be nurtured....

In view of the colonial order within which the University was conceived, a narrative of its history must as well take into account the state of the subjugated nation during this period. In the face of American repression of the people’s freedoms such as the prohibition of the display of the Filipino flag, people power in its radical form was played out by workers’ unions and peasant movements, and found expression in theatre and lit-erature as the armed struggle against US occupation waned....

The University’s academic leader-ship...must have reckoned, quite cer-tainly, with the cries for independence in those avenues of resistance, albeit now reechoed in a benign discourse in the halls of an emergent Filipino academe or national legislature. (Maximo) Kalaw (Political Science)...had this to say: “The mission of the University, therefore, as a state institution is to help prepare the Philippines for independence, to prepare young men and women to become re-sponsible leaders of the future Republic, to orientate the intellectual development of the islands along the lines best adapted to their history, their traditions, and their nationalist creeds, to help create, in short, a true Filipino nation.”

It must have been in cognizance of co-lonial realities that the inaugural messag-es of the University’s first presidents...re-flected, poignantly, a spirit of recovering, or rebuilding, a nation earlier thwarted—

the Malolos Republic—mobilizing thus in such a task the intelligentsia, even if this meant an unsettling compliance with the colonial agenda.... Indeed the University’s predecessor, its historic starting point, was the Malolos Repub-lic’s Universidad Literaria de Filipinas, of which Villamor was a co-founder. The intelligentsia steadfastly held on to an old ideal, albeit on new grounds.

And so what may be deemed the first period of the University’s history had come to pass, and sowed the seeds of commitment not only to the search for knowledge but also to building an inde-pendent nation and serving the people’s welfare...

Palma and Bocobo: Nationalism Beyond Service to the State

After Benton, the next president, Rafael Palma, began a new era that defined a sharper, more focused agenda for nationalism and liberal education for the University. (Palma) ...set a departure from the previous order of things.

In his inaugural address, he said: “It should be neither our policy nor our creed in this University to encourage the continuation of our intellectual thrall-dom under a foreign intelligentsia, or of a constant appeal for guidance and aid from foreign scientists and experts in solving the many unsettled problems of tropical agriculture, of irrigation sys-tems, of highways and bridges and other engineering works, of the mineral and timber resources with which nature has so bounteously endowed us.”

Service to the nation assumed a more socially and culturally rooted meaning. To Palma, (UP) was “of the people and for the people” and thus every pedagogi-

cal act should be guided by this question: “Is this study, this method, this point of view, of unquestioned and positive benefit to the Filipino people?” ....(T)he task was to “study preferentially our own things, not only for the sake of keeping intact our love for what is our own and of rousing and strengthening a feeling of patriotic pride, but also for the sake of encouraging original thinking and of asserting our individuality in the realm of mind.”

Palma’s term set a precedent in the University’s critical engagement with the state beyond service to its bureaus, an engagement that would become one of its distinctive marks as a national univer-sity. It was a period when the campaign for Philippine independence was at its height.... Palma encouraged the faculty and the students to debate on the issue...

(T)urning a page, a tradition had been set—the University as a forum for debate and as an agent for critical engagement with the powers that be.....

Palma’s nationalism was closely inter-twined with his outlook on liberal edu-cation, which amplified and firmed up ideas of earlier presidents and became a lasting legacy, today defended in the halls and classrooms of every academic unit...

Bocobo would pursue the same lofty ideals of nationalism as his predeces-sor.... He said that the mission of the Uni-versity was not only to prepare the youth for the trials of self-rule, forming a rock in themselves like the solid character of the country’s heroes as Rizal, Luna, or Mabini, to be “worthy sacrifices at the al-tar of the country....” It was Bocobo who initiated the declaration of a National

UP FORUM Volume 13 No. 6 November-December 2012 3

The University of the Philippines, with flagship campus in Diliman, has long been regarded as the country’s premier institution of learning.

But equally for as long, the University has not quite been viewed in its total-ity as heritage.

Heritage, following most sources, refers to the broad range of inherited ar-tifacts and traditions, including the meanings attributed to these elements, and intellectual productions, preserved or carried on, which provide a framework, a platform, a guidepost, or an inspiration for generations.

Heritage has evolved to also mean, collectively, “practices,” which are handed down from the past, such as UP’s vaunted “academic freedom” or “critical thinking.”

Over the years, heritage has come to include both the tangible and intangible. In the 70s, its usage has taken into account the natural environment.

Anything then of value, which a group wants to preserve or perpetuate, for its existence—things natural and built (like architecture), traditions (like liberal and scientific thought), and persons (and their intellectual legacies)—may be viewed as part of heritage.

Heritage is thus shared, as it is socially constructed--even contested in terms of meaning—and construed as the soul of the community. Heritage then gives a community its identity and pride.

A collective memory of what a community has valued, kept alive in shared narrative, is therefore significant. It provides “sign posts,” to use the words of one contributor, for the young to take after.

In this special issue of the UP Forum, we opted to look at UP precisely in terms of heritage, to bring out the UP heritage, or aspects of it, and its contribu-

Editorial Note

UP heritage

IN SERVICE TO THE FILIPINO...continued from page 2

continued on page 13

tion to both the university and the nation, or at least, to stimulate discussion of what UP’s heritage is across the campuses.

This effort at a brief narrative could certainly not be exhaustive given the limitation of time and space. But it does provide a vista of the “UP soul,” which has given us the long-standing identity (well, the Tatak UP) that, as a commu-nity, we have chosen to cherish and let flourish.

It also takes cognizance of how such UP heritage, especially intellectual productions in the humanities and the sciences, has left important legacies to generations of UP graduates and the larger society.

This theme provides an occasion to reflect on UP’s past, and how this con-nects to the present and future, especially as the Alfredo E. Pascual leadership looks forward to a OneUP in greater engagement with the nation.

We are thankful to the contributors, mostly faculty, colleagues and research associates, including retired professors, all notified on short notice. A few formed part of a team organized in 2008 by this editor for a book on UP heri-tage when he was chair of the History department.

Some themes of the UP Forum have repeated; but we realized not a single issue had carried one on UP's heritage.

In a manner of saying, this issue could thus be collectible item, not only for the theme but also for being perhaps the last under its current bent, before it takes on a direction of greater public engagement.

Engagement, after all, is UP’s most distinctive heritage. ---------------(F.C. Llanes, Issue Editor)

Graduation rites at UP Los Baños in 2008, with a "Serve the People" banner reminding UP graduates of their mission.

Heroes’ Day.Thus the University under Palma and

Bocobo continued to pursue institutional measures to serve the country’s im-mediate needs. Palma established...the School of Sanitation and Public Health, the Graduate School of Public Health Nursing, and a rural high school as a teaching laboratory for the Department of Agricultural Education in the College of Agriculture. Bocobo launched courses in industrial chemistry, foreign service, mining and industrial engineering, archi-tecture, ceramics and fisheries, geodetic engineering—all clearly geared to nation building....

Gonzalez to Sinco: Rebuilding the Academe for Nationhood

Toward the end of the ‘30s and during the interlude of war, the nationalist and liberal ideals had cohered into the fabric of University life....

For his role as University president and evidently in response to events dur-ing Palma’s and Bocobo’s terms, Gonza-lez reiterated the idea “to cultivate in the institution an atmosphere that will pro-mote freedom of thought, unhampered by propaganda, sponsored doctrines, or political expediency.” This turned out to be perspicacious as the University had

to confront the grim specter of Japanese fascism....

After the war, Gonzalez reassumed the presidency and led the University in rebuilding its programs, including its transfer to a sprawling campus in Dili-man, and in helping the country rise from the ruins wrought by the war....

In the time of nationhood, the aca-demic leadership from Gonzalez to Vidal A. Tan and Vicente G. Sinco focused on the rehabilitation and expansion of the University’s physical facilities, reshaping and enriching academic programs along stronger liberal lines, and helping the na-tion tackle the new challenges of national development...

(I)n line with President Ramon Mag-saysay’s economic mobilization program, the Tan administration instituted courses in industrial pharmacy, agricultural en-gineering, home technology, agricultural education, metallurgical engineering, sur-veying, statistics and archival science....

Under Sinco’s administration, dur-ing Diosdado Macapagal’s presidency of the republic, the University helped in the establishment of the International Rice Research Institute.... established the Department of Extramural Studies to extend university-level instruction in far-flung areas and elevated the Depart-ment of Library Science to the Institute of Library Science to train librarians in

the country.... It was (also) Tan’s administration that

gave focused and intensified impetus to research in the establishment of the Natural Science Research Center, the Social Sci-ence Research Center, the College of Engi-neering’s Industrial Research Center....

Significantly, Tan initiated the effort to draw up the University’s General Educa-tion program, which Sinco in turn was able to pursue and fully realize....

The objectives of the GE program were clear; they reinforced, and syn-thesized in curricular form, previous thoughts on liberal education by the academic leadership of the University since Bartlett, principally to develop the ability to think scientifically and critical-ly and possess a holistic understanding of culture and society.

It was in the time of Tan and Sinco that the University...found the moment to define its stand on sectarianism and conservatism.

The University questioned the inter-ference of the University chaplain in an instructor’s treatment of a religious matter, upheld rules prohibiting associa-tions that foster sectarian prejudices, restricted religious or sectarian lectures to the chapels.... In defense of academic freedom...the University also challenged the Congressional inquiries on expres-sions of radical thought in the campus....

It was (also) a time when the Univer-sity...engaged itself in the burning issues of agrarian unrest....

Technocrats at the Helm: Statism and Dissent from Romulo to Angara

The arrival of the next president of the University, Carlos P. Romulo, may well have been part of the previous period, as he continued to rebuild the University....

The moment made a difference.... Ro-mulo began an era when the state exer-cised its power more strongly in ordain-ing the stewards of the University and where government technocrats served as managers to run its affairs in the service of the State.

This period also nurtured in its bosom a new culture of dissent, which evolved from liberal and nationalist currents of years past, even encouraged by Romulo’s own liberalism, adding another criti-cal dimension to its distinct character. Romulo himself, faced with stark reality, proclaimed 1968-69 as the “Year of Enlightened Activism.” Romulo’s term commenced a period of upholding the prerogatives of the state and, in opposi-tion to it, fostering radical action in the ranks. It was a portent of the years to come, of statism and dissent, a period ending in Angara’s administration. It was a time of systems and crisis management, administrative efficiency and responsive-ness, summoning expertise from diplo-matic and corporate experience.

Ironically, it was also a period when democratization in the University was given some latitude, the presidents providing the spaces and interstices for democratic governance. This drew from ideas and practices introduced in older times, which the academic community defended, if it were not goaded by the persistence of their collective action. However, it was the managers who put up the systems and formal structures.

SP Lopez, who himself came from government service as a diplomat, acted...“to evolve a University admin-istration that is not only efficient and action-oriented, but is also responsive to changing conditions and geared to the goals of development, creativity, and

Photo from U

PLB 100 Years, published by the U

PLB Foundation, Inc. in 2008


The University of the Philppines campus in Diliman is an oasis of green sur-rounded by encroaching urban sprawl.

The 493-hectare campus serves as a repository of built and natural heritage that connects us to our past and, as importantly, also holds essential elements for our cultural and physical survival in the context of the metropolis.

The university was founded in 1908, a consolidation of schools and colleges previously spread over a number of Manila’s historic districts. The site chosen was municipal land, adjacent to a hospital already rendering service to America’s new colony, and previously used as the site of the 1895 Manila Regional Fair (an exposi-tion in the manner of the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago but much smaller in scale).

Authorities debated on the site. Options to locate it in more rural settings like Los Baños was considered but the decision to build it close to the city prevailed. A sepa-rate agricultural satellite campus was set up a few years later.

By Paulo Alcazaren

Green and MaroonedThe built and natural

legacies of UP Diliman


Aerial photo of UP Diliman, with Gonzalez Hall or the Main Library on the left, and Quezon Hall and the University Avenue on the right.

The university grew in leaps and bounds into the 1920s. The Padre Faura campus was eventu-ally filled with buildings, sports fields and mili-tary parade grounds all the way up to Isaac Peral Street (today’s United Nations Avenue).

By 1925, university authorities were worried about this expansion and the need to look for a larger campus. Many officials were also con-cerned about the proliferation of ‘distractions’ like cinemas, “beer gardens” and billiard palaces nearby.

Several offers were received including a site near Wack Wack, a popular golf course in the Mandaluyong estate. The plans were shelved and the site offered eventually became the Greenhills district with the La Salle, Xavier and Immaculate Conception schools contained in them.

A park settingPlans for the new campus were firmed up in

the late 1930s. The new Philippine Common-wealth president Manuel Quezon took a person-al interest in the fate of the university. By 1939 the idea of moving the university was coupled with plans to move the entire capital to a wholly new city, one that would be the center of the eventual independent new republic promised by the United States.

In the same year Quezon summoned the origi-nal consulting architect of the Philippines William E. Parsons to advise on the sites for both. Parsons had designed the Manila Hotel, the PGH, university buildings, the Paco train stations and a slew of institutional buildings before returning to the mainland.

A suitable option was found in the Tuason estate east of Manila and Parsons confirmed the viability of the site for the new campus and the new capital. Unfortu-nately Parsons passed away in December.

After Parsons’ passing, President Quezon put together a team consisting of Filipino architect Juan Arellano, American planner Harry Frost, Parson’s former partner in the US, landscape architect Louis Croft and engineer AD Williams to thresh out the plans for the new capital. They completed the task in early 1941 and the Philippine legislature quickly approved it and released funds for its implemen-tation.

The 1941 Frost Arellano plan for Quezon City was a grand plan that had major components in a 25-hectare elliptical site for the Philippine Legislature, a 400-hectare quadrangle flanked by a new Malacañang and a Courts complex, and a 900-hectare University of the Philippines set in a park setting which included what is now the Balara Filters complex and chunks of land northeast of the ellipse.

Frost worked with Arellano for the architecture of the university. Croft was a land planner and landscape architect sensitive to natural processes and the lay of the land. The final university master plan, as well as the capital city plan, shows his sensitivity expressed in large allocations for open and green space, many parks and playgrounds and wide easement along all natural waterways.

The basic road layouts from old Manila to the new city were traced by the end of 1941. The first two buildings at the university were completed too, just as war broke out in the Pacific.

The university had to wait until liberation for work to continue. Even then, it was commandeered by the US Armed Forces and only turned over in 1949. The transfer was marked by the relocation of Guillermo Tolentino’s Oblation to the new campus.

The 1941 master plan for the university was turned over to a campus architect, Cesar Concio. Concio had completed his masters in the US just before the war with a thesis on an assymetrical plan for the new campus of the UP.

Landmark buildingsIn the early 1950s, Concio stayed true to the original symmetrical master plan

prepared by Frost, Arellano and Croft. He and Juan Nakpil designed the major com-ponents of the central core of the university. Concio designed the Palma and Melchor Halls, while Nakpil designed Quezon Hall, the administration building and the Univer-sity Library.

The rest of the 1950s saw a number of other landmark buildings rise on campus. The two ecclesiastical buildings in the residential district were built within months of each other. Concio designed the Chapel of the Risen Lord with a modernist hyperbolic paraboloid roof while the saucer-shaped catholic Chapel of the Holy Sacrifice was the first major work of Leandro V. Locsin.

The catholic chapel (now a church) also housed artwork of what were to eventually be three National Artists—Arturo Luz for the floor art, Napoleon Abueva for the cruci-fix and Vicente Manansala for the stations of the cross.

Nakpil was to have designed the university theatre and carillon but funds fell short and a large hangar-like surplus structure was used instead. Nakpil poured his creative energy into the design of the carillon instead.

The late 50s and early 60s saw the introduction of elements to, and improvement of, the landscape design of the campus. First, a major portal was designed by Napoleon Abueva. Abueva would later add several sculptures all around the campus including a sculptural playground right next to the UP President’s compound.

Next came landscape architectural improvements in the mid-1960s with designs by IP Santos, himself eventually honored as a National Artist for architecture like Leandro Locsin. IP created modernist courtyard gardens and portions of a second portal nearer Commonweath Avenue. Santos would also teach at the university, creating the first formal course in landscape architecture in the country at the College of Architecture. Of course by that time too, the original landscape intent for the campus by Louis Croft was starting to mature.

The acacia trees planted in the 50s were now fully grown creating the famous univer-sity loop canopy of green. Santos sought to enhance this rythym with similar designs for the main university avenue. Other areas of the university were maturing in greenery including the arboretum, which has today the problem of being physically separated from the main campus by informal settlers and the joint venture project of the UP Technohub.

Through the 60s the campus became even greener with the building of a nine-hole golf course, which was one element shown in the original 1941 plan. The course was ‘green’ even by today’s standards as it used carabao grass for its fairways and endemic vegetation was used to fill in the roughs.

The 60s and 70s saw additions to the original compositions of university architecture by Nakpil and Concio at the central core.

Victor Tiotuyco put together the International Center with its folded plate central pavilion, while Carlos Arguelles went modernist with a flattened slab for the Faculty Center. Other additions to the campus were Vinzons Hall, the Masscom and Music buildings, and the Business Ad complexes. All of these were in the International style with clean lines and brise soliel but no building had as much architectural scale and gravitas as earlier designs in the 50s.

By the 80s and 90s, additions to the campus were smaller and less impactful,

Photo courtesy of P. Alcazaren


Potter Wharton Benton (1921-1923), Rafael V. Palma (1923-1933), and Jorge C. Bocobo (1934-1939).

There are two iconic symbols of the

By Celestina P. Boncan

Replica of Jose Rizal's The Triumph of Science over Death in front of the Fernando Calderon Hall, UP College of Medicine

BEGINNINGS: UP MANILA...continued from page 1

No other UP campus has a history and existence so bound up with nature

as UPLB. From its founding as the UP College of Agriculture in 1909, through its many milestones as a university over the past century, UPLB has always been closely identified with the mountain that nestles and nurtures it and which lends a picturesque backdrop to its sprawling campus.

It was no doubt Mt. Makiling which drew UP’s gritty American pioneer educa-tors to found a college in her surround-ings at the turn of the century, and which also inspired young Filipino agriculture scholars to build the campus from scratch. American tourist and writer Robert Zing was so taken by the beauty of the campus that he wrote in the December 1928 issue of Philippine Magazine:

Here is also the College of Agricul-ture of the University of the Philip-pines which snuggles at the base of Mt. Maquiling, with its College of Forestry still higher on the slopes of the mountain, a natural labora-tory for the study of the forest life of the Philippines. Of all beauty spots in the Philippines, with the possible exception of Baguio, where man has combined his skill with the grandeur of nature, this campus is the best, and I defy anyone to show me a more beautiful campus anywhere in the world. The scenic setting so charmed UP’s

third president Guy Potter Benton that he proposed it as the permanent site of

Revisiting UPLB’s Natural Heritage By Leonora M. Fajutagana

The Dalam-banga, life-size statue of Mariang Makiling standing atop a Grecian gazebo.

UP. The first is the “Oblation,” a statue made of concrete and painted a bronze color depicting a naked young man with arms outstretched and the head held high. It was made by Guillermo Tolen-tino whom UP President Rafael Palma commissioned to create a symbol to represent the UP. The second is “UP Be-

loved,” the university song. The music was composed by Nicanor Abelardo.

The first colleges of the UP were the College of Agricul-ture and the School of Fine Arts (1909), the College of Engineer-ing, the College of Veterinary Science, the College of Medi-cine and Surgery, later simply called the College of Medicine (1910) and the Col-lege of Law (1911).

The area chosen as the site of the UP was Ermita, which the government desig-nated as the science exposition grounds. The area was a large

rectangular block bounded by Taft Avenue, Isaac Peral (now called United Nations Avenue), Herran Street (now called Pedro Gil Street). However, three of the first colleges were not located in this site. The College of Agriculture and the College of Veterinary Science were in Los Baños while the School of Fine Arts rented a house in R. Hidalgo Street in Quiapo.

The earlier buildings that housed the UP colleges were built along the Spanish period design. But in succeed-ing years buildings were constructed along the neo-classical design like the University Hall, the first building con-structed in the site in 1913-1914 (now the Department of Justice), the Univer-sity Library (now the Supreme Court along Padre Faura Street), the Rizal Hall (College of Liberal Arts and School of Education), Villamor Hall (School of Fine Arts and the Conservatory of Music, now the Supreme Court along Taft Avenue), and Lara Hall (School of Sanitation and Public Health). The Uni-versity High School became the training ground for the Education majors of the School of Education.

Ultimately, Filipinos took over from Americans the helm of administering the schools and colleges—Ignacio Vil-lamor, the first Filipino UP President; Dr. Anastacia Giron Tupas, the first female Medical Director of the College of Nursing; Dr. Mariano del Rosario, the first Filipino Director of the School of Pharmacy, later the first Filipino Dean of the College of Pharmacy; Dr. Grego-rio San Agustin, the first Filipino Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine;

Dr. Fernando Calderon, the first Filipino Dean of the College of Medicine. Other Filipino head officials were Francisco Benitez, Director of the School of Edu-cation, Domiciano Sandoval, Director of the School of Dentistry; Jorge Bocobo, Dean of the College of Law; Maximo Kalaw, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts; Conrado Benitez, Director of the School of Business Administration; Fa-bian de la Rosa, Director of the School of Fine Arts.

