Click here to watch the UP Centennial television advertisements being aired on Philippine television.

We also print here the lyrics by Romeo Candazo of the song “Salamat sa Iyo, UP” which was set to music by his high school classmate Ryan Cayabyab. It was first sung at the UP High School Commencement in 2003. At the “Isang Daan Sa Isang Daan” concert, which kicked off the Centennial celebrations in UP Diliman, it was sung by the UP Concert Chorus. It was again sung at President Roman’s reception for alumni members of Congress, where the guests gave it a standing ovation.

Salamat sa Iyo, UP

Sa ‘yo, UP, maraming salamat
Ikaw na aking tahanan
Mula sa aking pagkamulat
Hanggang sa aking huling hininga
Sa ‘yo, UP, maraming salamat
Ang iyong mga aral ang aking gabay
Baon ko ito sa paglalakbay
Hanggang mapanaw ang buhay

Kami’y lumaki sa iyong pag-iingat
Natutong mag-aral, natutong magsaya
Dulot mo ay init tuwing kami ay nagiginaw
Sa lahat ng panahon bigay mo’y pag-asa

Sa ‘yo, UP, maraming salamat
Ang iyong mga aral ang aking gabay
Baon ko ito sa paglalakbay
Hanggang mapanaw ang buhay
Salamat UP

Originally published in The Oblation Issue Vol. 1 No. 2

UP people think they’re superior, special, the best. Of course, I agree. But what was in the UP experience, the triumphs and mainly trials that became heartfelt memories, that helped create that unique animal, the UP alumnus?

“Surviving that gauntlet called registration,” says Gerry Gabriel, AB Philo ‘85. “Camping out with my barkada to be first in line for classcards.” My “balae’s” convent-bred (“Assumptionista”) daughter got stressed out from queuing for PE classcards for her first sem, developed a fever, and bawled like a baby. Alas, the infamous registration is now computerized and current freshmen will no longer experience this first lesson in survival. Suffering builds character, they say. The “Assumptionista,” Maricris Bitong, went on to graduate BSBAA, cum laude and regularly sends US$ checks to the College of Business Administration (CBA).

Surviving “terror” professors, says another UP alumnus, such as professors with reputations for flunking 75% of the class and assigning readings and giving exams from a book with only one copy in the main lib. So what were the 80 history students in her class to do? Get creative, get the situation under control. “Hanapan ng paraan,” “never say die” are some of the things you learn in UP.

But one might also get professors such as Professor Mila Guerrero, who was deeply and eloquently anti-American, and held the class spellbound with her passionate orations. From such teachers at UP, one develops nationalism. Many students who went up to the hills to fight the dictatorship carried UP IDs, echoing Ditto Sarmiento’s “Kung hindi tayo, sino pa? Kung hindi ngayon, kailan pa?” UP has produced many heroes but this “by hook or by crook” mentality has also given UP its own share of heels.

“Absentee” professors would give the class a syllabus and a reading list and disappear for most of the semester, leaving their students to muddle through on their own. One alumnus recalls that much mediocrity and cavalier attitudes towards teaching masqueraded as academic freedom and eccentricity. “Dozens of reflection papers! Nobody ever taught us how to write these, which is just as well because they vanished—never to be seen again. See you at midterms and finals. Nobody gets spoon-fed here. You’re on your own, guys.” That realization energized us. Most of us, for life.

No so called “sexual harassment” in those days. Only professors who liked tall girls and made Ginny Bonoan-Dandan, former College of Fine Arts Dean, and me stay after classes for some imagined reason or another. This famous painter/Fine Arts professor stalked and wanted to paint my sister Ging Bello-Pajaro as the nude “Maganda” to his “Malakas.” Ginny and I managed to pass that course. Ging, who went on to become one of UPAA’s most outstanding alumni in 2007, shifted to Speech & Drama. For us gorgeous girls (ehem) in our teens then, this were a loss of innocence, life’s lessons learned too early.

“Terrors” seemed to inhabit only the UP campuses. Was it our cherished academic freedom? Mostly brilliant with graduate degrees, we loved, hated, worshipped these teachers, and quaked in their presence. They taught us biology or calculus but we were always being acid-tested. The tests were not only the midterms or the finals but the “terrors” themselves, tests, not of knowledge gained, but of our grit and will to graduate.

