the noble bastard son

A TV news clip sparked it all.  The scene of students protesting in front of the main building of De La Salle Araneta University (DLSAU) brought back lots of mostly fond memories.  The students were demanding among other things the stepping down of their university president.  It was déjà vu, actually, of events that happened a year and a quarter of century earlier.   

This ultimately prompted my revisit to my old school, the Gregorio Araneta University Foundation (GAUF).  May be, some of my recollection is fading but I hope I still get my facts straight.  Others may deem these anecdotal since I’d only heard them from then university old timers, leaders of the faculty and employees’ unions and fellow student activists.    

He was the son that he never had.  I can’t imagine how extreme the sadness and desperation that Don Salvador Zaragosa Araneta felt after he and his wife successively had five daughters but not a son.  The desperation, I believe, was so great that he decided to create a surrogate son.  And that’s how GAUF came to life, which clearly hinted what career he would have wanted his real son to pursue.

Actually, he didn’t have to go that far if all he wanted was a real son, but he was a very noble man.  That nobility was borne out from  being a very rich man—even in today’s standards when a number of Filipinos are listed in Forbes’ top billionaires in the world—and every inch a ladies’ man.  Apart from being a topnotch lawyer-constitutionalist, he was a member of the 1933 and 1971 Constitutional Conventions that framed our two previous constitutions; he was also one of the pioneers of Philippine industries.  He was a spearhead in the development of our flour industry (RFM[1]), animal feeds (AIA[2] Feed Mills), animal vaccines (AIA Biological Laboratories), electric motors (FEATI[3] Industries) among other industries, when the Philippines was second to Japan in terms of economic development in Asia in the 1950s.  He also founded FEATI University after GAUF was established to train principally the pilots and mechanics of the FEATI Industries.  (Wikipedia 2013)

If his wife could not give him a son, he could have done a Henry VIII and sired one, or more, outside wedlock without encountering a hitch, I’m sure.  There won’t be a scarcity of willing women, including pedigreed ones, given his stature.  His nobility, of course, was unlike that of the English king and, maybe, he could not bear to cheat on his wife, Doña Victoria Ledesma Lopez, out of absolute respect and love.   He instead opted to “sire” GAUF and bequeathed him with equal inheritance that he gave to his five daughters. 

However, unlike children of noble birth, GAUF never had a royal existence, which by virtue of the nobility of his birth and its material endowments, it should have.  I’ve briefly explained above this noble birth; let’s now look into his inheritance, which various sectors of the university in the past believed was the cause of his very far from royal existence and early demise.

The Araneta couple had divided their conjugal wealth into six equal parts; five parts went to their daughters and the last part went to their university-son to ensure his existence.  For this particular purpose, GAUF inherited among others the sprawling 25-hectare campus together with the buildings and other needed amenities in Victoneta Park, Malabon and the 74-hectare SALIKNETA (Saliksikan Araneta) farm in San Jose del Monte City in Bulacan.  The former practically spanned the Mac Arthur Highway in Potrero, Malabon from one end and the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) on the opposite end.  The latter formed part of the requisite of at least 100 hectares land reservation that permitted GAUF to offer agriculture and forestry programs for which he had become renowned. 

His yearly incomes, mainly from the tuition and other fees that the students paid, were practically for his upkeep and for the salaries and wages of his personnel.  Unlike his siblings, he practically did not have a traditional family to support and a social status that the rich are forced to maintain to keep up with the Joneses, so to speak.  His children, that in a broader sense were what the students were to him, were different from the usual and real children typical parents have—just as he was from other sons.  They, in a way, were practically paying him to be their father and help them mold their lives, in general, and lay the foundation of their professional careers, in particular.

When I transferred in the summer of 1984 to finish my undergraduate program in agriculture that I failed to earn in UP Los Baños after nearly seven years, GAUF had degenerated to just a mere shadow of what he formerly was a decade earlier.  Enrollment was down to less than 4,000 from the nearly 20,000 in the 70s.  Broken window panes, the result of student unrests from the First Quarter Storm onwards according to my then former student council secretary-landlady, remained unrepaired.  The main building, whose balanggay-inspired rooftop—well, that’s the impression it evokes as I look on it—is visible from the NLEx, looked old and jaded.  His forestry and veterinary medicine graduates, though, were still among the best in yearly board exams. 