On September 10, 1910 the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) was inaugu-rated to serve as the teaching hospital of the College of Medicine. Its architect, William Parsons, designed the hospital along the pavilion style to insure the free flow of air. Within the hospital complex were found three other schools of the UP—the School of Pharmacy, the School of Dentistry and the Philippine General Hospital School of Nursing. A few steps away from the PGH was the Nurses Home.

Apart from academics, student life in UP was marked by involvement in extracurricular activities. Societies and associations were established and many of them were closely allied with the course offerings—The Philippine Young Amateur Botanist, The Visayan Planters (College of Agriculture); The Philippine Barristers (College of Law); The History Club, The Rizal Center, Deutscher Verein, The Education Club, Club Cervantes (College of Liberal Arts); Students Pharmaceutical Associa-tion (School of Pharmacy).

The UP Student Council served as the continued on page 8


the university when it dawned on all that Padre Faura could not accommodate more expansion. The American imagined a “magnificent campus” rising in “the most beautiful forest reserve in the world, one incomparable in natural features of moun-tain and lake.” (Jamias, 144).

Benton’s proposal did not get the nod of the Board of Regents but he persisted in expressing his preference for the mountain town after having fallen in love with the place on his first visit. He eventually set up the official residence of the UP presi-dent on the slopes of Makiling where he and his family lived throughout his term.

Believed to have last erupted some 100,000 years ago, the dormant volcano has been quiet for centuries but for the rumbling of crystal-clear water that meanders past the boulders of Flat Rocks down to Molawin Creek and the hot springs that dot the landscape, and finally reaching Mud Springs, a small crater lake on the eastern slope where the simmering sulfuric waters could boil eggs.

Claims of sightings of the nymph Maria of the famous locale’s lore—by mountain-eers or by art students at their sylvan quar-ters by the slopes—occasionally break the rhythm of the mountain. Otherwise, the forest reserve—all of 4,244 hectares or 80 percent of the mountain—primarily serves as a training laboratory for the advance-ment of scientific and technical knowl-edge on the conservation and develop-ment of natural resources.

One of the 18 centers of plant diversity in the Philippines, the Makiling Forest Re-

serve (MFR) is a wild-life sanctuary which is home to over 2,000 plant species including a very rich bryoflora and many native and exotic dipterocarp spe-cies. There are also 375 species of vertebrates and a rich variety of insects for which the reserve is best known among biologists.

Among the animals roaming in the forest are wild boars, deer, monkeys, pythons, alligators and numer-ous species of bird including the kuliawan, kulasisi, tariktik, kalaw, Philippine Plymouth, mountain tailorbird, magpie robin and barn swallow. The woods of Makiling also abound with bats, fruitdoves, and kingfishers. This side of the mountain being managed by UPLB has been serving as cradle of educational and research activities for the past 100 years.

Nowadays, statues of Maria Makiling around the campus serve as reminders of how life in UPLB remains bound up with the mountain. Visitors to the campus can hardly miss Renato Rocha’s Maria Makil-ing and her deer standing guard by the roadside leading up to the upper campus

or Forestry. A much older pastoral-style sculpture of

Maria holding a clay jar ("Dalam-Banga") atop a gazebo greets passersby along the quaint yet ever sturdy Palma Bridge that traverses Molawin Creek, both enduring witnesses to the hundred-year history of UPLB.

Yet the largest homage to the forest fairy is a resort park called Pook ni Maria Makiling which boasts of an Olympic


University of the Philippines Baguio sits on a nine-hectare campus and

is situated on a pine-clad hill on Govern-ment Center. UPB has been in existence for 51 years since its re-establishment in 1961.

UPB was first established in Vigan, Ilocos Sur with the initial setup as a junior college until 1938 when it was transferred to Baguio with Dr. Vidal Tan as the first dean.

Razed to the ground during the war, the unit was non-existent for more than a decade and a half. Through the initiatives of the UP alumni, the unit known then as UP College, and later changed to UP in Baguio, was re-established on April 22, 1961 under the deanship of Dr. Mateo Tupas.

The College’s vision for autonomy was first articulated in the 1990s and the col-lege worked assiduously in strengthening its academic programs. In 1999, the Board of Regents elevated UP College Baguio from a regional college to an autonomous unit under the president of UP. Full au-tonomy was granted in December 2002.

UPB is the seventh constituent unit of the System. Today, upon entry to the green campus, historical landmarks are evident, reminders of UPB’s inception and growth as a university.

“Oble”Oblation is a symbol. It stands for the

“unknown heroes” who have fallen during the night. It is also a symbol of the Uni-versity of the Philippines.

After the inauguration of UP Baguio on April 1961, alumni members requested President Vicente Sinco for the transfer of the original Oblation (from Padre Faura and deposited in the old UP School of Fine Arts in Diliman) to Baguio. This was granted. Later, however President Sinco wrote that the statue was too frail to be transferred as it was ready to break

Sculpted Landmarks at UP BaguioBy Analyn Salvador-Amores

The statue of Inang Laya, one of the heritage landmarks of UP Baguio

into pieces. Even the help of professional trucking was of no use. The idea died down.

When Carlos P. Romulo was appointed president of the University of the Philip-pines in 1962, Colonel Juan S. Aguas called the attention of the alumni to the necessity of having an Oblation set at the entrance of the campus. Representations were made with President Romulo who readily agreed to the idea and suggested that Sculptor Anastacio Caedo be com-missioned to build the Oblation in Baguio. This was done and alumni members chipped in to defray the cost of the work.

UPB’s Oblation is a little bigger than the one in Diliman, being the result of the mold made from the original. It is also different at the base. It stands on boulders taken from the mines that were used in a Safety Miner’s Week held in Burnham Park in 1962. These rocks were donated to UP by the mining community and transferred to UP campus from Burnham Park with the help of Mr. Ralph Seidema of Philex Mining Corporation.

A special convocation for the unveil-ing of the Oblation was held on April 15, 1965 at 10:00 am with Dr. Nicanor Padilla, member of the Board of Regents, as guest speaker. During this time, Dr. Dionisia Rola was dean.

Of the Oblation, Guillermo Tolentino, has this to say: “The completely nude figure of a young man with outstretched arms and open hands, with lifted head, closed eyes and parted lips murmuring a prayer, with breast forward in the act of offering himself, is my interpretation of that sublime stanza. It symbolizes all the unknown heroes who fell during the night. The statue stands on a rustic base, a stylized rugged shape of the Philippines Archipelago, lined with big and small hard rocks each and everyone of each represents an island. The kataka-taka

(wonder plant) whose roots are tightly implanted on Philippine soil, is the link that binds the symbolical figure to an allegorical Phil-ippine Group. Kataka-taka is really a wonder plant. It is called siempre vivo (always alive) in Spanish. A leaf or a piece of it thrown anywhere will sprout into a young plant. Hence it symbolized the deep-rooted patriotism in the heart of our heroes. Such patriotism forever grows anywhere in the Philippines. The 3.5-meter high statue stands for the 350 years of Spanish rule in the Philippines.”

“Inang Laya” On the way to the library

is a statue of the "Inang Laya" (Alma Mater) by National Artist for Sculp-ture Napoleon Abueva. Abueva was a sculptor-in-residence during the Fourth National Art Festival in 1968 when Dr. Dionisia Rola was the dean of the college. The arts festival lasted for the whole summer and Abueva rendered this sculpture with Mrs. Corazon C. Estabillo, former head librarian, who modeled for the statue. Abueva hap-pily bequeathed another landmark to the university during the finale of the festival in April 1968. "Inang Laya", a project of the UP alumni in 1964, was unveiled in a simple ceremony just before the start of the semester.

“Four Pillars”From the UP Oblation, one turns to

the left and sees the ‘Four Pillars’—the four posts that stand for the four pillars of

knowledge that UP Baguio started with—Social Sciences, the Natural Sciences and Mathematics, the Humanities and Sports, Physical Education and Recreation.---------------The author is assistant professor at the Department of Social Anthropol-ogy and Psychology in UP Baguio. (c/o [email protected])

Dr. June Prill-BrettDoing anthropology in the Cordillera

Region would not be complete without a review of the voluminous body of works produced by Professor Emeritus June Prill-Brett, one of the country’s first “na-tive” anthropologists. A Bontok, she has extensively researched on the Cordillera for more than thirty years

Dr. Prill-Brett kindled our interest in the Bontok way of life with her mono-graph on Bontok warfare and the peace pact institution, and papers on ritual life and agricultural practices. She has also provided us with a glimpse of the unusual in her description of a jar burial as well as the phenomenon of splayed feet among the mountain peoples. Her “Survey of Cordillera Indigenous Political Institu-tions” revealed differences in political structures among the major ethnolinguistic groups in the Cordillera.providing nuanced knowledge of the ways these groups were organized.

The Bontok scholar has also informed us of indigenous notions of resource management Through her documentation of practices in the access and manage-ment of resources and conflicts and issues arising from the intrusion of agricultural commercialization and of state law into

Professors Emeriti of UP Baguioindigenous lifeways, she has brought to our attention the conflict between indigenous customary law and state policies. Her idea of considering local structures like the “ili” in determining ancestral domains or the im-possibility of transforming local institutions like the “bodong” into regional bodies has been integrated in the IPRA.

The demand for Dr. Brett’s expertise has not waned even with her retirement. Aspir-ing graduate students, local and foreign, still seek her out for her deep knowledge of Cordillera culture.---------------By Victoria C. Diaz (c/o [email protected])

Dr. Elsie C. JimenezNot known to many, another UPB

professor emeritus, Dr. Elsie C. Jimenez, collaborated with internationally-distin-guished Filipino scientists Dr. Baldomero Olivera (University of Utah) and Dr. Lourdes Cruz (Marine Science Institute, UP Diliman) in mollusk venoms, forming part of the broader research on conantox-ins. She co-authored with Baldomera and other scientists in a number of important scientific papers such as Divergent M- and O-superfamily peptides from venom of fish-hunting Conus parius, I(1)-superfam-

ily conotoxins and prediction of single D-amino acid occurrence, and Novel conantokins from Conus parius venom are specific antagonists of N-methyl-D-aspar-tate receptors.

She started her career by teaching Math-ematics 14 (Trigonometry) and Biology 121 Lab (Plant and Animal Physiology Lab) in UPB and writing lab manuals for biochemistry. Later she headed the discipline of chemistry at the then Natural Science department and worked on her MS Biochemistry at the Department of Bio-chemistry, UP College of Medicine. Her love affair with Conus (cone snails) began when she chose Dr. Lourdes J. Cruz to be her MS Thesis adviser. Dr. Cruz then was working with Dr. Olivera at the University of Utah on Conus venom research. After her thesis, she continued her collabora-tion with Dr. Cruz and Dr. Olivera while studying for her PhD in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (UP Diliman), with the former acting as her dissertation adviser and the latter as co-adviser.

It was during her doctoral research at the “Olivera Lab” that she worked on the characterization of novel “sleeper peptides” with gamma-carboxyglutamate. Peptides from Conus were called conantokins (coined by Dr. Olivera from Conus and

“antokin,” the Filipino word for sleepy). Peptides are short chains of amino acids linked together by peptide bonds; these amino acids when joined together are termed polypeptides and when folded into a bundle would create protein molecules. In the course of her research on the Conus radiatus venom, she chanced upon a small peptide and further characterized it, becoming one of the many breakthroughs at Olivera Lab. Because of the success of her PhD research, she was invited by Dr. Olivera to go back to Utah more often to continue her work on Conus venom.

So her love affair with Conus contin-ued up to her postdoctoral training and in research fellowships in other countries. Collaborative research with other scientists led to one publication after another and presentations in scientific conferences. In recognition of her work, Dr. Jimenez has received honorific and research awards from the University, CHED, the National Academy of Science and Technology, the Philippine Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the National Research Council of the Philippines and the province of Bulacan (Dangal ng Lahi).---------------By Rosemary Gutierrez ([email protected])

Sources:Abellera, Ernesto. (1971). The Oblation in

Baguio. In Baguio Yearbook ‘71, p. 43-44.Queno, Nonilon. (1969). UP in Baguio Provides

High Standards of Education. In Baguio1969: Sixty Golden Years, p. 38, 122-123.

The University of the Philippines at Baguio.(1971). In Baguio Yearbook ‘71, p. 18, 97-98.

2003 University of the Philippines Baguio Survival Handbook.


The formal creation of UP Visayas (UPV), which encompassed three

regions: Western (Iloilo), Central (Cebu) and Eastern (Tacloban) Visayas in 1983, was a product of long history of struggle to have higher learning equitably shared to Visayan youths.

With fishery education as the flagship discipline, UP Visayas aimed at becom-ing the center of excellence in marine, aquatic, and ocean sciences side by side with developing nationalism and promot-ing cultural heritage and artistic endeav-ors, providing opportunities for manage-rial and entrepreneurial pursuits, and nurturing skills in the use and application of technology to everyday life.

These goals were transformed into real-ity with the institutionalization of the col-leges and one school strategically located in three major islands: College of Fisher-ies and Ocean Sciences (CFOS), College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), College of Management (CM), UP-Cebu College (UPCC), UP-Tacloban College (UPTC), and the School of Technology (SOTECH).

The existence of UPV was closely linked to political developments leading to the urbanization of Iloilo City. These pro-

UP Visayas

By Randy M. Madrid

A Cultural Heritage

Main building at the UP Iloilo City campus

vided a strong impetus to the development of various historico-cultural institutions, making UPV a fertile ground for historical and architectural studies and documenta-tion of cultural and artistic heritage. The finest examples of these institutions are heritage buildings and regional centers for culture and the arts in the region.

Neo-classic buildingThe UPV Main Building located at the

heart of the Iloilo City campus is consid-ered the oldest among surviving heritage structures. Built from 1933 to1935 as the city hall in preparation for Iloilo’s conver-sion into a chartered city in 1937, it was designed by the Filipino architect, Juan Arellano. It is a massive and splendid struc-ture of neo-classic and revivalist styles, which stands on the lot donated by Ilonggo philanthropist, Doña Juliana Melliza.

The building is characterized as a for-mal, one-level structure with neat rows of arched windows predominating. The main entrance dividing the horizontal plane in two equal parts is flanked on either side by austere-looking composite pilasters and projected the arches of the windows. Its roof is also capped with an interesting cupola or dome. Arellano made the façade

more grandiose and imposing by em-ploying the artistic acumen of his Italian friend, Francesco Riccardo Monti, who specialized on funerary art: he sculpted two seated bronze male statues represent-ing the abstract concepts of Law and Or-der on opposite sides of the entrance and a bas-relief of four figures above the arched opening depicting a Roman court.

Despite its composite neo-classic ele-ments outside, Art Deco and even nativist elements predominate the interior. It has two big patios and a wide court that serves as entrance foyer. The emphasis on compactness and the dominance of its environs are highlighted in outside lines while space, ventilation, and lighting are given importance in the interior layout. Neo-classic elements are present in the entire building: uniformly arched win-dows, stylized composite columns, high ceilings and dome, and wide patios. Tropi-cal features reflective of the Filipino bahay na bato are also observable: wide sliding main windows, ventanillas, and raised wooden floors.

The building’s centerpiece consists of the Court Room and the Session Hall (also known as Lozano Hall), which was

named in honor of Cresenciano Lozano, a lawmaker from Guimaras who authored House Bill 2368, which became RA 365, granting Iloilo the status of a chartered city in 1937. The building construction was completed on February 4, 1935.

Amid much fanfare and celebration coinciding with the Christmas season, the building, also known as the presidencia, was formally inaugurated with much grandeur, attended by no less than foreign consuls and representatives, on December 19, 1936. Ramon Campos, the first mayor of the chartered city of Iloilo occupied the building in 1937.

During the Japanese war of aggression, Mayor Maximino Jalandoni vacated the city hall when the Japanese troops oc-cupied Iloilo City on April 18, 1942. The Japanese troops made the building their garrison from 1943 to 1945. After the war, Mayor Fernando Lopez and the Iloilo City Council passed Resolution 485 appealing for the establishment of a Junior UP Col-lege in Iloilo.

On February 21, 1946, the Council reit-erated to the UP Board of Regents (BOR) its request and through Resolution 461 unanimously approved by the Council on April 8, 1947, formally donated the pre-

war city hall and its site of 10.8 hectares for the exclusive use of UP Iloilo Col-lege. UPIC was formally opened with Dr. Tomas Fonacier as its first dean on July 1, 1947.

Since 1947, the building served as venue of diverse academic, administra-tive, artistic and cultural affairs of UPIC (now UP Visayas). A plan to convert the building into UPV Museum of Arts and Culture was laid down during the ad-ministration of Chancellor Dr. Arsenio Camacho. During the incumbency of Chancellor Glenn Aguilar (2005-2008), the architectural documentation of the building was undertaken. In 2008, this author did the historical documentation of the building.

The National Historical Institute (now National Historical Commission of the Philippines) installed a historical marker on the building on November 25, 2008. It was declared a National Historical Landmark by the NHCP on December 14, 2009.

Today, the building houses a textile mu-seum, the first in the region, and two UPV cultural institutions. The Center for West Visayan Studies (CWVS) serves as re-search hub and repository of West Visayan

culture, heritage, and history. The other institution is the UPV Art Gal-lery which serves as the repository of the University’s prized artworks.

A center of Visayan heritage

The CWVS started as the Visayan Studies Program (VSP) in 1975. This was a brainchild of then UPIC Dean, Dio-nisia Rola, who eventually became the first chancellor of UPV.

The Center was primarily

established to preserve, propagate, and disseminate facets of Western Visayan history and culture through collection and preservation of artifacts and source mate-rials, production of knowledge from local history and ethnographic and folkloric research, and propagation and dissemina-tion of West Visayan heritage in the region by means of exhibitions, conferences, and theatrical performances.

In 2001, the CWVS partnered with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and the National Commis-sion on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) in the establishment of School for Living Tradi-tion (SLT) in Central Panay. It was aimed at honing prospective young generation of Panay Bukidnon epic chanters, needle-workers, traditional dancers and instru-ment players, and folk artists as second liners in the continuance of indigenous Panayanon culture and traditions. The project was chosen as one of the 100 final-ists in the Rolex Award for Enterprise in Cultural Heritage Promotion.

The Center also played a big role in the selection of Federico Caballero, a tribal chieftain, seasoned arbiter, and skilled epic chanter, as one of the Gawad ng Manlilikha ng Bayan (GAMABA)

awardees in 2010 for his repertoire of fourteen-volume Panayanon epics col-lectively called Sugidanon.

Intellectual legaciesTwo UPV professors who once held

the helm of CWVS left lasting intellec-tual legacy to the existence of CWVS. Dr. Henry Funtecha (deceased), who became coordinator from 1983-1988 and eventually director from 1988-1996 and 2008-2009, produced so many researches on local history and culture. Funtecha institutionalized the annual holding of the Regional Conference on History and Cul-ture aimed at disseminating fresh histori-cal information, and linking the academe and community-based cultural initiatives to regional development programs.

Another scholar, Dr. Alicia Magos, who became director from 1996-2002, is the most dynamic anthropologist and folklorist Western Visayas ever produced after F. Landa Jocano. Her ethnographic studies on Panay indigenous peoples es-pecially their cultural life and homegrown cosmology as well as her forays on Panay Bukidnon epic traditions are sterling contributions to the preservation and mainstreaming of indigenous knowledge systems Such feats have earned her an in-ternational recognition from the Bangkok-based SEAMEO-Jasper Best Research Award in 1997, the Most Outstanding Teacher Award (College Category) by the Metrobank Foundation in 1999, and the highest rank as Professor Emeritus of the University.

Another UPV icon of excellence is Dr. Leoncio Deriada, who, like Magos, is also Professor Emeritus. A multi-awarded writer and Palanca and Dangal ng Lahi awardee, Deriada is instrumental in hon-ing second generation of West Visayan literary writers who eventually followed his footsteps to excellence. These include Prof. John Iremil Teodoro, who now teaches at Miriam College in Quezon City, and Dr. Genevieve Asenjo, a faculty member of De La Salle University, Ma-nila. Other noted UPV creative writers are Dr. Alice Tan-Gonzales of Iloilo and Prof. Merly Alunan of Tacloban.

Artistic excellence in visual arts is exemplified by faculty members in fine arts like Prof. Raymund Fernandez of UP Cebu; and in theatrical and dance per-formances of Teatro Amakan under the direction of Prof.Edward Defensor, and of "An Balangaw" supervised by Prof. Joycie Dorado-Alegre.

Service to community with distinction is likewise shown in numerous advoca-cies of Prof. Madrilena de la Cerna of UP Cebu for instance, on the promotion of lo-cal history and gender issues; Dr. Rosario Asong of UPV Iloilo, also on gender; and Prof. Margarita de la Cruz of UP Ta-cloban, on environmental concerns.