We came from every corner of the country and from all levels of Philippine society, unashamed of our humble beginnings. We learned empathy. This was the UP education for life. Who has not heard the story of Manny Villar, Jr., the ish vendor’s son who, with his UP degrees (BSBA ’70, MBA ’73), good looks and easy charm, and with his wife and classmate, Cynthia Aguilar-Villar (BSBA ’70) “initiated mass housing projects and whose innovations practically created the country’s mass housing industry…a brown taipan” (from UPAA, awarding him “Most Distinguished Alumnus” in 2004). Manny is now Senate President and Cynthia is Congresswoman of Las Piñas.

We learned to get along with everybody, rich or poor, Ilocano, Ilonggo, or Tausug. For members of the other sororities or fraternities, we had only competitive contempt. For better or for worse, we learned to be fiercely, even blindly, loyal.

In UP’s heterogeneous society, most did not care much about your origins, religion, or what you wore (I did. I was always in 3-inch heels and petticoats even while rushing from swimming to Spanish classes on the 4th floor. Sigma Deltan Ruby Zulueta came to class everyday in a party dress). If you were bright, you stood tall together with classmates whose fathers had big titles. In UP’s meritocracy, you could be the best that you could be. With the diverse characters on campus, we were enriched, and learned to enjoy and accept people in all their outrageous humanity. There was the son of a gambling lord—a brave and early militant in the Gay Movement—who was fully made-up daily, often wore silk pajamas, sometimes a mini-blouse now called a tangga, midriff showing, a faux jewel in his navel. Danny “Purple,” a long time campus fixture, when asked to pay for his ikot rides would declare “My name is Crime and crime does not pay.” The guys of Samahan ng mga Bastos sa Kanteen (SABAKA) who heckled and shouted their guesses as to the color of the panties of their special targets—passing sorority girls—made buying bluebooks at the coop a painful ordeal. Ooh so macho Dr. Zarco, Socio 101, rode a motorcycle and cleaned his gun in class while the girls swooned. Alfonso Santos, the much published poet, tried to persuade everyone that sandwiches with banana peel filling were delicious. As our French teacher said “Vive la difference.”

Then there were the General Education (GE) subjects. I once came to class using a cane (too much chicharon). I asked my 100 students to raise their hands if they knew the Riddle of the Sphinx. All did except one, a cross-registrant from another university. Why is Oedipus Rex so important? Why Chaucer in olde English? Who cares what Confucius said? Or why did Rizal write to the daughters of Malolos? Answers from some alumni: “A UP education allows one to be a broad-gauge thinker in all aspects of life,” says Cat Bello, BF Arts ’68, nine years Tourism Attaché, Frankfurt. “I…could bluff my way through any subject,” jokes Rowena Bernardo, Brussels-based international cosmetics marketing consultant, Mech. Eng. 1988. “Seeds of every discipline were in those courses.”

Many of us will not recognize the new GE subjects. There is now a menu of courses, 15 units within each of the required broad domains of Math, Science and Technology (Ex.: “Everyday EEE, Kuryente, Radyo atbp”), Social Sciences & Philosophy (Ex. “Bodies, Senses, & Humanity”), and Arts & Humanities (Ex. “Art, Man & Society”).

A new subject, Civic Welfare Training Service, an alternative to ROTC, may also influence a new generation of UP students. Its objective is to develop social responsibility; course content is left to the College. At CBA, where I coordinate the course, students form groups, raise funds, and undertake a project for their selected underprivileged beneficiary group. In the process they develop networking, marketing, and project management skills. In the last 6 sems, CBA students and a few from other colleges have, among others, built three Gawad Kalinga houses, rehabilitated five cottages at Boystown, Marikina, and contributed medicines and party fun to the PGH Pediatric Cancer Ward. My message to them “You, probably the brightest students in the land, will one day be rich or famous, or both. Far though you may wander, pay forward, pay back, especially to UP.”

