Ateneo de Zamboanga Centennial: Ateneo de Zbga at 100

100 YEARS OF THE
ATENEO DE ZAMBOANGA

1912 – 2012

Special Edition

November 2012

Salvador C Wee, SJ

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CONTENTS

1. The Fort Pilar Shrine

2. Suppression and Return of the Jesuits

3. The Archdiocese of Zamboanga

4. Archbishop Luis del Rosario SJ

5. Fr. Manuel M. Sauras SJ

6. The Pre-World War II Ateneo

7. A Glimpse into the Past

8. The Post-War Ateneo

9. Senator Roseller T. Lim

10. Mayor Cesar C. Climaco

11. Fr. Jose Ma. Rosauro SJ

12. Fr. Eusebio G. Salvador SJ

13. The Ateneo Half a Century Ago

14. Ateneo de Zamboanga Today

15. The AdZ School Seal

16. Maga Orgullo de Zamboanga

17. Ateneo de Zamboanga 1912-2012 Timeline

Acronyms:

AdZ Ateneo de Zamboanga

AdZU Ateneo de Zamboanga University

CIJE Challenges and Issues in Jesuit Education,

by Adolfo Nicolas SJ, Superior General, 7-13-09

ISB Ignatian Spirituality for Beginners, by the author

SJ Society of Jesus

INTRODUCTION

2012 marks one hundred years of the Ateneo de Zamboanga. This is a special second edition of the book that came out in July, 2012 for the launching of the centennial year. It has some minor corrections and is a more complete version of the original edition. The chapters have been rearranged for a better flow of topics.

The story of the Ateneo de Zamboanga does not only go back 100 years ago. It goes all the way back around 400 years ago with the coming of the first Jesuit missionaries from Spain. The story of the school is also part of the story of Zamboanga City and the archdiocese of Zamboanga.

The school has carried the name of Ateneo de Zamboanga (AdZ) for the past 85 years, from 1916 on until 2001, when it became the Ateneo de Zamboanga University (AdZU). This explains the above title without the university appellation.

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1. THE FORT PILAR SHRINE

Roots of Christianity and Origins of Zamboanga

In 1569 a Spanish garrison was established in Zamboanga at La Caldera, Recodo today. Fr. Diego del Rosario was one of the first missionaries who started a mission there, from 1585 until his death on July 9, 1594 (AdZU Research Digest, Volume 3, Oct 2011). It is not clear if Fr. del Rosario was a Jesuit or not. If he was, then this was the earliest Jesuit presence in Zamboanga, 427 years ago. Founded in 1540, the first Jesuits arrived in the Philippines in 1581.

Through the years, other Christian settlements spread throughout the islands. Because of the pirate raids on the villages in the Visayas, the Spanish authorities decided to build a fort at Cagang-Cagang, Rio Hondo today, to guard the waters of Basilan Strait. Cagang-cagang is the name of the small crabs around the place.

Under the command of Capitan Juan Chavez, 300 Spaniards and 1,000 Visayans landed in Zamboanga on April 6, 1635, together with Jesuit missionaries Melchor de Vera and Pedro Gutierrez, the founder of Dapitan. Construction of the fort begun on June 23, 1635 under the supervision of Fr. de Vera.

The intermarriage between the Spaniards, Visayans and the native population of Sama-Lutaos (floating people) and Subanons (river people) who settled around the fort became the original Christian population of what was to become Zamboanga. The Chabacano language evolved from the union of these different cultures. The settlement around the fort spread into the areas of Rio Hondo, Sta. Barbara and Sta. Catalina. As the centuries passed, it gradually developed into three zones: Pueblo Viejo, Pueblo Nuevo and Sama-Magay in the market area, next to the sea.

There are different explanations about the origins of the name “Zamboanga.” A 1734 map drawn by Fr. Pedro Murillo Velarde gives the name “Samboangan,” after the sambuan or saguan, Malay for oar or paddle. It is the Sinama word for “anchorage” or “mooring place,” the stake to which boats are tied.

This version sounds very plausible, because many names of places in the 7,000-island Philippines are related to water. Subanon is suba and non or river people. The indigenous Subanon name for Zamboanga was Sog (pronounced Sug) Lupa or “pointed land.” This may also have something to do with the Tausug, which is tao and suug, people of the current. Maranao comes from ranao or lake. Tagalog is taga ilog, from the river. Manila is from may nilad, there is nilad, a mangrove flowering plant. Quiapo was originally kiyapo or water lily. Cebu was originally sugbu, Cebuano for “to walk in shallow waters.” Agusan is Manobo for “where the water flows.” Albay is al baybay, “by the shore” in Spanish and Bikol. Pampanga is from pampang or river bank. Laguna is Spanish for lake or lagoon.

Another version of the name of Zamboanga says it was named after the sambon, an herbal plant. A more recent and controversial version is “Jambangan,” the land of flowers. Decades ago, some visiting Indonesians said jambangan means flowers to them. This fitted the pre-war and post-world war II title of Zamboanga as the City of Flowers, with its beautiful bouganvillas grown almost everywhere. The title was promoted for tourism purposes, only to find out later that the word really means a flower vase or pot. Today everyone knows that Baguio is unquestionably the real city of flowers.

The fort was originally named the Fuerza Real de San Jose. It was attacked by the Dutch in 1646 and abandoned in 1663, when the Zamboanga troops were ordered to help defend Manila from Chinese pirates led by Koxinga (Kok Seng), conqueror of Formosa, the old name of Taiwan. The fort was reconstructed in 1666 and in 1719 it was rededicated to Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Zaragoza.

The story of Our Lady of the Pillar of Zaragoza goes back to the first century of Christianity, how the apostle James (Santiago Apostol in Spanish) went to Spain to spread Christianity. One day he was a little discouraged at his missionary efforts and praying by the Ebro River when he saw angels bringing Mary to a pillar. She then comforted and encouraged him to continue his evangelization work and to build a church at that place. Today a beautiful church stands there in memory of her appearance.

It is this Marian scene of St. James by the Ebro River that devotees contemplate in prayer down the centuries every time they visit the shrine to light their candles. Decades ago the candles sold had only a couple of colors. Today they are all kinds of colors, even black – for San Vicente Ferrer, San Martin de Porres, or for driving away evil spirits, daw! The makers, sellers and devotees of these candles do not need the guidance of Church authorities in inventing color-coded and far-fetched devotions.

The image of the Virgen del Pilar was originally installed as a frontispiece over the main gate in January 1734. There are two inscriptions on the wall. The one below the pillar and the coat of arms when translated from Spanish to English reads:

“Reigning Spain, his Catholic Majesty Philip V, Emperor of the American New World and governing these Philippine Islands, the Most Illustrious Ferdinand Bustillo y Rueda, Field Marshall and Captain General. This royal fort of Our Blessed Lady of Pilar of Zaragoza was established and reconstructed by the illustrious General Gregorio Padilla y Escalante on April 8. 1719.”

Above the short pillar (which looks like a pedestal) and at the feet of Our Lady is this inscription: “Governing this armed fort Juan Antonio de la Torre Bustamante. This frontispiece was built in January 1734.”

There are legends associated with the image. A legend says that one day the image miraculously appeared to protect the fort and its inhabitants during a siege. Another legend tells of the appearance of a beautiful lady by the sea in times of uncertainty. Still another legend is about supernatural footprints left behind. The main gate was eventually sealed sometime before 1860 and turned into a shrine in Mary’s honor.

In January 1900 the Americans renamed the shrine Fort Pilar and the name has stayed to this day. It is probably “the only military stronghold in the world that has become a Marian shrine for prayer, peace and dialogue.” Even the location of Fort Pilar is significant. It is situated between the Christian homes of the city and the Muslim homes of Rio Hondo, a symbolic bridge linking and bonding the two cultures of Zamboanga.

A stone’s throw away at Sta. Barbara is the biggest Muslim mosque in the city. There are occasions when the festivities of these two faiths coincide and how wonderful it is to see Christians and Muslims in their Sunday or Hari Raya best, walking side by side as fellow Filipinos. The Fiesta Pilar of Zamboanga is celebrated every year on October 12.

Until the 1990s, the shrine used to be an open-air unfenced area that welcomed everyone, no matter what faith they professed. There is an account of Muslim women lighting candles and emotionally praying at the shrine. There is also the story of a young Muslim girl at Sinunuc, who miraculously survived after a coconut tree fell during a big storm. Her parents attributed this to Our Lady of Pilar and in gratitude named her Pilar.

Miriam in Hebrew, Maryam in Aramaic or Arabic, the mother of Isa or Jesus, is mentioned in the Qur’an 34 times, much more frequently than in the Gospels. She is “Sayyida” (lady or mistress in Arabic) to the Muslims, who would even come from Jolo to pay their respects. This has reportedly stopped when a fence topped by statues of Catholic saints was put up around the shrine years ago.

Today the entrance into the fort and the museum inside is through a small side gate, next to a plaque of the Philippines Historical Committee, which states: “Founded as southern outpost of Spanish domain under the supervision of Melchor de Vera, 1635; attacked by the Dutch, 1646; deserted when troops were concentrated in Manila to drive away Chinese pirates, 1663; reconstructed by the Society of Jesus, 1666; rebuilt under the management of Juan Sicarra, 1719; stormed by Dalasi, king of Bulig with 3,000 Moros, 1720; cannonaded by the British, 1798; witnessed the mutiny of seventy prisoners, 1872; abandoned by the Spaniards, 1898; occupied by the Americans under General JC Bates, 1899; seized by the Japanese, 1942; taken over by the Republic of the Philippines, 4 July 1946.”

We can imagine those frontier days of swampy land and mangrove forests over which the city grew up. We can still see this today in the property across the road fronting the shrine. An excavation at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral last year unearthed long-buried nipa roots. The cathedral is about a kilometer away from the fort.

A 2009 address of Fr. Adolfo Nicolas, Superior General of the Society of Jesus, reminded us that “one of the favorite words from General Congregation 35 that has captured the imagination of so many Jesuits and friends in mission is frontiers.” We are challenged never to rest on our past achievements but to continually seek fresh and relevant ways of service and ministry for the greater glory of God.

Those nipa roots of old also remind us of the roots and foundation of Ignatian spirituality found in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. These exercises are “ways to bring us to God through a process of discernment as a contemplative in action. They invite us to know, love and follow Jesus more fully and learn to find God in all things. Finding God in all things means we seek God not only in fixed and set ways, because God is above and beyond all our means and methods.” (ISB).

Through the centuries, many beliefs and practices become part of our traditions. They can obscure or hide the true story of Jesus and Mary. It is inevitable that additions and subtractions (dagdag-bawas) happen, with self-serving intentions or superstitious beliefs crowding out the call to selfless and humble service to others. Our Marian devotions and our present-day ministries must be rooted in the original spirit of Jesus Christ and St. Ignatius of Loyola, so that we will continue to bring good and effective news to those we serve.

This is why we need to constantly discern what comes from God and what does not come from God. We remember the wisdom and practicality of Jesus in his parables of the tree and its fruits and the need to separate the grain from the chaff.

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2. THE SUPPRESSION AND RETURN OF THE JESUITS

The Jesuit presence in Zamboanga for over 300 years has remained to this day, except for two periods. The first was from 1663 to 1666, when the garrison was abandoned and sent to help defend Manila from Chinese pirates. The second period was from 1769 to 1863, when the Jesuits were expelled and suppressed throughout the lands under Spanish rule.

A background on Church history and geopolitics will help us to better understand and appreciate the story of the Jesuits and the Ateneo de Zamboanga. In 1767 church and state politics in France, Sicily, Parma and the Portuguese and Spanish empires called for the suppression of the Society of Jesus. The royal decree reached Manila on May 17, 1768 and between 1769 and 1771 the Jesuits in the Philippines were deported to Spain and Italy.

On July 21, 1773 Pope Clement XIV officially disbanded the Jesuits throughout the Catholic world. The order of suppression was not carried out in non-Catholic Prussia and Russia. By 1814 the political climate had changed and petitions calling for the return of the Jesuits began to spread. On August 7, 1814 Pope Pius VII restored the Society of Jesus in the Church. Bishop Santos Marañon of Cebu asked for the return of the Jesuits, who came back to the Philippines in 1859. Mindanao then was part of the diocese of Cebu.

Centuries before modern technology made everything part of the global village, Spain was a world superpower. Her galleons and colonies were scattered throughout the known world, rivaling those of the Portuguese, English and French. The Spanish colonizers who arrived in the islands came in contact with the local population, who had the same Islamic religion as that of the Moroccans in North Africa, and so they were called Moros. It is likely that Tetuan in Zamboanga is named after Tetouan in Northern Morocco, just south of Gibraltar in Spain.

This opportunity and freedom to return to a mission area invites us to return to the spirituality taught in the Spiritual Exercises. In the words of Ignatius, this freedom in finding God gives us “the courage to regard no way to God as being the way, but rather to seek God in all ways,” thus inviting us to a “perpetual readiness to hear a new call from God to tasks (and obviously, to ways of prayer) other than those previously engaged in” (ISB).

The return of the Jesuits to mission work in the Philippines also reminds us of the Plenary Council of the Philippines in 1991, which noted the need for re-evangelization in the midst of all the ritualization and sacramentalization in the Church. It also noted the presence of aberrations in the practice of the faith due to the lack of formation. It called for renewal and social transformation.

On October 7-28 2012 the Synod of Bishops in Rome called on the need for a new evangelization. It was at this synod that Pope Benedict XVI announced the appointment of Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle to the College of Cardinals. Cardinal Chito was my classmate and ordination batch mate at the Loyola School of Theology 30 years ago.

Against this background of globalization and in the context of the Ateneo de Zamboanga’s centennial year, we also return to the words of Jesuit Superior General Fr. Adolfo Nicolas about the frontier of universality:

“A challenging frontier for Jesuit education is to be a more universal education in the Ignatian sense of breadth of belonging and wideness of concern and responsibility… The prestige that attaches to our schools, the fame of the ‘Jesuit brand’ of education may tempt us to make our schools a new but still narrow base for belonging, which we use to distinguish and separate ourselves from others” (CIJE).

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3. THE ARCHDIOCESE OF ZAMBOANGA

Many Sparks, One Fire. Many Stories, One History

As the Ateneo de Zamboanga celebrates its centennial year in 2012, we look back at the centuries-old ties linking Fort Pilar, the archdiocese of Zamboanga, the Society of Jesus and the Ateneo to the city of Zamboanga. The archdiocese of Zamboanga started with the coming of Jesuit missionaries who established visitas and capillas, followed by the construction of Fort Pilar in 1635. The local inhabitants began to gather in the village on the swampy land around the fort.

There were martyrs among the Jesuit missionaries in Mindanao in those early years. Fr. Francisco Paliola worked among the Subanons in Zamboanga del Norte and was killed on January 29, 1648. Fr. Juan del Campo was martyred in the Siukun (Siocon) area. Frs. Alejandro Lopez and Juan Montiel were killed at the Rio Grande in Cotabato on December 13, 1655.

Sometime after 1637, Fr. Francisco Lado established a mission at the northwest coast of Basilan and dedicated the island to St. Ignatius of Loyola. By 1654 there were 1,000 Christian families there. In 1862 Fr. Francisco Ceballos restarted a mission in Isabela, Basilan. The last Jesuit presence in Basilan was from 1930 to 1951, after which they turned over the prelature to the Claretians.

In 1768 the Jesuits were expelled from all Spanish domains. 154 Jesuits were expelled from the Philippines. The Augustinian Recoletos took over the missions and in 1816 founded the Immaculate Conception Parish of Zamboanga. In 1859 the Jesuits returned to the Philippines. They returned to Zamboanga after being away 94 years.

Two years later, they were back in Mindanao, in Tamontaca, Cotabato. In 1863 Fr. Ramon Barua established the first Jesuit parish in Tetuan (formerly Lama-Lama), Zamboanga. There was no convento for the Jesuits, so they temporarily stayed at the home of Balbino Natividad. The Ayala parish was established in 1871 and the Mercedes parish in 1891. In 1912 they started a parochial school at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral downtown, which later became the Ateneo de Zamboanga.

Noteworthy during the last half of the nineteenth century was the missionary work elsewhere in Mindanao of these Spanish Jesuits: Federico Faura, Saturnino Urios, Mateo Gisbert, Pablo Pastells, Francisco de Paula Sanchez, Jacinto Juanmarti and Jose Ignacio Guerrico.

After being part of the Cebu diocese in the past, Zamboanga became the first diocese of Mindanao on April 10, 1910. At that time the whole of Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago was the Moro Province from 1903 to 1913, and Zamboanga was its capital. It became an archdiocese on May 19, 1958.

Today Mindanao has five archdioceses, thirteen dioceses, two prelatures and one apostolic vicariate. The archdiocese of Zamboanga is a metropolitan see that includes the diocese of Ipil in Zamboanga Sibugay, the prelature of Basilan and the apostolic vicariate of the Sulu archipelago. In 2010 Zamboanga celebrated its centennial year as a diocese.

The following were the bishops assigned to Zamboanga: Michael James O'Doherty (1911-1916, then became archbishop of Manila), James Paul McCloskey (1917-1920), José Clos SJ (1920-1931), Luis del Rosario SJ (1933-1958). In 1958 the diocese became an archdiocese, and the following were the archbishops of Zamboanga: Luis del Rosario, SJ (1958-1966), Lino Gonzaga (1966-1973), Francisco Cruces (1973-1994), Carmelo Morelos (1994-2006), Romulo Valles (2007-2012).

We have a file on Bishop Jose Clos SJ from the Philippine Jesuit News. “Bishop Clos was the third bishop of Zamboanga. He was born on April 23, 1859 in the town of Perelada, in the Province of Gerona, Spain and entered the Society of Jesus when he was 19. After making his religious vows and receiving sacred orders, he was sent to the Philippine Islands. He was gifted with an ability for governing, so that he almost always exercised the office of Superior.