Finally, intellectual legacy is tanta-mount to heritage at UPV producing seven UP scientists, namely: Drs. Glenn Aguilar and Ricardo Babaran of College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, Drs. Rosalie Arcala-Hall and Rodelio Subade of CAS-Division of Social Sciences, and Drs. Annabel del Norte-Campos, Wilfredo Campos and Juliana Baylon of CAS-Divi-sion of Biological Sciences.---------------The author is university research associate at the Center for West Visayan Studies in UP Visayas. Email him at [email protected]


BEGINNINGS: UP MANILA...continued from page 5

Frontage of the UP-PGH along Taft Avenue.

Some illustrious personalities that left a legacy of leadership in the early days of UP in ManilaMENDOZA, Paz (Medicine 1912)First Filipino Woman DoctorFirst President, Philippine Association of University Women

PARAS, Ricardo (Law 1913)Chief Justice, Supreme Court

ROXAS, Manuel (Law 1913)President, Republic of the Philippines

VARGAS, Jorge (Law 1914)Chairman, Philippine Executive

Commission

YULO, Jose (Law 1914)Chief Justice, Supreme Court

ALZONA, Encarnacion (Lib.Arts 1915)Education 1917

First Woman Historian

REYES, Nicanor (Lib.Arts 1915)Founder, Far Eastern University

HERRERA, Pilar P. (Pharmacy 1915)Pharmacy (postgraduate) 1916

CONCEPCION, Hermogenes (Law 1915)Senator, 1934

LAUREL, Jose P. (Law 1915)President, Japanese-Sponsored Philippine

Republic

PADILLA, Sabino B. (Law 1915)Associate Justice, Supreme Court

QUIRINO, Elpidio (Law 1915)President, Republic of the Philippines

TOLENTINO, Guillermo (Fine Arts 1915)National Artist of the Philippines for Visual Arts

ZAFRA, Nicolas (Education 1917)

Faculty, Department of History, UP Diliman

SAN AGUSTIN, Gregorio (Vet.Med. 1916)First Filipino Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine, UP

BENGSON, Cesar (Law 1919)Chief Justice, Supreme Court

LARA, Hilario (Medicine 1919)Father of Philippine Public HealthNational Scientist of the Philippines (Hygiene), 1985

SALCEDO, Juan Jr. (Medicine 1929)Proved the Efficacy of Vitamin B

National Scientist of the Philippines (Nutrition), 1978

ARANETA, J. Amado (Business Ad. 1930)

GARCIA, Mauro (Education 1930)Author

MANANSALA, Vicente (Fine Arts 1930)National Artist of the Philippines for Visual Arts

ABLAN, Roque B. (Law 1930)Governor, Ilocos Norte, 1937

Guerrilla Leader

ROY, Jose J. (Law 1930)Senator

GATMAITAN, Clemente (Medicine 1930)Minister, Department of Health

OCAMPO, Geminiano de (Medicine 1932)National Scientist of the Philippines (Ophthalmology), 1982

AQUINO, Teofila (Vet. Science 1933)First Filipino Woman Veterinarian

DEL MUNDO, Fe (Medicine 1933)Awardee, Ramon Magsaysay Award (Public Service), 1977National Scientist of the Philippines (Pediatrics), 1980

MACALINTAL, Querube (Law 1933)Chief Justice, Supreme Court

TOLENTINO, Arturo (Law 1934)SenatorVice President, Republic of the Philippines

MANAHAN, Constantino (Medicine 1936)

Founder, Manila Doctors Hospital and Makati Medical Center

MUNOZ-PALMA, Cecilia (Law 1937)Associate Justice, Supreme CourtFirst Woman Justice of the Supreme CourtChairperson, 1986 Constitutional Commission

FERNANDO, Enrique (Law 1938)Chief Justice, Supreme Court

MARCOS, Ferdinand (Law 1939)President, Republic of the Philippines

ABAD SANTOS, Jose (Law 1940)Chief Justice, Supreme Court

ARAGON, Gloria (Medicine 1940)First Woman Director of the Philippine General Hospital

DAYRIT, Conrado (Medicine 1943)Pioneered on the Efficacy of Coconut Oil

PARDO DE TAVERA, Mita (Medicine 1944)Secretary, Department of Social Work & Development

CAMPOS, Paolo (Medicine 1945)National Scientist of the Philippines

(Internal Medicine), 1989

MANALO, Fermin (Medicine 1948)Founding President, Philippine College of Chest Physicians

PERIQUET, Antonio (Medicine 1959)Secretary, Department of Health

FLAVIER, Juan (Medicine 1960)Secretary, Department of Health 1992-1995Senator

BENGZON, Alfredo (Medicine 1961)Awardee, Ramon Magsaysay Award

(Government Service), 1991Secretary, Department of Health 1987-

1992

RAMIREZ, Alfredo (Medicine 1961)Father of Burn Medicine & Surgery

ONA, Enrique (Medicine 1962)Secretary, Department of Health

ROMUALDEZ, Alberto (Medicine 1965)Secretary, Department of Health 1998-2001

CABRAL, Esperanza (Medicine 1968)Secretary, Department of Health 2009-2010

ALFILER, Carmelo (Medicine 1972)Founding President, Pediatric Nephrology Society of the PhilippinesDirector, Philippine General Hospital

GALVEZ-TAN, Jaime (Medicine 1974)Secretary, Department of Health 1995

DAYRIT, Manuel (Medicine 1976)Secretary, Department of Health 2001-2005

training ground for young students towards one hallmark feature of UP education—leadership in government. In the 1920s a parade of lanterns placed on top of huge floats began to be held in December. Students tested their thespian capabilities and talents in the UP Dramatic Club.

A newspaper produced by the students themselves called The Philippine Collegian came out with its maiden issues in 1921-1922. Prominent editors included Wenceslao Vinzons, Ambrosio Padilla, Arturo Tolentino, Renato Constantino and Armando Ma-lay. A yearbook which first came out in 1915 called The Philippinensian chronicled the annual activities, events, and roster of graduating classes. In the late 1930s, male students took part in the Reserve Officer Training Corps. Cadets chose their favorite female friends to become their corps sponsors.

Sports was an integral part of student life as the UP believed in molding physical-ly-fit students. Varsity teams were created for American sports that were introduced in the country such as baseball, track and field, soccer-football, and basketball. A UP Cheering Squad buoyed the spirit of athletes in their competitions. College teams engaged each other in friendly competition matches.

The Second World War disrupted the university’s regular routine. In 1942, the Japanese Army took over the main buildings, compelling the administrative offices to transfer to the PGH and the College of Medicine. Only a few colleges continued their classes—the College of Medicine in the main campus in Manila and the Colleges of Agriculture and Veterinary Science in their campuses in Los Baños and Pandacan.

In 1945 during the Liberation of Manila, Ermita was one area where the heaviest fighting took place. The once-beautiful buildings of the UP were reduced to rubble. Thousands of books from the differ-ent college libraries and the University Library, records of the different offices as well as laboratory equipment for the sci-ence courses were for-ever lost. Bienvenido Gonzalez (1939-1943) and Antonio Sison (1943-1945) were the

UP Presidents during these darkest years of the Second World War.After the war, UP took two steps for its rehabilitation. The first was a massive

repair of the buildings. The second was the transfer of some of the colleges in Dili-man in Quezon City, which had been mapped out before the war as the university’s new campus. Construction in fact had already started for two buildings, one each for the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Law. The transfer to Diliman officially commenced in 1949. Only the health science courses remained in the Manila campus.

On November 20, 1972 President Ferdinand Marcos issued Presidential Decree No. 58, which authorized the establishment of the University of the Philippines System with the vision of creating autonomous units. At its 894th meeting held on October 28, 1977, the Board of Regents reconstituted the Manila campus by creat-ing a Health Sciences Center and recognizing it as an autonomous unit under the UP System.

The Health Sciences Center integrated all the health science units under one com-plex with the primary aim of providing leadership in education, research and services and in bringing about the highest quality of health care. Under the Health Sciences Center setup, the PGH became the national center for referral, training, and research and the clinical laboratory of all the health sciences units.

At present, UP Manila has nine degree-granting units—College of Allied and Medical Professions, College of Arts and Sciences, College of Dentistry, College of Medicine, College of Nursing, College of Pharmacy, College of Public Health, Na-tional Teacher Training Center for the Health Professions, and the School of Health

Sciences.Two colleges—the

College of Medicine and the College of Nursing—are recog-nized by the Com-mission on Higher Education as Centers of Excellence.--------------- Dr. Boncan is professor of History at the College of Arts and Sciences in UP Manila. Email her at [email protected].


world view, ethical, social, political, religious values and behavior.

Historically, folklore activities in the University have centered on two major settings: the academic cur-ricular offerings that started before the war and continues to the present, and the Philippine Folklore Society (PFS), which was founded in 1958 by faculty members. Whereas the former provides subjects to students, the latter holds national and regional gatherings of scholars, teachers, and sympathizers devoted to the dis-cussion of a theme. In this regard, members engage in two major activi-ties: first, the Congress that elected officers every four years, and second, the Conference that was held every year. Both similarly involved presen-tations of select papers by experts on a chosen theme for the year. Through such activities, the University’s influ-ence spread beyond the campus that radiates in concentric circles over the archipelago.

Multidisciplinary researchSome of these research works have

been published by the PFS itself, and by others through the collaboration of other institutions.

How did this happen? Long after Isabelo de los Reyes and Jose Rizal for-ayed into native folklore, UP was founded. Here, later, foreign professors started folklore courses, notably H. Otley Beyer and Dean S. Fansler. After the Second World War, as decolonization gathered momentum in the postco-lonial period, Filipino aca-demicians rightfully took over—a fact highlighted by the increase of interest in folklore and the orga-nization of the Philippine Folklore Society in 1958 by faculty members.

Subsequently, it dawned on them that folklore studies involve, basi-cally, a multidisciplinary approach. This enables folklorists to stray be-yond a discipline or a department. In practice, foremost among these are the disciplines of the arts and letters (Humanities), the social sciences (His-tory, Anthropology, and Linguistics), and Music, among others. Highlighted in such activities are some works on: Anthropology (E. Arsenio Manuel, Juan R. Francisco, Alicia Ma-gos, F. Jocano, etc.), Music (Jose Maceda), Literature (Florentino Hornedo, Leo-poldo Yabes, Carmen Unabia, Resil Mojares, Mario Rosal), Liter-ary Theory and Criticism (Angelito Santos, Vivencio R. Jose), Language and Linguistics (Ernesto Constantino, Ma. Lilia Realubit), Education (Max Ramos), and so on.

In retrospect, we can see that early senior members studied and then reviewed, initially, the works done by folklorists ahead of them. They also collected and published floating oral materials and subsequently developed their academic offerings and theoreti-cal framework, approaches and plans.

By Vivencio R. Jose

UNDERSTANDING, NURTURING AND DISSEMINATING.... continued from page 1

In the early years, a group saw the necessity of preparing a bibliography (E. Arsenio Manuel, Alfredo Tiamson) that was badly needed then. Another group researched in the field (E. Ar-senio Manuel, Juan Francisco, Floren-tino Hornedo), and still another, in the fields of literature (Damiana Eugenio) and education (Max Ramos).

From this early group arose the critical works of E. Arsenio Manuel, who served as the first president of the PFS and provided the best model for folklore study in the Philippine setting. He was well qualified for this in many ways: academically, he fin-ished law and PhD, apart from having taught and written much on Philippine culture, language, history, anthropol-ogy, and biography in Filipino and English. He worked throughout his university stint as a classroom teacher and field worker as well. Hence, the fruits of his experience capably pro-vided him with the scientific method and approach as well as the correct field guide for folklore students.

Landmark worksAn early result of his field work is

the manual A Guide for the Study of Philippine Folklore, which was pub-lished in 1985. This manual proved helpful in gathering and studying all types of folklore. He followed this up with his landmark studies on “Oral Literature Scholarship in Philippine Universities” showing the whys and wherefores, and the nitty-gritty of excellent post-baccalaureatte studies.

Another outstanding work followed later in a branch of folklore studies—the epics. For the longest time, the

concept of what the Filipino epic is, was simply contentious or conjectural at best. Manuel, faced by this prob-lem, cleared the ground so well by using a rigorous empirical and deduc-tive methodology. First, he surveyed the recorded local epic songs. The times proved auspicious for this for, apart from the genuine epics already recorded, fresh batches of epics were being retrieved from the field.

As importantly, Manuel himself was then doing field work in Mind-anao where he discovered epic gems from several ethnic groups. His keen perception, empirical system, and analytic method enabled him to prepare the criteria for determin-ing the authentic Filipino epic from those claimed with just patriotism as basis, by over-enthusiastic citizens. He added credibility to his criteria by that time as he himself had collected, transcribed, translated and published two epic songs from Mindanao, one on the Manuvu folk hero Tuwaang, and another on the Ilianon folk hero Agyu. Remember, these ethnoep-

ics are indigenous and undoubtedly Filipino.

His theory and practice on epic studies and also on folklore studies in general proved to be landmarks on raising folklore methodology onto a higher stage of development as well as in upgrading academic standards. Significantly, since then, the UNES-CO had included two Philippine ep-ics, the Hudhud of the Ifugaos and the Darangen of the Maranaos, in its roll of intangible heritage of the Filipinos and of mankind.

Such work done in the academe

was not enough; neither were folklore congresses and conferences. Folk materials have to be compiled and disseminated. This task, urgent and necessary, was eventually done by Damiana Eugenio.

Apart from her PhD on Philippine metrical romances, which she finished in the US and later published, Eugen-io embarked on compiling recorded myths, epics, legends, tales, songs, proverbs, etc. She gathered the essen-tial materials of such genres, hitherto scattered, and put them together into books with her introduction, summa-ries and notes, when necessary. The result is the monumental multivolume series on Philippine folklore pub-lished by the UP Press. One cannot go through a folklore course in the university without having to read these books.

TrendsPractice has shown that the above

theories, trends and methods of folklore studies in the various disci-plines are not really separate from or unrelated to one another. While one goes on with his fieldwork, s/he may also use the bibliographical, literary, music and social science approaches, or vice versa.

As the years rolled on to the Third Millennium, younger folklorists were inspired to explore other approaches and methods in the development of their expertise. Some studied the relationships between folk-lore and mass movements, ideological trends and history, emphasizing their roots, value, significance and ideology (Vivencio R. Jose), and others the ap-plication of current theory (Florentino Hornedo, Angelito Santos) in order to understand our literary growth in the context of a developing university amid a changing world.

Those above tenden-cies in the academe and in the field continue today in varying degrees of accom-plishments. We are sure that other tendencies, view-points, and theories will emerge in the coming years. May it be well so, especially at a time when the knowl-edge revolution creeps on firing up human energy and creativity in every activity in the planet! The impact of advanced technology is felt in every aspect of human endeavor from the digital to the Internet, so how can folklore escape from this global trend?

Happily today, folklore studies are being done at the undergraduate and grad-uate levels in various units,

disciplines and departments of the university as well as in

other universities. No wonder, a new generation of folklorists has arisen.

With the above precedents set in the past, the new folklore organization UP Aliguyon should be encouraged. We hope that the youth will be challenged to expand the scope of folklore stud-ies, explore new areas, and produce studies more than what has been done by their predecessors. ---------------The author is retired professor of English of UP Diliman. Email him at [email protected].


When I entered UP in 1961 as a freshman, I was one of those relegated to the A.B. (General) program. Those of us in this block had no inkling as to what field of study to major in. Fortunately, there was a series of lectures we had attended—the Rizal Centennial Lectures—featuring the biggest names in the Diliman intellectual firmament. These included Cesar Adib Majul (Philosophy) and Teodoro A. Agoncillo (History), Ricardo Pascual, Agustin Rodolfo, etc.

Although belonging to the different fields of the Social Sciences, Natural Sciences and the Humanities, one common theme in these lectures was the role of history, as intimated by Rizal, in the development of a “national senti-ment.” For how would one develop his dignity as a person and as a member of the nation unless he knew who he was and what he had done with, and for, his fellowmen?

Dr. Cesar Adib Majul, one of these lecturers, was not only my teacher in Western Thought I but also my boss when I became his student assistant when he assumed the position of dean. I had a somewhat intimate knowledge of his research concerns such as the biography of Apolinario Mabini, the moral philosophy of the Revolution and the First Republic, as well as the history of the Muslim Filipinos. As I would discover later, these works of his had stood time and had remained unequalled on these topics until now. But what most impressed me was his clear, even if concise, lecture defining Rizal’s concept of the nation.

Dr. Majul’s work discipline likewise impressed me. After his early 7 a.m. until 10 a.m. class, he would leave instructions to “Ate Mary” (our AO/super-visor) and immediately proceed to the Filipiniana section of the Main Library. He would return around 3 or 4 p.m. to sign papers. Although I found it dif-ficult listening or understanding him through his husky, almost nasal, voice, I was always a willing and interested listener whenever he had something to say on Rizal, Mabini and the other heroes. In these conversations, it was as if he was goading me to discover my true potential as a future writer, a culture bearer and a nationalist. I think it was this patience in imparting his thoughts which was his true legacy.

And perhaps this was likewise the legacy of his contemporary, Prof. Te-odoro A. Agoncillo. I served as a graduate assistant to Prof. Agoncillo when he became chairman of the Department of History. He would come to the office earlier than everyone else, that is, at around 7 a.m. When I started coming earlier than him, he would come even much earlier, at 6:30 a.m.! As a graduate assistant, my main duty was to listen to his endless perorations, critiques and gossip. (Sorry, Prof. Ago, do not be angry, but it was true!) Prof. Agoncillo was unforgiving in his denunciations on the then Graduate Program director (Dr. Ricardo Pascual) for taking advantage of a graduate history major whom he felt should not have passed her thesis defense if not for the Graduate Program director’s influence. He was particularly irked with Dr. Majul, then famous for his justice and moral philosophy studies on Mabini and the Revolution, for approving the graduation of that student, Dr. Majul being a panel member and part of what Prof. Agoncillo thought was an “academic conspiracy.”

But despite these quirks and a hot temperament, I thought Prof. Agoncillo was an effective and good teacher, more effective than even the well-liked

Remembering Cesar Adib Majul and Teodoro Agoncillo

By Jaime B. Veneracion

lady professor reputed to be the Department of History’s encyclopedia. No week would pass without Prof. Agoncillo giving little pieces of papers con-taining five difficult words allegedly to make sure of their meanings as he would use these in his articles. I can still remember some of them: insolent, gangrene, jejune...etc. etc. He would ask me to “review” his various articles and lectures such as the one on the women characters in the Rizal novels. Although on the surface, he appeared angry with his reactions in his booming voice, I thought he secretly admired our audacity in making critical annota-tions on his works.

Then one day, I discovered not receiving any renewal in my appointment in my graduate assistantship. I was deeply hurt and disappointed until I learned why: Through his network he heard that I accepted an offer for a US gradu-ate scholarship. He was one who wanted to direct the future directions of his wards. How I still remember the stinging rebuke of Prof. Agoncillo: “What will you do there? Look at these PhDs who had not written anything after their dissertations at those US universities?”

And then he would point at himself who, with just an MA, had been con-ferred honorary degrees here and abroad. He thought he had done more than enough to merit a PhD with his works on Bonifacio, the Malolos Congress and the Japanese Occupation.

Looking back, although Prof. Agoncillo was an antagonist with those from the Philosophy Department, his method was like that of the philosophy dis-cipline in developing critical skills among the students. He also developed in us the value of self-discipline and the love of country and fellowmen. Prof. Agoncillo was critical of those historians and writers who would attribute anything positive about Filipino culture to the influence of the colonizers and foreigners while attributing anything negative to the natural lack of talent and ingenuity among Filipinos.

Prof. Agoncillo became well known as the proponent of a Filipino point of view in history. Essentially, this meant expunging from our textbooks the more than five chapters of Spanish Age of Exploration and Discovery. He would ask: why should our history be cluttered with themes of “Spain in the Philippines,” relegating the Filipino to the role of rowers of galleons, and mercenaries of Spaniards in their various adventures when nothing had been said about our struggles and revolts? He would insist that the proper his-tory of Filipinos only came when we put into our own hands our destiny as a people through a national revolution. He would say that its beginning was in 1872 at the point of execution of Gomburza. Everything else before that date was “lost history.”

We have gone a long way since Dean Majul and Prof. Agoncillo. But it is worthwhile to sometimes reflect on how these intellectuals had helped us launch our careers into the nationalist movement in both its activist sense and its partisan scholarship aspect, and in our continuing assumption of a respon-sibility in making the Filipino become proud of himself. --------------- Dr. Veneracion is retired professor of History of UP Diliman. Email him at [email protected].


The figure of the father in psycho-logical terms evokes negative

associations. The great Sigmund Freud is, of

course, the figure primarily re-sponsible for this. His theory of the Oedipus complex, which unwittingly pitted the male child against his father out of 'excessive affection' for the mother, has haunted the discipline for over a century. Failing to resolve this complex, he believed, would lead to terrible consequences for the maturing subject.

His intellectual heirs at the UP Department of Psychology, however, have a different view of those they consider their 'fathers.'

When speaking about Psychology in our country, most of them recognize not just one father, but three. And instead of the stunted, neurotic victim of the Oedipus complex, the contribu-tions of these three have given the department a rich intellectual foun-dation, upon which it stands firmly today.

