Silliman at 115

At the crack of dawn on August 28, the Silliman University campus in Dumaguete City would awaken to the wondrous sounds of drums, bugles and cymbals as school bands go around, announcing the beginning of the end of the week’s celebration of the founding of the first Christian institution in the South. Last Sunday, the new generation band made the rounds, after which the traditional morning worship service at the ampitheater followed, and a joyful congregation, seemingly the biggest gathered over the years, sang hymns and listened to the inspiring message of Dr. Mariano Apilado who spoke on a hill, with the magnificent backdrop of the church edifice that has withstood time and the elements, political, religious, and the like. I was told a plane hovered above the old giant acacia trees and the congregation, for what purpose no one knew – perhaps to record the moment?

This year’s celebration carried the theme “Via, Veritas, Vita.” Observed were the 115th year of existence of the university, the 100th year of the church, the 54th year of the awarding of Outstanding Sillimanian Awards who make their alma mater – and for that matter, the nation – proud, and the 50th year of founding of the college of mass communication.

This year’s exciting activities included sports competitions, a beauty pageant (Miss Silliman this year is Aiko Mercado Kitane), lectures by balik-scientists on their fields of expertise, from criminal law to the environment to scientific breakthroughs and entrepreneurship, a parade in the skin-searing heat through the city’s main thoroughfares, the awarding of outstanding alumni after a yearlong worldwide search for candidates, and numerous high school and college reunions. Lawyer Rolando del Carmen, one of the foremost experts in the US in the area of criminal justice, was conferred a doctor of laws degree honoris causa.

And oh yes, switched on was Phase I of solar power, starting the university’s use of a renewable form of energy. Activities performed at Luce Auditorium were well lit up with the new lighting system. It was very touching, listening to a couple of campus musicians playing with the flute the song “Fly Me to the Moon” with a drawing of a big, round moon staring down from the huge stage screen.

Still another cause for rejoicing was the addition of names of people who had faithfully worked in the university for many years to the Heritage Builders Wall, not just of missionaries but also of a janitor, a stockman, a school principal, and a laundrywoman. From well-educated missionaries to the lowest worker – all were equally honored. Great.

Applause reverberated around the campus over the choice of the long-time Silliman Board of Trustees chair, Dr. Leonor Magtolis, as the new Secretary of Education. What excellent changes, we keep hearing, about how she can make in the educational system to prepare Filipino students for the competitive global market. Another contribution of the university to the Duterte administration is another alumnus, Ernesto Abella, a graduate of the College of Theology, as the presidential spokesperson.

It is noted that other good Sillimanians had been part of previous administrations – the multi-awarded scientist Dr. Angel Alcala as Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and Silliman’s well-appreciated president Ben Malayang III as Undersecretary of DENR. Not too many people are aware that the late Philippine President Carlos P. Garcia attended Silliman for a couple of years, qualifying him to be named an alumnus. What wonders he could have done had he finished the law course at Silliman!

A naughty remark has been made that if a Sillimanian were elected president of the land, he would not declare martial law, nor, if it ever would come to it, engage in shocking degrees of corruption as he would be hounded by a sense of guilt instilled by the institution’s guiding words: Via, Veritas, Vita (the Way, the Truth, and the Life). To the best of our knowledge, alumni who have occupied top national and local executive, legislative and judicial positions have not been convicted of crime or be on the controversial drug matrix. I could be wrong.

That sense of right over wrong was seriously instilled in the sensitivities of students by Presbyterian missionaries from the United States, beginning with the first boys enrolled in a vocational school in 1901 up to the formative years of the university. A book on the mentors relates their involvement in the academic and spiritual life of the university. The book, titled Glimpses of Missionaries and Fraternal Workers at Silliman University, 1901-1998, was painstakingly researched and written by Ligaya Magbanua-Simpkins, an articulate, and brilliant Outstanding Sillimanian Awardee in the field of chemistry.

Whatever it is that gives Sillimanians a deep sense of loyalty to their alma mater is somehow undefinable. But go anywhere – New York or Australia or Abu Dhabi – and they are on their feet when they hear the first strains of their school hymn that begins, “Where the white sands and the coral/kiss the dark, blue southern sea/ and the palm trees tall and stately/ wave their branches in the breeze/ stands a college we all honor/ in our hearts without a peer . . .”

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The closeness among classmates is palpable in the yearly reunions of the Silliman High School Class of 1950. Every Founders Day, the members from different parts of the world and the country congregate for drinks and food in the residence of their very accomplished, although many years ago a very shy classmate – Don Julio Sy – in Sibulan, two kilometers north of Dumaguete City. Julio, a prominent businessman, chaired the Silliman Board of Trustees for many years, and was conferred an honorary degree by the university last year.

Their number has dwindled, from 350 heads to a mere handful as some have “gone ahead.” But for many years, without fail, Don Julio’s BFF, Wayne Chang, travels from Michigan to be with his chums, bringing with him his wife Dr. Doring, and stays in the Sy house kept so warm and hospitable by Julio’s better half, Aning Sy, who prepares sumptuous feasts for Class 50. “I feel I belong to Class ’50, and I love it,” she says dramatically.

Classmates who were at last Friday’s reunion were Tony Uypitching (who came with his wife Karen), Jean Pinpin Elbinias and her sister Emma Pinpin Riego, Tillie Amante of Butuan, Lily Fontello Yrad, Felicisitas Rendal, Dr. Antonio Remoto, Architect Manny Almagro (who came with his wife Betty who made two beautiful cross-stitched portraits for the Sys and Uypitchings), Catalino Yaptenco, Felicidad Opena Merced, Araceli Bokingkito and Norgic Tenorio (whose wife Lutz dropped in after her reunion with her nursing college batch. Luth is a multi-awarded nursing educator in the US.) Architect Manny Almagro spoke of the class’ contributions to the university, by helping restore the beauty and grandeur of Silliman Hall. Manny, a retired, once famous architectural designer in Washington D.C. also designed the new grandstand at the Silliman ball field as requested by the Sy children.

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For many years now, Aning Sy has been giving a birthday bash for me at the beautiful Sy residence in Sibulan. (In Manila, the couple who treats me with a lavish party are Nene and husband Jun Leonor.) This year, the organizer of my party at Aning’s was Atty. Coleta Aranas Campanale, the first lady prosecutor of the city, now a private practitioner serving justice especially to the very poor, and my BFF since our college days at Silliman. My party is today, but my birthday is August 28, the day Silliman was founded 115 years ago. It was no wonder that when I was in college, I thought the university was celebrating my birthday!

  My expected guests last night were Ben and Gladys Malayang, city mayor Ipe Remollo, Judge Cris Tan, Dr.Angel Alcala, my friends from San Carlos City Belinda and Gibet, the Pinpin sisters, then Pena Reyes twins Myrna Sweet and Lorna Makil, Tata Villanueva, Arlene Liberal, and a host of “old” and new friends who would dance the whole night as if there is no tomorrow.

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