“He was Rector of the Ateneo de Manila from 1901-1905. After some time, during which he taught sacred theology in St. Francis Xavier Seminary, he was appointed Rector in 1910. At that time he was the Vice-Superior of the entire Mission when the Superior (Fr. Fidelis Mir) traveled to Spain for reasons of health.

“Fr. Clos was also not lacking in the gift of eloquence in speaking, for which reason none of the more solemn feasts could be celebrated without his saying a few words.

“In 1915, when he had moved on to the town of Zamboanga, he was made Superior of the residence and parish priest of the cathedral church, and also Ecclesiastical Administrator of the diocese until the new bishop James McCloskey arrived.

“After 5 years, Bishop McCloskey was transferred to the See of Jaro; and the Holy Father selected Fr. Clos for the See of Zamboanga. On 17 October 1920 he was consecrated bishop in the church of St. Ignatius by the Apostolic Delegate, Joseph Petrelli, with Bishops Alfredo Verzosa and James McCloskey assisting. Outstanding among the many things Bishop Clos accomplished was a college for children, constructed by him and maintained with great zeal.

“All things were ready for a pastoral visit to the Island of Mambajao. The announcement was sent out. The Bishop, accompanied by Bro. Novelles, was in the parish of Jagna town [Bohol Island] on 2 August. They were brought from the parish house to the shore by a car. Because time was short, the Bishop ordered the car to go faster. And then a tempest struck, and a tire burst. In the end, pressured by time, the boat set sail for the Island of Mambajao leaving behind the Bishop. What boat was in the port refused to make the trip to Mambajao; there was no other; and no means of sending a message.

“In the evening of that day a certain boat arrived; its captain, petitioned by many pleas, gave in to the Bishop. And finally, with full sails or full motor they set sail. The table was prepared and supper began, when the Bishop, lowering his head, all of a sudden gave up his spirit. It was August 2, 1931. The ship returned to the coast of Jagna town. The bishop’s body was laid in the church and, the following day, after it had been prepared with ointments, Bro. Novelles took care of transporting it to Zamboanga.

“The parish priest of the cathedral church, following the cross and accompanied by a great crowd of people together with the most prominent men and priests of the Diocese of Cebu in attendance, received the body into the city of Zamboanga.

“On 8 August the Archbishop of Manila said a pontifical Mass. Present were the Apostolic Delegate, Bishop McCloskey, the Superior of the Mission and many others from the Jesuit and secular clergy. The Apostolic Delegate concluded the ceremony by extolling with praise the illustrious life of the dead Bishop.

“On the same day, 8 August, funeral rites were solemnly celebrated in the town of Lipa; the same was done on 2 September in the Church of St. Ignatius in Manila.”

In 1933 Bishop Clos was succeeded by Bishop Luis del Rosario, who in March 1939 invited the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) to take over the work of some Jesuits in the missions of the Sulu Archipelago. In 1956 Fr. Jose Ma. Rosauro (the last Jesuit parish priest of Zamboanga) turned over the Immaculate Conception Cathedral to the Claretian Missionary Fathers, who in turn relinquished this to the diocesan clergy in 1979.

Today the Jesuits continue to serve the archdiocese and city of Zamboanga through the Ateneo de Zamboanga University. After turning over all their Zamboanga parishes in 1956, the Jesuits continued their parish work in the mission district of Zamboanga del Sur for five decades more.

The Jesuit presence in Zamboanga for over three centuries is evidenced by the names of some places: the San Ignacio Bridge at the crossing of the Gov. Camins–Canelar roads, the main Pasonanca road named after Fr. Eusebio Salvador and the street of the St. Ignatius Parish at Tetuan named after its founder Fr. Ramon Barua. Not to be forgotten is Fr. Melchor de Vera, the Jesuit who supervised the construction of Fort Pilar in 1635 and whose name is engraved in the plaque of the Phil. Historical Committee at Fort Pilar.

During the construction of the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in 1998–1999, all Masses were held at the gym of the Ateneo next door. No history of the archdiocese of Zamboanga is complete without including the indelible contribution of the Jesuit missionaries and the school they founded.

The Spanish Jesuits of the past catechized, baptized and celebrated the sacraments for the local population. The Society of Jesus in modern times proclaims its mission thus: “We discerned that the service of faith in Jesus Christ and the promotion of the justice of the Kingdom preached by him can best be achieved in the contemporary world if inculturation and dialogue become essential elements of our way of proceeding in mission… Thus the aim of our mission (the service of faith) and its integrating principle (faith directed toward the justice of the Kingdom) are dynamically related to the inculturated proclamation of the Gospel and dialogue with other religious traditions as integral dimensions of evangelization.”

Decree 2 of the General Congregation 35 of the Society of Jesus in 2008 is entitled “A Fire That Kindles Other Fires,” and the subtitle is “Many Sparks, One Fire. Many Stories, One History.” This aptly describes the apostolic work of the Jesuits in Mindanao and in the archdiocese of Zamboanga.

“The Society of Jesus has carried a flame for nearly five hundred years through innumerable social and cultural circumstances that have challenged it intensely to keep that flame alive and burning. Things are no different today. In a world that overwhelms people with a multiplicity of sensations, ideas, and images, the Society seeks to keep the fire of its original inspiration alive in a way that offers warmth and light to our contemporaries. It does this by telling a story that has stood the test of time, despite the imperfections of its members and even of the whole body, because of the continued goodness of God, who has never allowed the fire to die.”

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4. ARCHBISHOP LUIS V. DEL ROSARIO

The Good and Faithful Servant

Archbishop Luis del Rosario was born on September 24, 1886 in Binondo, Manila, one of the four children of Anacleto de Rosario and Valeriana Valdesco. His father was a teacher at the University of Sto. Tomas and owned a pharmacy called the Botica de San Fernando. Anacleto later became known as the Father of Laboratory Science.

Luis entered the seminary and earned his AB degree from the Ateneo de Manila in 1902. He proceeded to Spain and got his doctorate degrees in Theology and Canon Law from the Universidad Pontifica de Comillas in 1904 and was ordained a diocesan priest in Corban, Santander on December 17, 1910. On August 14, 1911 he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Gandia, Spain. After first vows at the age of 27, del Rosario became a professor of Canon Law and Moral Theology for the next 20 years.

From 1917 to 1933 he was also chaplain of the Philippine General Hospital. From 1921 to 1933 he was also chaplain of Bilibid Prison and the Correctional Institute for Women. For some years he was also assistant to the novice master. On March 16, 1933 he was made bishop of Zamboanga, Cotabato, Davao, Southern Lanao and the Sulu Archipelago. Twenty-five years later, in 1958, he was appointed the first archbishop of Zamboanga.

Archbishop Luis del Rosario is a record holder in the archdiocese of Zamboanga. He was its longest serving prelate, its first Filipino bishop and its first archbishop. Under his long administration from 1933 to 1966, he was able to invite other religious orders to come and work in his archdiocese: the PME Fathers to Davao, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate to Cotabato and Sulu, the Columbans and Claretians to Zamboanga.

He was a good pastor to his priests. He readily took over any parish that needed a substitute pastor. Jesuits were welcomed to make their retreats at his residence by the sea, located along scenic Cawa-Cawa Boulevard and next to the Phil. Constabulary compound. His chancellor Fr. Alfredo Paguia and Brother Elizardo Solis were his companions there for many years.

Once, a well-known American monsignor arrived to pay his respects. He rode in a car from the airport together with his welcoming committee. At that time there was a regulation prohibiting priests from riding in vehicles with women. He was met by the archbishop with a suspensio a divinis, a censure.

Archbishop del Rosario had a great devotion to the Holy Father. He chose St. Pius X as secondary patron of the archdiocese. He was one of the principal figures of the first Plenary Council of the Philippines in 1953. A decade later he was a member of Vatican II’s Pre-Conciliar Commission and did not miss a single session of that council.

In 1966, when he was eighty years old, he retired as archbishop and spent the last four years of his life at the Loyola House of Studies, Ateneo de Manila. He died on September 22, 1970, two days short of his 84th birthday and was buried at the Jesuit cemetery in Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC. During the centennial year of the archdiocese of Zamboanga in 2010, his remains were re-interred at the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Zamboanga on the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

It is noteworthy that Archbishop del Rosario had the same family name as that of Fr. Diego del Rosario, the missionary who established the first Christian mission in Recodo in 1585. The life and long service of Archbishop Luis del Rosario reminds us of the scripture text from Matthew 25:21: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

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5. FR. MANUEL M. SAURAS, SJ

Founder of the Ateneo de Zamboanga

After more than three hundred years under Spanish rule, the Philippines came under American rule at the turn of the last century. The Spanish missionaries who spread the Catholic faith throughout the islands were not affected by the political winds of change until a couple of decades later. They continued their parish and missionary work among the people.

The origins of the Ateneo de Zamboanga University can be traced to the Escuela Catolica, a parochial school established by Fr. Manuel M. Sauras in 1912 at the Immaculate Conception Church, whose parish priest was Fr. Miguel Saderna Mata. Most parochial schools start with a few classrooms and eventually grow into a major school or university. We can imagine the Ateneo also starting out this way.

Fr. Sauras was director of the school from 1912 to 1926. In 1916, the year before he became archbishop of Manila, Bishop Michael James O’Doherty, the first bishop of Zamboanga (1911-16) asked the Jesuits to open a school similar to the Ateneo de Manila in Zamboanga. Aside from an annual subsidy of P1000 and the use of the parish rectory, he offered one-fourth of the diocesan revenue and the financial support of the Catholic Action and other sources. Fr. Francisco X. Tena, the Jesuit mission superior accepted and the Escuela Catolica expanded and became the Ateneo Elementary School with seven grades.

Fr. Jose Arcilla, archivist of the Philippine Jesuits wrote, “The Ateneo would need a monthly budget of P155 for teachers’ salaries: 40 for a teacher of Spanish, 35 for a teacher of English, 10 for an assistant teacher. Where would the money come from? The men’s section of the Accion Catolica donated P15, its ladies’ section 10, the Jesuit mission superior another 10, a small amount from the yearly tuition fee of P4, the profits from benefit programs, and a share in the stole fees.”

The name of the Ateneo comes from the Greek athenaion or the Latin athenaeum, meaning a literary club, academy or institution for learning. We also remember Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom in Greek mythology. Since there is an existing 1936 school paper named The Athenean, is it possible that the original school name might have been Atheneo, which was hispanized into Ateneo?

The online dictionary.reverso.net translates the Italian word for “university” as ateneo. For the information of Ateneans everywhere, there is a four-star Ateneo Garden Palace Hotel in San Lorenzo, Rome and a Hotel Ateneo in Venice, Italy. The Ateneo Veneto di Scienze, Lettere e Arti, an institution for the promulgation of science, literature, art and culture (formed in 1812) is also located in Venice. There is a German-Italy University Centre or Ateneo Italo-Tedesco – Deutsch-Italienisches Hochschulzentrum listed on the Internet.

In 1928 some prominent Catholics in Zamboanga, among them S. Mendoza, editor of Voz del Pueblo; José Vicente Mapa, Justice of the Peace; JM García, manager of the local Bank of the Philippine Islands; J. Arquiaga, lawyer and editor of El Fenix; PS Rodríguez, director of the Zamboanga General Hospital; JS Álvarez, and Pablo Lorenzo, petitioned Fr. James Carlin, the first American Jesuit mission superior, to open a Catholic high school in Zamboanga, in response to the opening of the Silliman Institute, a Protestant school in Dumaguete.

The local Jesuit superior, Fr. Antonio Arnalot, recommended this and wrote that this would be “a great help to our missions to spread and keep religion among the natives, as well as to keep alive the mission spirit among our scholastics preparing them for the mission work to come…”

The Ateneo de Zamboanga high school opened in 1928 and classes were held across the street at the third floor of the Ateneo Building flanked on three sides by I. Magno, P. Reyes and Urdaneta (VM Orendain today) Streets. In the 1920s Americans began replacing the Spaniards in the Jesuit missions.

Committed to the educational ministry he began, Fr. Sauras was one of the last Spanish Jesuits to leave for Spain in 1926, where he spent the rest of his life. He died on February 14, 1949. Fr. Sauras probably never imagined that one hundred years after starting a modest parochial school attached to the Immaculate Conception Cathedral, the little school would grow into a major university in western Mindanao. Today the new 4-story Fr. Sauras Hall of the Ateneo de Zamboanga College of Law stands as a tribute to the vision and apostolic frontiers established by the Spanish Jesuit missionaries of the past, noteworthy among them Fr. Manuel M. Sauras.

___

6. THE PRE-WORLD WAR II ATENEO

Beginnings of Jesuit Education in Zamboanga

As soon as Fort Pilar was constructed, the Jesuit missionaries began classes in Spanish, religion, reading and arithmetic for children, as well as informal classes on Church doctrine for adults.

A 1734 map drawn by Fr. Pedro Murillo Velarde titled Samboangan shows the fort and its surroundings. The caption below it says, “1. Col. dela Comp. de JHS 2. Casa del Gov. 3. Pozo de Agua Dulce. 4. Almacenes. 5. Cuerpo de guardia. 6. Capilla. 7. Cuarteles. 8. Hospital.” The almacenes was the warehouse or ammunition magazine. Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 are inside the fort. The government house and hospital (Nos. 2 and 8) are inside a big compound in front of the fort, while the colegio (No. 1) is behind the government house. The 1637 classes and the 1734 map indicate the beginnings of Jesuit education in Zamboanga. In 1656 the Jesuit mission residence of Zamboanga had 17,004 Christians in thirteen towns, and in 1659 this residence became a colegio because of its stable income from some property.

Before World War II, the cathedral and the Ateneo occupied an entire block along Zaragoza Street. A 1930s picture taken from Plaza Pershing across shows the cathedral, its courtyard and the school from left to right. The plaza during Spanish times was known as the Plaza de Don Juan de Salcedo, the conquistador who fell in love with Gandarapa, niece of Lakandula and who died of malaria at the age of 27. During the American period it was renamed Plaza Pershing, after General John “Black Jack” Pershing.

Behind the cathedral and to the south was City Hall along Madrid Street (now N. Valderrosa Street, named after the first city mayor of Zamboanga) and to its northwest was I. Magno Street. Today this entire block is occupied by the Universidad de Zamboanga, the former Zamboanga A.E. Colleges. For many years ZAEC had a law school and produced many local lawyers. When this law school eventually closed and AdZU opened its College of Law last year, the Universidad de Zamboanga through its president Arturo Eustaquio III generously donated 391 law books to AdZU.

Jesuit records mention Fr. Francisco Agreda as a teacher of the episcopal Ateneo de Zamboanga in 1918. Fr. Jose Roma was a teacher of ethics in the hospital in 1925. Classes were conducted at a nearby wooden building but later transferred to the ground floor of the rectory.

In the 1920s American Jesuits from the Maryland-New York Province began replacing the Spanish Jesuits of the Aragon Province. Fr. Thomas Murray became parish priest. He was assisted by scholastic Anthony Keane. Jesuit files show Fr. John Monahan as the “moderator” of the parochial school of Zamboanga 1925-1926. Also listed was Fr. Jose Roma (1928-1930), who later died a martyr in Spain and is a candidate for beatification. He was succeeded by Frs. Thomas Murray (1930-34), John Gaerlan (1935), Jose Buxo (1936), Walter Hyland (1937) and Eusebio Salvador (1938-47).

The high school opened in 1928 and classes were held across the street at the third floor of the Ateneo Building along I. Magno corners P. Reyes and Urdaneta Streets. The building used to be the Mindanao Theater. One account says this was owned by the Knights of Columbus, another account says it was bought by Bishop Jose Clos for P8000, perhaps with funds from the K of C. There is a picture of this building on the cover. Still another account says that the Mindanao Theater was the site of the original Colegio del Pilar founded in 1894 by the RVM Sisters.

The grade school occupied the lower floors. A sign on the side of the building says “Zamboanga Hardware Co.” After the war, this became the site of the City Theater, which burned down in 1994. Its ruins remain boarded up to this day.

The January 1990 issue of the Philippine Clipper (SJ News) has a write-up by Fr. Pepe Arcilla describing the Ateneo de Zamboanga of the 1930s. “The high school classes were located on the top floor of a three-story office building, a converted moving picture theater. Five rooms and a large corridor gave not too great facilities for four classes, a Biology and Physics laboratory, and a library, office and convertible assembly hall. Five teachers and the Director made up the faculty. The Father Director taught religion in each of the four classes each day and took charge of the discipline and studies … was also responsible for this elementary school with its seven teachers.

“One reads not without nostalgia that every morning the high school students began with a visit to the cathedral adjoining the convento to pray and sing hymns. Sundays saw them attending the 7:00 o’clock Mass as a body, which on First Fridays all the students of the elementary and high school departments were obliged (!) to receive Holy Communion. This was perhaps necessary since the lay teachers were ‘not men of outstanding religious conviction,’ and the Jesuits did not admit boarding students.”

Some older RVM Sisters recall that Pilar College used to be next to Plaza Pershing decades before the war. An account says that the Mindanao Theater property was formerly the site of Colegio del Pilar. Pilar College celebrated its centennial in 1994, making it 18 years older than the Ateneo.

There was no campus, except for the big church courtyard for basketball games, which had open wooden bleachers on one side. Plaza Pershing across Zaragoza Street was convenient for various school activities. Here the Ateneo cadets practiced their drills and paraded amidst palm trees, well-tended gardens and lush vegetation. Students also held their widely-participated air derbies of toy airplanes here. Old timers say that flowers used to adorn many houses in the old Zamboanga, and fading pictures show us why it was the City of Flowers.

In 1932 the government gave official recognition to the high school, and the Ateneo produced its first graduates that year. A pre-war paper reported that Shirley Broad was a graduate of class 1934.