“Psychology has been fortunate in having Lagmay, David and Enriquez pioneer in its development as an academic discipline,” declared UP psychologist Dr. Elizabeth Ventura.

She was of course referring to the triumvirate of Dr. Alfredo Lagmay, Dr. Fredegusto “FG” David, and Dr. Virgilio Enriquez. They have, in their own ways, changed the way Filipinos

On the Shoulders of Giants

By Andre Encarnacion

Remembering the Fathers of Psychology in UP

Photo above: Dr. Alfredo Lagmay. Photo below: Dr. Virgilio Enriquez.

Dr. Fredegusto "FG" David

understand themselves as a people. In her lecture given four years ago, Ventura shed light on their contribu-tions, revealing that their love for both their students and country was just as important as their intellectual gifts in the shaping of the discipline.

She began, of course, with Lagmay. “It was he,” Ventura said, “who

purposefully developed the curricula, recruited the faculty, and steered the course of the department for 22 years.” Mentored by the great Har-vard behaviorist BF Skinner, Lagmay was guided by a vision of psychology steeped in the liberal arts and the sci-ences.

As a result of this vision, psychol-ogy majors under Lagmay were exposed to a broad range of subjects—from the classic problems of logic and epistemology to mathematics and the natural sciences. In fact, Ventura remembered going to the College of Medicine for her class in physiology, under Lagmay's influence.

The humanism of Lagmay was one of the characteristcs that she says was often missed by people who did not know both the discipline and the man. Beyond his profound theoretical insights, it was his student-centered nature that endeared him to all those who met him.

“(S)tudents stand on our shoulders,” Ventura remembered him saying, “and therefore we'll be capable of seeing

things beyond what we can now see.” This piece of advice was but one of the many instances that proved that the man who pioneered impor-tant courses in Philippine and clinical psychology was no “cold blooded experimental psychologist.”

They are, on the other hand, the words of a man who lightheartedly described his working style as “higawa”: a combination of rest (higa) and work (gawa), a “metaphor for the rhythm of life.”

In contrast, FG David was a more reluctant leader. So reluctant was David that he twice resigned from his posi-tion as department chair when elected by his colleagues in the 70s and the 80s. This reluctance did not come from timidity, however, but from a strong commitment to his students.

“He felt that the burden of administration was in the way of his teaching,” Ventura clarified. Though David would finally complete his term as chair from 2000 to 2003, it is for his highly creative teach-ing methods that he is most fondly remembered today.

She revealed that at the time, David, who specialized in learning and physiologi-cal psychology, was provided

neither laboratory nor equipment for his basic research. The reason was “because he was in the social sci-ences and not in the natural sciences.” Rather than despairing his fate, David took to the development of quantita-tive courses, which further enhanced the already rigorous nature of the program. “All I need to teach these courses are a piece of chalk and a blackboard,” he said.

Ventura added that, apart from his scientific brilliance, it was “the poet in FG” that made his highly techni-cal lectures more relevant to students. “His influence on students and faculty alike” she added, “is also seen in his strict observance of professional stan-dards in teaching.”

Last but not least was Virgilio Enriquez, known today as the Father of Philippine Psychology or Sikolo-hiyang Pilipino. “His term as chair,” Ventura noted, “was preceded by prolific contributions by himself and colleagues in the area of Filipino Psy-chology.” He was, according to Ven-tura, “a great believer in documenting ideas and research work.”

Enriquez encouraged students and colleagues alike to write, even those in other departments. His love of col-laboration revealed an important vir-tue in both Enriquez and Sikolohiyang Pilipino. Like its creator, the move-ment begun by Enriquez was rigorous

and multidisciplinary in its practice. It combined its roots in our language and culture with the scientific flowers of validity and replicability.

In short, despite looking inwards in its search for basic concepts, Sikolohi-yang Pilipino accepted the paradigms of science as universal. “What is scientific in New York is scientific in Argao, Cebu,” Enriquez once said.

Studying language to understand Filipino psychology was, according to Ventura, his major contribution to the department. This influence can be seen in courses like Psych 145, or the Psychology of Language, which took a more cognitive orientation under Enriquez.

Also, despite negative reactions from some of his colleagues, he in-vited professorial lecturers from other departments to teach courses. This was just more proof of his refusal to let traditional disciplinary boundaries get in the way of a good education.

Teaching and writing in Filipino was another practice that built up a head of steam under his guidance. Though teaching in Filipino had been practiced by the likes of David and Amaryllis Torres, it found another formidable champion in Enriquez.

As Ventura described, writing in Filipino was not confined to term pa-pers, but became common practice for the writing of theses under Enriquez and Rogelia Pe-Pua. It is a tradition continued to this day by graduate stu-dents in Filipino Psychology.

Still, Sikolohiyang Pilipino re-mained his one big academic love to the very end. “His life was dedicated to this single pursuit,” said Ventura. “It is not an exaggeration to say that every single moment of his existence, he breathed and lived Sikolohiyang Pilipino.

When all is said and done, Ventura said that the legacy of these three men was in their lives as academics. Each of them embodied the first essential value to identity as part of the depart-ment: to serve and share beyond the self. Years of renewing what Lagmay called his “vow of poverty” of creat-ing and transmitting knowledge has made the department they loved a bas-tion of excellence.

Having begun this piece with Freud, it is perhaps wiser to end with the words of his own student, the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung when remem-bering these three pioneers.

“One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with grati-tude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.” ---------------Many of the views and reminiscences in this article were taken from Dr. Elizabeth R. Ventura's lecture entitled, “Extending the Vision: Lagmay, David, and Enriquez and the Development of Psychology in the University of the Philippines” given on November 26, 2008 as part of the Ra-fael Palma Centennial Lectures. Email the author at [email protected].

Photo from http://fgdavid.com

/blog/page/48/

Photo from http://www.socscipioneers.pssc.org.ph/ALagmay.html

Photo from http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=192500427452111


Two years after the establishment of UP, the College of Engi-neering was created from makeshift classrooms and laborato-

ries at the O’Brien residence in Padre Faura campus, in the realiza-tion that “the progress of the country could be best pursued with professional engineers among the population” (from Engineering Excellence: 1910-2010).

There were very few Filipino engineers at that time, all of them having had their education and training abroad. Dean Vidal A. Tan, the first Filipino Dean of the College (1940-1949), finished Civil Engineering at Cornell University in New York. He was credited for requiring the teaching of humanities and social science in the Engineering curriculum to develop well-rounded engineers. He eventually became UP President from 1951 to 1956 at the height of post-war reconstruction after UP transferred from Manila to Diliman.

Another alumnus who steered the University during its difficult periods (1979-1981) was Emmanuel V. Soriano, ME’59. The Soriano administration is remembered for the expansion of the UP System with the establishment of UP Visayas in Miag-ao and the UP Extension Program in Pampanga.

“Knowledge, Progress, Service” became the tagline during the launching of the College logo to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 1960. Prof. Dominador I. Ilio, CE’39/GE’39, one of the first US-trained Filipino hydraulics engineers and a recognized poet-

UP College of Engineering

By Rhodora M. Gonzalez

Serving and Searching for Solutions

The Slide Rule Sundial of 1958

novelist, designed the logo and coined this tagline that up to now, essentially guides the direction of the College and its graduates to lead and push the boundaries of excellence.

Foremost UP Engineering alumni who occupied top positions in government include former Prime Minister Cesar E.A. Virata, ME’52, who steadfastly herded the country’s economy as Finance Minister in the tumultuous era of 1970-1986. Vicente T. Paterno, ME’48, was elected Senator from 1987-1992 after having served as Minister of Public Highways and Chairman of the Board of Investments in the ‘70s.

Alfredo L. Juinio, CE’39 (Dean 1970-1979), was the structural engineer of the UP Church of the Holy Sacrifice—the first thin-shell concrete dome structure in the country, which is now recognized as a Cultural Treasure and a National Historical Landmark. He worked on this landmark together with David M. Consunji, CE’46, who cleverly re-searched and experimented on the best concrete-aggregate mix for such a novel structure in 1955. Both Consunji and Juinio had their respective stints in leading the Department of Public Works and Highways.

With innovations by Hydraulics Engineer Angel A. Alejandrino, CE’53, the country’s backbone infrastructure was laid from the ‘70s to ‘80s. Up to this day, Alejandrino’s Ru-ral Water Supply Design Manual Vol.1 published in 1980, is still on sale at Amazon.com online book store. This ageless publication seems to continue to guide the management of the world’s water resources as the World Bank recently published an updated version of it (World Bank Manila Office, 2012).

Public leadershipThe UP Engineer’s expertise is perennially sought in running both private and public

offices. Dr. Reynaldo B. Vea, ME’78 (Dean 1993-1997), is spreading the culture of excel-lence as President of Mapúa Institute of Technology. The same with Dr. Cristina Damas-co-Padolina, ChE’66, who became the first Chancellor of the UP Open University and is now the President of Centro Escolar University; while Dr. Estrella Fagela-Alabastro, ChE’61, became the first woman secretary of the Department of Science and Technology.

Two Philippine National Railways (PNR) Directors, Primitivo B. de Guzman, EE’63 and Gerardo C. Garcia, ChE’65, are in the midst of reorganizing and modernizing the agency to provide the much needed efficient mass transport system in the country. Their efforts are complemented by North Luzon Railways Corporation Chairman Jose Martin O. Aliling, CE’69, to further enhance development and growth in the island through a fast and efficient transportation network. Add to this the DOST’s first Philippine-made monorail system (Automated Guideway Transit), which is now being tested in the UPD campus and if proven successful, would provide a cheap mass transport system for the metropolis.

Similarly, the President’s Cabinet is currently beefed up by Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Rogelio L. Singson, IE’71, who is being lauded for the systems overhaul of the country’s engineering and construction arm to provide efficient quality infrastructure.

At the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Secretary Mario G. Montejo, ME’75, is spearheading the active use of science and technology in solving the country’s problems—from low-cost Dengue control to the high-technology enabled Project NOAH (Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards). A big part of Project NOAH is the use of state-of-the-art LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) equipment for the country’s first 3D mapping project currently undertaken by the Department of Geodetic Engineering; this is to help produce more accurate flood models for disaster risk reduction and mitiga-tion.

The whole DOST operation is further boosted by UP Engineers on secondment—Undersecretary Fortunato T. De la Peña, ChE’69, and DOST-Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD) Exec. Director Rowena Cristina L. Guevara, EE’85, the first woman dean of the College (2004-2010). She established the Engineering Research and Development for Technology (ERDT) program in 2007.

The ERDT aims to increase the number of researchers, scientists, and engineers in the country by providing the infrastructure for advanced research and innovation through scholarships and facilities upgrade. Consequently, with funds for subscription to top sci-ence and technology online journals, the Engineering Library has become a world-class haven for students, faculty and researchers of the whole UP community. It garnered the 2010 Philippine Association of Academic and Research Libraries Award for the Out-standing Library Program “The Learning Commons” and the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications Award for “Bringing Libraries to Life.” The ERDT is now a consortium of eight-member universities in the country; its sustainability is ensured with the enactment of House Bill No. 05581.

The tradition of excellence at the College continues under Dean Aura C. Matias, IE’82. The UP National Engineering Center has received a Level 1 Recognition at the 2012 Pilot Run of the Philippine Quality Challenge by the Department of Trade and Industry. The College-based fraternities have been organized into the Engineering Fraternities United with annual joint summer activities that foster harmony, such as: Tree Planting in 2010, Dormitory Painting in 2011, and Earthquake-Fire Drill Simulation in 2012.

New undergraduate scholarship sources are being solicited and so far, 70 new schol-arship grants have been awarded to deserving students. The fund to finance student participation in academic competitions is also being augmented with the help of generous engineering alumni and industry partners.

The college will soon transfer to the Engineering Complex, a sprawling 22 hectares of land at the south side of the campus, and will leave Melchor Hall, which was especially built for the College in 1950. It was named after an illustrious alumnus, Alejandro S. Melchor, CE’24, who is credited for the design of pontoon bridges (bridges that float on water) for his graduate thesis that proved very useful during WWII.

Melchor also helped design the second UP sundial at the Padre Faura campus. It was a replacement to the floral sundial of the 1920s—then the very first icon of the University before the Oblation was crafted, and recognized as the world’s largest university sundial (from Engineering Excellence: 1910-2010). In Manila, it had to be dismantled to give way to an ROTC drill area. In Diliman, the UP Engineers constructed another beside its building.

The latest College sundial, remaining a college icon, is a modern version, which includes a computer program that rectifies the errors that naturally come from the earth’s tilt and elliptical orbit to show the time of day. Now expressed in milli-second, micro-sec-ond, and nano-second, new technologies in transportation and communication, financial transactions, manufacturing, and many other technologies have become dependent on accurate clocks for accuracy and precision in dealing with real-world problems.

And the UP Engineers continue to serve and search for solutions.---------------Dr. Gonzalez is associate professor at the Department of Geodetic Engineering and the associate dean for Institutional Linkages, College of Engineering in UP Diliman. Email her at [email protected].

References:Angel A. Alejandrino (Ed.) (1980). Rural Water Supply Design Manual Vol.1. Manila: National Water

Resources Council.Test run of UP-Diliman mass transit system set next week. (2012). GMA News Online. Retrieved from

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/283954/news/metromanila/test-run-of-up-diliman-mass-transit-system-set-next-week

San Mateo, A. (2010). It’s About Time. In Engineering Excellence: 1910-2010. Quezon City: Studio Graphics, ISBN 978-97194808-0-8.

UP College of Engineering. (2010). Engineering Excellence: 1910-2010. Quezon City: Studio Graphics ISBN 978-97194808-0-8.

NEC receives PQC Level 1 Recognition. (2012). UPDate Online. Retrieved from http://upd.edu.ph/~updinfo/nov12/index14.htm

World Bank Manila Office. (2012). Rural Water Supply Design Manual Vol.1. Manila: World Bank Publication.

Photo courtesy of R. Gonzalez


IN SERVICE TO THE FILIPINO...continued from page 3academic excellence.”

But in a most unusual time..., S.P. Lopez had made a distinction among the manager presidents.... (He) de-fined a direction for the University that (sought)... in its halls academic freedom that is “better to be slightly on the side of excess than on the side of suppression,” and pursuing nationalism as self-identification, “a sense of one’s capacity and worth as an individual in a society of free and fully-functional individuals.”

As the University’s constituents actively confronted the burning issues of the day, particularly in the historic moment of the First Quarter Storm and the Diliman Commune,

S.P. Lopez rose to the occasion, mustering very well both his diplo-matic background and liberal disposi-tion to allow the expression of dissent, restrain full military intervention in the campus, and at the same time, continue to carry out the University’s academic programs. His administration raised the level of academic freedom in the University...

Thus service to the people under the helm of technocrats adjusted to the exigencies of statism and developmen-talism, particularly under conditions of dictatorship....

This entire period, however, from Romulo to Angara, encompassing twenty-five years, witnessed vast orga-nizational growth and expansion of the University’s academic programs and facilities. Much of it could be credited to efficient management planning under the technocrats.

The University instituted such devel-opment-oriented (units as the Institute for Small-Scale Industries, Asian Labor Education Center [now SOLAIR], Dairy Training and Research Institute at Los Baños..., Population Institute..., Institute [now College] of Social Work and Community Develop-ment, Philippine Center for Economic Development, Institute of Fisheries De-velopment and Research, Marine Sciences Center, Institute of Agricultural Engineering and Technol-ogy, Transport Training Center, National Institute of Biotechnology and Mi-crobiology..., Third World Studies Program (now Center), National Institute of Geological Sciences, Natural Sciences Research Institute, National Institute of Physics, and Center for Integrative and Develop-ment Studies)....

There was, however, a disjunction in the concep-tion of national service and development. For even as the University grew by leaps and bounds, serving the national good, dissatis-faction rankled and dissent flowed on the campuses and spilled onto the streets...The year 1968 presaged a springtide of unrest, which went on and on, if intermit-tently, well into the days of martial rule... A counter-discourse, counterposed to the idea of service to the state, emerged, encapsulat-ed by the slogan “Serve the People.” In retrospect, the period saw the beginnings

of people power.This, the constancy of collective

protest—and a tradition of liberal-ism and nationalism that had unceas-ingly matured in the University’s total psyche—must have coaxed in the leadership the sense and tolerance to respond to the calls for democratization and mobilization.

Toward the end of dictatorship and the rebirth of democracy, the period of the technocrats would come to a close. But in their time, the University leader-ship somewhat forged a modus vivendi with the academic community, in the crucible of critical engagement, mixed with mutual tolerance, to continue to strive for academic leadership in the service of the nation.

In the Time of People Power: Academic Renaissance, Social

Renewal A new era in the University’s history

commenced with the rise of people power. It actually began in Angara’s time, more than halfway into his presi-dency.

The signal probably came with the lifting of martial law in 1981, the year Angara’s presidency began....

Then in 1983, with Ninoy Aquino’s assassination, events accelerated, arousing collective indignation and resulting in a mighty resolve to end the dictatorship. From here on, the country was in flux, with people power taking center stage.

True to form and as always involved, the University community went to the streets. In 1983, students sought the restoration of representation in the Board of Regents (BOR). Early in 1984, students and faculty joined the campaign to boycott the Batasang Pam-bansa elections. In the second half of the year, students raised barricades on

the campus to protest a tuition increase, which obliged President Marcos to take a hand in defusing the protest.

Then in February 1986, the academic community, organized and, en masse, joined the people’s protests against electoral fraud, culminating in the EDSA revolt.

Angara’s leadership gave way to the coming of a new political order. Faculty and students held “alternative classes.” Students were allowed to graduate even as formal classes stopped. Most impor-tantly, upon Cory Aquino’s assumption of the presidency, Angara led the com-munity in drafting a proposed constitu-tion for the new (order).

(T)he University’s next presidents were in exciting times and faced great challenges. It was on the shoulders of Jose V. Abueva that the first tasks for University renewal...were placed.,.. (He) saw the University and the nation becom-ing one, evoking self-examination to impart learning and leadership for “social transformation”—a new code, and very much in the spirit of the times....

Emil Q. Javier took a longer view...of service to the nation. He spoke...of con-necting the country’s past and future, of linking the University to the struggles of the nation, harnessing its resources toward excellence and service... to recapture a sense of national purpose: “As the national university, we advance academic excellence and academic freedom, bolstered by a keen sense of responsibility to our collective future. The nation...awaits our oblation....”

As the University entered the new millennium, Francisco Nemenzo was more focused on the challenges of a globalized milieu. Taking stock of rapid expansion and reduced incen-tives, he spoke of modernizing the Uni-versity, arresting a decline in academic

leadership, and meeting the dynamism of a real world in the twenty-first cen-tury....

During this period, the University blazed its way into a kind of academic renaissance and social renewal, in light of changes spurred by people power such as in social outlook, in social rela-tions and in development options for the majority of the people.

Under Abueva, the University Center for Women’s Studies was made fully operational, the Sentrong Wikang Pilipino...and the Distance Education Program (were) established. Javier launched the Pahinungod, institutional-izing direct service to the marginal-ized..., established the Open University and UP Mindanao, and initiated the setting up of the Graduate School of Engineering, which produced twelve MS programs.

It was the turn of Nemenzo to review and revise the General Educa-tion program...., He also instituted the Academic Distinction Program and the Creative and Research Scholarship Program, which encouraged quality researches...

Service to the nation took on the same traditional form of service to the government, but within new parameters of empowerment, sustainable develop-ment, and respect for human rights and civil liberties....

Completing the University’s century of commitment to the nation, Emerlinda R.Roman, the first woman president of the University, put upon herself an even greater responsibility—to preserve the gains of a hundred years, especially the University’s most cherished traditions, and to carry on the task of enriching the national university as a center of excellence, leadership, and service.... (L)ong-standing tasks bequeathed to this

generation by previous leader-ships came to be fulfilled.

One such task was the transformation of the University’s properties into profitable ventures.... (Another task), work on which began with An-gara, relentlessly pur-sued by Abueva, Javier, and Nemenzo, and ably concluded by Roman, was the passage of the revised UP Charter, geared toward unleashing...the best from the University.

The University in this time of people power reiterated and renewed its commitment, in the cru-cible of critical engage-ment, with itself and with the larger society, to attain academic excellence and leadership in service to the Filipino people....

(Postscript: President Alfredo E. Pascual car-ries on the UP tradition, drawing from the Uni-versity’s vast heritage of service to the nation, with his administration’s own intervention—One UP, a strengthened academic and administrative system uti-lizing world-standard ICT, called e-UP, and a broader and more visible pursuit of public service, founded on academic excellence and technical expertise.)---------------Dr. Llanes is professor of History in UP Diliman. Email him at [email protected].


Nagsisilbing ekspresyon ang literatura ng nasa haraya at ng nasa aktuwal na buhay

ng mga kasapi ng isang komunidad o lipunan. Nagmula ang materyal ng literatura sa karanasang komunal, sa buhay ng pangkat ng mga taong dumadanas ng iisang historikong kondisyon. Sa loob nitong komunidad ay may magkakahidwang interes ang mga sektor. Maipapahayag din itong hidwaan sa mga akdang pumapatungkol sa komunidad o lipunan.

