100 Years of Love and Service

Yesterday the University of the Visayas formally opened its year-long centennial anniversary celebration.

It’s been 100 years since my father, Papa Inting, started his little school, the Visayan Institute. His main purpose for the school is to give the children of poor peasants to have a chance of getting an education, so that their families may have a better life. That purpose has not changed in all those 100 years.

I’ve come to realize that the family “mission” put forth by our parents with the school cannot end with us second-generation Gullases.  It has to be passed on to the next generation, and the next and so on, for as long as there are still poor students burning with desire for education. In which case, there will always be these poor students to help.

From a rented building for classrooms, the huge grounds of the now Cebu Normal University for physical education classes, the Cebu City Library for his students’ library, Papa’s small school has grown to become the first university in Cebu. The University of the Visayas is now an eight-campus academic institution, producing countless graduates that are making names for themselves all over the world. They have found their places under the sun, so to speak. The individual lives of these successful Visayanians are undoubtedly much improved than it would have been if UV were not there.

Recently, the accreditation team from Manila expressed was impressed by the improvements they saw in the University – the improved physical structures, the well-equipped classrooms, conference rooms, library, auditorium, science laboratories, façade and entrance hall that very well complement the high-quality classroom instruction and modern learning facilities for students.  The programs of the different departments like Pharmacy, Business Administration, Criminal Justice Education, Education, Arts and Sciences and Computer Studies got positive comments on the 10 focus areas evaluated, including a review of the institution’s philosophy and objectives, faculty holdings, quality of instruction, laboratory, research, library, personnel services, community extension, physical plant and university administration.

The University’s centennial celebration this year we dedicate to Papa Inting, its founder, and Mama Pining, co-founder. Papa was a lawyer by profession but an educator at heart. Mama was his inspiration and biggest supporter.

We the second generation of Gullases – my brother Eddie, my sister Inday Sering and myself – only watered and nurtured the seeds that our parents sowed.  Whatever has become of UV now would have been without Papa and Mama’s initiative. And yet we know that the ground on their drawn path for us still awaits fresh footprints to be made.

With the blessings of our constant companion Señor Santo Niño, whose feast we celebrate this month in Cebu, the protective arms of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the watchful eyes of Mama Mary, and the tender touch of my brother Msgr. Teofilo Camomot, we promise to continue to improve, innovate and to be responsive to the academic needs of our students.

The University’s centennial celebration is aimed at fostering deeper kinship among Visayanians, here and all over the world, who are as grateful to our parents as siblings are.

Happy 100 years to UV and to all green-blooded Visayanians – Let’s keep the UV Spirit burning!