After I left in September 1987 to join a Central Luzon peasant organization in their democratic struggles, the deterioration was more pronounced.  I’d heard that the sites of the piggery and poultry facilities and the engineering institute, as well as part of the University Grandstand and Parade Ground, were gone to pay longstanding loans he incurred.  University operations were rationalized and confined mainly to the remaining facilities surrounding the main building in the greatly reduced 4-hectare campus.

It’s glaringly evident that it was not only his physical plant that was neglected; his finances were also a mess.  His indebtedness was not limited to the banks—which was unusual from a typical rich man—but, of all people, to his faculty members and non-teaching personnel.  Imagine, a big landlord is indebted to his tenants and farmhands!  This was in spite of his huge endowments and the practically regular increases in tuition and other fees imposed on the students.

This pitiful predicament provoked the various sectors of the university—students, faculty members, employees and alumni—to accuse the school administration of doing a hatchet man’s job for the Araneta sisters to deliberately mismanage and lead the university to bankruptcy.  During my initial stint in the Supreme Student Council (SSC) as Vice President for External Affairs in school year 1985-86, I’d heard from the faculty and employees unions’ officers that GAUF had always been considered by the Araneta sisters as their bastard brother.  They claimed that the sisters strongly resented the fact that their inheritances were significantly affected by his establishment.  This made them to conclude that the latter were bent to see him bankrupt, which, in turn, would warrant his closure by the government.  If that happened, whatever is left of his remaining inheritance would revert back to the sisters since the government would most likely opt not to sustain his operations given its own problems with existing state colleges and universities.  As a foundation, his remaining inheritance will not go back automatically to the sisters but would, only if the government decides not to continue his operations as a university.

With the benefit of hindsight, let’s us look into this allegation. 

The Board of Trustees (BOT) was the highest policy and decision making body of the university but the other equally important stakeholders, like the students, alumni, faculty members and employees, did not have any representation, not even ex-officio, in this august body.    There’s another structure above the BOT, though, whose sole function that I knew of was to determine and appoint the composition of the BOT.  This structure was called the Visitators and was headed by the Supreme Visitator.  The visitators and the BOT members came from three “sectors”:  the Araneta family, the Catholic Church and the government; three BOT members were supposed to come from each of these sectors.  This structure, as I saw it, was more of a ceremonial rather than a line organ that had specific authority and responsibilities and performed definite functions.    

The late Jaime Cardinal Sin was still the Supreme Visitator when I was elected president of the SSC in school year 1986-87 and I had the opportunity to meet, separately though, some of the BOT members but not him.  He appointed Fr. Varela SJ, whose first name I could not recall anymore but was obviously from the Ateneo de Manila University, and Bro. Rolando Dizon FSC, who was then president of the De La Salle University and was later appointed BOT chair.

The visitator from the Araneta family, if I’m not mistaken, was Mrs. Ma. Victoria Araneta-Concepcion, one of the five daughters of Don Salvador.  One of her appointees was her husband, Mr. Jose Concepcion, who was a long time BOT Chair until he resigned and replaced by Bro. Dizon after the resolution of the longest protest actions in GAUF’s history, which was highlighted by barricades staged by the SSC and allied student organizations, faculty and employees’ unions and alumni association and capped by the more than 20-day hunger strikes by selected student leaders that resulted in the ouster of the university president in 1987.  Mr. Concepcion was also then Board Chair and CEO of RFM and gained national prominence as the chair of NAMFREL during the Snap Presidential Election in 1986 but this was tarnished, in a way, when NAMFREL attested to the absence of irregularity during the 2003 elections when Gloria “I Am Sorry” Macapagal-Arroyo was declared president.  He was also the DTI secretary in the Cory cabinet.  Contrary to common perception that he’s a Green Archer because of his prominent presence during DLSU basketball games in the UAAP, he’s actually a GAUF alumnus.  I had that impression until I was corrected by the union officers. 

Her other appointee was Mr. Jesus Tambunting, majority owner and Board Chair/CEO of Planters Development Bank.  In a meeting he had with the officers of the SSC, alumni association and faculty and employees’ unions that comprised the University Rehabilitation Task Force (URTF) that was formed and tasked to identify solutions to the problems plaguing GAUF that were highlighted during the protest actions, he frankly admitted that his BOT seat was the result of the Php4-million (I hope my memory still serves me well) character loan he extended to the university on the representation of Mrs. Araneta-Concepcion.  Just as he shared during that meeting, I believed, he gave up his seat when this loan was repaid with the lot that formed part of the University Grandstand and Parade Ground.