Ang mga manunulat na sumibol sa UP Departamento ng Filipino at Panitikan ng Pilipinas (UP DFPP) ay aktibong lumahok sa mga usapin ng lipunang Filipino sa pamamagitan ng kanilang mga kuwento, dula, tuluyan, at tula. Maituturing nang klasiko at nagkaroon ng mahalagang papel ang mga ito sa nagbabagong pagdalumat sa lipunang Filipino. Kabilang ang mga manunulat na ito sa pangkat panliteratura na sumangkot sa iba't ibang kilusang nakipagtalaban sa mga usaping historiko at panlipunan.

Gagamiting pamantayan sa pagbanggit sa mga akdang panliteratura ang nag-ing bisa o dinadalumat na bisa ng mga ito sa kamalayan ng mambabasang Filipino. Itinuturing na maganda ang pagkakasulat ng mga akda sang-ayon sa formal nitong katangian at madaling makauugnay dito ang target audience (karaniwang estudyante, guro, at mahiligin sa literatura).

Pangunahin sa mga ito ang “Tata Selo” at “Impeng Negro” ni Rogelio Sicat. Ang hangarin ng mga api ay dramatiko at malinaw na nabigyang-katauhan sa mga akda. May alunignig na nililikha ang karanasang-buhay ng magsasaka na inagawan ng lupa

Mga Akdang Makabuluhan sa Buhay-Filipino mula sa UP Departamento ng Filipino

Ni Romulo P. Baquiran, Jr.

at ginahasa ang anak na babae para maunawaan ang pag-utas nito sa panginoong may-lupa. Gayundin naman ang pakikiisa ng mambabasa sa pag-aaklas ng sobra-nang-pagtitiis na ginawa ng kabataang si Impeng Negro.

May pagpapatuloy itong pagrerebelde ng maliit at walang kapangyarihan sa “Utos ng Hari” ni Jun Cruz Reyes bagama't nasa milyu ng paaralang hay-iskul. Hindi ku-mukupas ang alegorikong karakter ng kuwento sa isang panahong namayagpag ang diktadurang Marcos gayong patuloy na matalas na kritika ng narito pa ring feudalis-tikong gawi sa panlipunang relasyon.

Kung babanggitin ang nobela, mula rin sa dalawang awtor ang mga ito, ang Dugo sa Bukang Liwayway ng una at Tutubi,Tutubi ng ikalawa.

Naniniwala rin ako na karapat-dapat kilalanin ang napagtagumpayan ni Luna Sicat-Cleto sa kaniyang bagong nobela na Mga Prodigal na nagpakita ng kalagayan ng mga OFW at nangyari sa kanila nang bumalik sa sariling bayan at pamilya.

Bagamat nakasulat sa Ingles, maaari ding angkinin ng DFPP ang mga akda ni Rosario Cruz-Lucero bilang natatanging tuluyang akda, tulad ng Feast and Famine at La India, Or Island of the Disappeared.

Nararapat ding bigyang-pansin ang mga nobela ni Domingo Landicho bilang mahalagang ambag sa sining ng nobela, tulad ng Bulalak ng Maynila atbp; at ang maiikling kuwento ni Jimmuel Naval sa “Pangangaluwa.”

May bagong lathalang biyograpiya ng kaniyang mahal na ina si Teresita Gimenez-Maceda, ang Bride of War na isang ambag sa sining ng creative non-fiction.

Sa larangan ng dula, mapaghawan ng landas ang “Tales of the

Manuvu” ni Bienvenido Lumbera dahil sa sa paggamit nito ng kuwentong-bayan mula sa Mindanao at sa mataas-ang-kasiningan ng produksiyon.

Karamihan sa mga dula ni Reuel M. Aguila ay makabuluhan dahil sa tuwirang pagpaksa sa buhay ng mardyinalisado tulad ng “Mapait sa Bao” at kailan lamang ng “Maliw.” May mayamang partikularidad sa kondisyon ng mga magkokopra sa Que-zon ang una at ng maparikalang usapin ng desaparesidos sa kasalukuyan ang ikalawa. Mga huwaran ng dramatikong pagsulat itong mga akda.

Gaya rin ng naiibang pananaw sa kondisyon ng kabataang ina at asawa sa “Ma-ternal” ni Luna Sicat-Cleto. Ang nakatakdang papel ng kababaihan ang tinitimbang sa buhay ng dalawang magkaibang pasiya ng kababaihan kaugnay ng esteryotipong larawan ng babae ayon sa pagtatakda ng lipunan. Historikal naman ang pagdulog ni Joi Barrios sa kaniyang dulang “Damas de Noche.”

Sa dula nina Sicat-Cleto at Barrios, isa sa mga opsiyon ang pagtalikod/pagtakas sa kinagawian: mental na kaibahan (pagpasok sa neurosis) sa kaso ng una, o pisikal na paglayo (pamumuhay sa Mindoro) sa kaso ng ikalawa.

At hindi dapat kalimutan ang mga dula ni Rene O. Villanueva, lalo na ang “May Isang Sundalo” at ang “Botong,” na nagtatanghal ng masaklap na lagay ng nasasang-kot sa digmaang Filipino-laban-sa-Filipino sa kanayunan sa una, at ang dilema ng artista/pintor na hinahatak ng personal at komunal na mga suliranin sa ikalawa.

May katangi-tangi ring mga dula si Glecy Atienza tulad ng “Usapang Babae” at

“Titser ng Bayan” na makabuluhan sa kontemporanyong buhay-Filipino.Sa mga makata, maituturing na pangunahin mula sa DFPP sina Bienvenido Lum-

bera, Rio Alma (Virgilio S. Almario), atbp. Sa kanilang mga koleksiyon ng tula, da-lawa ang maituturing na representante ng kanilang mga obra maestra: ang “Poetika/Politika” ng una at “Doktrinang Anakpawis” ng ikalawa. Mababasa sa mga akdang ito ng pagsusulong ng pinakamarubdob na hangarin ng katarungang panlipunan para sa sektor na higit na nangangailangan nito. Napakataas ng kasiningan sa panulaan ng mga likhang akda nitong mga makata, ng kanilang paglalangkap ng henyo ng wika at kabuluhan ng paksa.

Hindi rin maikakaila na napakahalaga ng mga akda ni Vim Nadera tulad ng “Labin-lima Lamang,” “Mujer Indigena” at ang bagong “Kayumanggi” (mga tula at awit).

Sa mga kabataang manunulat sa DFPP, marami nang naisagawang pampanitikang tagumpay sina Eugene Y. Evasco (ilan lamang sa kaniyang mga kuwentong pambata ang “Anina ng mga Alon” at “Federico”), Will P. Ortiz (“Bugtong ng Buwan” na koleksiyon ng mga kuwentong pambata), Vlademeir B. Gonzales (“Isang Napakalak-ing Kaastigan,” mga sanaysay), at Rommel Rodriguez (“Lagalag ng Paglaya,” mga kuwento, Bebang Sy (“It's A Mens World,” mga sanaysay).

Tunay na marami at mahalaga ang naging kontribusyon at inaasahan pang magig-ing kontribusyon ng UP DFPP sa literaturang Filipino.

---------------Assistant Professor 7 si Romulo P. Baquiran, Jr. sa UP De-partamento ng Filipino at Panitikang Pilipino. Maaari siyang padalhan ng email sa [email protected].


What have Doy and Celia Diaz Laurel, Joy Gamboa Virata, Boots

Anson Roa, Jun Roy, Judge Tito Gupit, Cherry Santos, Eugene Domingo, George Sison, Etta Rosales, Pinky Rigor, Jose Ma. Velez, Joe Velez, Bobbie Malay Ocampo, Lorna Verano, Cris Vertido, Bibeth Or-teza, Winnie Monsod, Phil Cabanos, Tony Mabesa, Jules Yogore, Joonee Gamboa, Lino Brocka, Behn Cervantes, Ishmael Bernal, Sonny Osmeña, Teddy Yabut, Dick Zamora, Irma Adlawan, Ces Quesa-da, Cota Deles Yabut, Maureen Tiongco, Ces Manggay, Alex Cortez, Irma Adla-wan, Willie Nepomuceno, Kata Inocencio and Jose Ma. Sison got in common?

They were all UP actors during their student days in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. They belonged to either the UP Dramatic Club, the UP Mobile Theater, the UP Repertory Company or the Dulaang UP. Some of these UP alumni worked with fraternities like the Upsilon Sigma Phi and Sigma Rho that staged their own produc-tions. Sororities Sigma Delta Phi and Sigma Beta also staged productions under Virgie Moreno, Cota Yabut and student directors recognized during their time.

The UP Tradition of TheatreBy Behn Cervantes

It became a UP cultural habit to stage productions whenever the University or student organization celebrated an im-portant holiday. On certain holidays, UP organizations staged plays in Spanish or Tagalog especially on Quezon Day.

The productions were staged in the mammoth UP Big Theater, the LA Theater or its twin the Engineering Theater. Later on, the Conservatory of Music built the modern Abelardo Hall before the LA The-ater was refurbished into the Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater named after the man who singularly changed the UP Dramatic scene.

The UP Student Catholic Action (UP-SCA) and UP Christian Youth Movement also staged their own productions. They staged plays like "Medea" with Robert Arevalo and All My Sons directed by Perfecto Terra, Jr.

When you appeared in these produc-tions, you became a ‘droppable’ name and you were recognized when you walked around the huge campus.

However, since it was also a manner of learning how to express yourself in English, the UP students became articulate and expressive in English. No wonder, UP stage actors Boots Anson Roa, Menggie Cobarrubias and Ces Quesada have trans-formed into fine emcees, as well.

BeginningsAn interest in Theatre in UP began

before the Pacific War. Jean Edades started the life-long interest in the Art Form in future National Artists in Theatre like Daisy Hontiveros Avellana, Severino Montano who founded the Arena Theater, and Freddie Guerrero who founded the UP Dramatic Club.

While big Catholic educational in-stitutions staged veladas and religious programs to celebrate big national or institutional holidays, the UP Dramatic Club under the direction of Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero, called Freddie by all who worked with him, was already directing plays by Saroyan, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Claudel and Jean Paul Sartre, contemporary playwrights deemed

too controversial for staid Catholic institu-tions.

It would be in the 60’s when National Artist Rolando Tinio staged his Ateneo productions in his distinctive manner that the likes of Nestor Torre, Ella Luansing and Laurice Guillen blossomed and be-came luminaries of Philippine Theater.

In UP, Anton Juan was considered an enfant terrible of Philippine Theatre while Cecile Guidote, now Alvarez, founded PETA and Zeneida Amador founded Rep-ertory Philippines.

PETA opted for Philippine dramaturgy while Repertory Philippines preferred training for professionalism and decided to concentrate on box office hits of West End and Broadway.

UP was a happy mix of both choosing to stage productions of plays because they were educationally important. However, the UP dramatic organizations never forgot the vital role of UP in supporting Philippine dramatugy. After all, if the dramatic organizations do not demand Philippine Theater, why should Filipino playwrights write their plays? Philippine Theater dramaturgy can develop only with the support of the best of Philippine theater talents.

In fact, Lino Brocka and I auditioned for the UPDC because we had seen "No Exit" and were left speechless after seeing

the (fine) ensemble acting of Jun Roy, Phil Cabanos, Rita Kalaw Ledesma and Marita (Kit) Adolfo Viduya. We were so impressed by their acting that we wanted to be part of the Dramatic Club. Lino Brocka respected Kit so much, he often referred to her as the Simone Signoret of the Philippines.

The favorite actress of Freddie was comedienne and dramatic actress Julie Deleña Clemente. Fortunately, Julie re-turned to act in UP productions years after she graduated.

The next production that semester was Thorton Wilder’s "Happy Journey from Trenton to Camden." Right after that we were acting in TS Eliot’s "Murder in the Cathedral." Then, we staged "Oedipus Rex".

It was tedious work but we loved it. We

tolerated Freddie’s constant “Puñeta!” that he shouted at his actors.

Over 200 students auditioned. More than 300 watched as we bravely

read the audition pieces like “She sells seashells by the seashore.” Lino was ac-cepted to join the list of proud members of the UP Dramatic Club along with Donnie Montelibano, Carolina “Bobbie” Malay, George Sison and Jun Amorsolo, the son of the famous painter. Many were prod-ucts of UP High and UP Prep. I was the only one from La Salle. Lino Brocka was from San Jose, Nueva Ecija while Jose Ma. Sison came from the Ilocos.

Because Lino was not cast in UP plays because he continued to cast alumni members of the UP Dramatic Club, I fought Freddie and enticed Lino to join Joonee, his brother Art and me in Arena Theater productions in Philippine Normal University.

Lino and I were cast in Antonio Bayot plays that included actors or actresses like pretty Shirley Cuyugan, Sampaguita contract stars like Tito Garcia and Cesar Reyes in productions of "Malakas at Maganda" and "The Merry Wives of Manila."

Fraternity and sorority playsUP was busy with plays staged by

fraternities and sororities not to mention

the UPSCA and other student organiza-tions. I recall, for example that during our freshman year, the Sigma Rho fra-ternity staged an exemplary production of "Caine Mutiny" under the direction of Freddie (Guerrero). A year later, UPSCA staged "Medea" with film actor Robert Arevalo while years later the Sigma Beta sorority staged "Bernarda Alba" with a student cast.

UP had a full calendar of plays being produced by organizations and per-formed by talented students.

The Upsilon Sigma Phi fraternity was busy staging original musicals they called cavalcades. They likewise pro-duced annual jazz concerts held in the Big Theater attracting an audience as far situated as Clark Field and Sangley.


The best of Philippine jazz jammed with American jazz players from these military posts.

They toured both "Aloyan" and "Interior 14" in Visayas and Bicol thus making true the UP “Outreach” program.

These cavalcades were directed by young but talented Ted Yabut. Lyrics were composed in three languages—English, Spanish and Tagalog by Mart Martell and the variety of music was composed by pianist Dick Zamora. The trio produced "Aloyan," "Hanako" and "Linda" that introduced a new talent named Pilita Corrales as well as Bert Nievera, and energized the careers of singer Priscilla Aristorenas who sang in Upsilon Jazz concerts.

The fraternity also befriended Jazz artists like Lito Molina, Romy Katindig, Piding Alava and other great Filipino jazz artists. One of them migrated to Ho-nolulu and played bass with the Honolulu Symphony Orcestra.

When Dick and Mart became too busy with professional obligations, the frater-nity discovered Cris Gonzales, who also played Bach’s fugues in the UP Carillon when he was the carillonist of UP. He composed the music of "Lawani" and "Fives That Fell."

The fraterntiy likewise helped their sorority sisters—the Sigma Delta Phi—in annual productions of musicals like "Tamboo" and "Red on Black." Among the outstanding student-performers of the sorority were Minda Feliciano, Maureen Tiongco, Arlie Orendain, Carole Piñon and Carole de la Paz.

There were legal problems with the UP Dramatic Club so President Carlos P. Ro-mulo assigned Freddie Guerrero to found the UP Mobile Theater that has among its many members the likes of Boots Anson Roa, Jose Ma. Velez, Cris Vertido and Lorna Verano.

The US Embassy had a program that brought Ohio State University produc-tions to UP with a production. Among those we enjoyed were "Fantastics" and "Brigadoon." This enriched the dramatic fare in UP and inspired many to take up Speech and Drama as a course.

UP Diliman was not the only campus busy with dramatic productions. UP

"Isang Panaginip na Fili," a radical reworking of Rizal's El Filibusterismo, written by Floy Quintos and performed during Dulaang UP's 35th Theatre Season

Photo from http://kibiboie.blogspot.com

/2010/11/dulaang-up-presents-floy-quintos-isang.html


Los Baños mounted its own under Tony Mabesa and Leo Rimando.

Nationalist fervorThat busy theatrical calendar went on

from the 50’s to the 60’s. In the 70’s, dur-ing The First Quarter Storm, the activists staged plays like "Barrikada," "Ang Pa-glilitis Ni Mang Serapio" and nationalistic plays that damned Imperialism, Feudalism and Bureaucrat Capitalism.

The nationalist fervor became so strong that even Repertory Philippines staged a Bertolt Brecht play with Imee Marcos playing the daughter of Mother Courage.

Soon, UP plays were openly against militarism when Martial Law was de-clared on September 21, 1972.

Youth organizations like KM (Ka-bataang Makabayan) and SDK (Samahan ng Demokratikong Kabataan) set up their own cultural chapters like Sinag-Bayan and Gintong Silahis that performed against national ills in Plaza Miranda, ral-lies and strike areas. They helped popu-larize the Isms activists were against and propagated Serve the People.

It was in such rallies that Willie Nepo-muceno honed his talent at mimicking the likes of Marcos and the Metrocom.

These activist productions were per-formed in Philippine languages to ensure they communicated to the masses who watched the “life-changing” performances in very noisy public areas like markets and streets as well as unruly demonstra-tions.

Thus, the dialogue was often rendered in a choral manner, repetitive and very fiery in nature to win over the masses to radical and revolutionary causes.

The UP Repertory Company was founded in 1974 to combat the censorship that was in place during Martial Law. The UP Rep sought help from both religious chapels. For example, it rehearsed in the

THE UP TRADITION OF THEATRE...continued from page 15

1930: The UP Dramatic Club was born with Jean Garrott Edades as one of the 1st directors; it was a campus theater group based at UP Manila and later in Diliman.

1947-1966: The UP Dramatic Club was revitalized under Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero.

1951: The LA/AS Lecture Hall was inaugurated with a production of John von Druten’s "I Remember Mama" by the UP Dramatic Club.

1961: "Walking Canes and Fans" by Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio, directed by Benjamin Cervantes, was staged.

1962-1981: The UP Mobile Theatre, the country’s first theatre-on-wheels, was founded by Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero. Other Guerrero plays performed: "Wanted a Chaperone," "Half An Hour in a Convent," "Three Rats," and many more.

1974: The UP Repertory Company, a student theater organization, was founded by Behn Cervantes. The UP Rep produced plays directed by Behn Cervantes: "Moses, Moses" (Rogelio Sicat); "Pagbibinyag sa Apoy at Dugo/Walking Canes and Fans" (Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio); "Dapithapon" (Domingo Landicho); "Pagsambang Bayan" (Bonifacio Ilagan); and "Miss Dulce Extranjera o ang Paghahanap kay Miss B" (Sir Anril Tiatco) directed by La Verne Lacap. It also staged "Dula-tula" (play-poem) street plays: "Iskolar ng Bayan," "Ang Kagila-gilalas na Pakikipagsapalaran ni Juan dela Cruz," "Juan Obrero," and "Ped Xing."

1972: The first book on Philippine Theatre was published: The Seditious Tagalog Playwrights:

UP Theater TimelineBy Amy Bonifacio-Romolete

Early American Occupation by Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio.

1976: Dulaang UP was founded by Tony Mabesa as the theatre and production arm of the Department of Speech Communication and Theatre Arts. It produced translations/adaptations: "Pagkahaba-haba Man ng Prusisyon sa Simbahan din ang Tuloy" (Lilia Antonio)/"Much Ado About Nothing" (William Shakespeare) direction Tony Mabesa; "Pabilog na Guhit ng Tisa" (Leopoldo Cancio)/"Caucasian Chalk Circle" (Bertolt Brecht) dir. Tony Mabesa; "M Butterfly" (David Henry Hwang) dir. Tony Mabesa; "Largo Desolato" (Vaclav Havel/Ramon Jocson, trans.) dir. Jose Estrella; "The Imaginary Invalid" (Moliere)/"Hakang Kathang May Sakit" (Rebecca Anonuevo) dir. Amiel Leonardia. It also staged important Filipino works: "Close-up" (Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero) dir. Tony Mabesa; "In Dis Corner" (Reuel Aguila) dir. Anton Juan; "Taong Grasa" (Anton Juan, Jr.) dir. Anton Juan, Jr.; "Fili" (Floy Quintos) dir. Tony Mabesa; "…And St. Louis Loves Dem Filipinos" (Floy Quintos) dir. Tony Mabesa; "Ang Paglilitis/The Trial" (Adrian Cristobal) dir. Alexander Cortez; "The Merry Wives of Manila" (Severino Montano) dir. Ogie Juliano; "Orosman at Zafira" (Francisco Baltazar) dir. Dexter Santos; "Atang The Musical" (Floy Quintos) dir. Alexander Cortez; "Noli Me Tangere: The Opera" (Felipe Padilla de Leon & Guillermo Tolentino) dir. Alexander Cortez; "Forsaken House" (Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero) dir. Tony Mabesa.

Sept. 16, 1976: Opening of the AS Lecture at the Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater with the production of Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio’s "Ang Bundok," a modern sarsuwela directed by Behn Cervantes.

