Ateneo Class ’77 marks 40th Ruby Jubilee

Ateneo de Manila University Class ’77 – the first batch to go co-ed in an institution that had been famously an all male bastion – marks its 40^th Ruby Jubilee with a year-long round of activities.

The celebration kicks off on March 26, 2017, the same day the class graduated in 1977, with a Mass at the Immaculate Conception Chapel inside the Church of Gesu, Ateneo de Manila Loyola campus, followed by lunch at the Aerie Room of Cervini Lounge. Registration takes place at 11 a.m. at Gesu and after the Mass, at Cervini.

The female students, who took their place beside their male counterparts in 1977, comprised about 6 percent of the total student population numbering about 2,000 and some 25 percent of the freshmen group.

Batch ‘77’s female members went on to high powered careers, among them Susan Zamora-Prado, EVP and CFO of Development Bank of the Philippines; Evelyn Tang-Uy, three-term mayor of Dipolog City under whose watch it received an APEC Model City Award; Cynthia Concepcion-Baga, one of only three Papal awardees in the Philippines to receive the Cross of Honour; Marissa Fernan, vice-president at SM Prime Holdings, Region VII; and Maria Aggie J. Angeles, former EVP of Planters Development Bank and an active Jaycees International figure.

The boys also went on to excel, notably Luis Antonio Tagle, one of three Summa Cum Laude recipients that year and now Archbishop of Manila and trusted lieutenant of Pope Francis; bank executives Alfonso L. Salcedo Jr., president and CEO of Security Bank and Justo Ortiz, chairman and CEO of Union Bank of the Philippines; as well as shipping boss Tony Moraza, president and CEO of Aboitiz Power Corp.

The graduation of Batch ’77 also marked the centennial of national hero Jose Rizal’s graduation from the Ateneo (Ateneo de Municipal as it was known then) in 1877, finishing at the head of his class with the distincton of sobresaliente.

For more details, contact the Ateneo Alumni Office at tel 426-6001. AU

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that the initial batch of female students in Ateneo graduated in 1973. They actually graduated in 1977.