Pre-war graduate Paquito Dominguez, brother of Carlos Dominguez, confirmed that there were several Broad siblings at the Ateneo. “Shirley” may have been a misprint, because there is mention of a Shelly Broad who “joined the Navy and has long been with his parents in the Great Beyond” (Zbga. Times, July 16, 1983).

Until the 1980s, there used to be a Broad Building on the empty corner lot at the left of Shoppers’ Plaza. It was one of the oldest buildings in the city. The pre-war ground floor was the American Bazar, “which sold almost everything from nails and hammers to tires and pencils and stationery. Everything, except fried chicken and beer.” This building survived the 1945 bombing of the city and after the war it continued to have law offices and dental clinics on the second floor. The store became the Beauty Trading, selling clothing materials.

In 1938, a library was built on the first floor of the Ateneo Building downtown. A facade, an auditorium, and an annex were also built. John Shinn was headmaster of the Grade School and Fr. Francis Clark became principal and prefect of discipline of the high school.

War broke out in 1941. The Ateneo was used as a public school during the Japanese occupation. On March 8–9 1945 U.S. forces bombarded Zamboanga to drive away the estimated 8,900 Japanese troops. Two-thirds of the city was destroyed, including the Ateneo and the cathedral constructed in 1870. There is a picture of the tower of the fire department standing alone in the middle of a flattened wasteland. After the war, the Ateneo and the cathedral transferred to its present location along Bailen Street, which became La Purisima Street in 1954. Later we can read Fr. Eusebio Salvador’s personal account about the transfer and reconstruction of the Ateneo and the cathedral.

The educational apostolate of the Jesuits should be rooted in the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Understanding the Spiritual Exercises allows us to be guided by God’s spirit. “The Exercises invite us to encounter God through our everyday life, as Jesus showed us. We truly find God in ways that are not contrived, artificial and complicated, but in ways that are simple and realistic… In the midst of actions and studies, the mind can be lifted to God, and by means of this directing everything to the divine service, everything is prayer” (ISB).

The 1991 Second Plenary Council of the Philippines in their document on Catholic educational institutions said: "Many of the graduates of our schools do not seem to have sufficiently assimilated Christian values in such a way as to renew their Christian living... Many seem to look at Catholic education simply as a passport to better opportunities for earning a living, rather than as a grace to live better human and Christian lives, entailing a serious responsibility to build a better world..."

Fr. Adolfo Nicolas spoke on the theme of “frontiers” as part of Jesuit education today. “The first frontier is the frontier of depth. Depth is perhaps a better translation of Ignatian magis, which can too easily be understood as the ‘more’ of a competitive, consumerist culture. If we have more awards, higher rankings, more computers and sports facilities, more faculty members with advanced degrees, then we can too easily fool ourselves into thinking that we are living the magis.”

The competitive, consumerist culture is part of a flawed culture that nurtures selfishness and corruption. Others speak of a culture of impunity in a society where wrong-doing and injustice is tolerated or ignored. These are matters that happen not only outside the university.

“Ignatius was always concerned with depth. You have heard of his principle of ‘not many, but much,’ originally one of the annotations in the Spiritual Exercises, but often applied to Ignatian pedagogy as well... What really matters in the business of becoming human and Christian – is not many superficial bits of knowledge and information, but a deep understanding and appreciation of what is most important” (CIJE).

___

7. A GLIMPSE INTO THE PAST

The Ateneo During the American Commonwealth Period

The September 7, 1933 issue of La Antorcha, Zamboanga’s Spanish, Chabacano, English and Visayan multi-lingual newspaper on page 3 had a column titled “Bolts from the Blue” which announced:

“This is a new column which will be written exclusively for the English Section of the ANTORCHA. It will appear every Thursday and will carry to you some of the news that is current at the Ateneo de Zamboanga … Much praise has seeped into the listening ears of the Ateneans for the fine singing they have rendered at Mass. If you have not heard them then you should try to make home arrangements so that you can be in attendance at the 7 o’clock Mass on Sunday…”

La Antorcha (The Torch) of the 1930s located at 11-13 Calle Urdaneta, P.O. Box 18, Ciudad de Zamboanga had Antonio D. Quiñanola as Director and Administrator and Padre Joaquin Lim, SJ as Associate Editor. The paper’s Precios de Suscripcion: Un Año – P2.50, Seis Meses – 1.50.

Found among their files is a March 1936 glossy full page titled “The Athenean, A Resumè of 1935-36 School Activities,” containing four pictures in front and six pictures at the back. All pictures in those years are in black and white. The front page has individual pictures of three Jesuits: Frs. Juan E. Gaerlan, Luis G. Pacquing and John J. McKeaney. The fourth picture at the bottom is that of the Ateneo Building on I. Magno corners P. Reyes and Urdaneta Streets, taken from Plaza Pershing across the street.

On the back page are pictures of Zamboangueño Jesuit novices Francisco Atilano NSJ and Antonio Camins NSJ, taken at Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC. NSJ stands for Novice of the Society of Jesus or as some would say, “Not-yet SJ.” The other pictures are that of some bible symposium speakers, the main altar of the cathedral captioned “Center of Ateneo Activities, and two other pictures of catechists and the Sanctuary Society (mass servers).

A two-page spread of AdZ in 1938 shows two black-and-white pictures. The first one is captioned “A Well-trained Faculty” and is a group picture of four Jesuits and nine male teachers, all formally attired in their white coat and tie. The Jesuits in their white cassocks or sutanas from left to right are Frs. Jose Ma. Rosauro, Eusebio Salvador, Agustin Bello (?) and Francis Clark.

The second picture is captioned “A Well-equipped Laboratory” and shows five students and their teacher around a table with some laboratory equipment. Below the pictures is the following advertisement:

A GENUINE EDUCATION

Jesuit System

- The Ateneo follows the Jesuit System of Education.

- The Jesuit System has behind it a tradition of almost 400 years during which it has educated the youth of the best families in every part of the world.

- In the Jesuit System education is the full and harmonious development of all the powers of man – Mental, Moral and Physical.

Religion

- A Man cannot be moral without Religion.

- Religion alone can purify the heart, guide and strengthen the will.

- The Ateneo devotes a full period daily to Religious Instruction.

- Real religion and manly piety are fostered by frequent reception of Holy Communion, the Sodality of Our Lady, the Sanctuary Society, the rosary, teaching Catechism – in short, by CATHOLIC ACTION.

Studies

- The Ateneo de Zamboanga offers full government course with the addition of Religion and Spanish; at times, also Latin.

- The Ateneo stresses English, both in daily class and in frequent Elocution contests and Debates.

- An American Jesuit teaches English to High School classes.

- The Ateneo has a splendid set of textbooks. For a moderate rental fee, each boy has his own books for each subject.

Discipline

- The Ateneo bases its education squarely on the theory that DISCIPLINE is necessary.

- The Ateneo believes in direct supervision of the student in his studies and in the development of his character. This supervision allows room for healthy self-development; it directs, is not tyrannical; it is paternal, not oppressive.

- ATENEO DISCIPLINE provides sane safeguards against the many moral dangers to which young boys are exposed.

- The Ateneo pays very special attention to GOOD MANNERS and teaches reverence for Mother and Father. Further, it sees that students actually practice all these.

The headline of the Ateneo de Zamboanga page from the May 27, 1939 issue of La Antorcha announced, “ATENEO ADVANCES FOR 1939-40.”

There are three pictures on the page. There is a center picture titled “Ateneo Marches On!” of cadets marching in formation next to the cathedral downtown. On the lower left is the Ateneo High School at the former Mindanao Theater, seen from Plaza Pershing and surrounded by palm trees and thick vegetation. The caption above it says:

“Bigger…and…Better,” while the caption below says: “Drop around and see the new additions to the Ateneo Building. See the new stairs and stage, the new library with its many new books, the new classrooms. The building is ‘growing’ – bigger and better.” This picture is still extant.

On the lower right of the page is a panoramic view of the interior of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral next to the Ateneo, across Plaza Pershing, filled with Ateneans in their Sunday best. The left column of the page is titled, “Auditorium and Stage Under Construction.”

It says, “Pass by the Ateneo Building any day now, and you will see construction work going on steadily. Out behind the school, in the once empty space, a big addition is being made – new stairways, a new stage, a new azotea… The new stage is likewise being constructed outside the building… All this construction was begun several weeks ago under the planning and supervision of Rev. Fr. Salvador SJ, Director.”

The right column is headlined: “Two New Jesuits Join Ateneo Faculty.” It reads: “The Ateneo de Zamboanga begins the school year 1939 – 40 with the largest Jesuit Faculty in its history. Up to now there has never been more than one Scholastic teaching; now there will be three. For Fr. Benedicto Savillo SJ and Fr. Ralph Gehring SJ have recently arrived from Manila to be our new Professors … The complete Faculty follows: Rev. Fr. Eusebio G. Salvador SJ, MA, Director. Rev. Fr. Agustin M. Bello, SJ, MA, Student Counselor–Prof. of Religion. Fr. Francis X. Clark, SJ, MA, Asst. Director and Dean–Prof. of English. Fr. Ralph Gehring, SJ, MA, Prof. of English. Fr. Benedicto Savillo, SJ, MA, Prof. of Economics, History. Mr. Jacinto Sta. Teresa BSE, Major in History, Commandant of Cadet Corps. Mr. Jose Dimaano, BSE, Major in Sciences.”

In 1939 the Ateneo High School (always described as “The School for Boys” in all signs before and after the war) was only eleven years old, with a small student population made up of all boys, thus explaining the small number of the all-male faculty.

Below the center picture and sandwiched between the two lower pictures is an ad announcing: “Here’s the School! …that wins the confidence of students and parents alike by its personal interest in the boys …that makes Religion and Character and Good Citizenship really important in the true, solid, Catholic way …that offers one of the finest English courses in the Islands; classes, debates, elocution contests and school paper …that offers a complete set of textbooks, second to none in the Philippines, for a moderate rental fee …that has the lowest possible rate of tuition and fees for a school of its standard.”

This is what the original ad announced:

ATENEO DE ZAMBOANGA OFFERS

General Four Year High School Course

Primary and Intermediate Grade School Courses

Fees and Expenses – High School Department

Tuition, Physical Instruction, Military Training per month . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P 4.00

(Tuition may be paid in one sum – P 20 per semester – or in monthly installments of 4.00 each,
due during the first week of each month).

Athletic fee for entire school year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P 1.00

Library fee for entire school year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P 1.00

Grade School Department

Intermediate grades: For tuition, Physical Instruction, Boy Scout Training, Musical Instruction,
Library – per month . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P 1.70
Athletic fee for entire school year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P 1.00

Primary grades: For tuition, Physical Instruction, Cub Scout Training, Musical Instruction,
Library – per month . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P 1.00

(There is no entrance fee and no laboratory fee in this school. Special 10% reduction to brothers.)

Classes Begin on June 5th, 1939, Registration June 1st, 2nd, 3rd.

Be Sure to Register Early. (For further information address –

Rev. Director, Ateneo de Zamboanga, P.O. Box 153, Zamboanga City)

The Professionals’ Directory of La Antorcha dated August 5, 1939 listed the law offices of Jose T. Atilano and Catis & Fernando; Agrimensor: Romualdo Añover; Dentistry Clinics: Dr. Q. Santos de Dios, Dr. Paulino Alvarez, Dr. BH Galvez. Dr. L. Bugarin Silos’ advertisement says Medicina y Girugia General, Consulta gratis a los pobres.

The following are some of the 1939 ads placed in La Antorcha: Liberty Sanitary Barber Shop, De-Luxe Coffee & Refreshment, Agencia de Empeños de Ho Chee Tong & Company, Mituwa Café, Manila Bazar, Star Garage, Favorite Kitchen, Polar Café, Popular Bazaar, Asahi Bazar, City Drug Store, Mindanao Logging Company, Yamato Bazar and Commonwealth Soft Drinks.

Seen among these pre-war pages are a couple of advertisements announcing the coming of Sheum Circus, a Chinese traveling show. Up to the late 1950s or early 60s this circus was still coming to Zamboanga with its elephants, tigers and trapeze acts. The circus used to be held at the Zamboanga AE Colleges gym behind City Hall, near the wharf.

The Ateneo page dated March 16, 1940 is headlined “GRADUATION TOMORROW. L. de la Cruz High School Valedictorian, M. Enriquez Salutatorian; J. Trota Valedictorian in Grade School, J. Fermin Salutatorian. Dr. F. Medalle Guest Speaker. R. Gonzales and B. Rodriguez to deliver Class Orations.”

On the lower left column Radio Station AdZ reports: “What a week of worry was this last week! Exams and more exams. But it’s all over now. The Graduates had their pictures taken, have their ‘graduation suit’ ready – tomorrow will be the day of graduation. But to prepare in a more important way – spiritually – they have been making a retreat. The High School made theirs under the leadership of Fr. Salvador; Fr. Savillo gave the talks to the Seventh Graders…

“Ladies and Gentlemen, we are almost on the brink of the school year’s end. Tomorrow graduation, then vacation – and we’re gone. But we hope to meet you again next year, vigorous and ready to serve!”

Back then nobody realized the world was at the brink of war. War broke out in 1941 and Japan invaded the Philippines. Zamboanga was liberated from the Japanese occupation troops in March, 1945. The city was bombed and most buildings in the city were destroyed, including the cathedral and the Ateneo.

The 65-yer-old commencement issue of the Beacon yearbook is very slim and is only 29 pages. Page 2 has a list of Jesuit priests led by the bishop of Zamboanga, Most Rev. Aloysius del Rosario. Heading the list of patrons is Mayor Vicente R. Suarez. Below the list are pictures of Jesus P. Delgado, Valedictorian; Bienvenido Apostol, Salutatorian and Jose Fermin, Jr., Honorable Mention.

Page 3 is dedicated to Fr. Eusebio G. Salvador, SJ, Vicar General and former director of the Ateneo. Beneath his picture is written: “With a deep sense of filial reverence and gratitude, the Graduates humbly dedicate this first post-war Commencement Issue of THE BEACON to Rev. Fr. Eusebio G. Salvador, SJ. Before the war he raised the Ateneo to a high level of attainment. During the war he preserved the traditions and spirit of the Ateneo. After the war, although surrounded by the dust and rubble of ruin, he laid down the foundation of the new Ateneo and in a relatively short period raised it to a place of eminence again in Zamboanga City…”

Page 4 is dedicated to Fr. Andrew Cervini, SJ, the school director. His picture shows him in the military uniform of a chaplain of the US Army. Page 5 has pictures of Frs. Kyran B. Egan, Jose Ma. Rosauro and Cesar E. Maravilla. Many years later I heard a story about Fr. Egan being the brother of 1950s Hollywood actor Richard Egan.

Page 6 has a faculty group picture of eleven male teachers and five Jesuit priests. Below it is a picture of the Beacon staff headed by Jesus Delgado, who was class valedictorian that year. His editorial about the Class of 1947 reads:

“The Ateneo de Zamboanga is known far and wide throughout the Philippines. In its pre-war days it was one of the glories of Zamboanga City. The war leveled the school buildings to the ground. But the spirit of the Ateneo did not die. With the signing of peace, that spirit rose again in the new, humble building that now graces Bailen Street.

“Due to the far-reaching far-sightedness of Fr. Salvador SJ, the former Director, and the untiring efforts of our new Dean, Rev. Fr. Egan SJ, the spirit of the Ateneo grew strong in its humble surroundings. Buildings may differ but the spirit that is nurtured within the walls of the building is always the same.

“So the Class of 1947 has gone through the past year tackling the same courses, partaking in the same activities, and eagerly devoting its time to the same projects that the classes of pre-war days could boast of. The Ateneo Cadet Corps was reorganized under the excellent leadership of our honored veteran, Capt. Jose Cabato. It was he who also took over the training of our athletes and the formation of the Intramural Leagues. Once again THE BEACON, the school’s official organ, made its appearance through the efforts of the Class of 1947.

“Came Rev. Fr. Maravilla SJ to our Faculty Staff and almost overnight the Sodality of Our Blessed Mother, the Sanctuary Section, the Knights of the Blessed Sacrament, the Ateneo Catechetical Instruction League with the leaders chosen from the Class of 1947 took up where Ateneans of pre-war days had left off.

“War had destroyed the Ateneo building but it could not destroy the Ateneo spirit. And so the first post-war class of Ateneans, the Class of 1947, leaves the halls of their famous Alma Mater, imbued with the same Atenean spirit of old – the spirit to live always as true citizens of their country and of their God.”

In 1969, many years and many kilos later, Chu Delgado gave me my first job after college at the Philamlife Insurance Company. I will always be grateful to him.

Page 15 contains a memorial page dedicated to Ricardo Abello of 1-B, who died on February 24, 1947. Page 16 has two class pictures of the fourth year and third year class of one section each. Page 17 and 18 has class pictures of the second year and first year classes of two sections each, followed by the grade five and grade six class pictures of only one section each. All class pictures were taken with their classrooms made of sawali in the background. In summary, the Ateneo de Zamboanga in 1947 consisted of six classes in high school and two classes in grade school, or a total of eight classes.

Pages 20 to 25 has pictures of the Sanctuary Committee, Grand Knights of the Blessed Sacrament, ACIL, Battalion Staff of the AdZ Cadet Corps, Basketball Varsity and Choral Club.

The last two pages contained these advertisements: Drs. Nemesia G. Barrios, Aurea A. Suarez, EB Gatchalian; Bejerano’s Ice Drop, Gent’s Tailor, Tack’s Department Store, Victory Restaurant, New Boston Ice Cream, City Studio, Farmacia Yu, Eskimo Ice Cream Parlor, Universal Pharmacy, Farmacia San Luis, City Drug Store, Carmar Drug Store.

The typewritten graduation invitation of that year reads:

The Faculty and the Graduating

Class of 1947

THE ATENEO DE ZAMBOANGA

Request the pleasure of your presence

THE COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES

to be held

Sunday April 20, 1947 9 a.m.