1977: The Teatrong Mulat ng Pilipinas was founded by Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio as a children’s theatre and puppetry troupe. It staged the following plays written and directed by Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio: "Abadeja: Ang Ating Sinderela"; "Ang Manok at ang Lawin"; "Ang Pagong at ang Tsonggo"; "Ang Paghuhukom"; "Papet Pasyon"; "Si Bertong Bulag at si Pedrong Pilay"; "Si Suan, si Suan"; "Sisa"; "Dalawang Bayani" and "Sita and Rama: Papet Ramayana" (dir. Amihan Bonifacio-Ramolete)

1986: The UP Playwright’s Theater was founded by Tony Mabesa. As the theatre and production arm of the Department of Speech Communication and Theatre Arts that featured new works by Filipino playwrights. Plays: "Death in the Form of a Rose" (Anton Juan) dir. Anton Juan; "Sepang Loca" (Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio)/ "Dead Stars" (Paz Marquez Benitez) dir. Anton Juan; "Fake" (Floy Quintos) dir. Tony Mabesa; "Umaaraw, Umuulan Kinakasal ang Tikbalang" (Rody Vera/Gilda Cordero-Fernando’s "The Magic Circle") dir. Jose Estrella

1988: The Sining Pangkabataan of Dulaang UP was founded by Antoinette Bass-Hernandez and Edna May Landicho as the children’s theatre arm of the Department of Speech Communication and Theatre Arts. It produced: "Tagisan"; "Tikbalang", plays written and directed by Edna May Landicho such as "Damit ng Emperador," "Bisperas ng Pasko," "Engkantado," "Kukuti-kutitap."

2008: The Komedya Fiesta (Organized by the UP College of Arts & Letters) was held in UP.

2009: The Sarsuwela Festival (Organized by the UP College of Arts & Letters) was held in UP.

Protestant chapel and performed in the Catho-lic chapel. The students did these for "Kahapon, Ngayon at Bukas" as well as "Pagsambang Bayan." In other ven-ues, it staged plays like "Sigaw Ng Bayan" and "Estados Unidos bersus Juan Matapang Cruz" to standing room (SRO) only crowds.

The UP Rep per-formed before student audiences. But it also attracted the ‘outside’ audience unhappy with oppressive military cen-sorship that restrained exchange of ideas and criticism against the Marcos government. Of course, there were regular arrests of both faculty and students of

A scene from the play "St. Louis Loves Dem Filipinos," written by Floy Quintos

UP. They were hauled to military camps like Aguinaldo, Crame, Bagong Diwa in Bicutan as well as Bonifacio.

The UP Repertory Company director-founder was arrested four times together with three of his members. While incar-cerated in Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan he staged Aurelio Tolentino’s anti-colonial play classic "Kahapon, Ngayon at Bukas" with Nelia Sancho, Satur Ocampo, Pepe Luneta and Edicio de la Torre as some of the cast members.

Even the military personnel were impressed with the production and told the director ”Kung sa bagay...” after the production.

UP students supported outright chal-lenges against the Martial Law regime. Red flags as well as the singing of "Bayan Ko" was a typical ending of a UP stage production.

When a World Festival of Theatre was held in the Philippines before the declara-

tion of Martial Law, the organizers of the Festival did not include two UP plays in their official list of plays but some interna-tional delegates came to see a production of "Barikada" and told the others about the production.

Two buses of delegates came to cheer the red flag-waving activists of Gintong Silahis, the cultural arm of the Samahang Demokratikong Kabataan. They also came to enjoy the Sigma Delta production of "The Short Short Life of Citizen Juan" by Amelia Lapeña Bonifacio on another night.

A splendid traditionStudent actors had turned profession-

als. Eugene Domingo,Mengie Cobar-rubias, Ces Quesada, Kata Inocencio, Tony Mabesa and Jon Santos are among the most prominent. Lyon, Lisa and Leila Florentino as well as Lani Sumalinog are performing abroad. They all display the fine training they received from UP.

Maureen Tiongco was one of the first Filipinas on Broadway when she appeared with the international cast of the 1957 "Flower Drum Song" production directed by Gene Kelly.

Years later, she returned to direct a local version of Flower Drum Song to raise funds for the Cultural Center of the Philip-pines.

Yes, UP has a splendid tradition of Theater. But Freddie is gone. Severino is gone as well. Daisy is retired. Lino is gone. Bernie, too.

However, their dramatic legacy lives on as Dulaang UP continues to make the campus a bastion of great Theatre in the Philippines. ---------------The author is retired professor of Theater Arts and theatre actor/director. He is also First Vice-President of the UP Alumni Association. Email him at [email protected].

Photo from http://w

ww.ovcrd.upd.edu.ph/researchlines/2010/05/20/hello-w

orld-2/


GREEN AND MAROONED...continued from page 4

REVISITING UPLB'S...continued from page 5size swimming pool amidst a lush, natural park. Stories have it that the blueprint for the resort had to be altered to avoid encroaching into the sanctuary of Maria Makiling who was said to have expressed displeasure—through certain strange occurrences—when construction began.

For a campus with such a rich natural heritage, it was no wonder that UPLB would seek to pay homage to certain trees on the occasion of UP’s centen-nial celebration in 2008. Selected for their special endurance (all are at least a hundred years old) and unique roles in the history of the institution were twelve Centennial Heritage Trees from both lower and upper campuses ranging from rare species to more common ones like acacias. Among the prominent trees in the list chosen by an ad hoc committee are:

(1) the majestic acacia tree (Samanea saman) near the Rizal Centenary Carillon looming large in Freedom Park is better known as ‘Fertility Tree’ because amorous couples are drawn to its wide, homey canopy;

(2) Giant kapok tree (Ceiba pentandra) or American cotton tree near Palma Bridge and which has stood guard over the campus for over a century. The shower of snowy cotton tufts from its pods is a yearly spectacle that ushers in summer.

(3) Royal Palms (Roystonea regia) along the campus main avenue;

(4) Leaning Dao (Dracontomelon dao) in front of the Student Union building, which gained a measure of fame when it became the object of a controversy in the early 2000s after the administration deemed it a threat to safety and proposed to cut it down, stirring up protests

from various groups. (5) Pili trees (Canarium ovatum)

along Pili Drive that connects UPLB to IRRI.

Though valued primarily as an out-door laboratory for instruction, research and extension, the Makiling Forest Reserve is a major watershed with waters from its slopes flowing down the Molawin Creek, a long water system traversing a good part of the campus.

So prominent is the creek in the aggie lore not only because of how it sus-tained the early student barrios and pro-vided an outdoor laboratory for many science classes but also because the beloved Dean Charles Baker was known to have braved its currents to swim to the other side when rains washed away the bamboo bridge.

Not long since then and to this day, the durable Palma Bridge—which has retained its old world charm—has con-nected the main academic and adminis-

tration hub with the cultural and social center where one finds the Freedom Park, Student Union Building, D.L. Umali Hall, and the Rizal Centenary Carillon, the three Locsin structures blending beautifully in the lush expanse.

But certainly the most enduring and most treasured edifice in the area, if not in the entire campus, is Baker Hall, the old gymnasium named in honor of UPCA’s second and longest-serving dean Charles Fuller Baker. The build-ing’s claim to historical prominence is not as a center of campus athletic activities but as an internment camp of American prisoners during the Japanese occupation.

Its vast hall was a silent witness to the two-year ordeal of the prisoners not a few of whom breathed their last inside the cramped camp. Small wonder then that numerous eerie tales about Baker Hall persist to this day despite its being the venue of many sports competitions

and sundry celebrations. Few other treasured remnants of

UPLB’s rich past remain functional as most of the structures from the first building boom have been replaced by modern and larger buildings. But most of the arches and portals from that era have been preserved now serving as landmarks to remind us of our history and rich heritage.---------------Dr. Fajutagana is professor and chair of the Humanities Department in UPLB. Email the author at [email protected].

except cumulatively to dilute the homogeneity of the early styles and symmetrical or balanced compositions. In any case by these decades the landscape was well past ma-turity and had, in fact, become the more defining thread across the campus compared to its architecture.

The two decades also saw a disturbing trend in and outside the campus. Inside saw expansion of the facilities that sought to spread buildings and created new complexes further and further outward, increasing reliance on vehicles to get to these destina-tions. Outside the campus saw the city start to crowd the campus’ perimeter. Some government entities were allowed to build within the campus itself, eroding its fringes and blurring its physical identity at the peripheries.

The last two decades of the campuses evolution has seen these two trends increas-ing. The building of CP Garcia and the widening of Katipunan, along with the growth of informal settlements in the campus, have further complicated trajectories for physical development making it difficult to keep the original intent of the creation of an idyllic setting for the pursuit of knowledge.

The continuing redevelopment of open land within the campus reads like, and fol-lows, flawed development directions taken by the metropolis as a whole. The campus has fallen prey to dictates of urban sprawl. Every department or college is pushing for its own self-contained complex.

What then ensues is a duplication of facilties, inefficiencies of spatial distribution, and enlargements of carbon footprints of the campus as a whole. Most notable of the

changes has been an increase in concrete infrastructure like driveways and parking lots. This, despite the fact that majority of the campus users are pedestrian.

The increasing paved areas and building footprints decrease the total green areas and canopy cover of the campus. This increases vulnerability to flooding, which did not oc-cur in earlier decades; granted this may be the result of encroaching urbanization.

The reality today is that the university holds one of the largest remaining swathes of green in the metropolis. This natural heritage is also an environmental legacy that mitigates air pollution, decreases microclimate temperatures (the urban heat island effect) and reduces urban noise (except, of course, the sound of noisy Ikot and Toki jeepneys).

After over a hundred years of evolution, the UP Diliman campus finds itself now marooned, an oasis of green in an ocean of grey concrete and viral urbanization with-out rational growth. It is imperative that the campus conserves its green legacy, its flora and fauna, its ponds and open fields, as without it the campus and the metropo-lis is compromised environmentally and will slowly die. The four hundred hectares of the Diliman Quadrangle (now reduced to the Diliman Triangle) has been sold to private developers or await sale to the highest bidder.

The campus is also an oasis of some of the best designed tropical architecture in the country. In the contemporary reality of Filipino architecture still lost in the woods of globalization, the treasure trove of elegant buildings still standing give Filipino architects, landscape architects and planners a link back to a time when we still knew how to build well, and how to build beautifully.

Walking or biking down the university’s central green core is like taking a refresher course in the tenets of design with, and not against, nature. It is also a tour of great architecture and the classical essen-tials of building—utilitas, firmitas, venustas (utility, strength and beauty).

The campus is of course more than the sum of its buildings, its art, and its green settings. However, without these three in a balanced discourse with each other, UP Diliman would be much less than a proper setting for intellectual discourse.

Without these settings, designed and natural, the pursuit of knowl-edge loses connections to place, pride in that place, and most impor-tantly an identity based on place, essential most scholars believe, as a foundation for building self and nation.---------------Paulo Alcazaren is an architect and urban planner. He also teaches at the College of Architecture and writes a column ("City Sense")for the Philippine Star. Email him at [email protected].

In the heart of the UP Lagoon is Sentro ng Wika's tribute to the joys of reading titled Aklatang Bayan, designed by UP College of Fine Arts professor Neil Doloricon in 1999.

References:Cariaga, A. & Feleo, A. (Eds.) (2008). 100 Years:

UPLB in the Science and Nature City. UPLB Foundation.

Jamias, Cristino. (1962, November). The University of the Philippines: The First Half Century.” The Diliman Review, UP Golden Jubilee Special Supplement.

Recollections of Dr. SM Cendaña, typewritten manuscript, 1980.

National Artist Napoleon Abueva's The Philippine Pegasus, or "Pegarao" to the members of the UPLB Community


We Filipinos are renowned throughout the world for our musical giftedness.

“We have a rich heritage of culture and music. It’s in our blood,” says Prof. Janet “Jai” Sabas-Aracama, faculty member of the UP College of Music's Department of Conducting and Choral Ensemble and conductor/musical director of the UP Concert Chorus (UPCC).

And in this musically gifted country, the students, faculty, alumni and performing groups of the University of the Philippines are recognized for the quality of their training and showmanship. “There’s this mindset that if you train abroad, you’re good. That’s not true anymore,” says Aracama, who relates the experiences of the UPCC during their international tours, with overseas Filipinos and foreigners alike expressing admiration whenever they find out that the group is from UP.

“They respect [the fact that we’re from UP], because they know the education here is really high-level, world-class,” says Aracama. “And that legacy—the passing on of that education—is not only through the sciences, but through the arts as well.”

The UP College of MusicWhen talking about UP’s musical

legacy to the country, it is about the UP College of Music.

The College had its origins in the University Chorus, established under the College of Liberal Arts in 1915.

Act No. 2623 of 1916 set aside funds “for the establishme nt and maintenance of a Conservatory of Music,” which took the University Chorus out of the College of Liberal Arts and transformed it into the Conservatory of Music. It formally opened its classes in September 1916, in a rented building located at 963 Calle R. Hidalgo, with Prof. Wallace W. George as its first Dean.1

The Conservatory moved to Diliman in 1948 and was initially housed at the administration building. It finally moved to its present building in 1963, named after its distinguished alumnus, Filipino composer Nicanor Abelardo. In 1968, it was formally elevated to the status of Col-lege during the 773rd meeting of the UP Board of Regents.

Throughout its almost 100 years of existence, the UP College of Music has

How the music plays on in UPBy Celeste Ann Castillo Llaneta

Top row photos, from left to right: Maestro Ryan Cayabyab during the UP Centennial Concert at the Cultural Center of the Philippines; the UP Concert Chorus, with conductor/musical director Jai Sabas-Aracama; the UP Jazz Ensemble, with Prof. Raymundo Maigue. Bottom row photos, from left and right: the KONTRA-GAPI; the Eraserheads; the Philippine Madrigal Singers

produced some of the most influential names in Philippine culture and music history. Seven National Artists in Music have come from the College: Antonio J. Molina, Antonino R. Buenaventura, Jovita Fuentes, Felipe Padilla de Leon, Lucio San Pedro, Andrea O. Veneracion and Jose M. Maceda.

The graduates who have passed through the halls of the college have also gone on to blaze trails and bring honor and recognition to the country through their achievements in their fields—be it in Broadway, opera, “classical” music, and the national and international pop music industry.

The classical edgeThe UP College of Music is also known

for the international caliber of its perform-ing groups. Performing groups come in two categories: resident and non-resident. Among the resident performing groups are the UP Arco String Ensemble, the UP Concert Chorus, the UP Guitar Orchestra, the UP Jazz Ensemble, the UP Madrigal Singers, the UP Symphonic Band, the UP Orchestra, the UP Rondalla, UP Dance Company, the UP Vocal Ensemble, the UP Musika Sophia, the UP Percussion, and the UP Voice Guild. Non-resident performing groups are the UP Singing Ambassadors and UP’s official children’s choir, the UP Cherubim and Seraphim.

These groups have brought honor and distinction to both UP and the country, strengthening the Filipinos’ reputation as superb musicians.

The UP Madrigal Singers, for one, are renowned as the world’s best and most awarded choir, one of only two choirs to win the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing twice, and recognized by the UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization as Artists for Peace. The influence of the UP Madrigal Singers or the Madz, as the choir is fondly called, on choral singing throughout the country is immeasurable.

The UP Concert Chorus, official choir of the University, has had 20 interna-tional concert tours and garnered major international awards in different choral categories, the latest being Second Prize in the Mixed Category and First Prize in the Folk Category of the Festival Interna-cional de Musica de Cantonigros.

The UP Singing Ambassadors have likewise toured the world and won numer-ous awards in international competitions, and has recently been elevated to the Hall of Fame for Best Choral Group in the 25th ALIW Awards.

The UP College of Music’s instrumen-tal groups have performed in numerous concerts within and outside the Universi-ty, including performances at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, TV programs, and music and dance festivals in Asian countries. The UP Guitar Orchestra has also won top prizes in national competi-tions such as the National Music Com-petition for Young Artists. And early this year, the UP Arco String Ensemble was selected to perform at the 24th Festival International de Musique Universitaire in Belfort, France, the first Filipino group to be chosen.

UP Arco's musical director Edna Marti-nez was quoted in the May 14, 2012 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer: "By taking part [in the international festival], UP Arco verifies the fact that our instru-mental music education at the tertiary level is at par with global standard(s). [It has] reached and set a high bar of honor and excellence in both musical éclat and performance élan."

Where music rings forthBut music, like life, cannot be contained

in one vessel, and UP provides an ever-fertile ground for the blossoming of all forms of music.

Under the UP Diliman College of Arts and Letters, the Kontemporaryong Gamelan Pilipino or Kontra-GaPi brings the gamelan, “the quintessential orchestra of Southeast Asia,” to the UP community, to virtually all regions of the country, and to Europe, North America and Asia through their colorful ethnic music and dance performances.

The UP Manila Chorale, the UP Los Baños Choral Ensemble and the UP Min-danao Koro Kantahanay have likewise been actively sharing their gifts and earn-ing rave reviews and winning competi-tions here and abroad, as have instrumen-tal groups such as the UPLB Harmonya string ensemble.

From the ranks of UP’s administra-tive staff, the UP Staff Chorale has been proving that the gift of music belongs to

all sectors of the University for almost 40 years.

These are only a few examples from UP’s rich musical heritage.

From the beating of UP’s eternally young and vibrant heart, the love of music is nurtured through a wide variety of mu-sical groups and music-appreciation or-ganizations, such as the UP Music Circle; the UP Underground Music Community; the UP Composers of New Music; the UP Mindanao Association of Musicians Playing Loud Instruments; the UP Manila Musician's Organization; the UPLB Kairos Band; the UP Jammer's Club; and inDiO, just to name a few.

School of rockUP has also served as the birthplace of

some of the country’s most trendsetting bands, some of which have gone off to shape Philippine music industry. Bands whose members are proudly UP have be-come household names—the Eraserheads, Dong Abay and Yano, Kamikazee, Slap-shock, Stone Free, Up Dharma Down, Sandwich, and many others.

Beyond the walls of the classrooms and hallways, UP’s independent thinking and free-spiritedness are given voice through the groups, bands and performers who give life to the underground music scene in the country. Many of these performers fearlessly push the boundaries of artistry and musicality, such as activist-rap artist BLKD, whose performances have been reminiscent of the traditional balagtasan.2

Remembering the musicMusic is indeed a gift shared by all Fili-

pinos, from all walks of life. “It’s in the terrain,” says Aracama. “You can see how harmonious the waves of the sea are, how beautiful the terrain of the country. This has an impact on our inner being, and this contributes greatly to our artistry.”

Such connection between music and the material environment is easy enough to intuit for a person within the campuses of UP, where nature and modernism, free-dom and discipline, tradition and youth-ful energy are blended into a seamless whole. What more, Aracama adds, for a person living in the provinces, who hears the music within the rhythmic crashing of waves, the singing of the wind through



The University of the Philippines (UP) campus in Diliman, Quezon City is perhaps the most well-endowed university campus in the Philippines with works done by

National Artists on its grounds. Since the 1930s, architects, sculptors, and painters who have achieved renown as Na-

tional Artists of the Philippines have decorated it with unforgettable structures and works of art. It had been an avocation of sorts that resulted from their long association with UP as their alma mater and as their everyday workplace as faculty members.

The first such works to greet the typical visitor of UP Diliman upon driving down University Avenue is found at the corner of CP Garcia Avenue, a pair of monumental sculptures titled Tribute to Higher Education (1962). These are the works of National Artist Napoleon V. Abueva.

The two sculptures are reminiscent of ceremonial gateways into ancient cities. Finished in 1966, each is composed of two unevenly sized concrete piers formed in volcanic tufta (adobe) that support a cantilevered concrete block with bas reliefs molded on its surface. The reliefs represent figures in Philippine folklore and history, combined with allegorical figures and symbols that represent various aspects of learning such as science, engineer-ing, and the liberal arts.

Other sculptures by Abueva include Bridge of Love (c. 1978-1984) found at the Col-lege of Fine Arts Sculpture Garden; the Diwata or The Nine Muses (1994) at the Bulwa-gang Rizal front garden; and Magdangal (2008), in front of the new CAL Building.

Abueva’s works can also be found in front of the College of Business Administration (CBA) Building, titled Spirit of Business (1979); at the Virata Hall, Institute of Small Scale Industries, Tribute to the Filipino Enterpreneur (1970s); and Crucifixion (1956) is a double-sided hardwood crucifix in simple curvilinear forms that is mounted on the center of the dome of the Church of the Holy Sacrifice.

At the terminus of University Avenue is the most famous sculptural symbol of UP, the bronze statue titled Oblation, first done by National Artist Guillermo E. Tolentino in 1935. The original statue, now a prized possession of the University Archives, was molded from concrete by Guillermo Tolentino. The statue is a superb example of the beaux-arts ideal of classical masculinity, dignity, harmony, and the sublime.

Another work by Tolentino can be found at the portico of the lobby of Palma Hall along Roxas Avenue, where a small bronze bust of Jose Rizal atop a black granite pedestal was finished in 1955. What makes the bust distinct is Rizal’s name inscribed in the ancient baybayin. It is also one of two Rizal busts Tolentino reputedly made for UP. The other one attributed to him, made of plaster, belongs to the Department of European Languages, CAL.

