An unusual convocation at Capitol University

Capitol University of Cagayan de Oro is located on a 4-hectare campus in the center of town, and another area of similar size houses the hospital where its students of nursing get their training. My first visit to the main campus was several years ago when I attended a booklaunching by a member of their faculty, Antonio J. Montalvan II. My second visit was more recent, and it was an unusual convocation.

The convocation was a special one for the awarding of what was described as that University’s "highest award." The faculty came, not in the traditional academic cap-and-gown, but dressed in the colorful tribal costumes of Mindanao.

It was held in the Gym. The cadets came in, the Colors, the University Mace, and the faculty in their colorful costumes marching to the sound of gongs. The administrative staff who were to occupy the stage (the President, the President Emeritus, the Vice Presidents) were not in tribal costume but in ordinary formal wear, the men in barong but on their shoulder was the Maranao scarf.

One Vice President however, a Muslim scholar, Dr. Nagasura Madale, was in full Maranao costume,

Capitol University is almost entirely Christian, but the reason for the Maranao and tribal motif was the fact that the Awardee was believed to be interested in promoting the study of Mindanao culture.

The Academic Vice President declared the convocation open. The invocation (an Ave Maria) and the National Anthem were sung by the University Glee Club. Then the student dance troupe went into action: a medley of Maranao dances, with the addition of modern acrobatics, a triumph of choreography. The Awardee gave a lecture. Then the awarding.

It was done in three parts. The Citation was read by the University President, Atty. Casimiro B. Juarez Jr. The award itself was read and presented by Dr. Fe Juarez to the Awardee, not on a scroll but inscribed on a large metal platter mounted on a square frame. Finally, most unusual of all, was a singular gift. Dr. Nagasura Madale, Vice President for Research, presented a Maranao kris. The unsheathed kris with its ornate scabbard beside it was in a glass case with a silver frame of Maranao design.

It is said that among the Maranao, when a kris is given as a gift to someone, it is the sign of the highest honor, implying complete trust.

After the Awardee’s brief response the University Anthem was sung, the convocation was closed, the notables marched out under the crossed swords of the cadets, and all the guests repaired to the President’s official residence for a sumptuous reception.

That singularly colorful convocation gives rise to certain reflections. First, it engenders a renewed awareness of the dignity and beauty of certain aspects of aboriginal culture: the costume, the dances, the symbolic gestures.

This awareness of their dignity and beauty is important to counteract the common prejudice among those of us who belong to the dominant culture that our aboriginal peoples are "primitive" and "backward."

Second, a university can do much to engender a respect for tribal people and their culture. In this regard, what Capitol University did in that convocation was exemplary.