The People’s Theatre

P R O G R A M

High Mass ( in the Cathedral ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . at 7:00 a.m.

Processional . . . . . . . . . . . The Faculty and the Graduating Classes

Chorus . . . . . . . . Welcome . . . . . . . . . . Grade School Graduates
Grade School Valedictory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Luis Escudero

Chorus . . . . . . . . . Sons of Ateneo . . . . . . . High School Graduates

High School Valedictory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jesus P. Delgado
Vocal Solo . . . . . . . . Ave Maria . . . . . . . . . Ignacio Macrohon, Jr.

COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS . . . . . . . . . . Hon. Jose T. Atilano

Chorus . . . . . . . . Alma Mater . . . . . . . . Grade School Graduates

Conferring of Diplomas and Awards . Rev. Fr.Andrew Cervini, S.J.

Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rev. Fr. Director

Chorus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Graduates

Recessional

People’s Theatre was located at the corner of Mayor Climaco Ave. and P. Brillantes Streets, the present site of the Oro Megaworld Drugstore. It was a wooden 2-story building with squeaky rattan chairs and had thick dusty canvas drapes to keep out the light. We watched many black-and-white movies there during the 1950s or enjoyed the 10 centavo halo-halo of crushed ice, milk and mongo downstairs. I got my first haircuts of 50 centavos at the People’s Barber Shop on the ground floor.

A few rare Ateneo alumni from the pre-war years are still alive. They have memories from those days and they have stories to tell us. We also have historical files from the past, which are a kind of time machine that enables us to travel back and get a glimpse of life as it was then. We relive the experiences of those who lived long before us. Someday our descendants will also be reading about us.

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8. THE POST-WAR ATENEO DE ZAMBOANGA

In 1940 Fr. Eusebio Salvador acquired some property totaling 18 lots from a Mr. Reading on the outskirts of the poblacion, located along Bailen Street. Bailen became La Purisima Street on June 12, 1954 under RA 1002. The place was then known as the Jardin de Chino y Camino Nuevo, source of most of the city's vegetables. Picture this by going to Nuñez Extension today and looking at the vegetable fields and the white herons there. More land was added in 1947.

When the war ended in 1945, the RVM sisters of Pilar College were given permission to temporarily use the new grounds. They put up a structure of sawali and nipa on campus and held classes here for a year before moving out to their Cawa-Cawa Boulevard site.

A little background information from Fr. Jose Arcilla about the post-war AdZ. “On 13 February 1946, Bishop Luis del Rosario wrote the mission superior urging the reopening of the Ateneo de Zamboanga. Against the doubts expressed by some in such a ‘town with so little future,’ the bishop pointed out the future was ‘not so dark as one may believe.’ Both the former students and the people eagerly awaited the return of the Jesuits. The school, he concluded, could counteract possible Protestant activities. The Episcopalians were reestablishing their Brent Hospital and two schools, their bishop even asking Bishop del Rosario to lease them the former site of the Catholic bishop’s residence, besides trying to purchase the grounds of Pilar College. ‘We see from this, a dangerous menace,’ the letter warned.

“Fr. Leo Cullum, the mission superior, was convinced. He sent Fr. Kyran Egan to direct the reopening of the Ateneo in July 1946. Enrollment figures read: 49 in the 5th and 6th grades, and 267 in all the four years of high school. The faculty was composed of Frs. Salvador (director), Egan, Francis Rello, Jose Ma. Rosauro, Cesar Maravilla (arrived in August), and 7 lay teachers. Living conditions were still not the best, textbooks were not enough. On the other hand, the community enjoyed excellent health, the Fathers went out on Sundays for priestly work, Fr. Maravilla directed the students’ catechetical work in the public schools.”

The Ateneo high school reopened classes in 1946 and Fr. Andrew Cervini became director of the school on February 9, 1947. Fr. Jose Ma. Rosauro became parish priest of the cathedral next door but continued to teach at the Ateneo. He was parish priest until 1956.

The November 1946 issue of the Beacon paper is dedicated to the Ateneans who died during World War II. The front page reads, “To the memory of our beloved Ateneans who fell in the night for love of God and Country; whose death by forced labor, by massacre, on the battlefield, in the Death March of Bataan, in the concentration camps, in the siege of towns, in the torture chamber, in the inferno of Fort Santiago – we deeply mourn; whose gallantry and bravery we strive to emulate, this issue of THE BEACON we proudly dedicate.” Prominent among them were Jose Giron – educator, Fermin Fernando – athlete, Ramon Catis – scholar, Jose Suico – Tenor.

Page 2 has an article titled, “Requiem Mass Offered for Ateneo War Dead.” It reads, “Ateneo remembered her beloved dead on Nov 8th. On that day a military requiem Mass was offered by the cadets and scouts for the repose of Ateneo’s sons who died during the war. Fr. Egan was celebrant. Among those assisting at the Mass were relatives and friends of the deceased, including Attys. Jose Atilano, Pascual Atilano, Roseller Lim, Felix Catis, Mr. and Mrs. Pantaleon Baños, Bienvenido Macrohon and Ramon Camins.

“After the Mass an impressive ceremony took place. In front of the flagpole lay a flag-draped catafalque. On top of this Rev. Fr. Salvador placed a blue and white shield, on which the names of the dead were lettered. Around the shield he placed a gorgeous wreath, the flowers for which had been contributed by the students. Then Fr. Salvador explained the ceremony and in a moving eulogy stressed the idea that love for the dead does not end at the grave but rather extends to the realm of eternity. ‘No greater gift can a man give for his friends than life itself,’ he concluded.

“After the speech, Cadet Bugler Enrique Canilang sounded taps as the cadets and scouts saluted the flag for which their fellow Ateneans had died. The ceremony was truly inspiring.”

The January 1947 issue of the Beacon has three news items worth reprinting here. The first is a reminder of the 1930s pictures taken at Plaza Pershing. “AIR DERBY OPENS. The annual Ateneo Air Derby is going to be held on February 8. It has been the tradition of the Ateneo to hold this Air Derby annually. There will be four contests: the record flight, model airplane contest, placard contest, and the best airplane name contest.

“The rules for the record flight contest are: 1. The plane must be made by the student himself. 2. Wing span must not be over 20 inches long. 3. Rubber bands must furnish the motive power. The rules for the model airplane contest are: 1. Model must be homemade. Power is not necessary for this class. 2. Wing span should not exceed 24 inches …

“The Mayon Cup, copped by Antonio Lledo, last Air Derby winner, was lost when the former Ateneo building was bombed. The official Ateneo record of 5 min. and 29 sec. is held by a present Ateneo professor, Mr. Roberto Navarro. So better get ready with your Mustangs and Lightnings, and set up a new record for this Atomic Age!”

The other item from the January 1947 Beacon reads, “MORE EQUIPMENT ARRIVES. Hurrah! More equipment has arrived direct from the States. Included are the following: laboratory apparatus and supplies, Religion, Science and English textbooks, reference works – including the Encyclopedia Britannica (Revised Edition, 24 vols. 1944), Compton’s Pictured Encyclopedia (14 vols. 1937, The Book of Knowledge (The Grolier Society, 20 vols. 1944), The New Century Dictionary (2 vols. 1944), Webster’s Biographical Dictionary (1943), and Barlett’s Familiar Quotations (1946). Also, a Society for Visual Education Tri-Purpose Projector to be used with single and double frames, and 2x2 Kodachrome slides. The projector was used for the first time during the program to honor the Holy Father on January 18th, when slide films picturing the life of His Holiness Pope Pius XII were flashed upon the silver screen.”

Page 3 reports, “New Courts Nearing Completion. Remember how the area east of the tennis courts looked last October? At that time it was a maze of shattered coconut trees lying helter-skelter in muddy bomb craters. Now look at it! You will see three all-weather, senior basketball courts nearing completion. What a contrast!

“Supervised by the City Engineer and Fr. Salvador, the work on the court began when a bull-dozer and a road-grader leveled the ground. Then a six-inch layer of stones, taken from the sea shore at Calarian (where the 41st Division had landed) was set in place. Over this, gravel and sand from the bank of Tugbungan River was spread. Next step was the pressing down process by a puffing, eleven-ton road roller. Finally, a thorough double surfacing of asphalt and blue-stone was poured steaming-hot over the area, which was then firmly compressed by a hand-drawn concrete roller. The courts will help the students attain one of the objectives of an Ateneo education, namely, physical sturdiness and sportsmanship.”

Fast forward two years later to page 62 of the 1949 Beacon yearbook, which gives us a timeline of the Ateneo reconstruction after the war.

July 1946 – Reopening of complete high school and intermediate classes in sawali building on former parade

grounds on Bailen Street.

September 1947 – Purchase of one and a half hectares adjoining Bailen Street property.

August 1948 – Rev. Fr. Merlin A. Thibault SJ arrives to plan and supervise construction of the new Ateneo.

September – Campaign for Reconstruction of Ateneo begins in Zamboanga City. First posts arrive from

Vitali.

Movie Benefit: “Green Years.”

October 28 – Plans for new Ateneo fully approved by Very Reverend Father General.

November 11 – Breaking of ground for piers of new building.

December 1 – Raising of first post.

December 3 – Blessing of cornerstone.

January, 1949 – Movie Benefit: “Going My Way.”

March 1949 – Partial removal of old building.

March 28 – Seniors hold first class in new building.

March 30 – First shipment of material for Gym-Auditorium arrives.

In 1947 some additional land along Camino Nuevo Street was added to the Ateneo property, which now totaled 4.3 hectares. In 1949 a three-story wooden main building was constructed, at that time one of the most imposing buildings in the city. The first classes held here was on March 28, 1949.

The next year the gym was finished, with classrooms under its bleachers. It still stands as of 2012. Meanwhile, the back field continued to produce vegetables for sometime. Today this field easily turns into a temporary and scenic lagoon after a heavy rain, especially since the level of the surrounding streets has risen through the years.

An old picture shows that back then the Ateneo had a white picket fence. Most of these post-war pictures were taken by City Studio or Victory Studio. In the 1953 Beacon yearbook there is a group picture of 16 Filipino, American, Spanish and Chinese Jesuits taken at Fort Pilar. They all looked spic and span in their white sutanas. The group is composed of seven priests, eight scholastics and one brother. It looks like a picture of the AdZ Jesuits with visiting Jesuits from elsewhere.

Juanito Chiong, Senior 4-A wrote in the 1950 Beacon: “July 1946 and July 1950: What changes have taken place during this four-year period of time! Our school building then was for three years a temporary structure of sawali and nipa. In its place now rises the imposing Greek façade of the palatial three story edifice, while next door to it stands the superb gym-auditorium that we, in a small measure, helped to build. The gangling youths that squeezed into the rickety 1-A classroom four years ago have kept apace with all this progress. They have gained stature not only physically but as scholars, as leaders, as pacemakers…

“To the Jesuit Fathers and our lay professors, we offer a prayer of thanks for the practical wisdom and Catholic ideals imparted to us. Under the banner of Christ the King and the protection of Our Lady and fortified with the benefits of a Catholic education, we sally forth to broader fields of conquest for the glory of God, for the good of our country and for our own happiness. The Ateneo will always be dear to us. May we always remain true and loyal to her!”

Juanito spent many years of his life as a professor in English literature at his beloved alma mater. He became the first layman to be dean of college in 1973. After retiring from teaching, he spent many years as a professor emeritus of AdZ. In 1990 Juanito received an award as Most Outstanding Alumnus of AdZ.

In 1949 the Ateneo became independent of the Jesuit mission in Zamboanga, separating itself from the Immaculate Conception Cathedral. Fr. Alfredo Paguia became its first rector on June 16, 1949. Fr. Luis Torralba became the prefect of studies in 1950.

The following Jesuits joined the AdZ community in 1949: Fr. Merlin Thibault and scholastic-regents Eduardo Hontiveros and Lucio Codilla. In 1950 regents Robert Fitzpatrick and Antonio Ulgado also came to AdZ. In 1951 the other Jesuits at AdZ were Frs. Kyran Egan, James Burke and Edgar Martin.

In 1952 a two-year college program began, offering Pre-Law and Associate in Arts. In 1956 the college and high school became separate departments. Fr. Agathonico Montero was the first dean of college, while Fr. Manuel Regalado was high school principal.

In 1952 regents Ernesto Carretero, Oscar Millar and John Dahlheimer were assigned to AdZ. The 1958 Jesuits of AdZ were Frs. Abathonico Montero, Manuel Regalado, Frederic Kelly, Paul Sheehan, Manuel Gopengco, Angel Hidalgo, William Hayes and Charles Wolf. The regents were Carmelo Gosioco, Jorge Hofileña, Earle Markey, James Meehan and Alfredo Parpan. Regents Pio de Castro, Francisco Perez and Jesus Ramos joined the AdZ Jesuits in 1959.

The 1961 Jesuits of Adz were Frs. Vincent McNally, Anthony Schouten, John Moran, Rizalino Pascua, Eusebio Salvador, Thomas Connolly, Manuel Gopengco, Leo McGovern, Robert Fitzpatrick, Angel Hidalgo, Charles McKenny and Jose Matan. The regents included Ramon Enojado and Joseph McCarthy, long remembered for his movie star looks.

The practice in those days was to address the regents as “Father.” How can we tell the priests apart from the scholastic/regents, since all Jesuits then wore their white cassocks all the time? Aside from their older faces, the priests in the yearbooks had the caption “Reverend Father,” while the regents’ pictures were captioned “Father.” Today all unordained regents are called “brother.”

After Fr. Paguia, the other AdZ rectors were Frs. Paul Hugendobler (1953-59), Manuel Regalado (1959-62), Antonio Cuna (1962-65), Vincent McNally (1965-69), Ramon Mores (1969-71), Asterio Katigbak (1971-77), Ramon Mores (1977-83) and Benjamin Sim (1983-89).

The Jesuit college deans after Fr. Montero were Frs. Rizalino Pascua (1960-62), Robert Fitzpatrick (1962-65), Vincent McNally (1965-69), Jose Bacatan (1985-88) and Robert Bomeisl (1988-89). Fr. Ernesto Carretero was dean 1969-72 and became acting president in 1977.

Students from the 1960s remember the Jesuit urban legends like Fr. Tony Cuna and his Glee Club or Fr. Charlie Duffy and his favorite may pinagsamahan bottle. Some still remember the VW Beetle that tried to become a submarine at the Sinunuc-Caragasan seashore. What about altitude-challenged Fr. Jose Matan, who could face down anyone much taller anytime or anywhere, so long as a chair was around for him to stand on. Fr. Ben Carlos from the early 1970s is remembered for his Days with the Lord seminars of BIL guys (Basta Ikaw Lord) and BTL ladies (Born to Love). Who can forget the self-professed sinners sobbing away inside the dark “disco-chapel?” Fr. Johnny Sanz of the 1960s-1970s will always be remembered for his smiling face and childhood playmate Imelda Marcos. What about Fr. Agustin Bello’s baston and the Nursing students? Everybody’s friend was Fr. Frank Dolan, despite his ever-present smelly cigar and hard-sell vocations promotion. Aging foodies will remember Fr. Ramon Katigbak’s bottles of tasty home-made Spes Products.

Until the 1970s, there was no formal distinction between the Jesuits and the Ateneos they operated. The rector of the Jesuit community was appointed by the Provincial Superior and he was also the head of the school. The treasurer of the Jesuit community was also the treasurer of the school. The 1963 Beacon yearbook has a picture of Fr. Antonio Cuna as the new rector and president of AdZ. In 1977 Fr. Asterio Katigbak was both rector and president.

In the 1970s efforts were made to professionalize the operation of the schools and other Jesuit institutions. Following the set-up of the corporate world, the Jesuits as incorporators established a Board of Trustees composed of lay people and Jesuits to run the school. The administration and finances of the school became separate from that of the Jesuit community. Here at the Ateneo de Zamboanga Fr. Ernesto Carretero became the first BOT-elected president in 1979.

The Beacon paper of March 1979 was headlined “Beacon Ed to Lead 270 Graduates.” Leopoldo Huang was the Beacon editor and valedictorian of AdZ’s 26th commencement exercises. It also announced the election of Fr. Ernesto Carretero as president, “Trustees Elect School President.” It also reported that YCAP director and former Asst. Dean of Student Affairs Randolph Lumabao “will join the Society of Jesus this coming May 30. He was a former Beacon editor-in-chief. He is one of the few Zamboangueños who have decided to heed God’s call.” Randy’s late father Ramon was an AdZ professor and friend of Archbishop del Rosario and who was also lawyer of the archdiocese and the Ateneo. Today Fr. Randy is the superior of the Jesuits of the Bukidnon mission district at Malaybalay, Bukidnon.

Former rector Fr. Ramon Mores joked that Fr. Carretero set up the first Board of Trustees in 1979 so they could officially elect him president. Fr. Mores was the vocations director when I applied to the Society of Jesus in 1971. At that time he was the first director of the Arvisu Pre-Novitiate House. 84-year-old Fr. Mores came from Cebu and 89-year-old Fr. Carretero came all the way from Bicol to attend the launching of the Centennial Year.

Many years ago Fr. Ernie became ill and had to go through a catheterization procedure, so we started calling him Fr. Cathetero. At another time I asked him why his hair turned white overnight. His answer was, “I stopped dyeing my hair.”

In 1989 Fr. William Kreutz became president of AdZ. It was during his term that the Ateneo became a university in 2001. In 2007 Fr. Antonio Moreno succeeded Fr. Kreutz. Frs. Carretero and Moreno were scholastic-regents assigned here who later returned and became pesidents of the school.

No story about AdZU’s presidents is complete without mentioning Rose dela Rima, another “good and faithful servant” who was secretary to three presidents from 1979 to 2012, a total of 33 years, equaling the service record of Archbishop Luis del Rosario.