In terms of sculpture by other National Artists, there is Allah (1984) by National Artist Abdulmari Asia Imao at the side of the Jorge Vargas Museum along Roxas Avenue. Allah revels in the curvilinear patterns of Islamic calligraphy, and Mindanaon okir carving, resulting in a flamboyant, s-shaped abstract metal piece that combines three interrelated themes: the sari-mosque (in the form of the five-pointed star set within the crescent moon), sari-manok (the mythical rooster-like bird of dazzling plumage with a fish in its beak), and sari-okir (the use of curvaceous lines that originate from the pako rabong and naga woodcarving motifs of the Maranaos and Tausugs).

Architecturally, the first major work by a National Artist that one sees upon entering Diliman is Quezon Hall. Finished in 1950 by National Artist Juan Nakpil, Quezon Hall is a masterful synthesis of classical and modern architecture. The open portico, fluted columns, tiled roof, paired columns on the Observatory Deck, and relief details on its corners point to its classical origins, while its use of floor-mounted floodlights, a curvilin-ear cantilevered walkway, geometric grillwork, and a simplified entablature frame points forward to a more modern persuasion.

Beyond Quezon Hall, decorating two sides of Diliman’s famed Academic Oval stand two other structures by Nakpil, the University Carillon and Gonzales Hall, also known as the Main Library Building. Gonzales Hall, named after the sixth President of the Univer-sity, Bienvenido M. Gonzales, has a floor area of 12,613 square meters, with a shelving capacity of 1 million volumes. Its massive portico gives it an air of grandeur and monu-

Campus of National Art

By Reuben Ramas Cañete

UP Diliman's Heritage of Works by National Artists

mentality that is anchored on Beaux Arts principles. Inaugurated in 1952, the 130-foot tall Carillon Tower, also designed by Juan Nakpil, is

located between Cine Adarna and the University Theater. Its 40 bells, cast in Holland, are controlled from a master keyboard-and-pedal set by a carilloner at the ground floor.

In 1975, Juan Nakpil finished his third and last architectural project for UP Diliman, Romulo Hall which currently houses the Asian Center and the Institute of Islamic Stud-ies, at the corner of Leon Ma. Guerrero Street and Ramon Magsaysay Avenue.

Romulo Hall was designed using the brutalist forms of Neo-Vernacular Modernism, and is based on an amalgamation of several traditional Filipino house archetypes, particu-larly the Ifugao fale, the Maranao torogan, and the lowland bahay kubo. The hardwood doorways that mark the front and rear entrances of Romulo Hall are made of thick panels of narra and molave, and soar more than four meters tall, carved with stylized sarimanok relief motifs. Finally, its façade profile and roof are evocative of the bahay kubo, with its sharp angle and imposing bulk.

Besides Nakpil, another earlier pair of buildings for the campus, which can be found in the Academic Oval facing the Sunken Garden were designed by National Artist Juan Arellano. These are Benitez Hall (College of Education Main Building) and Malcolm Hall (College of Law Main Building), both finished in 1941. Benitez and Malcolm Halls exemplify the beaux-arts ideal that overlays neo-classical purity and monumentality with Renaissance architectural motifs. This includes the use of a pediment over the main en-trance, columns and arches that frame the entrance and third story gallery, a pitched, tiled roof; and the use of arched openings on the second floor.

By contrast, National Artist Leandro Locsin designed and finished in 1956 the UP Church of the Hoy Sacrifice in the International Modern Style. Locsin’s circular plan called for a dome of three-inch-thick concrete shell that is spherical, with a radius of 70 feet, resting daringly on 32 thin reinforced concrete piers (nine inches thick and 30 inches wide), that follows the curvature of the dome. In addition, a cantilevered, ring-shaped concrete canopy was suspended from the center of the curving piers, protecting the perimeter from sun and rain, and made the general impression of a space ship; or an abstracted salakot hat.

In terms of painting, UP Diliman has also been blessed with mural and easel works by National Artists. On the south wall of the main lobby of Palma Hall is Manansala’s The Arts and Sciences (1960). Spanning 14 meters long by two meters wide, it is Manansala’s largest public mural in UP Diliman and depicts a surreal landscape animated by an array of different motifs culled from many sources, including the artist’s use of artistic details like the carabao, as well as the depiction of the arts (the canvas and easel, the statue, and the violin) and sciences (the compass, the heart/brain/eye, and the test tube).

Manansala, with National Artist Ang Kiukok assisting him, also executed The Fifteen Stations of the Cross (1956) for the Church of the Holy Sacrifice.

The works of National Artist Jose T. Joya can be found at the lobby of the College of Business Administration, titled Barter of Panay (1978); and the Costume Museum of the College of Home Economics (CHE) at Alonso Hall. Barter of Panay, however, does not represent any human figure, but is instead suggested through heavily painted polygons of colors: black, white, orange, brown, and golden yellow. His untitled work for the Cos-tume Museum of the CHE is a geometric simplication of patterns of cloth, scissors, and thread, which was done in 1961.

Inside the Church of the Holy Sacrifice, National Artist Arturo Luz designed a River of Life motif of colored granolithic terrazzo flooring that radiates almost 2,164 square meters from the altar, and derives its forms from the minimal but exuberant shapes of European planar abstraction, such as those by Henri Matisse, or the Catalan surrealist Joan Miro.

Finally, National Artist Benedicto Cabrera executed a 1964 portrait of Jose Rizal that can be found at the CAL Library. ---------------Dr. Cañete is assistant to the dean for culture and arts of the UP Asian Center. Email him at reubenramascañ[email protected].

Clockwise, from top left photo: Sculptures of the human form in concrete and adobe along the University Avenue by Ildefonso Cruz Marcelo; one of The Fifteen Stations of the Cross by National Artists Vicente Manansala and Ang Kiukok; Gonzalez Hall by National Artist Juan Nakpil; The Nine Muses by National Artist Napoleon Abueva; The Arts and Sciences by Manansala.


The names of Salvador P. Lopez and Armando J. Malay dominated

the era of the 70’s, and left lasting im-prints on the history of the University of the Philippines.

The early 70’s was a period of social unrest borne by a worldwide phenomenon of students clamoring for social transformation. SP Lopez and Armando Malay faced the chal-lenges of the times, as the University confronted student activism, from the First Quarter Storm and confrontations with the police, the Diliman Commune and the barricades, to the imposition of martial law. SP was the “face” of the University, and Malay the “arm” in the implementation of policies involving the restless students.

It is in this context that the role of SP Lopez in the democratization of the University must be gauged.

SP Lopez’ recognition of student autonomy in 1970 and the pursuance of a policy of toleration set the tone of his administration in dealing with the students.

Militant student groups, tasting power, demanded more participation in the running of the university: equal faculty-student and non-academic rep-resentation in the Board of Regents, wider participation in the selection of department chairmen and college

Salvador P. Lopez and Armando J. MalayBy Oscar L. Evangelista

Legacies to UP Photo on left: SP Lopez addressing militant students on the steps of Palma Hall. Photo on right: Cover of the book Armando J. Malay: A Guardian of Memory : The Life and Times of a Filipino Journalist and Activist

deans beyond mere nomination, and a nationalist education using Filipino as medium of instruction. The creation of the position of Student Regent in 1970 strengthened student power.

The First Quarter Storm and suc-ceeding events exposed the brutality of the State. SP Lopez, a human rights advocate, condemned the military and police power; presided over a fac-ulty Assembly; led a historic faculty march to Malacanang; made the UP campus a safe haven for protesting students; faced barricaders; and stood by his goal of making the University a social critic and an agent for social transformation.

Vinzons Hall became the bulwark of student power. It was the home of militant organizations like the Kabataang Makabayan, Samahan ng Demokratikong Kabataan, and other activist organizations with member-ship from other universities. It was also where Dean Malay held office, and had close contacts with the stu-dent leaders.

Dean Malay, like SP Lopez, was a newspaper man before joining the University initially as Professorial Lecturer, and later appointed as Full Professor of Journalism by President Vicente Sinco. Lopez personally ap-proached him to be Dean of Students

in April 1970. He and SP Lopez were fraternity brothers, common bonds which marked the close relationship between the two men. As Dean of Stu-dents, he had to be firm in implement-ing rules and regulations on discipline and maintaining peace on campus.

Dealing with student activism was more difficult. He had to balance between being strict and showing sympathy for the unorthodox actions of activist students. He was open to having dialogue with students of all persuasions. During rallies and dem-onstrations, he monitored the where-abouts of the student leaders, and followed up the release of arrested or detained students in courts or in jails. Coming as he did from a family of activists, it was easy for the activist students to identify with him. The student leaders were at ease with him, and even joined him in verbal tussles.

Under Martial Law, all universities were closed, and student organiza-tions disbanded. UP was allowed to reopen in October under stringent rules, with Lopez taking the respon-sibility for the maintenance of peace and order on the campus. Dean Malay shared this responsibility.

The Office of Student Affairs took steps to normalize student life under a climate of fear and repression. The

first step was to recognize college-based organizations which were required to have a list of members, calendar of activities, and faculty ad-visers. Next was to form the Coordi-nating Committee on Student Affairs (CONCOMSA) composed of heads of recognized student organizations. It was a replacement for the student council and was grudgingly ac-cepted by the student leaders. It was a consultative and recommendatory body, serving as liaison between the students and the administration. The leaders of the CONCOMSA were able to use student funds and recommend student membership in University bodies.

Dissent did not die down. Through various means anti-martial law activi-ties continued. The Philippine Col-legian resumed publication in 1973, and stringent rules did not stop it from publishing nationalist articles and becoming another instrument for dissent.

The Dean saw to it that the police and the military were kept out of the campus. In my article on Dean Malay, I wrote: “Under quiescent conditions, his leadership inspired the student leaders to carry on with ‘normal’ activities, bringing to the fore new leaders with progressive and critical minds.” ---------------The author is retired professor of His-tory of UP Diliman, and now teaches at the Palawan State University. Email him at [email protected].

the bamboo leaves, the rise and fall of the mountain slopes!

This intimate connection with nature is given life in the music of our indigenous peoples, and informs our mainstream music as much as the musical styles of the West. “Here in UP, what we do is we preserve this through our Center of Musicology [at the UP College of Mu-sic],” says Aracama. “This is important, because without this research, we would not be able to document the music of these communities, as well as our own ethnic musical backgrounds.”

Our gift to the worldIf music is our racial gift, shaped by

our environment, our cultural histories

and our personal and national experi-ences, then we are behooved to share this gift with the world. According to Aracama, this is another of UP’s musical legacies to the country and the world—the gift of music through cultural diplomacy, the offering of the best of our best to humanity.

She goes on to relate the experi-ence of the UPCC during their perfor-mance in Malaysia last October. The Bangsamoro Framework Agreement had just been signed, and Philippine Ambassador to Malaysia J. Eduardo Malaya invited the UPCC to sing for the Malaysians as a gesture of goodwill and appreciation.

“We performed for the Malaysian au-dience. The Prime Minister’s wife was there, and all the top officials. And you

can see the change in them, the rapport [that developed] when they heard the music. It had such a big effect on them spiritually,” Aracama says.

“That is our legacy,” she adds. International audiences are not the

only ones who are enriched by UP’s offering of music. The UP community itself, as well as varied Filipino audi-ences, benefit from the exposure to the different kinds, forms and genres of music that UP can give.

“What’s important is exposure,” says Prof. Raymundo Maigue, Chair of the UP College of Music Department of Winds and Percussion and conduc-tor/musical director of the UP Jazz Ensemble. “For people to appreciate [all kinds of] music, they need to be exposed to many cultures. If you don’t

see it, if you don’t feel it, you cannot appreciate it.”

For younger generations growing up to electronic music coming from only one side of the world, this is UP’s gift to them: the firsthand experience of diverse musical offerings, as real and connected to human experience as nature and life itself. ---------------Email the author at [email protected].

HOW THE MUSIC PLAYS ON...continued from page 18

NOTES:1 Casambre, Napoleon J. (1985). “Villamor’s

Filipino Perspective.” In O.M. Alfonso, Ed., University of the Philippines: The First 75 Years (1908-1983). Diliman, Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, p. 57-58.

2 Maramag, Sarah Katrina. (2012, January 19). "Bravo BLKD (Part 2 of 2)." Philippine Online Chronicles. Retrieved from http://www.thepoc.net/thepoc-features/metakritiko/metakritiko-features/14564-bravo-blkd-part-2-of-2.html

Photo on right from http://rightonthemark.wordpress.com/2011/06/20/armando-malays-excellent-rebuttal-of-renato-constantinos-veneration-without-understanding-part-i/


Iskolar ng Bayan, Ngayon ay Lumalaban!Iskolar ng Bayan:Tunay, Palaban, Makabayan!

- Chant of UP Student Activists

[UP] breeds destabilizers that haunt the country year after year…

- Raul Gonzalez, Former Philippine Justice Secretary

The ideological makeup of the Uni-versity of the Philippines during the

early decades of its founding was consid-erably complex.

Despite its indispensable role in the maintenance and consolidation of a repressive and violent colonial system in the overall management of society, this institution still characterized itself as “modern,” “liberal” and “democratic.” UP could therefore not completely avoid imparting to its students and teachers a genuine respect, if not just the lip service

Signposts in the History of Activismin the University of the Philippines

By Ramon Guillermo

and the rhetoric, for the values of liberal education, academic freedom and the right to free expression.

In addition, the UP became an early center for the movement to secularize and philippinize the educational system. One of the first works which exemplified these growing tendencies was the book Thinking for Ourselves (1928). National-ist thought slowly began to develop and spread, beginning with the first tentative criticisms of the “special” economic and political relations the Philippines had with the United States of America.

This was the period of the intellectual awakening of UP student leaders such as Wenceslao Q. Vinzons, Renato Constan-tino, Salvador P. Lopez and Angel Bak-ing. Some traces of the Russian Revolu-tion of 1917 could already be seen even in this early period. Symptomatic of this awakening were the essays by Salvador P. Lopez collected in the book Literature and Society (1940), the short stories of Manuel Arguilla and Arturo Rotor, and the highly influential historical work Revolt of the Masses (1956) by Teodoro Agoncillo.

The period after World War II can be considered an era of consolidation for conservative and reactionary forces in the University, which became one of the main channels of anti-communism under UP President Vidal A. Tan (1951-1956).

These were banner years for anti-com-munist student organizations like the UP Student Catholic Action. Many students and faculty were also sent to the US on grants for further studies in order to shape them into dependable Cold War-riors.

During his term, UP President Vi-cente G. Sinco (1958-1962) attempted to revive the ideals of liberal education and academic freedom. However, it was only after almost two decades upon the “granting” by the US of independence to the Philippines that an event occurred which fused the incipient radical student movement with the older and more estab-lished liberal tradition of UP.

This event was the sedition case filed by the McCarthyist Committee on Un-Filipino Activities (CUFA) in 1961 against Dean Tomas Fonacier and Profes-sor Petronilo B. Daroy. They were ac-cused of allowing the publication in 1958 of an article entitled "Peasant War in the

Philippines" on the Huk Rebellion in the journal Philippine Social Science Review.

The newly founded Student Cul-tural Association of the University of the Philippines (1959) led and actively participated in successfully defending academic freedom in the University against the combined machinations of the state and the church.

The well-known “American Boy,” Carlos P. Romulo, was UP Presi-

Photo above: Students march with jeepney drivers to protest the 1969 oil price hike. Photo on right: The first UP student demonstration, led by Carlos P. Romulo, held against The Manila Times.

dent from 1962-1968 and his term was marked by an inevitably doomed attempt to coopt the developing student move-ment in a conservative direction by calling for a “constructive” and “respon-sible” activism.

The term of UP President Salvador P. Lopez (1969-1975) saw the UP Adminis-tration itself being overwhelmed by mili-tant students, which it tried to address with the slogan for "Relevant Educa-tion." The students responded to Lopez by presenting him with “77 Demands” and the threat of a students’ strike.

The highest levels of militant action

by the radical student movement in the UP were attained during the 60s and the early years of the 70s. These years saw such events as the First Quarter Storm (1970) in which students laid the presi-dential palace in Malacañang to siege and the UP “Diliman Commune” (1971). This was the period of ferment which definitively established UP’s reputa-tion as one of the centers of the militant progressive and radical movements in the country and defined what it meant to be a UP activist.

Leaders from UP played key roles in es-tablishing what became the largest organi-zation of youth and students of that time, the Kabataang Makabayan (1964). It was also during this period that organizations such as the Malayang Kilusan ng Maka-bagong Kababaihan (MAKIBAKA, 1970) spearheaded by the UP anthropology student and poet Lorena Barros, Samahan ng mga Guro sa Pamantasan (SAGUPA, 1971) and many others were founded.

UP activists unreservedly and en-thusiastically embraced the project of developing comprehensive organizations among the oppressed sectors of society, which they eventually successfully built up to a nationwide scale.

It was during this time that the critique of the colonial and repressive educational system really became more accessible and popular. However, the spectacle of the Vietnam War probably played a greater role in deepening the anti-impe-rialist sentiments of a whole generation of UP students. The University Student Council led by Voltaire Garcia called for

a march against Philippine involvement in the Vietnam War, which was imme-diately followed by a series of massive mobilizations.

Looking to the Chinese Revolution of 1949 as a model, the students were also able to connect the anti-feudal struggle in the countryside with the anti-imperialist struggle. The first version of the pro-grammatic work attributed to Jose Ma. Sison, Philippine Society and Revolution, was published in the UP student organ The Philippine Collegian in 1971 and also published in book form in the same year.

Upon President Ferdinand Marcos’ declaration of Martial Law in 1972, many UP students chose to heed the slogans “Paglingkuran ang Sambayan-an,” “Tumungo sa Kanayunan,” “Mula sa Masa, Tungo sa Masa” and “Matuto mula sa Masa.” They left the cities and went up to the hills.

Crucial events and factors such as Martial Law, Structural Adjustment Pro-grams, People Power I and II, Neoliberal Globalization etc. have served to catalyze and shape the UP student movement. Clearly, the UP is not a separate institu-tion merely "influenced" by "external" events; it is, on the contrary, deeply im-mersed in society.

However, from a narrower perspective, it could be said that the interaction of "external" and "internal" factors shaped and continues to shape the particularity of the University of the Philippines as a state educational institution with definite roles and functions during different pe-riods of history committed to the task of preserving the status quo and dominant class power.

This particular nature of the UP is, however, also the context wherein the

progressive and radical traditions of the University took root, developed and experienced historical ebbs and flows.

It could be said that this militant tradition is now one of the important social forces within the University and in society in general which could create a favourable condition towards achieving a genuine and meaningful transformation of Philippine society.---------------Dr. Guillermo is professor at the De-partment of Filipino and Philippine Literature in UP Diliman. Email him at [email protected].

Photos from The U

niversity of the Philippines: A U

niversity for Filipinos, edited by G

loria D. Feliciano, published by the U

P Com

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and Developm

ent Foundaiton, Inc. in 1984


Established on March 16, 1965, the University of the Philippines

Press is the official publishing house of all constituent UP units. As such, it is mandated to encourage, publish, and disseminate scholarly, creative, and scientific works that represent distinct contributions to knowledge in various academic disciplines in the Philippines, which commercial pub-lishers would not ordinarily undertake to publish.

With a catalogue of around 850 books, and hewing only to the strict-est editorial standards, UP Press is undoubtedly the premiere academic publishing house in the country.

UP Press has published important, often groundbreaking, works by home scholars that represent distinct contri-butions to knowledge. Its titles have consistently won recognition from prestigious award-giving bodies includ-ing the National Book Awards “Book of the Year” award from the Manila Critics Circle, the Madrigal Gonzales Best First Book Award, and the Out-standing Book of the Year award from the National Academy of Science and Technology. Because of this achieve-ment, it has thrice been cited Publisher of the Year by the Manila Critics Circle under three different directors. This is in keeping with the vision of being the leading academic publishing house that sets the benchmark for academic, technical, and literary titles.

In the area of the humanities, UP Press has published significant works by several National Artists for Lit-erature, including Amado Hernandez, Rolando Tinio, Lazaro Francisco, Francisco Arcellana, NVM Gonzales, Virgilio Almario, Bienvenido Lumbera, and Edith Lopez Tiempo, as well as Palanca Hall of Fame Awardees Jose Y. Dalisay, Charlson Ong, Reuel Aguila, Eugene Evasco, Nicolas Pichay, Isa-gani R. Cruz, Alfred Yuson, Roberto Añonuevo, Cirilo F. Bautista, Gregorio Brillantes, and Rene Villanueva. It has also served as publisher to National Artists for Music Jose Maceda and Leonor Orosa Goquingco.

In the fields of the natural and the social sciences, UP Press has published books written by National Scientists Teodoro Agoncillo, Benito Vergara, Onofre Corpuz and Raul Fabella, as well as books by National Academy of Science and Technology members Arsenio Balisacan, Solita Camara-Besa, Emil Javier, Gisella Padilla-Con-cepcion, Caesar Saloma, and Filemon Uriarte.

Since 2011, under the directorship of Dr. J. Neil C. Garcia, professor in the Department of English and Compara-tive Literature, UP Press has partnered with Flipside Digital Content, and is now offering ebook versions of a selection of its choice titles. These ebooks are available for download on such leading storefronts worldwide as the iBookstore, Amazon Kindle Store, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and the Philip-pine storefront Flipreads. UP Press expects to have 50 ebooks released by the end of next year.

