Educator returns to PH, aims to put students on top

DR. LUIS Maria Calingo receives the mace of the Holy Angel University from San Fernando Archbishop Emeritus Paciano Aniceto (right), chair of HAU board of trustees, as he assumes the university presidency. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

ANGELES CITY—“It’s time to give back.”

That, spoken in a straightforward manner, was why Dr. Luis Maria Calingo returned to his roots in Pampanga by assuming the presidency of Holy Angel University (HAU) here. He brought into this new task his credentials of 35 years as educator in the United States.

His wife, Gemeline Braga, said he took the job as HAU’s ninth president “out of love of country.” HAU is the first laity-run Catholic university in the Philippines.

Before Dr. Patricia Licuanan, chair of the Commission on Higher Education, administered his oath, Calingo greeted students, the faculty and delegates of various schools in almost fluent Kapampangan, the language of his grandparents, Canuto and Patricia, who raised a family in Guagua town in Pampanga.

The former president of Woodbury University, the second oldest university in Southern California, made clear HAU’s direction in his stint: To expand the power of education to change lives.

“We are about students,” Calingo said about the school founded by Don Juan Nepomuceno in 1933 for poor students. More than 21,000 students have enrolled this year.

Calingo said HAU is going to be faithful to Catholic education to be able to be an authentic instrument of countryside development. “This is our Mt. Everest,” he said, vowing to try his best as “shepherd” in the collective enterprise.

Calingo, an “Iskolar ng Bayan” at the University of the Philippines from high school to graduate studies, has never really left home. In between his academic career and serving as business school dean, he designed and taught the first MBA courses in strategic planning systems and industry and competitive analysis at UP Diliman.

He also served as Asian Productivity Organization’s principal consultant to the Philippines and other Asian governments in their national award programs for quality and business excellence.

Last year, he won the Juran Medal, considered the gold standard for quality management in the Philippines.

Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez, a classmate at UP, called him a “genuinely good man” in a speech read by former Public Works Secretary and HAU trustee Jose de Jesus.

“It’s good to have you home,” Jimenez said, citing Calingo’s capacity to “spread energy among Filipino youth.”

Alfredo Pascual, UP president, called Calingo a “major force in change,” and said he would guide HAU to challenging transitions in the K-12 education reform program.

Fr. Marcelo Manimtim, president of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities of the Philippines, urged Calingo to help promote peace and the rights of indigenous peoples.

Harvey Santiago, HAU student council president, praised Calingo for attending to the activities of students and expressed his hope that the new HAU president would make education affordable and consistent with the founder’s mission.

Veronica Pangilinan, president of the teachers and employees union, said that 15 days after Calingo assumed the post in June 2015, he signed a deal that ended a two-year dispute over higher salaries and additional benefits.