The high school principals after Fr. Regalado were Frs. Eusebio Salvador (1960-64), Asterio Katigbak (1964-69) and Francis Dolan (1969-71). In 1971 Benito Deles became the first non-Jesuit principal. Fr. Raymond Miller replaced him in 1981. He was succeeded by Oscar Carzada, who was high school principal 1989-2007. He was replaced by Rosie Hong, the first female principal of the high school. Janet Fernandez was high school principal 2010-2012. At present Pilar Agraviador is the principal of the grade school.

Other AdZU officials at present are Rebecca Fernandez, academic vice-president; Bro. Raymund Belleza, assistant to the president for administration and finance; Fr. Wilfredo Samson, assistant to the president for formation; Fr. Albert Alejo, assistant to the president for social development.

In the Philippines and many parts of the world, the main apostolate of the Jesuits today is in the field of education. Fr. Adolfo Nicolas shares with us his comments about Jesuit education:

“How deeply do we respond to our students’ needs? How deeply do we help them see? How deeply do we help them think? How deeply do we form their inner persons, their commitments and convictions, their faith and their strength? In the end, the test of whether our education is one of depth, is whether we are able to produce people who can decide from inside – people of discernment. More and more, people are making choices not from the inner realm of faith, conscience, values, truth, but from the seductive voices coming from the outside, of gain, profit, public opinion, convenience and fashion” (CIJE).

Ateneo or Jesuit education is supposed to be based on Ignatian spirituality. “St. Ignatius in the Spiritual Exercises wrote about the need for discernment in making important choices. Ignatius taught us to be aware of the presence of conflicting spirits in our lives. To pray is to silence ourselves and learn from the wisdom of God, and to discern is to seek God’s will by sorting out what is from God and what is not. Prayer and discernment go together. Their authenticity is seen in the fruits that follow. Our actions speak louder than our words and thoughts.

“In one of the most important themes of the Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius presented the theme of Two Standards: the world with all its attraction of wealth, honor and pride; and the opposite values of Jesus and his call to spiritual poverty and humble service under the banner of the cross” (ISB).

When all is said and done, what is the sponsoring thought of our university? What is the institutional soul of the Ateneo? What spirit, attitude or orientation motivates us? What are our highest aspirations or deepest dreams? What values are operative in our daily lives? What do our lifestyle or day-to-day culture on campus and outside the campus tell us about ourselves? What graduates do we produce, and what kind of citizens do we become?

Paraphrasing Fr. General in his comments about Jesuit education, it would be the height of irony if Ateneans, instead of following St. Ignatius and Jesus Christ in humbly serving others, are driven by hubris or lulled by abstract motherhood statements. This is what St. Ignatius called “overweening pride” in the Spiritual Exercises.

Atenean and Philippine Star columnist William Esposo has pointed out the different between blue eagles and blue vultures in a couple of his columns. I have written about the presence of real Ateneans (in spirit, word and deed) and fake Ateneans (loud and showy) among our students, faculty and alumni.

Inspired by the example of the greatest teacher of all, we hopefully remember the words of Jesus, “I did not come to be served but to serve.” For the true Atenean, this is what magis means, and this is what Pro Deo et Patria is all about – a life of humble service to others, following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, the Man for Others.

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9. SENATOR ROSELLER T. LIM

The Great Filibuster

Roseller T. Lim was born February 9, 1915 in Recodo, Zamboanga City. His parents were Antonio G. Lim and Mercedes Robinson-Tarroza. His uncle Luis G. Lim was the first appointed civilian governor of Zamboanga in 1914–1917. His great-grandfather came from Amoy, Fujian Province, China. He was married to Amy Schuck of Jolo. Former Vice-Mayor Roberto Lim is his brother and Councilor Rudy Lim is his nephew. He was the cousin of the late historian, nationalist and author Hilario A. Lim, a former Jesuit who was ordained in March, 1947.

Roseller Lim was a product of the Jovellar Elementary School, located where the former Zultana Hotel at the Doña Vicenta Building was, at the junction of Gov. Lim, P. Lorenzo and Pilar Streets, across from today’s Shopper’s Central. The pre-war Jovellar Street started at this junction and went all the way to the Zamboanga General Hospital, today the Zamboanga Regional Hospital. Lim then enrolled at the new Ateneo de Zamboanga High School and graduated as valedictorian of its pioneering class in 1932. He got his law degree from Siliman University, Dumaguete City in 1940.

Lim's career in public life began because of a chance encounter at the wharf with a cargador or stevedore who was in pain. He had just undergone an appendectomy two days before and had to report for work as he had used up his leave from work. Lim rushed him to the hospital. Lim realized that laborers had no protection from unjust employers. Because of this, he organized the first labor strike in Zamboanga City. The strike ended only when their demands for sick leave, a minimum wage, overtime pay and the eight-hour work day were granted. This strike was the beginning of the labor union in the city, which developed into the Mindanao Federation of Labor.

Lim became very popular as a labor leader and was the Nacionalista Party's candidate for Congress in the 1949. He ran against seasoned politicians and won by a landslide. He was thirty-four years old.

In 1955 Lim was elected Senator when he was 40 years old, and in 1957 he became responsible for the Philippines becoming a member of the United Nations International Labor Organization (ILO). Among the bills filed by Lim and passed into law were those improving the Social Security Act, the Magna Carta of Labor, the Philippine Labor Code and the Woman and Children Labor Law. Unlike other politicians, Lim did not focus on maintaining or expanding his political power. He always focused on the public interest.

Roseller Lim is known in Philippine political history as “The Great Filibuster.” Dictionary.com defines a filibuster in US politics as “the use of irregular or obstructive tactics by a member of a legislative assembly to prevent the adoption of a measure generally favored or to force a decision against the will of the majority.” Its synonyms are “interference, opposition, hindrance or delay.”

Here is the story in Senator Lim’s own words: “In 1963, there was a reorganization move by the Liberal Party (LP) senators in the Senate. Their candidate for the senate presidency was Ferdinand Marcos. The Nacionalistas (NP) of which I was then a part fielded Fernando Lopez. There were 12 Liberals, the NP had the same number which included Senator Lorenzo Tañada of the Nationalist Citizens Party. Sen. Alejandro Almendras was out of the country because he had to undergo goiter operation. Because there only 11 NP senators at that time, the Liberals decided to present a motion reorganizing the senate from the presidency down to the last chairman of the various senate committees. To frustrate that plan, I was therefore assigned by the NP to filibuster. I was to start my filibuster on that Monday but Almendras was scheduled to arrive Thursday of that week. I was therefore assigned to hold the floor until the arrival of Almendras. Fortunately for me after eighteen and a half hours of continuous filibuster, many senators were too tired and sleepy and had to leave the session hall. They had to move for adjournment. Sen. Roy, an NP was presiding. There were only seven of us on the floor when the LPs came back rushing to the session hall. It was too late, the session had been adjourned. Thus I was saved from collapsing after almost two days of continuous talking. I was determined to continue filibustering until I shall have dropped dead on the floor of the Senate. The physical strain that I suffered as a result of that filibuster has been recurring in once in a while. Why did I filibuster? In order to conserve democracy. At that time, the Lower House was already captured by the party in power. The only brake to abuses of the administration then was the minority control of the Senate. However, when Almendras arrived from New York Doctors Hospital, he voted for Marcos the LP President for the Senate presidency. Thus Amang Rodriguez, Mr. Nacionalista, was toppled from the Senate presidency and the minority party lost control of the Senate."

Marcos became Senate President but later switched parties and ironically won the presidency of the Philippines as the candidate of the Nationalista Party in 1965. Lim was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1971 and was one of forty-nine delegates (out of more than 250) who did not sign and ratify the Marcos Constitution of 1972. On September 21, 1972 Marcos proclaimed martial law and stayed as president until he was ousted by people power in 1986.

The various titles given Lim included: the Great Filibuster, Champion of the Masses, Father of the Social Security Law, Outstanding Congressman for all the six years he served as Congressman of Zamboanga, Outstanding Senator for all the eight years of his term. Father of Zamboanga del Sur, Founder and first president of the Mindanao-Sulu-Palawan Labor Organization. He is fondly remembered as El Gallo Sulangkang (The Fighting Cock).

Roseller T. Lim was the only Zamboangueño ever to be elected to the Philippine Senate. In 1973 Lim was appointed a Justice of the Court of Appeals, where he became the source of information on labor and criminal laws for his co-justices. He died of a heart attack on July 5, 1976 at the age of sixty-one.

On March 16, 1982, President Marcos signed Republic Act 183 creating the municipality of Roseller T. Lim in the province of Zamboanga del Sur (now Zamboanga Sibugay) in honor of Lim. A city ordinance was passed in 2006 celebrating February 9 as El Dia de Senador Roseller T. Lim and a statue in his honor was installed at the end of R.T. Lim Boulevard (Cawa-Cawa Blvd.) in 2009. This boulevard used to be a two-lane road until the mid-1980s, when a reclamation project was undertaken and the road became the four-lane boulevard it is today.

Many passing the rotunda think this is a statue of Jose Rizal. The rotunda used to exhibit two wartime cannons titled “Guns of Aggression.” They were big artillery pieces abandoned by the Japanese forces after World War II. They have been transferred to Abong-Abong Park in Pasonanca and they now guard the grave of Mayor Cesar C. Climaco.

There is an exhibit honoring Lim inside the museum at Fort Pilar. Pictures show a nattily dressed and handsome man who was a good dancer and also known as El Niño Bonito.

Roseller T. Lim is one of AdZ’s most outstanding graduates. His record of outstanding accomplishments in public service and legislative work speak for itself.

Long before Man for Others and magis became familiar catch-words to Ateneans today, Senator and Justice Roseller T. Lim actualized all these in his public life. All he had to inspire him was the school motto: Pro Deo et Patria, for God and Country. It says everything.

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10. MAYOR CESAR C. CLIMACO

The Man for Others

The most famous Zamboangueño is easily Cesar Cortez Climaco. He was born on February 28, 1916 and went to grade school at the Sta. Maria elementary school. Ateneo alumni records show him at the Ateneo in 1930, most likely for his intermediate studies. He graduated from high school at the Normal School, today the Western Mindanao State College. He then worked as a family driver to finance his college studies at the University of Sto. Tomas. In 1939 he worked as a janitor of the Court of Appeals in Manila while studying law at the University of the Philippines.

In 1941 he was assistant secretary to the mayor in Davao. From 1946 to 1949 he was secretary to Mayor Vicente Suarez here in Zamboanga. Then in 1949 to 1951 he was secretary to Mayor Manuel Jaldon and also the civil registrar of Zamboanga. A certification issued by the office of the local civil registrar dated February 16, 1950 is signed by Cesar C. Climaco.

Cesar was elected a councilor in 1951. He was appointed mayor in 1953, when he was 37 years old. The next year he joined the Jaycees’ Operation Brotherhood in Vietnam in 1954. This project was inspired by Zamboanga’s Help-the-Barrio program and started by Climaco and an Ateneo alumnus. He returned in 1955 and was elected mayor for two terms, serving until 1961.

As mayor, he was widely popular for his good governance, integrity and courage. Under his dynamic administration, Zamboanga the City of Flowers and Pasonanca Park with its tree house became world-famous tourist attractions. National and international Boy Scout jamborees were held here and visiting ocean liners filled with foreign tourists would drop anchor at the local wharf. During those years I remembering my mother faithfully watering her collection of colorful bouganvillas and parasitas (orchids) outside our 2nd story corredor (porch) along Barcelona Street every afternoon.

Postcards of Zamboanga and its beautiful flowers were quickly sold out. Once upon a time, Zamboanga with its “diaper-clad” horse-drawn calesas was known as the cleanest city in the Philippines. It was truly the Orgullo de Mindanao, the Pride of Mindanao sung in the Zamboanga Hermosa song. Old-timers consider the American commonwealth period of the 1920s and 1930s and the Climaco years of the 1960s as the Golden Age of Zamboanga City.

A side story here about the golden days of Pasonanca Park and the Boy Scout campsite. On July 28, 1963 the entire Philippine delegation on the way to the 11th Boy Scout World Jamboree at Marathon, Greece died in a plane crash at the Bay of Bombay in India. 20 Boy Scouts and 4 Scouters died. One of them was Scout Antonio Limbaga of Zamboanga, whose father was City Engineer Benjamin Limbaga, who with Mayor Climaco turned Pasonanca Park into what it is today. The road in front of the Astoria Regency Convention Center and the Boy Scout Amphitheater is named in memory of Scout Limbaga. Chaplain Fr. Jose Martinez SJ from the Ateneo de Naga also perished in that crash. The streets of Kamuning in Quezon City are named after all the scouts who died.

Rizal Scout Cristobal from Zamboanga AE Colleges was the original delegate. His mother refused to give him permission to go and Scout Limbaga took his place. Dr. Fortunato Cristobal today is the dean of the Ateneo de Zamboanga School of Medicine.

Back to Cesar, who used to visit my father and have lunch with him at our store. On one occasion, he showed a confiscated gun and a picture of a sleeping policeman who was on duty. I was there as a young boy and I saw this picture myself. Climaco was also known for his good relations with the Muslim community of the city. People found him approachable. He had a down-to-earth personality and was always cracking jokes everywhere he went.

In 1961 he unsuccessfully ran for a Senate seat. He was then appointed Customs Commissioner and brought in idealistic cadets from the Philippine Military Academy to help clean up the corrupt customs bureau. In 1963 and 1965 he was again an unsuccessful candidate for the Senate. He was the best senator we never had. He was too clean and honest to win in a national election. Aside from being Customs Commissioner, he was also National Economic Coordinator and Presidential Assistant for Community Development.

When martial law was declared in 1972, Climaco left for the United States and vowed never to cut his hair until democracy was restored. He returned in 1976 and in 1978 he again unsuccessfully ran for the Interim Batasang Pambansa. In 1980 he once more became mayor of Zamboanga City.

At the height of martial law, crime and violence ruled the city. Climaco became a one-man vocal and colorful critic of the Marcos years. He was a very public admirer of Ninoy Aquino. Perhaps he was tolerated by Marcos because he did not have a strong political organization backing him. He put up a scoreboard of crime statistics and human rights abuses in front of City Hall, angering the criminals and the martial law authorities. He drove around on his motorcycle, did not have bodyguards and did not carry a gun. He usually arrived ahead of the police, military or fire department in any crime scene or calamity. He was once described by a foreign writer as a “madcap sexy senior citizen.”

Mayor Climaco once entered a slum area to pacify two warring groups, while the police and military waited outside. Another unforgettable scene is that of Climaco climbing a fire ladder to help firemen put out a fire downtown.

In 1984 he finally won a seat at the Batasang Pambansa but then decided to stay in Zamboanga and finish his term as mayor, because he did not want to become a rubber stamp of the Marcos regime. On November 14, 1984 Climaco had just come from a fire scene near the La Merced funeral home and even kidded about reserving a coffin there. As he got on his motorcycle moments later, an assassin’s bullet felled him in the middle of the street. He was 68 years old.

His funeral was the biggest ever in the history of Zamboanga. Thousands of Zamboangueños from all walks of life crossed social, cultural and religious lines and marched in solidarity to pay their respects and show their love for Mayor Cesar C. Climaco. His epitaph reads: “He was one of the most colorful political figures. He was a patriot in the truest sense of the word, an epitome of honesty, a champion of the oppressed and the underdog. He was a modern Don Quixote, who fought the windmills of graft and corruption.”

Climaco had a campaign song sung to the tune of My Darling Clementine. “Oh my darling, oh my darling…” became “Ay si Cesar, ay si Cesar…” Zamboangueños used to sing this whenever and wherever they saw Cesar around. Instead of a sad dirge, this was the song that accompanied him to his final resting place at Abong-Abong Park in Pasonanca, later renamed Climaco Park.

Climaco’s murder has never been solved, although it was an open secret that military intelligence was behind this. Zamboanga has gratefully renamed its main street from Guardia Nacional Street to Mayor Climaco Avenue. A memorial plaque is embedded today in the middle of the street where he was treacherously killed. It is located at Gov. Alvarez Street, a few steps before reaching Funeraria Merced near Veterans’ Avenue.

Under the gruff and irreverent image he projected was a man of deep Christian faith. Very few knew that Cesar attended Mass regularly at the Sta. Maria parish, even on weekdays. I used to see him at the very last row whenever I celebrated Mass there. Once, he loudly proclaimed his great admiration of the Jesuits to a group of Catholic ladies at a fiesta gathering. Perhaps it was because a friend of his was the father of a Jesuit priest.

Cesar’s Christian faith was integrated into his life of public service. He was a leader who led not through words but through deeds, a very rare example of the true public servant. His life of selfless service incarnated what Jesus taught us, that the greatest love we can have is to offer our lives for others.

The life of Climaco reminds us of the magis (more) and Principle and Foundation of St. Ignatius in the Spiritual Exercises. “Here Ignatius said that our highest priority in life is to praise, reverence and serve God. We attain this through a spirituality of detachment and indifference in absolutely everything, so that we can have the complete freedom to love and serve God through others” (ISB).

In 1973 Fr. Pedro Arrupe, Superior General of the Society of Jesus gave an address to the 10th International Congress of Jesuit Alumni titled “Men for Others.” It declared: “Today our prime educational objective must be to form men-and-women-for-others… men and women who cannot even conceive of love of God which does not include love for the least of their neighbors; men and women completely convinced that love of God which does not issue in justice for others is a farce.”

During the writing of this article and after much reflection, I finally decided on “The Man for Others” as its subtitle, because Climaco embodied in his life the ideals of magis and public service. Other possible titles could have been “The True Public Servant” or “The Ideal Mayor.” After this write-up was finished, I went to Abong-Abong Park to visit the grave of Mayor Climaco. Lo and behold, inscribed on the headstone over his resting place is “The Man for Others,” the description chosen for this great Zamboangueño 28 years before.