By Gerardo T. Los Baños

The UP Press: Forging Ahead

The Philippines has been produc-ing substantial works of literature in

English since the early 1900s. This can be attributed, in part, to the foundation of UP’s English Department in 1910.

The UP English department’s faculty members, students and alumni trained under highly-regarded local and foreign professors, received scholarships and fellowships overseas, and published in no-table outlets from both sides of the Pacific. For many years, UP writers Jose Garcia Villa, NVM Gonzalez, Bienvenido Santos and several others contributed to a lumi-nous Philippine presence in the American literary scene.

Pioneering Filipino fictionist Paz Mar-quez Benitez may have taught a popular teacher-centered short story and essay writing class at the University of the Philip-pines before Tom Inglis Moore arrived.

Inglis Moore, however, introduced the largely student-centered creative writing workshop method popularized by profes-sors at Iowa, USA. Former Senator Maria Kalaw Katigbak, a former student of Inglis Moore, remembered how he gathered stu-dents under pine trees and read poetry.

A Sydney and Oxford-educated Austra-lian poet and critic, Inglis Moore became an associate professor at the English de-partment from 1928 to 1931 and conducted creative writing classes using the system Iowa Professor Edwin Piper had devel-oped.

Literary historians Josephine Bass Serra-no and Trinidad Ames observed that Inglis Moore poured “tone and spirit in Philippine letters” and “a strong wave of liberal ideas took possession of the writers’ ideas." As reflected in “Typhoons and April Show-ers,” Inglis Moore urged Filipinos writing in English to “learn not only to write with English but also to write against it… fight against the meanings of which are not

The importance of the work of UP Press in the national life was un-derscored by Dr. Garcia, during its midyear launch on July 2 of last year, which was his inaugural activity as director.

Here are excerpts from his speech, “Books, Literacy, and the Filipino Reader”:

"A university is only as good as the minds of its constituents. Among other things, a university press exists in order to provide bountiful printed evidence of this compelling and neces-sary fact. In our chosen profession, books, after all, are what it’s all about, inasmuch as books document the life of the mind—as well as bequeath it, in portable and hopefully enduring form, to others.

"Books are also the condition and proof of literacy, and as we know only too painfully, in our country, the promotion of literacy is an unfinished and ever-challenging task.

"I believe that the kind of literacy our country needs goes beyond the

Early literary figures and professors of the English departmentBy Jose Wendell P. Capili


applicable here…write English without becoming an Englishman or American. In adopting the Anglo-Saxon language, (the Filipino writer)…has to guard against adopting Anglo-Saxon ideas, feelings and customs which are not true for the Philip-pines or for himself.”

Inglis Moore’s vision partly directed the course of Philippine writing in English before World War II. As adviser of the UP Writers’ Club with Robert J. Conklin, Inglis Moore encouraged “daily informal affairs at the office of the Philippine Colle-gian where the members swap views about style and technique and the new things in literature, and criticize mercilessly each other’s works…The Literary Apprentice, now in its fourth volume has always aimed at quality from whatever source—from the professional or student staff.”

What is significant about these is that Inglis Moore’s former students became pioneering figures in the development of creative writing and literary studies in the Philippines, Southeast Asia and the United States. These included Villa, who also be-came poetry workshop director of the City College of New York from 1952 to 1963, and Professor of Poetry, School of Social Research, New York from 1964 to 1973.

Another luminary who came out of Inglis Moore’s classes was Salvador P. Lopez. As vice president of the Philippine Writers League, Lopez co-organized the first Filipino Writers’ Conference on 26 February 1940 where he provoked the first great literary debate in the Philippines by privileging proletarian literature (along with fictionist Arturo Rotor) over “art for art’s sake.” Shortly before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Lopez bagged the First Commonwealth Literary Awards Grand Prize for his essay “Literature and Society” in 1940. After the war, he was appointed professor of English and eleventh president

of UP from 1969 to 1975. Other former students of Inglis Moore

were: Bienvenido Gonzalez, UP president from 1939 to 1943 and from 1945 to 1951, fictionist and medical doctor Arturo Rotor, Jose M. Hernandez, Loreto Paras-Sulit, Paz Latorena, Angela Manalang Gloria, Fernando Leaňo, Casiano Calalang, Jose Lansang Sr., Federico Mangahas, Conrado Pedroche, Hilarion Vibal, Maria Luna-Lo-pez, Juan Cabreros Laya, Roberto Regala, Adeudato Agbayani, as well as Manuel Arguilla (the most highly regarded Filipino fictionist before the war until he joined the underground movement and was executed by the Japanese), and Stanford-educated Amador T. Daguio (who dedicated The Flaming Lyre, his first collection of poems, to Inglis Moore).

Though he never studied under Inglis Moore, Leopoldo Yabes, who went on to become a groundbreaking Philippine Studies scholar and chair of the English, Filipino and Humanities departments, remembered how Inglis Moore was highly-regarded by his former students many years after he left the Philippines in 1931.

In 1942, former English department acting chair Carlos P. Romulo became the first Asian recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for a series of nonfiction works that fore-shadowed Japan’s military intrusion into Southeast Asia and the end of colonialism in Asia. Years later, Romulo would become UP president.

Paz Marquez Benitez and Inglis Moore had considerable influence on many UP teachers and writers. After the war, the Eng-lish department re-emerged easily as one of UP’s prestige units with its faculty roster who trained overseas. Bienvenido Santos studied in Illinois, Columbia and Harvard during the war years, then went to Iowa from the late 1950s to the early 1960s. Fran-

merely functional. What I’m thinking of is a kind of 'archival consciousness,' a thoughtful and profound enlighten-ment of the mind, that understands and decides, precisely because it documents and remembers.

"It is easy for us who love (and pro-mote) literary and scholarly books to

believe that one

of the results of a sustained and stable literacy is the fostering of an ethical self—a subjectivity that decides on questions on the basis of an argued un-derstanding of facts and perspectives." ---------------Prof. Los Baños is the deputy director of the UP Press Editorial Department. Email him at [email protected].


UP System Information Of f ice Mezzanine Floor, Quezon Hal l , UP Di l iman, Quezon City Telefax 926-1572, t runkl ine 981-8500 loc. 2552, 2549, e-mai l : [email protected]

The UP FORUMStephanie S. Cabigao

Fred E. Dabu

Andre P. Encarnacion

Celeste Ann Castillo Llaneta

KIM G. Quilinguing

Writers

J. Prospero E. De Vera IIIEditor-in-Chief

Flora B. Cabangis Managing Editor

Ferdinand C. LlanesIssue Editor

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KIM G. QuilinguingWebmaster: Forum Online

Sol R. BarcebalResearcher

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Administrative Staff

Photo on front page: National Artist Napoleon Abueva's Tres Marias (UP Diliman) with the UP Open University's Oblation. Photos on back page, from left to right: A laboratory at the Natural Sciences Research Institute; students at the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Laboratory; Dr. Baldomero Olivera during a lecture; the telescope at the National Institute for Science and Mathematics Education Development

Andres Bonifacio, “Ama ng Lahing Pilipino”: This is inscribed on a marker on the UP Carillon, official-ly named the Andres Bonifacio Centennial Carillon Tower in 1997 during the time of the Centennial

of the Philippine Revolution, one of the meaningful contributions of UP President Emil Javier to connect UP’s past to the present and future and “recapture the University’s sense of national purpose.” Naming the carillon in honor of the revolutionary hero, as recommended by the UP centennial commission then headed by historian Jaime B. Veneracion, brings to our collective memory the fact that Bonifacio and the advance force of Katipuneros passed this grassy land through Krus na Ligas on the way to Mandaluyong and San Juan after the declaration of the revolution in Pugadlawin, Caloocan. But the official act also amplifies, like the daily musical toll of the carillon bells, the greater role of Bonifacio (Maypag-asa) as founding father and pangulo of the nation, which he and Emilio Jacinto (Pingkian) called Haring Bayang Katagalugan.

There is another significant marker that the University has kept and which every UP student should not miss—the monument in front of Vinzons Hall called “Homenaje del Pueblo Filipino a Los Heroes de 96,” translated and reinstalled in Filipino by the NHCP last year as “Ala-ala ng Bayang Filipino sa mga Bayani ng 96,” in a fitting tribute to Bonifacio and the thousands of Anak ng Bayan who victori-ously launched a war of liberation from Spain. Sculpted by Ramon Lazaro Martinez, the monument, which faculty and students have misnamed—but for good reason!—as the “monumento ni Bonifacio,” used to be located at the corner of Balintawak, Caloocan. But when in the late1960s this intersection was renovated to give way to an interchange, it was unceremoniously dumped on the roadside and left to the elements. Alfredo E. Pascual, now president, and his UPSILON fraternity brods saw the light of rescuing and moving the entire sculpture to UP Diliman and had it appropriately installed, through the UP Student Coucil on November 29, 1968 to forever remain in our hearts—in symbolic form and in fact—as part of the University’s heritage of pag-ibig sa tinubuang bayan. The year 2013 is the 150th birth anniversary of Andres Bonifacio, to whom therefore, in the spirit of UP’s legacy of service to the nation, we also dedicate this issue of the UP Forum. (F.C. Llanes, Issue Editor)

Bonifacio@150: Andres Bonifacio in Diliman

The University of the Philippines, within its various campuses, is home

to a share of the country’s rich biodiver-sity, one of the more significant of which is UPLB, which includes Mt. Makiling under its administrative jurisdiction. Mt. Makiling has recently formed part of the scientific work of the Philippine Biodi-versity Expedition 2011 (undertaken by scientists from UP and the California Academy of Sciences) that revealed new finds such as lizards, shrew rats, bats and other species of amphibians and reptiles.

The flagship campus, UP Diliman, also takes pride in having the remaining natu-ral forest reserve in the metropolis, the 16-hectare Arboretum (established in 1948 by the Department of Agriculture), which conserves endangered tree species, and an academic oval with a lush cover of acacia

trees (planted in the 1950s) providing shade and breathing space for hundreds of fitness enthusiasts every day. At the heart of the academic oval is the UP Lagoon, which transformed from a marshy canal in the 50s to a landscaped pond in the 70s, when it was developed under Regent Gerardo Sicat and further improved by the Vice Chancellor for Community Affairs Martin Gregorio in the 1990s. It was part of UP’s plan to develop an area into a park, which could be used by the com-munity. The Beta Theatrum, conceived for cultural activities of the University and constructed by the Beta Epsilon Frater-nity, stands at the center of the Lagoon (recently renovated to add ground space for a theatre audience). The academic oval is home to a wide variety of birds, which are the subject of bird-watching clubs

based in and out of the campus.The UPLB campus covers 1,098 hect-

ares of land that is used for its academic and research facilities. As the steward of the Makiling Forest Reserve, wherein the College of Forestry and Natural Re-sources is located, the UPLB manages the preservation of the diverse flora and fauna of the forest. But UPLB’s research work extends to its other land grants: the Sini-loan (Laguna)-Real (Quezon) land grants acquired in 1930 that contains the cam-pus’ citronella and lemongrass plantations, and the 705-hectare La Carlota (Negros Occidental) land grant, which contains the La Granja Agricultural Research Center, a research extension facility for upland crops and trees such as lawaan and narra and other indigenous plants.

In UP Visayas, the Miag-ao campus is

where the College of Fisheries is found and serves as the center for marine studies. Its 1,200-hectare area of land is a welcoming beauty of great biodi-versity. The College of Fisheries and the Ocean Sciences Faculty Center share the shores of the Panay Gulf on the southeast that provide a panoramic view of Guimaras province. The mountains of Igbaras and Antique are found on the northwest side of the campus and serve as backdrop to the momentous com-mencement exercises of the campus. President Francisco Nemenzo, who once served as UPV Chancellor, was heard to have said that the Miag-ao campus is the most beautiful and unique among all the UP campuses. ---------------Email the author at [email protected].

Landmark use of beautiful landscapesBy Stephanie Cabigao

cisco Arcellana also left for Iowa and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in Vermont. NVM Gonzalez studied creative writing in Stanford under fictionists Katherine Anne Porter and Wallace Stegner.

Dionisia Rola was sent to the Uni-versity of Melbourne, and Concepcion Dadufalza, to Radcliffe College. Silvino Epistola and wife Nieves Benito Epistola went to the University of Tokyo then spe-cialized further in Harvard. Wilhelmina Ramas studied in Fordham. Carmelita Caparros (Ramirez), Damiana Eugenio, Winifreda Evangelista, and Lilia Realu-bit went to the University of California, Los Angeles. Filonila Madamba (Tu-paz) furthered her studies in Michigan. Alejandrino Hufana was educated in Columbia and at the University of California, Berkeley. Thelma Balagot (Kintanar) left for Stanford. Pacita Guevara (Fernandez), Sylvia Policarpio

diplomats and UP presidents. Despite limited funds and institu-

tional support, the English department, through its current reincarnation as a “Department of English and Compara-tive Literature,” continues to produce a steady supply of Filipinos writing in English, because these writers have been nurtured and sustained by the department’s creative writing program and mentors.

The English department may have played a pivotal role by shaping many Filipino writers in English into what Edward Said described as the other dimension of cultural discourse, the power to analyze, to get past cliché and straight out-and-out lies from authority, and to search for alternatives as part of the arsenal of cultural resistance. ---------------Dr. Capili is professor of English and Comparative Literature in UP Diliman. Email him at [email protected].

Mendez (Ventura) and Pilar Marino went to Columbia. Alejandro Casambre left for Ohio. Amelia Lapeña (Bonifacio) and Elmer Ordoñez worked on their respec-tive graduate degrees at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Gemino Abad received a Rockefeller fellowship at the University of Chicago. The list goes on. In years to come, the department would have a merry mix of scholars and teach-ers trained locally and internationally.

Upon the appointment of Mathematics and Engineering Professor Vicente Sinco as UP president in 1958, English department professors Concepcion Dadufalza, Teodoro Locsin, Alfredo Morales, Wilhelmina Ramas, Dionisia Rola and Dolores Stephens Feria pioneered curricular reforms, new courses and textbooks in the teaching of general education courses in the university. These reforms eventually served as models for Philippine tertiary institutions elsewhere.

Around this time, the English depart-ment also produced progressive students

and teachers like Jose Ma. Sison, Viven-cio Jose, Luis Teodoro, Ishmael Bernal and Ricardo Lee, who became stalwarts of activism, committed writing and alter-native media from 1960. Subsequently, Sison chaired the Communist Party of the Philippines. Jose (Arts and Letters) and Teodoro (Mass Communication) became deans of their colleges. Bernal became National Artist for Film. Lee pioneered as screenwriter for film and television.

The interdisciplinary nature of the English department gave birth to other academic units, such as the College of Mass Communication, the Department of Filipino and Philippine Literatures, the Department of Humanities (now Art Studies), and the Department of Speech and Drama (now Speech Communica-tion and Theater Arts). Many products of the department held important positions inside and outside the university led by Romulo and SP Lopez, who became

EARLY LITERARY FIGURES...continued from page 22

24 UP FORUM Volume 13 No. 6 November-December 2012THE UP FORUMUniversity of the PhilippinesDiliman, Quezon City, Philippines, 1101

APPROVED PERMIT NUMBER/INDICIABusiness Mail Permit No. 2ND-07-010-NCR Entered as Second class mail at the U.P.P.O.

Valid until December 30, 2012Subject to Postal Inspection (for printed matter only)

By Jose A. Magpantay

(This piece is excerpted from an extensive paper on the subject, which was intended for a larger work on UP heritage in 2008 initi-ated by the chair then of the History department. The larger part, much of it history, is taken out. —Issue Ed.)

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY...continued from page 1Institute for Science and Mathematics Education Development and Technology Management Center.

These are the units with activities relat-ed to science and technology. They cover pure (experimental and theoretical) sci-ence (CS and SS), applied science (CS, CE, SS), education and the teaching of science (C Ed, NISMED), management of technology (TMC) and the intersec-tion of science, technology and culture in the fundamental unit of society, the family (CHE).

These institutions have achieved much more than most tertiary institutions in the country and this should not be debatable because UP is still the best school in the country as shown by its highest ranking in international surveys. (In 2007, UP is 398 in the Times Higher Education Survey.)

To discuss the significant contribu-tions, we find out the ideas and tech-nologies that attracted attention at the international level and/or contributed significantly to our national life.

But have we made significant achieve-ments? By (this), we refer to tech-nologies, policies, (and) programs that responded to the country’s needs and ideas that put the University on the map of knowledge. If we answer this by using the same international ranking that we used in justifying our being the best in the country, it seems that we have not contributed much in terms of ideas that put the University on the map of knowl-edge.

However, the point can be made that there are really very few universities in the world that contributed important ideas. So we will make use of a less stringent criterion. We will refer to ideas that were cited by the professionals in the field and covered by professional and news magazines.

As far as scientific accomplishments are concerned, there are only two groups in UP Diliman that have attracted significant attention. These are the marine biochemis-try researches of the Marine Science Insti-tute and the optics, signal processing and complexity researches of the Instrumenta-tion Physics Laboratory of the National

Institute of Physics. The most accomplished scientist of the

University of the Philippines is Lourdes Cruz of the Marine Science Institute. Her work on conus toxins with Baldomero Olivera and co-workers in the University of Utah received thousands of citations, a number of patents and drugs for pain management. However, the University will not get a top-billing role for this because the work was mostly done in Olivera’s laboratory in Utah.

The other laboratory that attracted international attention is the Instrumenta-tion Physics Laboratory. Their works on various topics (optical signal processing, complex systems) were featured in New-scientist.com, Nature “Science Update,” Wired Magazine, Wissenschaft-Online, Photonics News and the MRS Bulletin. The accomplishments of the laboratory, although not at the level of the conus toxin research, can be fully claimed by the University.

In terms of the country’s poli-cies and programs, the various units have made significant contributions. There are also ideas proposed by a few practitioners in the University that received citations in professional journals (not professional magazines). These are the following:

1. In the early days of Home Economics, the Department (part then of the College of Educa-tion), through one of its original American faculty named Dr. Clara Ruth Darby, and other Fili-pino dietitians “developed the dietary standards for Filipinos for the National Research Coun-cil” [xx]. This was the first time that science was used in defining what the Filipinos should eat.... In terms of contribution to the profession, Cecilia Florencio’s works on nutrition stand out among the College’s faculty.

2. The College of Engineering’s significant contributions are in the infrastructure projects of the country, in particular dams, hydroelectric power projects and flood control in lahar areas after

the Pinatubo eruption by faculty members such as Angel Alejan-drino and Leonardo Liongson. An innovation introduced in 1985 by an alumnus, Filemon Berba Jr., through funding provided by the DOST agency PCIERD in the education of engineers, is the Manufacturing Linkage Program. This program became the template for similar industry-academe linkage of other engineering schools in the country....

3. In science and mathematics education, locally produced textbooks and other teaching ma-terials was started by the Science Teaching Center (forerunner of NISMED). The various train-ing programs for the teachers, by NISMED’s estimate, reached (about 10 million) students. An innovative program, CONSTEL, must have reached many more.... For these services, the NISMED has garnered a number of nation-al awards such as the Exemplary Leadership Award-Institutional category, Catholic Mass Media Award, Best Educational Pro-gram Award....

4. As for the College of Science, the following contributions are significant. The head of the NSRI’s DNA Analysis Labora-tory, Corazon De Ungria, helped the Senate in its deliberation on the repeal of the death penalty (in 2006) by providing expert advice on forensic examination. The National Institute of Physics has two international patents—(those of) Henry Ramos’ group on titanium nitride coating to strengthen/harden drills and oth-er tools (and) Caesar Saloma’s group on novel testing method for semiconductors defects.

Caesar Saloma...has so far received two international prizes [Galileo Award and ASEAN Outstand-ing Scientist and Technologist (AOST)]. The Marine Science

Institute’s work on biodiversity and environmental protection for (more than thirty years) was...recognized by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Lourdes Cruz had also received the AOST Award. Clara Y. Lim Sylianco’s body of work on mutagens, anti-mutagens and bio-organic mechanisms, including the claim of the coconut oil’s anti-cancer properties (not established), can be considered as the Institute of Chemistry’s significant contri-bution. Jose Balmaceda’s work with a Japanese mathematician on group algebra is the most significant contribution...of the Institute of Mathematics for it has been cited many times in the mathematics literature. For the Institute of Biology, the retired senior professors like Prescillano Zamora, Carmen Velasquez, Glo-ria Enriquez and Flor Lacanilao contributed to the discipline’s progress in the country.

5. The School of Statistics’ (and its predecessor, the Statistical Center) main impact is on the gathering and analysis of socio-economic data in the country. Reliable and properly analyzed data should be the basis of the country’s midterm and long term plans....

These are the achievements of the S&T units of UP Diliman. We have made progress since the University moved to Diliman. Unfortunately, we were late in implementing the policies and programs of a research university (beginning only in the 1980s). Furthermore, the culture of research and scholarship still has not taken (deeper) root in the entire Univer-sity. This explains why we have very few significant contributions on scholar-ship. ....UP Diliman (though) has made a number of contributions that stand out at the national level.---------------The author is professor of Physics in UP Diliman. Email him at [email protected].

Documents

UP Forum November-December 2012