The visitator representing the government was the late Ambassador Narciso Ramos, father of former President Fidel V. Ramos.  One of his appointee was his daughter, then our ambassador to Australia, Mrs. Leticia Ramos-Shahani.  The other BOT member coming from the government was Mr. Mr. Romeo Acosta, who was then the incumbent president of the GAUF Alumni Association and the planning director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.  He topped the Forestry board exams during his time.

I can’t recall the third appointees from each of the sectors maybe because I never met them or heard of them during my two-year stay in the SSC.  It’s not of course possible that the visitators were also BOT members for it won’t make sense not to have the Supreme Visitator as the BOT Chair, too.

But the enumerated BOT members alone already made up a very impressive list.  They were absolutely, without doubt, captains of their respective industries and professions.  RFM and the Planters Development Bank may not be as huge as their counterparts and competitors today but they remained highly competitive and are forces to reckon with in their respective industries.  This can be attributed in large part to the business savvy and acumen of Mr. Concepcion and Mr. Tambunting, respectively.  Bro. Dizon and Fr. Varela had definitely contributed invaluably to the present stature of DLSU and AdMU, respectively, which are undoubtedly the best and leading private universities in the country.  Mrs. Shahani made her marks not only in international diplomacy but also in education and politics as a senator.  She was once a dean at the Lyceum of the Philippines and at Miriam College and held teaching posts in UP and other US colleges.  Mr. Acosta held various positions in the DENR, aside from being a part-time professor at the GAUF Graduate School.  There is no reason therefore to doubt their competence and ability to manage the strategic direction of GAUF and oversee his day-to-day operations.  In fact, he’s such a small entity compared to the companies and institutions they’d managed or ran.

When viewed against this backdrop, the imputation that he was deliberately mismanaged would gain credence.  It’s really hard to believe that GAUF would go under under their collective watch.  RFM, Planters Development Bank, AdMU and DLSU continue to flourish to this day in spite of the competitions coming from old and upstart corporations, banks and universities—not only locally but globally.   Was it then possible that the BOT and the visitators had willingly allowed this to happen and played along in the perpetration of the alleged selfish end of the Araneta sisters?

The operative words here are: willingly allowed.  Personally, I believed, there might be some who did but I would like to believe that it was done unwittingly more than anything else.  Looking back, I think that not all BOT members attended and intensively took part in their meetings.  This reminded me of the BOTs of some NGOs—also non-stock, non-profit foundations like GAUF—that I worked for where 100% attendance was rare and the quality of the discussions left a lot to be desired.  In the first NGO I joined after I left working directly with peasant organizations at the beginning of the 1990s, I was made to attend some of its BOT meetings to document and later prepare the minutes (of the meetings), so, I know where I speak of.  A number would even send their proxies, who hardly contributed to discussions, instead of themselves personally attending these important organizational activities.  In fact, I myself once stood as one for a colleague who thought I could contribute better in the discussions on that NGO’s development project that was being implemented among the Aetas of Pampanga—well, I knew a lot about my province and a little about the Aetas but none about the development project.  It was the BOT members who were like this that unwittingly played a role in the mismanagement of GAUF since they most likely believed that the decisions of their colleagues leading the meetings were the best and most appropriate.    

Actually, I could have had a personal glimpse on the quality of and what transpired during GAUF BOT meetings had I attended a meeting sometime in September 1987 where the students were accorded ex-officio representation for the first time as a result of the recently concluded multi-sector protests—and, as a bonus, I could have had first-hand information of what it’s like inside Forbes Park where the meeting was held in Mr. Concepcion residence.  But I was then on my way out to join a Central Luzon peasant organization and left my residual responsibilities to my Vice President for External Affairs.

My belief that some had, may be, unwittingly supported the move to bankrupt GAUF was also predicated on the analysis advanced by a section of the local student movement that I was part of.  This group, which was privy on some information from a well-informed source in the BOT, opined that the bankruptcy will lead to GAUF becoming a part of DLSU and that the sisters were not really after the return of his inheritance.  I can’t forget the first retort of the university registrar on seeing me in 2005 when I applied for a copy of my diploma, which I needed as a development volunteer in Kenya, that our analysis in 1987 was indeed correct.   GAUF, by then, was already DLSAU for the past three years.  The registrar was the former vice president of GAUF Employees Union.

