Those who intimately know the University of the Philippines in Diliman fondly remember that whenever they wanted to relax from the rigor of academic work, they could just cross from the Arts and Sciences (AS) and go to the Abelardo Hall at the College of Music, and to their hearts’ delight, listen to music provided by local and international artists, their concerts generously accessible for free to the UP Community.
Nearby, there was the University Theatre where plays and performances, local and international, were just as freely accessible to the community.
Art exhibits were also available at the UPD Library which then housed the Fine Arts Program.
Music, theatre and art are integral, components/programs of the UP education system.
This was our dream for UP Cebu College in the early ‘90s: to have music, arts, theatre as part of the UP Cebu education program, within UP Cebu grounds, accessible to the UP Cebu and the rest of Cebu just like in UP Diliman.
UP Cebu College had a beautiful, solid Fine Arts Program in the 1990s.
Sadly, many of the students’ works were stored at the basement of the Main Building which would get flooded during strong rains and typhoons. Why were these beautiful works of art not proudly presented to the public?
Theatre and music were creatively provided by UPSTAGE and SERENATA but both cultural groups did not have the ready and proper venue within the campus to share to the general public as well.
So when then Governor Tingting de la Serna publicly expressed that he was looking for space to house the proposed cultural center and the provincial dormitory for the best and brightest among the poorest students, then UP President, Dr. Jose V. Abueva agreed to dialogue with the province about these lofty projects.
However, then UP Visayas Chancellor/prominent Political Scientist, Dr. Francisco “Dodong” Nemenzo Jr. warned of “political winds” that would easily shutter the noble dreams associated with the proposed structures within the UP Cebu College ground.
Dodong’s wise counsel turned out correct and true!
Political winds blew away the beautiful dreams for music, arts and theatre to be made accessible to the public, within UP Cebu grounds. The funds dried up even before the proposed structures were completed.
The then proposed center for culture and arts remain unfinished since “16 January 1993, when the PROVINCE and the UNIVERSITY entered into a Memorandum of Agreement to undertake “A Joint Program on Culture and the Arts and a Dormitory for College Students with the UNIVERSITY to provide the site, the PROVINCE the funds, for the construction within the U.P. Cebu College campus of a Dormitory for College Students and a Center for the Performing Arts (to be named “Sugbu Center for Culture and Arts”) (the “Center) for the Province of Cebu.”
Cebu City was included in the third amendment to the MOA executed on 12 February 1998 as party to share in the construction costs and participants in the operation of the Center but “revoked and withdrew its commitment and participation as agreed and provided in the Third Amendatory Agreement through Resolution No. 02-2085 of its Sangguniang Panlungsod.”
“Despite the execution of the Third Amendatory Agreement by the PROVINCE, CITY, and the UNIVERSITY, nothing substantial has been done to implement its terms and conditions.”
In an October 12 MEMORANDUM, UP Cebu Chancellor Leo Malagar called on all UP Cebu constituents, retirees, alumni to attend an online public hearing on a proposed Memorandum of Agreement for Sugbo Center for Cultural and Arts to be conducted yesterday, 18 October 2023.
Will the noble/lofty dreams for a center of culture, music and arts for all, as integral part of UP education within an autonomous UP Cebu, finally become a reality or will political winds continue to shatter these dreams?