Oldest living Pinoy is a retired UP college dean

On May 9, Gregorio Torio Zamuco will turn 106 years old.

This makes him (as of this writing) the oldest living Filipino, a month and 26 days older than Maria Torres Vicente, who was featured in The STAR’s Jan. 1 issue. (Or is there anyone out there who is more than 106 years old?)

Interestingly, both Zamuco and Vicente hail from Pangasinan: Zamuco, a son of Aguilar town, and Apong Maria, who was born in Urdaneta City on July 3, 1901.

The STAR learned about Zamuco’s age from a friend who is now writing a book titled "Centennial Review: 100 Great Moments in UPLB’s History." (UPLB stands for University of the Philippines Los Baños).

Dr. Fernando Bernardo, who retired a few years ago as deputy director general of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), has been devoting his time writing books covering important facets of Philippine history as well as the arts, including poetry and painting.

Bernardo, also a former UPLB College of Agriculture dean, expects to finish writing his latest book — on UPLB — this year.

For his new project, he interviewed Zamuco, among other UPLB old hands.

One interesting vignette in the life of Zamuco, who spent the last phase of his professional life as dean (1958-1966) of the UPLB College of Forestry, was about his arrest during the Japanese occupation of Los Baños in World War II.

As he narrated to Bernardo: "I was arrested by the Japanese soldiers but was later saved by my 10-year-old son. One morning while a Japanese officer was passing by our house, he heard someone playing a Japanese patriotic tune on our piano. The Japanese officer went up our house to see who was playing the piano, and was amazed to see my 10-year-old son, Jaime, on the piano. When the Japanese officer learned that Jaime’s father was arrested on suspicion of being a guerrilla, he ordered my immediate release."

Jaime is now a noted doctor of medicine (neuropathologist). Zamuco’s oldest, Teofilo, is a banker, and the youngest, Gregorio Isidro, an accomplished landscape artist, who designed, among other key projects, the landscape of both the North Luzon and South Luzon expressways.

Zamuco’s wife, Juliana Tumamaw, a nurse from Victoria, Tarlac, passed away in 1987. He met and married her in Tacloban City (Leyte) when he was assigned there in the 1930s as a district forester.

Although now wheelchair-bound, Zamuco still has a sharp mind.

"He can still recite Dr. Jose Rizal’s Mi Ultimo Adios and Joyce Kilmer’s poem Tree," enthused his youngest son and namesake.

Also, his training as a forester (read: mountain climber) assured him of a sturdy physique.

About a decade ago, for instance, Zamuco amazed the UP Los Baños community when he walked up the multi-story UPLB carillon (a tower with chime bells) during its inauguration.

"He did not drink liquor nor smoked cigarettes," son Sid recalled.

Today, as in the past, he added, his father preferred vegetables and broiled (inihaw) fish (the species with scales such as milkfish).

One good thing about outstanding people is that their life stories are well documented, making it not so hard for those writing about them.

Typical is the case of Zamuco, who is now spending the rest of his long and fruitful life in the serenity of his home in the fringes of the vast UPLB complex at the foot of legendary Mt. Makiling.

He retired from government service (as UPLB College of Forestry dean) upon reaching the compulsory retirement age of 65 on May 9, 1966.

The climb to the highest rung of his professional ladder had been arduous and full of challenges.

As a child (the sixth of 10 children of Flaviano Zamuco and Juana Torio), he dreamed of becoming a doctor. But poverty nipped his ambition in the bud.

Instead, after finishing his high school in Lingayen (Pangasinan’s present capital town) in 1919, he enrolled at the UP School of Forestry upon learning that it offered free education. He earned the Ranger Certificate (salutatorian) in 1921 as a government pensionado.

He later left for the United States to pursue his Bachelor of Science in Forestry at the University of Washington, completing it in 1927. Two years later, he received his Master of Forestry from Yale University in Connecticut, also in the US.

Zamuco first worked as a ranger at the Bureau of Forestry from 1921 to 1925. Later, he was promoted to district forester and served as such in various parts of the Visayas and Mindanao.

He joined the UP College of Forestry in 1935 as assistant professor. He worked in the college until he retired as its dean in 1966.

Zamuco had received a good number of prestigious awards and citations.

Foremost of these was his induction to the Forestry Hall of Fame "for his lifetime of dedicated unselfish and exemplary service to the country as a forestry professional and as an alumnus of the UPLB College of Forestry and Natural Resources; for being a model of unwavering integrity, honesty, and excellence as an educator." The UPLB College of Forestry and Natural Resources Alumni Association conferred the award on him on April 22, 2005.

During its 1989 commencement exercises, the UPLB also conferred on Zamuco the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, "for his unwavering leadership as dean in the conceptualization, planning, and eventual enactment of Republic Act 3523 which institutionalized forestry extension work in the Philippines."

As Bernardo, in his forthcoming book, wrote: "Zamuco’s crowning glory was the passage of Republic Act 3523 which transferred the Makiling National Park (about 4,000 hectares) to UP. The law also appropriated funds for the development of the Makiling Botanical Garden.

"The Botanical Garden and the man-made forests on the campus and in the Makiling National Park stand as a living monument to the foresight and efforts of the College… The students who sweated to plant the trees and cared for them never dreamed that their efforts would be so meaningful. Today, these trees are practically the mother trees of other man-made forests being grown in many formerly vast cogonal areas throughout the country."