Rosa Rosal: Doctor of Humanities

Rosa Rosal was a Business Administration student at the now-defunct Cosmopolitan College (where the late Manila Mayor Antonio Villegas was a classmate) when she was recruited to join the movies.

As LVN Pictures’ resident contravida, she was practically in the studio’s every other film project. (She became so famous and such a familiar face to the public that she was crowned Queen of Philippine Movies in the ‘50s).

But in spite of all her film commitments, Rosa Rosal managed to pursue her college education by attending night classes. According to her it was to her advantage that movies then were shot within the confines of the studio’s sound stage and hardly on location. (Out of town shoots were very seldom then.) She was also lucky that shootings back then began in the morning and finished late in the afternoon. Yes, making movies then was just like going to a regular 9 to 5 office job. This schedule therefore allowed Rosa Rosal to concentrate on her studies at night. While her colleagues were doing the nightclub strip in the evening, she was in school attending classes.

In no time at all, she was done with her college education – thanks to night school. Unfortunately, she was unable to attend her graduation rites anymore and she no longer could recall the reason (must have been due to a conflict in schedule).

More than 50 years later, however, last April 11 she found herself marching in a graduation ceremony (held at the PICC) along with the students and faculty of the Far Eastern University.

At the university’s 77th commencement exercises that early afternoon, Ms. Rosa Rosal – already a recipient of the very prestigious Ramon Magsaysay award and countless other honors – was conferred the degree of Doctor of Humanities honoris causa.

With her in that very important moment of her life were daughter Toni Rose Gayda, grandson John Lim and LVN colleagues Delia Razon, Lilia Dizon and Nita Javier (Ng).

Wearing a black cap and toga, Rosa Rosal in a speech she wrote herself not only reminded the young graduates to love and respect their parents, but also stressed the importance and value of education.

Actually, that wasn’t all lip service from her end. From her own money and from funds she helped raise through the generosity of other people, Rosa Rosal was able to send a lot of young people from the poorest of the poor to school.

It all started many years ago in Damayan. A young man went to her and introduced himself as a carpenter‘s son who can no longer go to college because he was very, very poor.

Initially, Rosa Rosal wasn’t sure if she would be able to help him – especially after looking around the studio and seeing all the other needy people who come to her for donations.

But the young man was persistent. In no time all, he was able to convince her to send him to the University of the East where he took up Commerce major in Accounting.

This carpenter’s son is now holding a top position in Unilab and has built a nice home for is family. He shows his gratitude to Ms. Rosal by being there every year on her birthday (Oct. 16).

Aside from the carpenter’s son, Rosa Rosal was also able to send (again through her own personal funds) 14 other poor students to college- in courses like Dentistry, Nursing, Medical Technology, etc. and in schools like CEU and Adamson University.

Sometime ago, when Mayor Sonny Belmonte (then a congressman) was her guest in Damayan, she hit on the idea of raising funds for the education of other poor young people. With donations from Mr. Belmonte and other generous donors, Rosa Rosal was able to raise about P800,000, which sent about 27 or so students to college.

Then, when she won the Ramon Magsaysay award in 1999, she used her entire cash prize of $50,000 as seed money (she didn’t leave anything for herself or for her family) to send even a lot more (now over a hundred) students to college at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines. Oh, she’s so proud of her graduates – some of whom even managed to graduate with honors (cum laude mostly).

At the moment, she takes in about 10 students a year and, of course, continues to solicit funds for this project. Some people have been generous and some – well, these are hard times. Rosa Rosal even wrote Oprah Winfrey once to ask for donations. There was no response from the talk show host.

In her speech at the FEU graduation rites, Rosa Rosal also said something about "our talent just being on loan from God and about how we should share it with others." She relates to me an episode of her life many years ago to cite an example.

When she was living near the LVN compound in the ’50s, an ex-convict from the slums nearby approached her to ask for help. The man was being accused of a crime he did not commit. The police, however, didn’t believe him when he told them that he was turning a new leaf and he was sure that they would nail him and force him to admit to the crime. What Rosa Rosal did was contact a new lawyer – a very young man who had just topped the bar exams. She was floored by his response. He would handle the case – why not? But to the tune of P1,000, which was a lot of money in the 1950s. She went instead to another lawyer who – knowing this was a charity case – agreed to take in the case free of charge. The poor man was acquitted.

She didn’t hear anything about the brilliant young bar top-notcher anymore until a few years later – in the obituary. He died very young and at the peak of his career – maybe without having been able to share with the less fortunate the talent God gave him. We don’t exactly know and we don’t want to be judgmental.

In the case of Rosa Rosal, there is no denying that she has shared every single talent God has given her with many others. In the field of arts, she has shared her talent as an actress by being one of the greatest in Philippine cinema.

Her other talent is raising funds for charity and this she has shared with the hundred or so people who managed to finish school with her help and those thousand others whose lives were saved through her Red Cross projects.