Originally published in The Oblation Issue Vol. 1 No. 2

When I took over as UP President in 2005, I said then that I considered myself especially privileged to be not just the University’s first woman president, but the president who would guide the University into its second century. The prospect was both daunting and humbling.

I also said that I regarded the Centennial, not just an occasion for celebration, but also as an opportunity to assess the university’s performance for its first century of existence, and to imagine what its role would be in the next century. And I meant to enlist all who are or had been a part of UP, as well as all who considered UP one of the country’s important institutions, to be part of the celebration and the stock-taking and the planning.

For the last three years, then, while attending to the other 9 points in our 10-point agenda—which was focused on transforming UP into the country’s National University—my executive staff, the chancellors of the different constituent universities, and I have devoted part of our time to preparing for 2008. This has not been exactly easy.

You are all aware that we have had our share of problems, particularly in regard to our decision to adjust student fees to more realistic levels, and our continuing efforts to get Congress to approve a new UP Charter. Not to mention the day-to-day business of running the University, which really regards itself as an independent republic within the larger Republic of the Philippines. When one is in crisis mode or mired in the routine, one does not feel particularly festive or optimistic. But actually, the thought that perhaps this anniversary would serve to unite us—despite our conflicts and problems, both internal and external—was a source of encouragement. There was this day to look forward to.

And now, my friends, that day has arrived. It is now Year 2008. Today we formally launch our centennial year. It is only right that this special day should begin here in the heart of the country’s old capital, where the University was born. At the time of its birth, UP was just UP. There was as yet no UP Manila. It was simply UP. The main campus was right here.

The transfer to UP Diliman took place from December 16, 1948 to January 11, 1949 under the presidency of Dr. Beinvenido Gonzalez. The Oblation was transferred from Padre Faura where it stood for 13 years to its new location in Diliman on February 11, 1949. I mention this specific incident because today, a few hours from now, we shall drive al the way to Diliman to “reenact” the transfer of UP from its cradle in Manila to Diliman.

But UP’s story is not just about its transfer from one location to another. It definitely is more than this. UP’s story is one long and never-ending story that it is just not possible to capture everything along a specific theme and in a matter of a few minutes. Belinda Aquino put it very well when she said, “It is not possible or even realistic to look back at our university life along a specific tendency. UP has been the setting of many dominant themes and explorations of whatever sort – intellectual, political, personal, moral, even spiritual. Themes of innocence, discovery, freedom, search for truth, enlightenment, joy, loneliness, irony, beauty, crisis, pain, resistance, passion, conversion, obsession, morality, continuity and change have pervaded the university scene at successive or simultaneous stages.” So rather than have me tell you the UP story, I urge you to tell your own stories about UP.

But there is one more thing I would like to do. I would like to make special mention of the men – the great men by whose leadership the University stands proud today. I refer to the eighteen presidents of the University of the Philippines who, based on what I now know and realize, have offered much of themselves, selflessly and with much dedication, patience, endurance and sacrifice so that the University will be a place we can all be proud of.

• UP’s first president Murray Bartlett who was responsible for laying the foundation of the University;
• Ignacio Villamor who oversaw the University’s tenacious growth to adolescence;
• Guy Potter Benton, the second and last American at the helm of this Filipino University;
• Rafael Palma whose leadership guided UP in an era of political imperatives and economic disequilibrium;
• Jorge Bocobo who fostered vibrant nationalism and under whose leadership Filipino values were asserted as an underlying concept of academic life;
• Bienvenido Gonzalez, the adamant visionary who helped resurrect the University from the ashes of war;
• Dr. Antonio Sison, who dutifully accepted the stewardship of the University through the precarious years of the Japanese occupation;
• Vidal Tan who assumed the presidency at a time the University was shaken by strife but whose devoted presidency helped redeem the University;
• Vicente Sinco who clashed with conservatism and who is well remembered especially by the students for his firm commitment to the preservation of the free and secular nature of UP and for his support and enhancement of the liberal intellectual tradition;
• Sinco’s presidency was preceded by Enrique Virata’s transitional administration as acting president for two years;
• Carlos P. Romulo who considered student activism and faculty dissent extremely important for without them, the University of the Philippines would be nothing;
• Salvador P. Lopez whose presidency saw six years of turbulence assuaged by democratization;
• Onofre D. Corpuz and Emanuel Soriano whose bifocal administrations worked toward the realignment of the academe to national realities under a crisis government;
• Edgardo J. Angara who presided over the University’s Diamond Jubilee celebration and whose tough-minded leadership introduced major structural reforms in the University;
• Jose V. Abueva whose administration stressed leadership for social transformation and whose major contribution to the University includes the establishment of the Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Program;
• Emil Q. Javier whose administration harnessed UP’s intellectual and moral resources in the service of the nation; and
• Francisco Nemenzo recognized for the revitalization of the UP’s general education program and the University’s modernization.

