President Emerlinda R. Roman
UP Manila
January 8, 2008

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.