Even if Cesar C. Climaco was in the Ateneo only briefly, he was the Atenean par excellence. His actions spoke much louder than his academic background. The Ateneo de Zamboanga University today has a Mayor Cesar C. Climaco Special Award which is “bestowed on individuals or groups or government organizations which have shown outstanding public service to the community.” Guess who so richly deserves this recognition? None other than Cesar C. Climaco himself. Indeed, he embodied the Ateneo motto of Pro Deo et Patria, for God and country.

A footnote to the Climaco story here. On August 18, 2012 the private plane carrying Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo crashed into the sea off Masbate. Robredo and two pilots died in that crash. His body was recovered on August 21, 2012, the 29th death anniversary of Ninoy Aquino. He was 53 years old. He was a product of the Ateneo de Naga.

Inspired by the sacrifice of Ninoy Aquino in 1983, Robredo became mayor of Naga City in 1988 when he was 29 years old, the youngest mayor in the Philippines. He was mayor a total of 18 years and turned Naga into a first class city. He has been extolled widely for his integrity and humility. In 2000 he was the first Filipino mayor to be awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service, the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2008 the Ateneo de Zamboanga University gave Jesse Robredo the Cesar C. Climaco Award for Public Service. He has received numerous other awards here and abroad for his good governance. He was appointed DILG secretary in 2010.

Jesse Robredo, Cesar C. Climaco and Ninoy Aquino – three great Filipinos, three lives intertwined by a confluence of circumstances marked by exemplary public service, three heroes who showed us what it is to live for God and country. May there be more like them.

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11. FR. JOSE MA. ROSAURO, SJ

The Last Jesuit Parish Priest of Zamboanga

Fr. Jose Ma. Rosauro was born on February 12, 1906 in Santa Mesa, Manila, the only child of Judge Mariano Rosauro and Higina de Leon. His elementary studies were at the Ateneo de Manila. It is said that as a child, his mother offered him to God after he got well from a very serious illness. On March 1, 1921 he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Padre Faura in Manila at the age of fifteen.

In 1924-1925 he was sent to Veruela, Spain for literary studies. After this he became one of the first Filipino scholastics sent to Weston, Massachusetts for studies in philosophy. He returned to the Philippines for his regency at the San Jose Seminary from 1928 to 1931. He returned to Woodstock in the United States for his theology studies in 1931 to 1935. He was ordained priest on June 24, 1934. In those days Jesuits were ordained to the priesthood after their third year of theology. In 1936 he returned home and began to teach the novices at Sacred Heart Novitiate.

In 1937 Bishop Luis del Rosario opened a minor seminary in Zamboanga and asked Fr. Rosauro to be its director. Fr. Rosauro came to Mindanao and stayed until 1956. From 1937 on he also taught at the Ateneo de Zamboanga. The seminary closed in 1941 when war broke out. During the Japanese occupation, Fr. Rosauro escaped to the mountains of Mercedes with Dr. Ricardo Climaco in 1942-1944.

After the war, Fr. Rosauro was parish priest at Santa Maria 1947-1948. He was assistant parish priest in Margosatubig 1948-1949 and in Balingasag, Misamis Oriental in 1949-1950. He then returned to Zamboanga and became assistant parish priest at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in 1950-1951.

The following year he became its parish priest and stayed until 1956. By then the parishes of the archdiocese had been turned over to the Claretians. He was the last Jesuit parish priest of the Zamboanga cathedral. From 1956 on he returned to Manila and was with the Jesuit Mission Band in Angono, Pasay and Ateneo de Naga, giving retreats and spiritual direction, using many down-to-earth stories and anecdotes.

A hand-written letter from Fr. Jack Phelan of Ateneo de Naga dated March 20, 1971 on the occasion of Fr. Rosauro’s Golden Jubilee as a Jesuit tells us who Fr. Rosauro was:

“Greetings from Naga. It’s a pleasure to say a good word about Fr. Joe Rosauro who was a member of this community for 3 years. Who can forget his devotion to the special work assigned to him: giving the annual retreats to the Bikol clergy (in Spanish as the senior members preferred); his catechesis to our workmen, his painful [due to arthritis (?) in the leg] journeys to the classroom to teach Spanish for the college students; his punctual presence at all community prayer; his availability as House Confessor; his exhortations as Spiritual Father! But especially, I remember Fr. Joe for his ever present smile – truly God’s gentleman: always pleasant, cheerful, never ruffled or hostile, in every way humble and generous.

“Was it Fr. Dan Lord who once wrote a pamphlet on the senior citizens in our religious houses? Truly a blessing for the community to experience the mellow goodness of a soldier of Christ who has borne the heat of battle in many campaigns.”

The Clipper (Philippine Jesuit Newsletter) dated April 1971 had something written about Fr. Rosauro: “In an otherwise even and uneventful life there was one experience which will assure him a place in ecclesiastical history. When General Emilio Aguinaldo was very sick in the hospital, someone sent to La Ignaciana for a priest. By what seemed a special providence of God, Fr. Rosauro was the man who answered the summons. (Fr. Rosauro’s father had been an officer under Gen. Aguinaldo’s command.) The General did not die then but lived for two more years, during which time Fr. Rosauro was a frequent and welcome visitor to his room. In the course of many conversations he was successful in winning the old soldier back to his faith. Since masonry was one of the obstacles to his return, Fr. Rosauro, largely through the diligent efforts of Fr. Crespo, was able to obtain from Spain a book suited to the General’s needs. Finally the old man was convinced, and was received back into the Church by Cardinal Santos.”

Most of the time Fr. Rosauro used public transportation to get around. There is a story of him being robbed twice while returning to Angono, seated at the front seat of a jeepney!

He was “self-effacing, generous and kind” as a teacher. Others described him as available, completely at the service of others. He was noted for his “charming cheerfulness” to everyone and has been compared to St. John Berchmans. He was a friend to all. A letter written by a Brother Aznar described Fr. Rosauro as “un compañero tan caritativo,” a charitable companion.

A Jesuit classmate wrote: “Those of us who have been privileged to associate with Fr. Rosauro in recent years in Manila will testify that he was in his old age the same saintly and exemplary priest that Bishop del Rosario knew 40 years ago.”

In 1946 a Spanish missionary wrote to the Mission Superior from Mercedes: “I would like to call your Reverence’s attention to and suggest the excellent Fr. Rosauro as a man worthy and acceptable to all, as Superior in these times. He is very edifying and exemplary. He possesses exceptional qualities though they are concealed by his humility. Con gusto me someteria a este Padre tan buen siervo de Dios (I would be glad to place myself under this Father who is such a good servant of God).” Although someone else was appointed Superior, we get a good picture of the kind of Jesuit Fr. Rosauro was.

His last active ministry was at the Philippine General Hospital, serving as part-time chaplain and shuffling around with his rheumatism for kilometers through the different wards of the hospital. In his senior years, we remember his close-cropped hair, his expanding stomach under his perennial sutana, his comfortable kung-fu shoes and his unfailing genial smile for all. “The Rosauro smile, that probably sums him up best.”

Fr. Rosauro’s priestly ministry can be divided into three main parts. He was a teacher at Novaliches and the Ateneo de Zamboanga. He was in parish work in Zamboanga, Margosatubig and Balingasag. And he was in retreat work and spiritual direction the rest of his life. His fluency in Pilipino, English, Spanish, Cebuano and Chabacano proved very useful.

On November 6, 1978 Fr. Jose Ma. Rosauro passed away at the age of 72. His story illustrates to us the Ignatian ideals of a selfless and generous life. Here we clearly see what St. Ignatius meant by the magis of a saintly man for others. The JMR retreat and formation house on campus was named in his honor. The soon-to-rise social development-formation-dormitory building will also be named in memory of him.

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12. FR. EUSEBIO G. SALVADOR, SJ

The 2nd Founder of the Ateneo de Zamboanga

Fr. Eusebio Gregorio Salvador is considered the second founder of the Ateneo de Zamboanga. He was from Pasonanca and as a boy he used to walk to the Escuela Catolica in the city 5 kilometers away. The main Pasonanca road today is named after Fr. Salvador. He was the first Zamboangueño Jesuit priest. Another product of the Escuela Catolica was Fr. James Cawley, the apostle of southern Bukidnon.

Eusebio was born on December 15, 1901. When he was fifteen years old he joined the Society of Jesus on December 24, 1916. He did his philosophical studies in Spain and his theological studies in the United States. He was ordained a priest on January 20, 1928 at Woodstock, Maryland.

From 1930 to 1937 he was assigned to Dapitan and Oroquieta, Misamis Oriental. From 1937 to 1949 he was parish priest of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral of Zamboanga City. Aside from this, he was also superior of the Zamboanga Jesuits, chaplain of the San Ramon Penal Colony, and a lecturer at the Zamboanga General Hospital and Pilar College.

Fr. Salvador became the first Filipino director of the Ateneo de Zamboanga and held this position from 1938-41 and 1946-47. He was also superintendent of schools in the diocese of Zamboanga in 1940-41 and 1946-49. He was even a chaplain of the Philippine Army in 1942-45. Whew! Those were the long-gone days of the super or all-in-one Jesuit.

After World War II, he transferred the Ateneo to its present location. He is not only the second founder of AdZ, he is the founder of the post-war Ateneo de Zamboanga. He was also responsible for the construction of the post-war Immaculate Conception Cathedral. We have a signed account about this period written by Fr. Salvador.

“At that time evacuees by the thousands poured and began to settle down. Very soon the need of a church, the former cathedral, was felt. With nipa, sawali and bamboo Fr. Salvador constructed a quasi-church on the grounds he bought before the war intended for the expansion of the Catholic school, the Ateneo de Zamboanga. The reopening of this school was another project that kept Fr. Salvador extremely busy. In record time the nipa, sawali and bamboo church was finished and served its purpose for the time being … Bishop Luis del Rosario commissioned Fr. Salvador to rebuilt the cathedral and convento and gave him free hand in everything with relation to the construction, site and expenses of the project …

“The original plan was to have the cathedral site surrounded by four streets, with space for the convento and other minor buildings for the activities connected with the church apostolate. After much deliberation, consultations and hearing of opinion and comments, the site where the present cathedral stands was chosen. The construction started in earnest. Mr. Artemio Fabian of Sta. Maria deserves a lot of credit for the expeditious manner the construction was carried out to completion … In record time at last the construction was considered finished and ready for services…

“The Zamboanga people shared magnanimously in the construction with what they could afford through voluntary donations in spite of their own economic problems, hardships and privations. The greatest bulk of the construction expenses was shouldered however by the kindness and generosity of His Excellency Mons. Luis del Rosario, D.D. The legal papers related to the construction concerning purchases and sales were ably handled by the former Atty. Jose Atilano father of the present Hon. City Mayor Vicente Atilano II.”

From 1949 to 1953 Fr. Salvador was rector of the Ateneo de Naga in Bicol. During this time he was about to be appointed a bishop but he declined the office. After Naga, he returned to Zamboanga for a year before he was made rector at the Ateneo de San Pablo in Laguna from 1954 to 1960. Then he finally returned to Zamboanga for good.

In 1963 he was appointed superior of the mission district in Zamboanga del Sur. During this time Fr. Salvador was also a columnist for the Zamboanga Times. From 1966 on he was chaplain of the lepers at the Mindanao Central Sanitarium in Calarian before it was transferred to its present site in Pasobolong. He single-handedly wrote, edited and published the monthly Rainbow, the newsletter of the leprosarium.

On the occasion of Fr. Salvador’s golden jubilee as a Jesuit on December 15, 1966, Fr. Jose Eliazo wrote, “To spend 50 years in the Society working in different capacities and in different places is no small accomplishment, but the grace of God has always accompanied and supported our Father Jubilarian. In Spanish we have a saying: ‘Algunos nacen con estrellas, y otros nacen estrellados.’ But we think that Fr. Salvador nacio con muchas y brillantes estrellas!”

On his golden anniversary as a priest on June 20, 1978, a press release came out in the Philippine Daily Express entitled, “Chaplain to Lepers Marks Golden Jubilee.” Among other things, it announced, “Whatever gifts that are given to him, on his golden jubilee, will go to the lepers.” It also reported that Fr. Salvador worked in Cuba and in Florida before returning to the Philippines. It said that Fr. Salvador had taught philosophy for fourteen years in his various assignments.

We can learn much about Fr. Salvador and the life of the Church in Zamboanga in those days from an account of Fr. Jose Ma. Rosauro, the last Jesuit parish priest of Zamboanga:

“My recollections of Fr. Salvador as Pastor of the Immaculate Conception was that of a man completely dedicated to his work. His parishioners loved and esteemed him and he commanded the respect of all those with whom he came in contact. I consider it a good fortune of mine to have been initiated into parish work by that man of zeal and action, and a model religious. He had a knack for organization. He was a man of enthusiasm and vision, and anyone working with him could not afford to be sluggish and easy-going. Every Sunday he personally conducted a catechetical instruction at San Ramon Penal Colony; and either personally or through his assistants, he saw to it that in his big parish the sick of the two hospitals and the leprosarium should be taken care of spiritually. Every year during Holy Week a special Mass for the convicts of the city jail was celebrated, at which the inmates received holy communion. After Holy Mass, the convicts were treated to a special breakfast prepared by the parish associations.

“He established for the parish what he called the Retreat of the Armed Forces, for the benefit of the City Police Force, the Philippine Constabulary, and the City Fire Department. This was the golden occasion to get these men to confession and Holy Communion.

“He had the catechetical instruction of children very well organized, and he was very lucky to have a great army of zealous catechists, among them a good number of prominent ladies of the City, with long experience in catechetical work. He had many catechism centers scattered over his parish in chapels and private houses, where instruction was given on Sundays; he himself and his parish assistants took interest in visiting these centers every Sunday and teaching in them…

“Unforgettable is the solemnity with which the Feast of Christ the King was celebrated and the immense number of men that marched in the procession of the Blessed Sacrament, men who had been to confession the day before and to Holy Communion on that morning.

“But the GREAT DAY in Zamboanga will always be, I suppose, the feast of Our Lady del Pilar. Led by Fr. Salvador, himself a Zamboangueño, the whole region excelled in the fervent but orderly manifestation of its immense devotion to the Mother of God. I cannot but recall Fr. Salvador in front of the Blessed Virgin at Fort Pilar, at the end of the grand procession, directing the singing of the Salve of Werner, executed by the students of Pilar College and Ateneo de Zamboanga.

“Another field of action in which Fr. Salvador did immense good was presented to him, when he was made Director of the Ateneo de Zamboanga. In this new capacity he had the opportunity to serve the youth, and here he displayed the exceptional qualities he had as a Catholic Educator. He loved this work and accomplished it with enthusiasm. This educational apostolate he had the opportunity to continue when later on he became Rector of the Ateneo de Naga and the Ateneo de San Pablo.

“During the Japanese war, when our young trainees of Zamboanga were to embark first to the Malaybalay camp and then to the battlefield, Fr. Salvador, as the Pastor of Zamboanga, addressed these boys in the wharf before leaving. Then and there on the wharf he bade them to turn towards Our Lady of Pilar and to kneel and to ask her motherly blessing to accompany them to the battlefield.”

People who did not know Fr. Salvador thought he was unfriendly, because of his rare smiles, serious-looking appearance and dark complexion. He good-naturedly accepted jokes about a 1976 Pilipino movie entitled, “Iniibig Kita, Padre Salvador.” He even joked that the movie really referred to a younger Jesuit scholastic named Salvador.

He generally wore white and played tennis regularly. In his old age, his tennis opponents made sure to conveniently send the ball to where he was, since he never run but calmly walked to receive the ball. Kit Lorenzo recounts this. Everyone knew Fr. Salvador was a tennis player, but few knew he was a good bridge player. When he returned from the United States after his ordination, he won the bridge championship on board ship.

This giant of a past age and much-accomplished Jesuit priest spent the last years of his life as the chaplain of the Zamboanga leprosarium. He died on July 16, 1981 and is buried at the Catholic Cemetery in San Roque. He was a Jesuit for 65 years and a priest for 53 years. San Roque contains the remains of many Jesuits who died here through the years, a handful known but mostly unknown. There are plans to transfer these remains to the high school campus at Tumaga.

The life of Fr. Salvador is a good example of Ignatian spirituality. As seen in his multi-assignments, he was “all things to all men” (1 Corinthians 9:22). In the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, in the meditation on the Principle and Foundation of our Christian faith, “Ignatius said that our highest priority in life is to praise, reverence and serve God. We attain this through a spirituality of detachment and indifference in absolutely everything, so that we can have the complete freedom to love and serve God through others.

“In his meditation on the call of a great king or leader, Ignatius invited us to follow a poor and humble Christ and participate in making God’s reign present in our daily life. In one of the most important themes of the Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius presented the theme of Two Standards or camps: the world with all its attraction of wealth, honor and pride; and the opposite values of Jesus and his call to spiritual poverty and humble service under the banner of the cross” (ISB).

Fr. Salvador’s decision to decline the offer of a bishopric and remain an ordinary priest is an example of the two considerations offered by St. Ignatius. Here we see the detachment, indifference and selflessness also expressed in his Prayer for Generosity: “Dearest Lord, teach me to be generous. Teach me to serve you as you deserve. To give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not to ask for reward, save that of knowing that I do your will.”

In 1984 Fr. Salvador was posthumously named one of the twelve distinguished Zamboangueños of the city. There is a Fr. Eusebio Salvador Council of the Knights of Columbus in Sta. Maria Parish. On this occasion of the Ateneo’s centennial celebration, it is but fitting that the main campus on La Purisima Street will from now on be officially known as the Fr. Eusebio G. Salvador campus.

During our 2012 visit to Fr. Salvador’s grave on All Souls’ Day, we met a woman who came to light a candle and say a prayer for him. She was one of the numerous scholars he helped during his final years as a chaplain. She has never forgotten his help.

