100 Years of La Sallian Education in the Philippines

“Hail, hail, alma mater

Hail to De La Salle…”

I couldn’t keep those words from constantly ringing in my head these last few days.

That’s because last June 16, the whole La Sallian community in the Philippines celebrated its 100th year anniversary in the country. There was at least one pre-anniversary celebration I learned of, but the biggest and grandest one was surely the one held that day at De La Salle University itself at Taft Avenue, Manila.

I decided not to go that Thursday evening despite invitations, telling myself it wasn’t practical to go as it was too far away, and that it was rainy these past few days and that if I was caught in the all evening revelry, I would have surely been late for the important focus group discussion (FGD) I was going to conduct the following day at the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines on Patent and Trademark Registration relative to a series of Anti-Red Tape Assessment studies our Bureau was undertaking at the Office of the Ombudsman.

A few days after, here I am trying not to regret not being there with my wife, a momentous moment in the academic institution of our late youth. Instead, as personal penance, I gather my energies in blogging a post about De La Salle University in honor of its centennial celebration. After all, La Salle had a dramatic impact on my life. I probably wouldn’t be where I am right now if not for my La Sallian education.

As an undergrad student and later as a college instructor, I saw the good, the bad and even the ugly side of its much acclaimed educational system.

A large part of my beliefs and outlook on life were shaped while I was there. I’ll even go to the extent of saying I found most of my true loves while when I was in La Salle.

Love for the sport

I have always been absorbed with the martial arts even when I was a young child. I grew up trying to imitate Bruce Lee with my blue plastic nunchaku. Then there were the samurai and ninja movies. Then in the mid 80’s came the Karate Kid series. But it was the prodding of an Introduction to Sociology (INTROSO) instructor that formally brought me to the world of Karate-do, particularly in the “way of the empty hand” established by the founder of modern Japanese karate, Gichin Funakoshi and popularized by his son and countless students worldwide – Shotokan through the De La Salle Karate Society (DLSKS) under the auspices of our numerous sensei (instructors) from the Association for the Advancement of Karate-do (AAK). Having played and won on several occasions for my school was definitely a major milestone in my La Sallian experience.

Love of my country

I always thought I was patriotic but ironically it was in an ‘elitist’ school like La Salle that my nationalistic consciousness was awakened and where I got involved in militant student activism. It was in La Salle that I discovered the ‘isms’ of Philippine politics – Imperialism, Feudalism and Bureaucrat Capitalism, immersing myself in leftist ideologies and advancing ‘revolutionary’ changes in society. Later, socio-political realities gave me a better hindsight on things. After the EDSA I uprising, the subsequent alienation of the political left from the masses, the fall of so-called “communist” parties worldwide, and the overriding sentiment of the people towards peaceful electoral means for change significantly altered my radical world view. Now, I continue to be nationalistic, democratic and socialist in my world view minus the sloganeering and the romanticism often associated with the political left. . But all those changes in my later years at school stirred me into channeling my energies to what would be another passion in my life – education.

Love for education

Early on I thought I was going to be an architect, a businessman, then an economist or a historian. Before entering college in 1984, I even considered computer science (it was the fad then plus the perceived high pay). After realizing the numerous math subjects, I settled for a B & E course on Applied Economics. As fate would have it, I felt disenchanted with the thought of being an economist in a capitalistic economy I was much averse to, taking liberal arts subjects before the end of my freshman year, in preparation for my decision to shift, acceding to my natural love for the social sciences and taking up Political Science as my course major, minor in Philosophy. There I academically grew, enough to be later considered as a part time lecturer and subsequently as a full- time instructor in our department.

Work in the academe required higher studies. This in turn led to my equally significant and productive stay at the graduate school of UP - College of Public Administration as College Scholar (CS), Master in Public Administration (MPA) degree holder at the age of 19 and some doctoral units thereafter.

As an educator, I felt the strong camaraderie among my fellow faculty members, the respect and adulation of good and impressionistic students, the scorn of several students I failed, and the ire and lack of support of certain administrative officials due to my convictions and fight for academic freedom. By and large, I loved teaching in DLSU. At the end of the day, it really boils down as to whether as an educator, I felt I was able to impart some knowledge, some learning or some experience that would make my students in the process better persons in our society. If I got that feeling or affirmation, then I knew I earned my pay…and I earned my job and title as a teacher.

Love of my life

My wife and I both took our undergrad courses in this academic institution way back in the 1980s. Odette, one year my senior was a double Liberal Arts degree holder (AB Psychology and Behavioral Science) while I was a Political Science major. She was quite active with her student organization (BEST) while I was active (being an activist) with COSSA – a Student Christian Movement of the Philippines (SCMP) affiliate and the Political Science Society (POLSCI).

Her family was one of the first residents of the GSIS Village in Project 8. We transferred to GSIS Village only in 1988 but I had no recollection of seeing her in the subdivision.

Strangely, we only met when we were already both teachers in our respective departments. It was due to our involvement in handling ORIENT classes for junior DLSU students that got to know each other. We quickly became good friends. In time, that friendship blossomed into true love and the rest they say was history.

I could go on and on with anecdotes, real life experiences, tales that would make you laugh, incidents that would make you cry or angry, tales that would inspire you…and give all of us hope.

I guess I’ve learned to accept my La Sallian experience the way we accept the other areas of our lives – accepting its wholeness, its totality. All with the good, the bad and the ugly. But with the hope that the good it emanates, is what I, along with other products of its educational system should promote, what we should pass on to the next generation of true blooded La Sallites.

I have this uncanny feeling that my involvement with my alma mater has not yet reached its final chapter. Until then and onwards…

“…we’ll fight to keep your glory bright,

And never shall we fail

Hail to thee, our alma mater,

Hail, hail, hail”!