UP Cebu’s Journey

We are blessed because with UP Cebu’s coming centennial we have Madz’ “A Blast from the Past”— its brief history and we joined Gabii sa Kabilin. The centerpiece of our participation was the UP Cebu administration building which in December 2, 2010 was declared a heritage site; but the group led by Mads, Gaying, and Palme arranged stations to unfold the history of UP Cebu. The spread was entitled UP in the History of Cebu and the Nation.

The research of Phoebe Umbay revealed that Cebuanos actually asked to have a UP branch so that families who wanted to study in UP could save on fare and living quarters.  It opened as Junior College of Liberal Arts at the Warwick Barracks on July 1,1918. Madz describes:  “After a grand inauguration with a big crowd of the Cebu community in attendance, classes formally opened.”

Without a building of its own, it kept moving in its earlier years to a rented building in corner Colon and D. Jakosalem then to Fort San Pedro. By 1926 the Cebu Provincial Board donated a 13-hectare site at Lahug. But this was also due to a threat of closure which Cebuano legislators including Paulino Gullas opposed. The UP Board of Regents allowed UP Cebu to stay on the condition that local support would be contributed by the local government. Jereza Construction Co. had built the two-storey building by the summer of 1929; it was inaugurated by UP President Rafael Palma on March 26,  1929.

In the 1930s UP Cebu through legislation pushed by local representatives got funds on a regular basis and was made a “permanent branch of the University of the Philippines.

The brochure reveals that: “During  World War II the main building was first used as an internment camp for American and British civilians; later it was turned into a stockade for condemned prisoners by the Japanese.” After the war the school was “reopened and classes were held at the buildings which the Americans constructed and left behind.”

UP Cebu was closed for a little more than ten years. “The College was closed as a result of a political action when Cebuano Senate President was angered by the valiant outcry of UP students over the act of armed, bearded goons of powerful Cebuano politicians during the 1949 presidential elections. Only the students of UP Cebu dared to lampoon these politicians in editorial cartoons of their campus paper, “The junior Collegian”, getting the ire of the powerful politicians of Cebu.”

It reopened as a Graduate School on July 1, 1963. In 1972 the high school was reopened. In 1923 a “high school class was organized for teacher training purposes”. This is when I joined UP. Lani Echavez and Ms. Yolanda Sanson-Oporto  both informed me about a recruitment process that was taking place. Two rooms of teachers underwent a whole day of tests. Then a little over ten applicants underwent interviews. I remember the alumni being involved; John Cobonpue was among those who interviewed us. Within the semester that we opened Pres. Marcos  declared martial law. Being in a government school we continued to report for work even if there were no classes. Since UP Cebu was part of the UP, it took some time  for us to be reopened and for us to have the student government.

UP Cebu became part of UP in the Visayas from 1986 to 2010, in spite of much objection from Cebu. The part I liked the most was the period when Dr. Francisco Nemenzo became chancellor. He had very revolutionary ideas with regard to education like the transformation of the high school into the democratized access to tertiary education.

In 2010 UP Cebu was granted autonomy and the administration building was declared   a heritage site by the National Historical  Commission. Madz had a great deal to do with the latter.

In my many years in UP, I have grown but kept young.