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13. THE ATENEO DE ZAMBOANGA HALF A CENTURY AGO

A yearbook is an annual record of graduates and their activities. As we commemorate the 100th year of the Ateneo de Zamboanga this 2012, we go back to the 1962 Beacon yearbook to give us a picture of life in the school 50 years ago. The cover shows the statue of the Sacred Heart with hands outstretched, the one displayed at the façade of the school chapel. The yearbook is dedicated “to Rizal, a fellow Atenean,” and the graduates of 1962 “heartily join our voices to the gladful chorus of acclamations of your grateful countrymen in this centennial year of your birth.”

1962 was the year of the Cuban missile crisis, when the United States forced the Soviet Union to remove their inter-continental ballistic missiles from nearby Cuba. It was the year before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy of the United States. 1962 was the year the Beatles’ first single (Love Me Do and P.S. I Love You) was released. It was the year of the Everly Brothers’ “Cryin’ in the Rain.” It was the year before the Cascades’ “Rhythm of the Rain” became an international hit. It was the time of thin neckties, tight pants and pointed shoes. It was also the year when the Twist (sung by Chubby Checker) and Mashed Potatoes were dance crazes. It was the days of Sampaguita stars Susan Roces and Amalia Fuentes.

The rector of the Ateneo de Zamboanga that year was Fr. Manuel C. Regalado. Fr. Regalado was also Dean of Studies and Discipline and Fr. Philip Tucci was the administrator of the school. There were 7 Jesuits and 31 lay faculty members in the college. The high school had 17 faculty members, 6 of which were Jesuits. Many of the Jesuits taught in both the college and high school.

Fr. Eusebio G. Salvador was the high school principal, assisted by Fr. Thomas Connolly, who was the Dean of Discipline. Other Jesuits assigned to the high school were Frs. Robert Fitzpatrick, Joseph McCarthy, Jose Matan, Alfeo Nudas and Rodolfo Valdez. There were 41 graduates from 4-A, 38 graduates from 4-B and 35 graduates from 4-C. The Ateneo grade school and high school then was still “the School for Boys.”

The headmaster of the grade school was also Fr. Salvador. Mrs. Alberta Mendoza was the principal and the faculty was composed of seven female teachers and three Jesuits. There were 44 graduates of grade school Class 1962 and 29 graduates from the kindergarten class that year, all boys of course.

There were no colored pictures back then, but there are black-and-white pictures of the wide-open front and back fields, the wooden buildings and well-planted gardens in-between, with their pine and palm trees and well-trimmed grass. The newly-built Sacred Heart Chapel was blessed on October 28, 1961 by Archbishop Luis del Rosario and the master of ceremony was Fr. Alfredo Paguia, vicar-general of the archdiocese. The 1961 Beacon yearbook announced that the estimated cost of the chapel is P100,000 and that the amount of P71,000 had been raised so far.

There were only four buildings on campus – the 12-year-old gym, the 13-year-old main building, the 3-year-old Faculty House of the Jesuits and the new 1-year-old Sacred Heart Chapel. There was also a wooden house at the corner of the back field, where the Physical Plant Office is today. The Francisco family of Ateneo workers Luis (sacristan), Popoy (janitor) and Mario (driver) lived there. They have retired since then but still come around for AdZU gatherings. There was no gate then, but students used to enter the school through their yard facing Nuñez Street. There was another 2-story Saavedra house next to Gate 3. It still exists today, although the second story has been removed because of decay.

The main campus road was lined with tall agojo or Philippine pine trees. Beneath the trees were concrete benches for students to sit on. There were hardly any vehicles around and there was no need of a parking area. Calesas and jeepneys were the usual means of public transportation. Motorized tricycles started appearing in Zamboanga only in the early 1970s. Since there was just a total of a few hundred students at all levels, there was an air of relaxed quietness in the spacious campus.

The college extra-curricular activities included the Glee Club, the Debating Club and the Beacon paper and yearbook, aside from the Sodality of our Lady (which became the Christian Life Community some years later) and the Radio Workshop. A few years later the Student Catholic Action (SCA) led by Johnny Gaspar would become a major campus organization.

The high school had their Blue Eagle paper. These were the days before computers, desktop publishing and laser printers. Everything had to be typed on clacking typewriters and erased by hand, in case of mistakes. Those were the days of onion skin paper, carbon paper, stencils and messy hand-cranked mimeographing machines.

There were judo and boxing lessons for the college students. The ladies came to class in their all-white skirt and blouse uniforms with AdZ embroidered on the upper left pocket. They wore blue and white bloomers for their PE classes, while the basketball players wore tight and sexy short shorts in the days before the loose porontong shorts came into style. How times have certainly changed – the modest ladies and the sexy men have now been replaced by sexy ladies and modest men!

Fr. Andrew Cervini, AdZ rector in 1947, made a sentimental visit to the school with his sisters Therese and Sally. They were welcomed with a red-carpet reception. Dr. Ricardo Climaco then was the president of the Ateneo Alumni Association.

In those days, all students were gathered (others say herded) into the chapel for the annual retreat. The retreats then consisted of lectures by a Jesuit priest. Looking back, we wonder how many students paid attention during those long talks. The dean of discipline stood at the back to make sure there were no escapees. No wonder the chapel was always packed during retreats in those days. Slips of paper with the student’s name were then collected to check the attendance. Those packed days are now gone, because attendance is no longer checked.

The yearbook pictures tell us that the Jesuit fathers in those days always wore their white cassocks or sutana everywhere. 1962 was the year the Second Vatican Council started in Rome. Pope John XXIII realized that although it was already the 20th century, the Church through the directions set by the Council of Trent had remained stuck in the 16th century. Latin was still the language used in Masses. Women were required to wear a veil when attending Mass. Everyone went to confession before receiving communion. The priest celebrated Mass with his back to the people, and the congregation prayed their rosaries and recited their novenas during Mass. All these changed when Vatican II ended in 1965 and Pope Paul VI began to implement new and sweeping changes to bring the Church into the 20th century.

Vatican II would affect Catholic life everywhere. In the Ateneo, the Sodality of Our Lady in a few years’ time would become the Christian Life Community, and the spiritual adviser would become the ecclesiastical assistant. The organ music played during Masses would give way to guitar music at Mass. English would now become the language of the liturgy and the priest would celebrate Mass facing the people. Instead of just attending Mass, everyone would be encouraged to actively participate in the liturgy. The sutanas of priests would be replaced by gray shirt jackets and Roman collars, which would eventually give way to the ordinary everyday wear of everyone else.

All the college departments during the 1960s were oddly called “fraternities.” The yearbook has pictures of the AB fraternity, the BSE fraternity, the BSC fraternity, the BSBA fraternity, the General AA (BS, Pre-Law, Pre-Med) fraternity, the Pre-Engineering fraternity. These fraternities included all the coeds. Nobody seems to have heard of sororities. There was even the Pre-Nursing fraternity composed entirely of women! There was no College of Nursing then. They all went to the Zamboanga General Hospital School of Nursing. From time to time we also went there to attend their parties and dances.

In those days, the Reserved Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) was a requirement for all freshmen and sophomore male students. Cadets in their starched grey Philippine Air Force uniforms spent Saturday mornings marching or attending lectures. They marched in planeless squadrons and flights.

The school had an armory of World War I Springfield rifles, all with their firing pins removed. The rifles were used for drills and parades. The rifles of the model squadron had visible white slings for fancy drill exhibitions. These rifles were confiscated by the military when martial law was declared ten years later in 1972. AdZ had the blue berets and flashy blue neckerchiefs of the model squadron marching in street parades while the US Army had their green berets in the jungles of Vietnam.

The high school also had their Air Force Philippine Military Training (AFPMT) drills. They used wooden rifles during parades. Nobody questioned the militarization of student life in those days of youthful innocence. It was just a fact of student life then.

There is a line from the song “Hail, Ateneo, Hail!” which goes, “March on, march on, march on to victory” which was sung in Chabacano with gusto, “March on, march on, el padre sin calzon!” This was something the boys did with naughty fun during basketball games, especially when a Jesuit was around. They gleefully sang this for me during one torch parade I joined many years later.

The student canteen at the left corner of the gym had about a half dozen tables. It was managed by Ñor Leon Miguel, who was also the school infirmarian. A favorite snack then was the 50-centavo hot mami served with calamansi and patis. Other students favored charming Alice’s little store right across Gate 1. Security guards were unheard of then.

In those days, the counter of the front ticket booth at the center of the gym was at waist level. Through the years, efforts to stop the rain water from flooding the gym have raised the sidewalk level and now the counter is practically at knee level. The same thing has happened to the Knights of Columbus marker outside the cathedral, at the corner of La Purisima and Campaner Streets.

There was a very well-tended garden at the quadrangle of the main building built in 1949. It had a nice lawn, palm trees and lush ornamental plants. The back of the garden opened into the back field and had a covered walk leading to the newly constructed Jesuit Residence just a stone’s throw away to the left. Today the road going to the Jesuit Residence has replaced this nice garden.

There was a fishpond with flowing water next to this walk, to your right as you face the Jesuit house. The pond has been filled in and is now the site of the present covered walk between the Jesuit Residence and Xavier Hall.

The center hallway of the wooden two-winged main building had sliding iron gates. This led to a garden in the quadrangle. The left and right hallways inside had open stairs on both sides going up to a center porch and hallway of the second floor. There were also corner stairs on both sides of the building, aside from the open back stairs at the end of each wing.

The library was on the second floor of the left wing. Below the library was the Zoology laboratory. A decade later the back of the Zoo lab on the ground floor had become the college guidance counselor’s office. The finance office was on the left side as you came in the entrance. Next to it was the book store run by Mr. Segundo Wagas, who was also assistant to the Dean of Discipline. He used to collect the attendance slips at the chapel during college retreats. At the end of the left side and next to the stairs was the ladies‘ lounge.

At the right wing on the ground floor was the office of the high school guidance counselor. The right wing had an open side door which led to the statue of the Sacred Heart located between this building and the gym. The chemistry laboratory was located at the end of the right wing on the ground floor. There were other offices and classrooms in the building.

The third floor of this main building had a slanted roof, so that all rooms here were really attic-like half-rooms. The left wing of the building used to house the Jesuit fathers and the dormitory of several working students, all male of course. The third floor of the right wing had offices of the high school extra-curricular activities like the Blue Eagle paper and others.

For many years the favorite place for yearbook group pictures was the front steps of the Jesuit Residence, then known as the Faculty House. To the left was an open-air mini-lawn planted with green-and-yellow sword-like plants along the outer wall of the front garden within. It has been cemented and roofed since then and is now the garage of the Jesuit community. To its left was the original garage, now the bodega of the property custodian. The only school vehicle then was the Jesuit car.

Decades ago the side of the wall of the front garden was opened up to provide an entrance with a ramp when the front lobby of the Jesuit house was converted into the finance office, which later became a classroom. This year the front lobby has been reclaimed from the university and turned back into a reception area of the Jesuit Residence.

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14. THE ATENEO DE ZAMBOANGA TODAY

100 Years of Jesuit Education

The Escuela Catolica of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in 1912 has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a parochial school. This year we celebrate its 100 years of service in the field of Catholic education. Little did Fr. Manuel Sauras imagine the modest school he started becoming a major university today with almost 7,000 students at all levels.

Before and after the war, the Ateneo de Zamboanga was always identified as “The School for Boys.” All high school productions in those days usually featured an all-boys cast, even if there were female roles. Future movie actor Philip Gamboa (HS 66) portrayed Lady Macbeth by wearing a long-haired wig. His classmates used to joke that he was the prettiest Lady Macbeth of all. Those were the days when the all-boys Ateneo got together with the all-girls Pilar College only at the Junior Senior Prom. Those were the days when the boys had to learn how to ride a bicycle to go to far-away Pilar College to eyeball the girls, long before the term “eyeball” became fashionable.

In 1984 girls were accepted for the first time in the grade school junior prep classes. Twenty-two girls were part of the Grade Six graduating class in March 1992. They became the first batch of girls to study at the high school. College classes from the very beginning have always been coeducational. 1992 was the year the Ateneo de Zamboanga became a fully inclusive, catholic, universal school for boys and girls, men and women.

The long road to university status began as early as the 1930s. There is an account of the 1932 college tuition of P20 per semester, payable in three installments. In 1938 there were night classes in Commerce and Pre-Law. After the war, college classes began again in 1952, when Pre-Law and Associate in Arts two-year college programs were offered.

Today there are numerous courses offered in the School of Liberal Arts, the School of Management and Accountancy, the School of Education and the College of Nursing and College of Science and Information Technology. The graduate school with its various masters and doctorate programs was established in 1976. The Zamboanga Medical School Foundation, Inc. was established in 1994, producing its first doctors in 1999. The foundation became the AdZU School of Medicine in 2004.

In 2006 the high school transferred to a bigger 8-hectare campus at Tumaga. The grade school will eventually have to transfer there to decongest the La Purisima campus. In 2011 the 4-story Fr. Manuel M. Sauras Hall was constructed to house the new College of Law and the school canteen.

The first building constructed at the post-war Ateneo campus was a three-story double-winged wooden building in 1949. It is now gone. In its place stands one wing of the Learning Resource Center and the Canisius science wing. Today the oldest structure on campus is the wooden gym-auditorium, built in 1950. For almost a decade these two were the only structures on campus. Pictures show us that in those days the campus road entered Gate 1 and exited through Gate 2. The land going out Gate 3 was not yet part of the Ateneo property, and there was no Gate 3 then. This was purchased later. Today we have five gates and a parking lot along Nuñez Street.

In 1959 the Jesuit Residence was constructed. At that time it was easily one of the most modern buildings in the city. The Ateneo then was surrounded on all sides by wooden houses. All business establishments, stores and offices were located downtown at Guardia Nacional Street (today Climaco Avenue) and the market area. The public market was the parking area of all public transportation jeepneys, buses and calesas. Believe it or not, traffic congestion was unheard of then.

In 1961 the Sacred Heart Chapel was erected. Its clean lines and well-ventilated architecture served the Ateneo community very well these past 50 years. Many will surely miss this original and open design of the old chapel. Today a new Spanish-colonial-times inspired University Church of the Sacred Heart stands in its place to welcome the centennial year. The new and imposing statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is made of beautiful batikuling wood, an Asian hardwood and was carved by Luisito Ac Ac of Paete, Laguna. It is the same wood used by Jose Rizal to make a statue of the Virgin Mary when he was at the Ateneo.

The original Sacred Heart of Jesus statue at the façade of the chapel has now been transferred to the ground on the right side. This statue with outstretched arms resembles the famous Christ of the Andes statue located at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which is one of the new seven wonders of the world. It is 38 meters tall and is the second largest statue of Christ in the world.

Until this year, there used to be a 29-year-old clump of yellow Chinese bamboo next to the chapel. I planted this in 1983, when I was the college guidance counselor and chaplain. No one thought of preserving or transferring this shady and beautiful grove during the construction of the new church.

Ninoy Aquino was assassinated in 1983. It was the year some of us unofficially named the AdZ main campus road the Ninoy Aquino Avenue, in honor of his martyrdom. I may probably be the only one who remembers this at all.

From the 1950s all the way to the late 1970s, the Ateneo campus consisted of a row of buildings – the two grade school one-story classroom buildings, the gym, the main wooden building – sandwiched between the field in front of the chapel and the back field. Up to the 1980s, college classes were held at the high school and grade school classrooms when the primary and secondary classes ended by early afternoon. This stopped after numerous complaints from grade school and high school teachers about going to messy classrooms the next day.

The St. Peter Claver wooden structure next to Gate 3 used to be a two-story house. This was part of the additional 1.5 hectares bought in September 1947. The Saavedra family who owned this house stayed for some more years before moving away. In the late 1970s and early 1980s the office of the college student counselor was located here. The decaying second story was later removed and the remaining structure became the SACSI office. This year the structure is scheduled for demolition.

Next to the back field is the Jesuit Residence, which used to be known as the Faculty House. On September 21, 1968 some of us students watched the sheet-covered body of 46-year-old Fr. Alfred Orth, teacher of Theology, Philosophy and English, being carried out of the lobby of the Faculty House.

There used to be a nice fishpond between this house and the old main building. There was another fishpond and grotto at the back of the Sacred Heart Chapel. Today these are all gone, although we still have a former tilapia fishpond at the backyard of the Jesuit Residence teeming with colorful koi or Japanese carp.

Gonzaga Hall was built in 1964 and Canisius Hall in 1967. Berchmans and Kostka Halls in the grade school were built in 1972. In 1979 the Bellarmine-Campion Building was constructed on the front field. This administration building was used for the high school classes. Today it houses a few administrative offices and some college classes. The building is used mostly by the College of Nursing. A statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus used to stand where Gonzaga Hall is today, between the gym and the wooden main building, whose attic-like third floor used to be the Jesuit Residence. Nobody remembers what ever happened to this statue.

This wooden main building has since been torn down, and Canisius Hall and half of the Learning Resource Center now stand on its site. The LRC now occupies what used to be an open basketball court near Gate 3 and a road from the Jesuit Residence going straight to the chapel. This building was put up over the road in 1987, during the Ateneo’s Diamond Jubilee.

It was also during this time that a wooden formation-seminar house was constructed behind the Jesuit Residence. It was named after Fr. Jose Ma. Rosauro, the last Jesuit parish priest of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral. During this centennial year, this building will be replaced by a new social development formation dormitory building, also to be named the Fr. Jose Ma. Rosauro Hall.

2001 saw the construction of a 4-story pre-fabricated building now named Xavier Hall, after being known for 11 long years as the New College Building. The multi-purpose covered courts was also finished that year, and AdZ became a university the same year.

2012 will be an even more significant year, because by the centennial year’s end it will have three new structures on campus: the AdZU College of Law at Fr. Sauras Hall, the reconstructed University Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Fr. Jose Ma. Rosauro Hall. A fourth building will be the new covered courts at the high school campus donated by the Nepomuceno family of Pampanga.

