FORUM July-August 2011 15
Honoring SP Lopez in 2011 By Judy M. Taguiwalo (Editor’s note: This article is based on Dr. Taguiwalo’s welcome remarks at the SP Lopez Birth Centennial Program and Photo Exhibit last May 27 at the Vargas Museum, UP Diliman. Taguiwalo is chair of the SP Lopez Birth Centennial Committee formed by UP President Alfredo Pascual.) May 27 marks the birth centennial of Salvador Ponce Lopez, 11th President of the University of the Philippines. One hundred years after his birth, over 35 years after the end of his term as UP President and 18 years after his death, it is fitting to pay tribute to him and to the continuing relevance of his institutional innovations in our enduring quest for a university whose excellence is in the service of the Filipino people. UP previously honored President Lopez with a testimonial program on November 22, 1990 under then UP President Jose Abueva and with the necrological services on October 20, 1993 under then UP President Emil Javier. The testimonials and eulogies on his life and work given in these occasions have been preserved in official publications of the university.
Lopez’s accomplishments as writer, journalist, diplomat are varied and outstanding. UP’s commemoration of his birth centennial takes these into account. But the main focus of the celebration is on Lopez’s contribution to the strengthening of the university as the premier institution of higher learning in the country at a period of intense social awakening and social conflicts. The SP Lopez presidency is so well characterized as “a presidency responsive not only of the demands of its constituents but also to the aspirations of the Filipino people, most of all, their assertion of freedom. Thus, though encompassing the most turbulent years in the history of the university his administration would nonetheless emerge as one of the most democratic and relevant presidency.” The centennial commemoration of SP Lopez’s birth acknowledges the democratic thrust of his presidency by the fact that the commemoration would involve faculty, students, administrative staff and REPS who are all represented in the centennial committee created by UP’s 20th President, Alfredo Pascual. I was an undergraduate student when SP Lopez
became UP president and my undergraduate diploma bears his signature. I was in the midst of some of the major historic events that confronted SP when he became President. Barely into his first month in office, SP was faced with a general strike on February 4, 1969 when students, faculty and staff presented him with 77 demands. The First Quarter Storm of 1970 occurred during the first anniversary of his Presidency and he did not hesitate to lead the UP faculty in a march to Malacañan Palace to protest the violence inflicted on the students. At the historic Diliman Commune from February 2 to 9, 1971 he stood with the UP community in defending the university from military incursions. Now reading his writings and writings on him, I realize once again how committed he was to protecting the integrity of the university; how well he understood the wellspring of student activism; how hard he worked for ensuring democratic governance of the university and how desirous he was of linking the university’s academic mandate with service to the people. Let us honor SP Lopez by being faithful to his vision of a university in the service of the Filipino people.
TOM INGLIS MOORE, p. 18 news article, The Manila Times (Manila’s first English language daily) described Moore to unfamiliar readers as an “old timer” and a prominent member of Manila’s Pre-World War II intellectual community.24 During his interview with Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) Prof. Doreen Gamboa-Fernandez and former UP Prof. Edilberto Alegre, Yabes summed up what many people thought of Moore right after his post-World War II Manila visit: “And there was a very interesting Australian teacher who had graduated from Oxford—Tom Inglis Moore.”25 By the time Moore left Manila in 1931 to look after his ailing father in Ellensville, New South Wales, his former students became luminaries in various disciplines as well as recipients of scholarships and fellowships from the 1930s to the 1980s as students or panelists in Philippine and international writers workshops hosted by universities in Manila and Dumaguete in the Philippines and Iowa, Washington, Michigan, Massachusetts, California and Kansas, among other places in the United States.26 Manila became a frequent Asian hub and a popular venue for meetings of Southeast Asian artists, writers and scholars.27 F. Sionil Jose recalled how Manila was Southeast Asia’s most modern, most progressive city from the 1900s until the 1970s. Students from the region flocked to many of the city’s schools and universities.28 Wang Gungwu (who authored Pulse, the very first
published collection of poetry in English in Malaysia and Singapore in 1950 long before he became an eminent historian) visited Manila in 1950 to attend a creative writing conference-workshop conducted by Filipino novelist NVM Gonzalez.29 Wang Gungwu recalled his contemporaries, notably the prize-winning Filipino poet and dramatist Virginia Moreno who benefited from the legacy of UP teachers who studied under Moore.30 Wang Gungwu also recalled that with funding and support from American companies and institutions, many Filipino writers were more fortunate to gain access to creative writing and literature programs in American universities. Many of these writers, some turned out to be former students of Moore, returned to the Philippines to develop or produce what became groundbreaking achievements in creative writing, literary, social and cultural studies, very much like SP Lopez.31 ----------------Email the author at jwpcapili@gmail.com.