Today as we kick off our centennial celebration let us pause for a while and remember these men who made lasting contributions to the future of the University of the Philippines.

Finally let me reiterate what I said early on in my term as UP President.

UP’s first 100 years have been one great university experience. UP has prospered during the good years and endured during the bad. Its goals and priorities have shifted from decade to decade and from one UP President to another. It has been repeatedly rocked by crises, has been held to account for a many great problems plaguing not just its own campuses but the nation itself. But one thing has remained constant – a quality difficult to define but is recognized by all who have spent either a season or an entire lifetime in the university. For lack of a better term, we might call it the UP spirit, the force that serves as a bond across generations and even across continents. We can build on this UP spirit and we will. Ladies and gentlemen: come and join us as we imagine UP’s next 100 years.

So there is little cause for discouragement, let alone despair.

As 2007 draws to a close and we approach our centennial year, let us look to the future with confidence. We are unhampered by doubts about the importance of our mission or the honesty of our intentions. And we are rich in the most valuable of all resources: a high-powered, self-selected teaching faculty, composed of some of the country’s most intelligent, imaginative, resourceful, and dedicated persons; a bright, curious, creative, immensely energetic, highly motivated studentry; and loyal, steady long-suffering support staff.

This alone should propel us closer to our dream of what our University should be.

I wish everyone a happy holiday season!

EMERLINDA R. ROMAN
President

From the UP System website

The award recognizes leaders from the private sector, government service and volunteer organizations whose attributes, personal work ethics and service to the nation are worth emulating.

Just like the late Yorac, the awardee must be a role model for public service. Like her, the awardee must have attributes, ethics and life examples that guide his/her daily manifestations of service and leadership. In the process, the awardee consistently carries out his/her commitments and duties, accomplishing deeds that reflect the inner foundation of integrity, courage, selflessness and conscience.

• Visit the Gawad Haydee Yorac website
• Download Nomination Form, Undertaking, and Guidelines

From the UP System website

University of the Philippines Plan (2005-2011)
A National University in the 21st Century

I. The UP Centennial

1. Celebrate the UP Centennial in 2008

1.1 Create a UP Centennial Commission that will oversee the following:

• The UP Centennial Fund Campaign
• UP Centennial Projects such as

a.) The strengthening of selected UP units
b.) The establishment of a UP presence in Fort Bonifacio to move professional colleges (College of Business Administration, College of Engineering, College of Law, Technology Management Center, School of Labor and International Relations, School of Urban and Regional Planning and others) closer to the students, and to expand the reach of the University in the promotion of artistic and cultural performances and academic conferences, workshops, symposia
c.) Exemption of UP from the Salary Standardization Law

II. UP as a Center of Excellence and a Center of Culture

2. Rationalize Program Offerings in all Constituent Universities

2.1 Reexamine the program thrusts and priorities of each constituent university and create more focused program and course offerings

2.2 Implement the Revitalized General Education Program in all campuses and provide students wider latitude in the choice of general education courses

2.3 Develop all UP campuses as Centers of Culture and Languages

• Continue to support studies that will strengthen and enrich Filipino as the national language, as well as studies on other Philippine languages and literatures
• Continue to support the improvement of the teaching of English, which remains the chief medium of access to the world’s intellectual discourse, the means for making the University’s own research available for the rest of the world, and the means by which its graduates maintain their advantage in gainful employment
• Support programs on regional and public policy studies
• Support studies that contribute significantly to our quest for national identity
• Establish an incentive plan for faculty members in the arts that will serve as counterpart to the Scientific Career System