The original front lobby of the Jesuit Residence has been reclaimed from the university and the rest of the ground floor will have individual rooms for the very senior citizens who now cannot go up and down the stairs. This centennial year will go down in AdZU history as “The Year of the AdZU Super Building Boom.”

From the two post-war buildings of the early 1950s to the five structures of 50 years ago to the present twenty structures on campus, the Ateneo de Zamboanga has come a long way. The wide open fields of 1946 and the relaxed campus atmosphere of the decades after the war are now gone, so are the whistling pine trees that used to line the main campus road. These decades-old agojo trees have slowly been replaced by acacia, narra and mahogany trees.

Back then, there was hardly any vehicle on campus, and there was no need of any parking area. There were calesas and a few jeepneys for public transportation, but no expensive tricycle fares, no noisy motorcycles, no pollution, no traffic, no congested one-way streets and no bumper-to-bumper parking on campus.

The cement benches below the trees where the guys gathered to watch the coeds go by in their all-white uniforms (with AdeZ embroidered on the upper left pocket) have also been replaced by kiosks and crowded parking areas. The coeds with the mini-skirts of the 1960s never went anywhere without folders to modestly cover their legs while climbing stairs or riding jeepneys.

Today the folders are not needed, because the coeds now wear pants and blouses in the blue and white colors of the Ateneo. By the way, those leggy coeds of long ago are now grandmothers. Some years ago the aging Rolling Stones announced a reunion for a world tour. Fans everywhere got excited, and Time Magazine warned people to lock up their grandmothers!

The spacious campus of decades ago has given way to a crowded campus of multi-colored buildings, covered walks and parked vehicles. Security guards were unheard of then, but now their ubiquitous presence is part of campus life. With the guards come their universal motto, “No ID, No Entry.” The only wide-open space left is the back field between the Jesuit Residence and the MPCC, used for ROTC drills in the old days.

On the evening of Thursday, February 28 2002, Fr. Timothy Ngodcho of Bontoc collapsed on campus. He had just returned to the Philippines after earning a double Masters degree from Harvard University. I took him to the hospital for what I thought was a check-up and rest. On Saturday morning, March 2 we were informed that Fr. Tim had died of complications from his diabetes illness. He was 48 years old.

The Ateneo and the city have contributed their share of vocations to the Society of Jesus. Those who have gone ahead and are now resting in peace with God are Frs. Eusebio Salvador, Luis Torralba, Santos Giron, Agustin Natividad and Jesus Lucas. Those active in God’s vineyard are Frs. Candido Lim, Luis David who teaches Philosophy at the Ateneo de Manila, Edwin Castillo who is the chaplain of the high school at AdZU, Randy Lumabao who is superior of the Bukidnon Jesuits and Manny Uy, who is president of the Sacred Heart School, Ateneo de Cebu. Also assigned at the same school is his kababayan, scholastic-regent Roseller Atilano.

Other Zamboangueño Jesuits are Bro. Jeffrey Pioquinto, teaching and doing campus ministry at the Ateneo de Davao high school and scholastic Arthur Nebrao at the Loyola House of Studies, who will be ordained priest next year. Earlier this year, AdZU alumnus Fr. Roberto Boholst of Olutanga was ordained priest and is assigned to East Timor.

On March 13, 1982 I was ordained priest by Bishop Federico Escaler SJ at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Chapel of the Ateneo de Zamboanga, the first and only ordination ever of a Zamboangueño Jesuit here. I teach Philosophy and Religious Studies here at AdZU. On July 30, 2012 we Zamboangueño Jesuits came home for the launching of the AdZU Centennial Jubilee Year, a once-in-a-lifetime reunion.

Scholastics Jereme Asunto and Arman Samonte are the present regents assigned to the high school. Regents these past few years were Patrick Vance Nogoy, Fernando Abing, Neupito Saicon and Ruben Orbeta, who are still studying for the priesthood. Past regents who are now ordained priests are Frs. Ulysses Cabayao, Richard Ella, Francis Alvarez, Jason Dy, Oliver Dy, Irvin Salanio, Victor De Jesus, Rene Tacastacas, James Gascon, Manuel Perez, Antonio Moreno, Manuel Francisco, Louie Catalan, Danilo Gozar and Bong Abad Santos.

Those who got ordained but later became diocesan priests are Frs. Carmelo Caluag, Carlos Llagas, Jack Padua and Maico Rescate. The late Alex Tan was a 1971 regent who got ordained but later left the priesthood.

Other AdZ regents through the years who did not proceed to the priesthood were Percy Chavez, Dexter Sarcilla, Philip Gan, Napoleon Franco, Denis Ryan Cruz, Dante Reburiano, Rene Dimacali, Monching Legaspi, Mike Bulan, Manny Leyran, Derrick Pimentel, Awie Sanchez, Nonie dela Fuente, Mike Tutanes and Alvin Valerio.

The record-holder as the longest staying Jesuit resident on campus is Fr. Jose Bacatan, who has been here since 1975. He was professor, dean and library director for many years. He is responsible for soliciting or purchasing most of the instruments of our noted university brass band. In recognition of his long and faithful service, the university library was named the Fr. Jose Bacatan Library on September 21, 2012.

As the Ateneo de Zamboanga University celebrates its centennial year, we look back with gratitude at our 100 years of service to the Christian faith and to Catholic education in the Philippines. We go back to the words of Fr. Adolfo Nicolas:

“Here is a clear call to depth: how can our universities with all the gifted and highly-trained intellectuals, teachers and researchers in them, promote still deeper reflection and research into these crucial areas (business, finance, culture, the role of the State and politics, the environment, the family, migration, international relations and cooperation, human rights and duties) on which the creation of a better future for the world depends? … How can our Jesuit universities – the word ‘university’ itself shares the same root as ‘universal’ – heed this practical call to universality, breaking out of parochial enclaves of disciplines, departments, universities and even countries to engage in the kind of collaborative work that is a service of the future of our people and our world?” (CIJE).

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15. THE ATENEO DE ZAMBOANGA SCHOOL SEAL

Most Jesuit school seals include the family coat of arms of Iñigo Lopez, who in 1540 founded the Society of Jesus together with six companions. Iñigo was a nobleman who later became St. Ignatius of Loyola (Ignazio Loiolakoa in Basque), patron saint of spiritual retreats and soldiers in the Catholic Church. One of the first companions was later canonized St. Francis Xavier, patron of missions.

The shield of the Casa de Loyola combines two ancient and distinguished families, the Oñaz and the Loyola families. In 1321 seven sons of the Oñaz family fought beside their king with distinction. In recognition of their brave sacrifice, they were awarded a coat of arms – seven red diagonal stripes against a field of gold.

The family of Loyola also fought many wars, and their generosity in feeding their soldiers was such that plenty of food would be left over in the pot, and at night the wolves in the countryside would come to feed. The pot symbolizes the generosity of the Loyola family. Here we remember the Prayer for Generosity of St. Ignatius. The word “Loyola” is a contraction of the Spanish words lobos y olla, wolves and pot.

Everyone knows the blue eagle is the mascot of both the Ateneo de Zamboanga and the Ateneo de Manila. Nobody knows this, but Fr. Eusebio Salvador himself said that AdZ adopted the blue eagle as mascot ahead of AdM.

There was a 1929 Ateneo de Zamboanga seal without the Loyola coat of arms. The name “Ateneo–de–Zamboanga–1929” encircled an eagle with wide-spread wings, its breast covered by a shield. Inside the shield are the letters IHS below a cross. The eagle’s head is turned to the viewer’s left and between the eagle and the shield is a fluttering banner marked “Pro Deo et Patria.”

The American bald eagle was a common symbol during the American Commonwealth era. The design resembles the eagle design on the 20-centavo silver peseta coins used then. These coins continued to be in circulation into the 1960s.

In the 1940s, there was another Ateneo de Zamboanga seal that displayed only the coat of arms of the Casa de Loyola. We can see this in the Beacon yearbooks up to 1949. It was the same seal as that of the Ateneo de Manila today. Interestingly, the motto was only “Deo et Patria” and the seal was not well drawn, making the two wolves look like little dinosaurs pulling something apart.

In 1948 scholastic Eduardo Hontiveros was assigned a regent at the Ateneo de Zamboanga. He was moderator of the Sanctuary Society (mass servers) and the Glee Club. He designed the present school seal sometime in 1949. The new seal is displayed for the first time on the cover of the 1950 Beacon yearbook. This means the university seal is as old as the Brebeuf Gym. Pictures show us this seal was prominently displayed at the center of the wooden main building of the 1950s.

The motto Pro Deo et Patria – for God and Country – above and the name Ateneo de Zamboanga below encircles the design within. The Catholic chapel of the Philippine Military Academy at Baguio also has the same motto.

Above the shield is the monogram of the Society of Jesus. What appear like JHS or IHS are the first three letters of the name of Jesus in Greek – Iota, Eta, Sigma or JES. Below this is a shield with the coat of arms of the Loyola family, presented diagonally from the top left to the bottom right. In the upper right corner of the shield is a cross and a vinta, representing the multi-faith Christian-Muslim culture of Zamboanga. In the lower left corner is a lighted torch atop an open book, symbolizing the light and knowledge of education.

About thirty years later, while he was our rector at the Loyola House of Studies, Ateneo de Manila, I asked Fr. Honti (uncle of Risa and Pia Hontiveros) why the Loyola seal within contains only four red bars instead of the seven bars. He smilingly and sheepishly admitted he did not know enough heraldry then and that he did not have enough space to put in all seven red bars. Fr. Honti had by this time become the famous composer of many widely-sung Pilipino liturgical songs.

There were attempts to correct the error. The 1951 Beacon yearbook displayed the seal with the correct seven bars on its cover. The 1953 yearbook also has this seal inside, so does the 1959 yearbook. This means that the decade of the 1950s used the AdZ seal with the correct seven bars. The 1963 Beacon has pictures of the gym and its stage displaying the correct seal plus two other versions of the seal inside the same yearbook. Subsequent yearbooks show that the seal reverted back to the four bars and it has remained like this to the present.

Many years later I brought this matter to the attention of Fr. William Kreutz, who said this cannot be corrected anymore, as the seal has been registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Sometime in 1967, I was in college when I tried another font for the school name and motto surrounding the seal. Those were the days long before computers. The relettering was done by hand with a Speedball lettering pen and black India ink. This changed font has stayed on the seal since then. We can compare the present version with the older version by looking at the seal above the statue of St. Ignatius at the quadrangle of the Bellarmine-Campion Building.

The kneeling statue of St. Ignatius offering up his sword used to be next to the campus ministry office at the right front of the Sacred Heart Chapel. It stayed there for about six years but could hardly be noticed because of all the covered walks around the campus. Somebody even nicknamed the school the Ateneo de Covered Walks. The statue was eventually transferred to the center of the front campus this centennial year and is now very visible and prominent, as it should be. This statue is embossed on all AdZU graduation rings.

AdZU has a Centennial Logo for the year’s celebration. It features the AdZU seal and a prominent multi-colored vinta sail with the IHS monogram, both supported by the number 100. It was designed by student Cedrick Zabala in 2009.

The seal of the Ateneo de Zamboanga University is the symbol of its identity as a Jesuit university forming men and women for God and country, no matter what creed they hold. We hope its lofty ideals become internalized in the hearts, minds and lives of all its faculty, staff, students and alumni.

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16. MAGA ORGULLO DE ZAMBOANGA

Antes cuando tiempo del maga Español, tiene sila maga cañon na Fort Pilar.

Tiene cañon grande, tiene cañon diutay. Estos cañones de guerra para protégé

con el pueblo y ta usa contra maga pirata. El cañon diutay ta llama sila lantaka.

Nuay mas aora maga guerra o pirata, por eso ya queda ya lang ese decoracion na hotel.

Puede ser tiene sirvi ele maskin na tiempo del paz.

During the Spanish times long ago, they had cannons at Fort Pilar.

There were big cannons and small cannons. These cannons of war protected the city

and were used against the pirates. The small cannon is called the lantaka.

Since there are no more wars or pirates today, the lantaka has become a hotel decoration.

It serves a purpose even in times of peace.

Tiempo del guerra contra maga Japon, ya ocupa sila el deaton adorable pueblo de Zamboanga.

Tiene sila maga armas y maga grande cañon. Cuando ya arria ya con el maga Japon despues

del guerra, ya planta kita con de ila dos grande cañon na punta del Cawa-Cawa Boulevard.

Estos maga cañon abandonado ya queda un atracion para na maga visita y turista.

Ya llama con estos cañones “Guns of Aggression.”

Despues del cuatro decada, el Ñor Roseller Lim ya despacha con estos cañones,

y el Cawa-Cawa aora ya queda RT Lim Boulevard ya.

Ya ginda el maga cañon alla na Abong-Abong para guardia el tumba de Cesar Climaco.

Embes de armas de guerra, sila aora ta guardia con un heroe y martir de Zamboanga.

During the war against the Japanese, they occupied our beloved city of Zamboanga.

They brought guns and big cannons. When we drove out the Japanese after the war, we displayed two of their big cannons at the end of Cawa-Cawa Boulevard.

These abandoned guns became an attraction for visitors and tourists.

We called them the “Guns of Aggression.”

After four decades, Roseller Lim replaced these cannons, and Cawa-Cawa is now RT Lim Blvd.

The cannons were sent to Abong-Abong to guard the tomb of Cesar Climaco.

Instead of being weapons of war, they now guard the hero and martyr of Zamboanga.

El deverasan fuerza de Zamboanga hende galeh hecho de hierro

Sino hecho de laman y sangre y corazon animao de su pueblo.

Bien claro gayot este na vida de canda Senador Roseller Lim pati Mayor Cesar Climaco.

Saluda kita con estos maga buen ejemplo de Zamboangueño.

Si el Zamboanga de antes amo el orgullo de Mindanao

Si Roseller pati si Cesar el maga orgullo de Zamboanga.

The real strength of Zamboanga is not made of steel

It is made of the flesh and blood and spirited heart of its people.

This was very clear in the lives of Senator Roseller Lim and Mayor Cesar Climaco.

Let us salute these good examples of Zamboangueños.

If Zamboanga in the past was the pride of Mindanao

Roseller and Cesar are the pride of Zamboanga.

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17. ATENEO DE ZAMBOANGA UNIVERSITY

1912 – 2012 TIMELINE

1912 - Escuela Catolica started as a parochial school of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral along
Zaragoza Street. The church was constructed in 1870.

- Fr. Manuel M. Sauras was director 1912 – 1926.

1916 - The Escuela Catolica became the Ateneo de Zamboanga.

1928 - Establishment of the high school.

1930 - Fr. Thomas Murray became parish priest of the cathedral and AdZ director.

1932 - First high school graduation. Roseller T. Lim was the valedictorian.

1938 - Fr. Eusebio Salvador became director of AdZ.

1941 - World War II. AdZ used as a public school during the Japanese occupation.

1945 - End of the war. Zamboanga bombed and leveled to the ground.

1946 - Immaculate Conception Cathedral and AdZ transferred by Fr. Salvador to its present location.

- High school classes resume in sawali structures.

1947 - 1.5 hectares added to the original 2.8 hectare post-war property. AdZ now totaled 4.3 hectares.

1949 - AdZ separated from the cathedral. Fr. Alfredo Paguia became the first director.

- Three-story main building constructed.

1950 - Construction of Brebeuf Gym. It still stands today.

1952 - Post-war college classes began. All college classes are co-educational.

1959 - Three-story Faculty House constructed. Today known as the Jesuit Residence.

1961 - Chapel of the Sacred Heart constructed.

1964 - Gonzaga Hall constructed.

1967 - Canisius Hall constructed.

1972 - Construction of Berchmans and Kostka Halls in the Grade School.

1976 - Graduate school started.

1979 - Fr. Ernesto Carretero became first elected AdZ president on February 25, 1979.

- Cocofed-funded high school Bellarmine-Campion Building constructed.

1982 - Ateneo Computer Center established.

1984 - Girls admitted to kindergarten classes.

- College campus ministry established.

1987 - AdZ’s 75th diamond jubilee.

- Learning Resource Center (LRC) constructed.

- Fr. Jose Ma. Rosauro Formation House also constructed this year.

- SACSI office started by Marivic Cabanes and Lucy Lucas.

1989 - Fr. William Kreutz elected AdZ president.

1991 - Establishment of Ateneo Business Resource Foundation Inc., Institute of Cultural Studies for
Western Mindanao and Ateneo Peace Institute.

1992 - Girls accepted in high school.

1993 - Grade school Fr. Mateo Ricci library-computer-AVR Building constructed.

- Center for Community Extension Services (CCES) established.

1994 - Zamboanga Medical School Foundation (ZMSF) established.

1996 - Office of Personnel Services established.

2001 - Pre-fabricated college building constructed. Named Xavier Hall in 2012.

- Multi-purpose Covered Courts also constructed.

- AdZ becomes a university.

2002 - Ateneo Research Office established.

2004 - ZMSF became the AdZU School of Medicine.

2006 - High school transferred to Tumaga and named the Fr. WH Kreutz campus.

2007 - Fr. Antonio Moreno elected AdZU president.

2009 - Ateneo Center for Leadership and Governance established.

2011 - Establishment with Xavier University of the AdZU College of Law.

- Fr. Manuel Sauras Hall constructed for the College of Law and school canteen.

- Construction of Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

2012 - Centennial Year officially launched July 30.

- Centennial Square stalls constructed.

- AdZU main campus named the Fr. Eusebio G. Salvador campus.

- Dedication and blessing of the new church by Bishop Julius Tonel of Ipil.

- Nepomuceno Covered Courts constructed in high school.

- Social development-formation-dormitory building constructed behind the Jesuit Residence and
renamed the Fr. Jose Ma. Rosauro Hall.

- Library named the Fr. Jose Bacatan Library.

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Ateneo de Zamboanga Centennial

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Ateneo de Zbga at 100

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