11 Tom Inglis Moore, “Typhoons and April Showers,” 707. 12 Philippinesian (Annual Publication of the University of the Philippines) (1931). 13 Philippinesian, 1931 ; Gemino H. Abad and Edna Z. Manlapaz, eds., Man of Earth:An Anthology of Filipino Poetry and Verse from English 1905 to the Mid-50s (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1989). Leopoldo Yabes, “Jose Garcia Villa’s Signifi cance in Philippine Poetry” in Contemporary Poets of the English Language, ed. Rosalie Murphy (London: St. James, 1970;1985). 14 National Historical Institute, Filipinos in History (Manila: National Historical Institute 1994), Vol. IV, 192-194. 15 Gemino H. Abad and Edna Z. Manlapaz, Man of Earth: An Anthology of Filipino Poetry and Verse from English 1905 to the mid-50s (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1989), 388. Doreen G. Fernandez and Edilberto N. Alegre, The Writer and His Milieu (Manila: De La Salle University Press, 1984), 154-178. 16 Gemino H. Abad and Edna Z. Manlapaz, Man of Earth, 1989:388. 17 Confederation of Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia (1963). 18 National Historical Institute, Filipinos in History (Manila: National Historical Institute 1994), Vol. IV, 192-194. 19 Doreen G. Fernandez and Edilberto N. Alegre, The Writer and His Milieu (Manila: De La Salle University Press, 1984), 159. 20 Fernandez and Alegre, The Writer and His Milieu, 158. 21 Amador Daguio, The Flaming Lyre (Manila: Craftsman House, 1959). Gemino H. Abad and Edna Z. Manlapaz, Man of Earth (1989), 368. 22 “Bristling Bankrupt”, Time Magazine, November 6, 1950. 23 Pacita Alexander and Elizabeth Perkins, A Love Affair with Australian Literature: The Story of Tom Inglis Moore (Charnwood, A.C.T.: Lake Ginninderra Press, 2004), 130131. 24 The Manila Times, February 24, 1948. Raul Pertierra, Eduardo F. Ugarte, Alicia Pingol, Joel Hernandez and Nikos Lexis Dacanay, Txt-ing Selves: Cellphones and Philippine Modernity (Manila: De La Salle University Press, 2002). 25 Doreen G. Fernandez and Edilberto N. Alegre, The Writer and His Milieu: An Oral History of First Generation Writers in English (Manila: De La Salle University Press, 1984), 313. 26 See Fernandez and Alegre, The Writer and His Milieu (1984). Gemino H. Abad and Edna Z. Manlapaz, eds., Man of Earth: An Anthology of Filipino Poetry and Verse from English 1905 to the Mid-50s (1989). Interview with Wang Gungwu at The East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore, July 12, 2005. 27 Interview with Wang Gungwu at The East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore, July 12, 2005. 28 Interview with Philippine National Artist F. Sionil Jose at Solidaridad Bookshop, Ermita, Manila, June 21, 2004. Interview with Wang Gungwu at The East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore, July 12, 2005. 29 Gonzalez taught at the University of the Philippines, University of Santo Tomas, Philippine Women’s University (PWU), University of Washington, University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles and California State University-Hayward, where he was Emeritus Professor. 30 Interview with Wang Gungwu, July 12, 2005. Wang Gungwu, “Ethnic Chinese: The Past in their Future” in Diasporic Chinese Ventures: The Life and Work of Wang Gungwu, eds. Gregor Benton and Hong Liu (London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004), 190. 31 http://vibalpublishing.com/new_004.html#beginnings. Gemino H. Abad and Edna Z. Manlapaz, Man of Earth (Quezon City: ADMU Press, 1989), 380. 32 Pacita Alexander and Elizabeth Perkins, A Love Affair with Australian Literature: The Story of Tom Inglis Moore (Charnwood, A.C.T.: Lake Ginninderra Press, 2004).
Dr. Jose Wendell Capili
NOTES:
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Many of the ideas in this article were developed during the Manila leg (15-30 June 15-30, 2005) and Singapore leg (30 June 30 to 15 July 15, 2005) of my archival and field research as a PhD scholar at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University (2004-2007). 1 Katherine H. Adams, Progressive Politics and the Training of America’s Persuaders (Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1999), 80-93. 2 University of Iowa Catalogue 1895-96, 38. Interview with Rowena Torrevillas, Montemar, Sibulan, Negros Oriental, Philippines, May 27 , 2005. 3 Pacita Alexander and Elizabeth Perkins, A Love Affair with Australian Literature: The Story of Tom Inglis Moore (Charnwood, ACT: Ginninderra Press, 2004), 58-60. 4 David Galef, “Words, Words. Words,” in Day Late, Dollar Short: The Next Generation and the New Academy, ed. Peter Herman (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000), 169. 5 David Gershom Myers, The Elephants Teach: Creative Writing Since 1880 (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1996). 6 Katherine H. Adams, Progressive Politics and the Training of America’s Persuaders, 80-93. 7 William Herbert Carruth, Verse Writing: A Practical Handbook for College Classes and Private Guidance (New York: Macmillan, 1917). 8 See Edilberto Alegre and Doreen Fernandez’s The Writer and His Milieu: An Oral History of First Generation Writers in English (Manila: De la Salle University Press, 1984) and Writers and Their Milieu: An Oral History of Second Generation Writers in English (Manila: De la Salle University Press, 1987). Also Josephine Bass Serrano and Trinidad M. Ames (eds.), A Survey of Filipino Literature in English (From Apprenticeship to Contemporary (Manila: University of Santo Tomas Printing Office, 1980), 19. John Frederick, “A Maker of Songs” in American Prefaces 2 (Summer 1937), 83-84. 9 Pacita Alexander and Elizabeth Perkins, A Love Affair with Australian Literature: The Story of Tom Inglis Moore (Charnwood, A.C.T.: Lake Ginninderra Press, 2004), 63. After reading English at UP, Kalaw Katigbak completed her Master of Arts degree in English as a Barbour Scholar at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. 10 Tom Inglis Moore, “Typhoons and April Showers,” in Philippine Magazine, April 1930, Vol.XXVI, 707.