2.4 Develop a system of governance that mirrors the mission of the University and emphasizes the role of the faculty

2.5 Implement assessment instruments developed to measure performance of academic units and to ensure quality of program offerings

2.6 Undertake academic program and management reviews and involve external evaluators in the process

2.7 Review the number of required Physical Educational courses in the undergraduate programs

2.8 Limit enrollment in basic education programs to “laboratory size”

3. Strengthen UP’s position as the leading research and development university in the country and the region

3.1 Increase the quantity and quality of the University’s research output by providing needed infrastructure and generous incentives for publication in internationally-refereed and best-refereed local journals

3.2 Promote joint research programs with reputable foreign and local universities

3.3 Promote industry-academe linkages that will focus on areas that will improve the productivity and competitiveness of Philippine industries, and promote the application of technology applications in UP

3.4 Support studies aimed at generating policy initiatives and critiquing public policies

3.5 Organize and promote consultancy work for government agencies, NGOs, the private sector and international organizations so that it will reinforce, not undermine, academic programs and responsibilities

4. Strengthen science and technology programs in all UP campuses

4.1 Implement the Scientific Career System in the University

4.2 Develop and strengthen the academic initiatives in emerging science and technology fields

4.3 Promote interdisciplinary and inter-campus collaboration particularly in ICT and biotechnology

4.4 Develop Science and Technology Parks

5. Develop UP as a community of scholars with academic credentials comparable to their counterparts in the best universities in the world

5.1 Target an all-graduate faculty profile in all UP campuses

5.2 Increase the number of faculty with doctoral degrees

5.3 Allocate funds for doctoral studies of faculty in priority areas

5.4 Tighten recruitment policies and processes so that only those with potential for excellence in teaching and research are taken in

6. Review admission policy for undergraduate programs to ensure the admission into UP of the best and brightest students

III. UP as an Efficient University

7. Improve administrative efficiency

7.1 Rationalize personnel complement in all constituent universities and the PGH by implementing DBM/CSC joint circulars on attrition and rationalization

7.2 Target a System-wide 1:1 faculty/administrative staff ratio (excluding PGH)

7.3 Disengage from activities or services which UP has no expertise in or no capability to undertake or deliver

7.4 Devolve to the constituent universities those System offices whose functions and responsibilities are more effectively delivered by them

7.5 Improve operational systems in all constituent universities through the computerization of high-volume administrative services

7.6 Rationalize resource allocation system in all constituent universities

7.7 Provide administrative and fiscal autonomy to the PGH

8. Review Tuition and the Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Program

8.1 Review existing scholarship and financial assistance programs fro students from disadvantaged groups

8.2 Review the existing tuition policy and structure in undergraduate programs

9. Pursue aggressively resource generation and mobilization programs

9.1 Develop the University’s other land grants

9.2 Strengthen the Technology Licensing Office to assist faculty members and researchers in securing licenses and patents for their discoveries and innovations

9.3 Design and implement an accreditation system for UP-based foundations that raise funds for the benefit of UP units

10. Upgrade the welfare/benefits of UP faculty, staff and students

10.1 Expand medical benefits of faculty and staff through the PGH and other government hospitals in the country

10.2 Explore additional in-campus housing and dormitory projects

10.3 Continue to support the UP Provident Fund

10.4 Explore faculty and staff promotions through staffing modification and other funds raised from the National Government

10.5 Expand endowment funds for students’ scholarships

10.6 Strengthen support for faculty and student groups such as university athletes and performing groups who promote the good image of the University

Here, in detail, is a timeline of milestones in the efforts to revise the UP’s Charter.

1982 – President Edgardo J. Angara creates a Code Commission tasked to propose revisions to the University Code and the Charter. The Commission eventually prepares a written report, but is constrained by recognition that Congress and Malacañang intervention will be invoked in the process of changing the UP Charter.

November 1987 – A multi-sectoral ad hoc committee is formed to assist newly-installed UP President Jose V. Abueva and the BOR in the review and rewriting of the UP Charter, composed of representatives from faculty, students, and non-academic personnel who constitute a preparatory body for a “Charter Study Commission” set to be formed in the next year.

Read the full article at the UP System website