Running for the UPAA board is fun but no joke

I’ve always held Nelia T. Gonzales in high esteem, and I thought that her running as a candidate in the upcoming election of the University of the Philippines Alumni Association Board of Directors would be incidental to my decision to write about her. But in the course of getting facts about her, I discovered that running for the UPAA board is fun, but it is no joke either.

It is a sure thing that if majority of Nelia’s 21-person slate wins the election, she will be elected board president, and automatically, will become a member of the university system’s Board of Regents. The group opposing her candidacy has raised issues against her, the chief one being that she has made false claims about her having raised so many millions for the construction of the Bahay ng Alumni on the Diliman campus. Another is her age, which is 79.

The campaign against Nelia’s winning I suppose, is as fierce as the campaign of the opposing party to win the election. Majority of the 23 members of the opposing party are members of the formidable Upsilon Fraternity which has considered the UPAA its turf, holding control over it since the board’s founding in 1908. Although Nelia had been elected as a board member and elected by the board as vice president for 1995-2000, she is not a Sigma Deltan, the Upsilon’s sister sorority, but a Phi Kappa Phi.

The fierce struggle for this year’s board is such that more alumni are casting their votes than ever before. The last election’s voters were merely a little more than a thousand, but this time, with the election just a breath away (May 31st), thousands of alumni are participating in the election. Other issues relate to the questionable filing of voting alumni’s names past the deadline, but those I will leave to the protagonists and their Commission on Elections to resolve.

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Feminists – and I’m one of them – pounce on guys who make age – and gender – an issue in such affairs as running for a jealously-guarded turf. The legal counsel of the opposing party calls her octogenarian, when in fact she is only a septuagenarian. I do not believe that many of the male candidates in this election can beat Nelia’s record – academically and professionally, and as a fund-raiser.

The question of age is a source of delight and dismay to Nelia’s party, some of whom are also septuagenarians. One thing sure is that the exercise has mobilized the candidates, especially the women, and their supporters to go on a nationwide campaign. Nelia and her group’s public relations officer, former dean of the College of Communication, Georgina Encanto, wake up early and begin the day’s texting to group members and alumni who in turn do their own texting and organizing of groups in the provinces. Nelia says, "I’ve never worked harder in my whole life." But she is enjoying the whole exercise, although it is no joke.

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The legal counsel of the opposing group which calls itself "the genuine Group of 23 Candidates’ says Nelia has made a "blatant false claim" that she be given "sole credit" in the construction of the Bahay ng Alumni and the giving of P10-million to the U.P. library. But Nelia’s sticking to her guns: that she was the "workhorse" 1) that orchestrated all fund-raising activities" which led to the construction of the alumni building; 2) that at the end of her term, the alumni association had accumulated net earnings of P25 million, P10-million of which was donated to the library, and 3) the alumni president, Ed Espiritu, formerly of PNB, who recognized Nelia’s capability, publicly said that she ought to be the next alumni president.

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Nelia’s group is made up of very capable candidates. One is Dr. Fernando Bernardo (BSA ’55) a TOYM in genetics, former deputy minister of education and deputy director general of IRRI. He was UPLB’s most distinguished alumnus in 1986. He is a board member of the Center for the Promotion of Peace and Development in Mindanao. Then there is the brilliant Marita Tolentino-Reyes (MD ’64), chancellor of U.P. Manila, and president of the UP Medical Foundation. I know Dr. Georgina R. Encanto (AB ’67), a respected name in Philippine journalism; Elsa Arellano Syjuco (BSE ’41), a distinguished community leader, and Lydia Evangelista Buendia (BPE ’51), who has impressive programs for the disabled, for which she earned the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Award as Volunteer to the Philippines Special Olympics.

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Nelia was the only female graduate at the UP College of Agriculture, Class ’44, majoring in plant pathology. She entered public service as an assistant agronomist at the Bureau of Plant Industry and as technologist and instructor at the Bureau of Fisheries in Malabon. When she and her husband Bobby (an entomologist) were teaching at the Araneta Institute of Agriculture (now Araneta University), Doña Victoria Araneta (wife of Don Salvador Araneta) invited her to be the institute’s cashier, which Nelia accepted as a challenge although she continued to teach.

She was then asked to set up the agribusiness division of the Republic Flour Mills (RFM), the first flour miller in the country. In her capacity as manager of the products division, the organization was able to accomplish a series of firsts in Philippine agriculture: the introduction of white Leghorn strains in the country which drastically improved egg production, the utilization of indigenous raw materials to replace imported feed, and the establishment of a formal organization for poultry and hog producers in the country.

When the products division of Araneta University expanded into the AIA Feed Mill Inc., Nelia was made its general manager; she opened the export trade of wheat by-products in Southeast Asian countries and Japan in 1962. Then she set up the first soybean extraction plant in the country, and led in the production of corn and sorghum hybrid and the manufacturer of yeast from molasses which essentially made feedmilling less dependent on importation. She also introduced the practice of contract growing into the country.

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Two years into the Marcos presidency, Nelia, together with Dr. Salvador Araneta, testified before the Senate, charging Namarco officials of asking for bribes from the AIA Feeds. Nelia’s fearless testimony led to the abolition of the Namarco, and the charging of its officers with extortion. President Marcos appointed her as assistant minister of agriculture in 1980, and concurrently officer-in-charge of the Bureau of Cooperatives.

Today, Nelia remains as the president of Asiaworld Properties Philippines Corporation of the Tan Yu conglomerate. Before his death, Tan Yu spoke of Nelia as "a trustworthy and a very talented corporate leader" of his business and philantrophic endeavors. He always regarded Nelia "with high esteem".

Who says Nelia is too old to be UPAA president?

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