Pascual, 20th UP prexy/ Amazing Ka Imon's story

Over the years, comparative surveys of world universities showed that UP’s preeminent position as an institution of higher learning have faded. Thus, the 20th UP president, Alfredo Pascual, opened his speech at his investiture last week with the commitment to embark on a journey towards making “a Great University in the 21st century.”

The remaking of UP as a great university can only be achieved through individual and collective recognition that the alumni are One UP, the international investment banker said.

This is evident in the One UP attitude among its seven constituent universities and an autonomous college dispersed all over the country; more than 5,000 faculty members, 50,000 undergraduate and graduate students, and 10,000 administrative staff and research, extension and professional staff in 15 campuses, plus over 260,000 alumni scattered across the globe.

UP’s track record in academic excellence is unquestioned. Thirty-four of the country’s 57 National Artists are either UP alumni or faculty members. Thirty-six of the 37 National Scientists are from UP. Alumni lead the prestigious higher education institutions in the land. UP has 20 Commission on Higher Education-recognized centers of excellence and six centers of development. Graduates and constituent universities have been the topnotchers and the best performing schools in the various board exams.

Pascual, 63, forgot to mention that five UP alumni became presidents of the Republic.

He vowed to review the college admission test and socialized tuition and financial assistance and scholarship programs to enable financially strapped students to attend the university. This move should dispel the image of the UP as a school for the elite.

Pascual quoted UP’s first president, Murray Bartlett, who said the university “is not meant to breed aristocrats but unselfish workers for the common good.” UP must also teach all those who go through its corridors that “the honor due any profession is to be judged alone by the measure of its service to the people.”

Such are the demands on us as the national university, said Pascual.

“UP education has endowed us with the priceless teachings and examples of the country’s finest artists, its most brilliant scientists, and its most dedicated teachers. It has also allowed us to learn despite the limited facilities and the antiquated equipment from previous generations. It is the combination of these teachings, this environment, and the UP student’s ingenuity, which sets the UP graduate apart from those of other institutions.”

He praised such alumni for returning to the university what they learned: summa cum laude John Pelias who will teach at the university, and Shamcey Supsup “who has proven that brains, beauty and the desire to teach in UP can reside in one person.”

On the drawing boards is an e-UP system-wide computerization project to improve sharing and accessibility and simplify operations and reduce operational costs. Another is “Green UP,” aimed to make environment-friendly and less costly campus structures. To be started is the crafting of a Master Development Plan covering all campus sites, landholdings, and land grants.

The UP is in need of a bigger budget, and Pascual, like his predecessors, has to humble himself to ask Congress for more funds. “I am emboldened when political leaders led by our senators and representatives, some of whom are here with us today, mobilize resources for our new projects,” he said. “They are among those who believe that UP is a good investment.”

And so UP’s journey to the 21st century begins.

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Remember that ditty about a boy named Felimon who used to fish in the sea and sold his catch in a talipapa? It had a very catchy tune and folksy lyrics that said: “Si Felimon, si Felimon, nangisda sa karagatan...’’

In a way, that song could have been meant for a village boy born into a poor family in Barrio Talaba, Bacoor, Cavite named Felimon Cuevas. Not yet in his teens, Felimon actually fished for food and livelihood in the waters of pre-war Manila Bay.

As a young man in search of his own place in this world, he started his first business by opening a sari-sari store in Parañaque. He also engaged in installment sales of furniture, fancy jewelry and men’s watches and operated a gasoline station. He went into the fishing business again in the waters of Dalahican in Lucena City, but had to abandon the venture after a strong typhoon wrecked his fishing equipment.

His business gradually prospered as he matured and before long, he was into trucking. Starting with one truck, the venture grew into a fleet of 70 tankers that hauled gasoline and other oil products from the depots in Bataan and Pandacan. These were delivered to outlets in Metro Manila, the former US military bases in Clark Field and Subic Bay, Cagayan province and down south in Mactan and Cebu.

 Felimon’s entrepreneurial background and experience were as colorful as they were varied. He was an owner-operator of a gasoline station, wholesaler of Filipino-owned oil companies Filoil and Esso, sales agent of British firm Leyland Motors, Philippine representative of Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and a super sales executive who won contracts for the supply of heavy equipment that included 27 road graders, and 380 dump trucks. He even sold 2,000 Land Rovers to the Defense department and 48 Scorpion tanks to the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Having gained the respect of Leyland Motors executives with his outstanding sales performance, its British owners later offered him the franchise of Amalgamated Motors Philippines, Inc. (AMPI), making it a 100 percent Filipino-owned company. It has since become the nationwide supplier of plastic driver’s license, an innovation that radically transformed the once paper-based licenses.

By all standards, Ka Imon, as he is fondly called today, has become a huge success, a home-grown achiever whom God has gifted with unusual entrepreneurial skills. He also sports the title of Ambassador that was conferred upon him by the late President Ferdinand Marcos who designated him as Special Envoy of the President.

Today, Ka Imon presides over the Cuevas Group of Companies that covers real estate and construction, property development, property management and insurance. The Group’s property assets consist of tower condominiums, supermalls, commercial and residential buildings, apartments, a farm subdivision, a memorial park, two subdivisions in Cavite and the Sulo Residences.

The Group also lists four buildings and tower condominiums in Manila and Las Piñas and recently purchased another condotel in Angeles City. Plans are up for developing another subdivision, a new tower condominium and two more condotels.

 With its Sulo Riviera Hotels in Quezon City and Lucena City and the ongoing construction of a 120-room hotel in Tagaytay City, the Cuevas Group is now positioning itself for the expected kick in the tourism industry.

The idea of slowing down has yet to invade Ka Imon’s thoughts. It seems this ex-village boy from Bacoor is still casting his net for what may be a more satisfying catch as he nears the inevitable “twilight time”.

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