In the light of this development, how then do we explain the behavior of the Araneta sisters?  For the sake of putting forward an answer, I’ll take off from the contention of the faculty and employees unions’ officers that the sisters resented his establishment and they considered him their bastard brother.  All they’re after was to erase the trace of their father’s “infidelity”.  And by becoming the seventh member of the De La Salle System, he lost his identity and had ceased to be the sixth child of Don Salvador Araneta.

We can only surmise as to the true motivation of the Araneta sisters.  But, I can say with conviction that with their actions, they’d done their father grave wrong.  They deprived him a more endearing and lasting legacy and a better showcase of his nobility.  John Gokongwei practically paid the AdMU—he provided endowments—to have its business college named after him, the John Gokongwei School of Management.  Henry Sy and Lucio Tan bought the National University and the University of the East, respectively.  They’ve done this obviously for the prestige more than anything else; if it’s profits that they’re after, they could have placed their money in better profit yielding business ventures.

It would be the height of naiveté for the sisters to claim that this was precisely their motivation in allowing GAUF to be the seventh member of the DLS System.  I believed, even before he “sired” GAUF, Don Salvador already had a clear vision for his university-son.  His foundation status, the first university to have one in the country, is an undeniable proof of this among others.  When he became part of the DLS System, this vision was lost since GAUF as DLSAU will now be following the vision-mission-goals of the DLS System.  It’s true, it remains as an educational institution offering practically the same academic programs, but DLSAU is a different animal, so to speak, from GAUF.  All its programs and activities will all now be directed to the attainment of the strategic direction of the DLS System and enable it to be at par with UP and other leading universities.

This “merger” could not be as “simple” as one between two banks where the ultimate objectives when they were set up by the owners would all boil down to profits.  It’s true that both GAUF and the DLS System shared the objective of providing education to the Filipino youth.  But the VMGs of the De La Salle Brothers (System) will never be the same as that of Don Salvador for his son.

When GAUF was transformed into DLSAU and became the seventh member of the DLS System, he ceased to be the sixth child, albeit bastard son, of Don Salvador.  With this development, it’s practically goodbye to his vision and dreams for his son.  All his investments were lost and are now delivering “ROI” (return on investment) to De La Salle brothers not to the vision of Don Salvador.

It appears that history is being repeated, though, as student unrests appear to be on the rise anew on what is being passed off as his son more than a decade after his demise.  When we ousted the university president and with Bro. Dizon at the helm in1987, I thought it would be a rosy horizon for the bastard son from that point on.  But, there was the change in name and more in 2002, and heard practically the same woes from the faculty and employees in 2005.  And lastly, I saw that TV footage.

  As soon as I overcame that eerie feeling on seeing that scene, the first thing that I asked myself was: “Is this a portent of the things to come?”  If it was, then, may be, it was karma. 

Why karma?  When I navigated the DLSAU website, I can’t help but feel betrayed; that Bro. Dizon dealt and negotiated in bad faith with the GAUF community when we discussed university rehabilitation in the URTF after the 1987 protest actions.  All along I thought that we, in the URTF, really wanted to see GAUF rehabilitated.  But this particular passage in DLSAU’s Home Page triggered this feeling of betrayal and bad faith:  “Integration of the university to the DLS System started since 1987and in 2002 became an official member of the system.”   Will I be faulted if I say that all those consultations with the different sectors and their participation in special and permanent bodies of the university were all for a show?  This statement does not lie, as early as 1987, maybe even earlier; the decision was already made to “kill” the bastard son.  They could not make it operational maybe because they felt the student movement was still strong and could still make noises.  But after they were able to deprive the students with the “weapons” which in the past advanced and protected their democratic welfare and rights—the SSC and the student paper—they were able to complete their plan.   

Had this not been the case, then the De La Salle brothers could have acted as true selfless missionaries, which all religious missionaries are supposed to be, by acting as surrogate parents of the bastard but noble son of Don Salvador.  They could have harnessed the different sectors and stakeholders in turning him into the best De La Salle-administered university instead of subsuming him into their system.  They can still accomplish their noble mission of educating and molding the minds of the Filipino youth given this set up.  Apparently, they found it worthier to have a seventh member in their system so that they could be at par and compete better for recognition and prestige with the leading universities in the country and abroad than to help to perpetuate the legacy of a selfless and noble man by supporting his bastard son to manage himself and survive.

If the unrests would escalate further, I would assume this is Don Salvador’s ghost’s way at getting back at the people who’d done his beloved bastard son wrong.  (30)

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[1] Republic Flour Mills

[2] Araneta Institute of Agriculture, initial name of GAUF

[3] Far Eastern Air Transportation, Inc.