Coming home to UV, my beloved
In a few days, I will be visiting again my dearly beloved alma mater, the University of Visayas, the first university in Cebu. Thanks to the kind invitation of Sir Dodong Gullas, my big boss here in The Freeman, together with Sir Eddiegul, the honorable Mayor of Talisay City, and Ma'am Inday Sering (Gliceria Gullas-Lucero) and the entire Gullas clan.
They are my model family, united, never feuding, always caring for each other. I am coming home to UV to discuss our coming grand anniversary celebration with the Gullas family and with the other alumni. I love UV. I love the College of Law. I love the Gullas, especially the late Lady Josefina Rivera-Gullas, the late mother of all Visayanians.
I am particularly visiting the Gullas Law School, the famous law institution founded by a brilliant Bar topnotcher, the late Don Paulino Gullas, and his brother, Don Vicente Gullas, the father of Sir Eddie, Sir Dodong and Ma'am Inday Sering.
I graduated from this law school with Frank Malilong as one of my classmates in 1974. This is the same law school that produced Supreme Court Justice Regino Hermosisima, Court of Appeals Justice Portia Alino-Hormachuelos, now the Dean of the Gullas Law School.
This law school also produced the late Senator Ernesto Herrera, Secretary Cerge Remonde and TUCP President Democrito Mendoza.
The Gullas Law School also produced many Bar topnotchers like the former Dean Teodoro Almase and former Cebu Provincial Attorney Emmanuel Pacquiao (not the boxer senator, of course). Many justices of the Court of Appeals like Pampio Abarintos were also graduates of this law school. There are hundreds, if not thousands of RTC and city and municipal judges, prosecutors, congressmen, governors, and mayors. The late Cebu Governor Francisco Emilio Famor Remotigue from Argao and Ronda, who was a member of the Marcos original cabinet as the DSWD Secretary, also studied in this school of law.
Of course, our most famous alumnus is no less than Mayor Eddiegul who studied law in his family's own law school. We all know that Sir Eddie was the Governor of Cebu for a long time. He is the only governor of Cebu who visited all its barangays. He also became congressman for more than twenty years, representing the old third district, now the first district represented by Sir Eddie's own grandson, Congressman Sam-Sam Gullas. Unknown to many, the former Cebu City Mayor, Mike Rama started his law studies in Gullas Law School in 1978. I know because I was one of his professors. His classmates included the late Cerge Remonde.
Yes, in a few days, I am visiting my beloved alma mater. I shall recall how UV allowed me to finish my law course without paying a single peso. I was a full University academic scholar. UV is my home, my shelter, my refuge. It is in UV that I learned how to speak in public fora, to argue in debates, to be in campus politics. I also honed and developed my writing and journalistic skills. It was also here that I first fell in love and experienced joy, pain, and learned how to live life. It was here that I came to know of the Gullas family, one who remains bound by love and genuine concern for each other. Yes, I learned my law in the Gullas Law School. But more than that, I learned how to understand and enjoy life's many mysteries and surprises.
Being a Visayanian is one of those that really matters most in my life.
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