MAY 2011
U.P. Newslet t er 7
AN: FACT OR FICTION? Centennial in 1998. UP commemorated these historic events with the theme, “One Hundred Years of Nationalism and 90 Years of Scholarship and Service to the Nation.” A marker of the Centennial Archival Collection on the third floor of the UPD Main Library actually has Ocampo’s logo, with the color white replaced by gold. The Oblation model could be FPJ’s father
No, we are not talking about how UP’s most famous symbol came alive and procreated. Rather, we are referring to the most common name a person hears when he or she asks who modeled for the Oblation— Fernando Poe Sr. People faced with this question, reply in varying tones, ranging from the certain, “Yung tatay ni Fernando Poe Jr.” (the father of Fernando Poe Jr.) to the unsure, “Sabi si Fernando Poe Sr. daw” (people say it was allegedly Fernando Poe Sr.). Poe Sr. was a UP student around the time the Oblation was being created by National Artist Guillermo Tolentino who was then a professor at the UP School of Fine Arts. No one knows for sure how
the rumor started, but speculation about his involvement in the creation of the prominent UP landmark remains to this day. His name may be the most popular answer but other names come up, too. Online queries for “model+UP Oblation” actually yield three other candidates. One is June Villanueva. Another is Ferdinand Glenn Gagarin. And finally, UP Fine Arts Prof. Anastacio Caedo. So who really modeled for Tolentino when he was creating the Oblation? And the winner is—drum roll, please—candidate number three, Prof. Anastacio Caedo, who was Tolentino’s student assistant at the time. He has to share the credit, however, with Virgilio Raymundo, brother of Paz Raymundo Tolentino, the creator’s wife. Tolentino combined Caedo’s physique with Raymundo’s proportion and – voila! – The Oblation was born. This is according to the book written and designed by the late UP Diliman College of Fine Arts (UPD CFA) Prof. Rodolfo Paras-Perez titled Tolentino. But that is not all. UP Open University (UPOU) Chancellor Grace Javier Alfonso confirmed in a
message to the UP Newsletter that she recalled Caedo, who was her teacher, telling her to keep in mind that he was the model for the UP Oblation. Alfonso is a UPD CFA graduate who created the Oblation statues located at the UPOU Headquarters in Los Baños, Laguna; the UP Manila (UPM)-Philippine General Hospital compound; the UPM School of Health Sciences in Palo, Leyte; and the UPM School of Health Sciences in Koronadal, South Cotabato. Alfonso said that when she was asked to create the other Oblation monuments, she kept checking and re-checking the facial features of the Oblation and told us that “it really looks like him.” Diliman disaster: a fault line runs through it
It has long been talked about. And with the recent spate of earthquakes in New Zealand, Japan and Myanmar, it is rearing its ugly head again. It is the fault line smack at the center of the UPD campus, cutting across the length of the Academic Oval. This mysterious and fear-inducing fault, believed by many to be the West Marikina Valley Fault, is also said to be the reason the UPD Sunken Garden is, well, sunken. Enter Prof. Alfredo Mahar Francisco A. Lagmay, a widely-consulted, often-interviewed expert from the (Continued on page 8)
ts indicate fault lines in the UPD campus in this presentation slide by Prof. Alfredo Mahar Francisco A. Lagmay. Of the three, only the one marked “2” is a “ground verified It passes behind Kamia Residence Hall and beneath Narra Residence Hall. Lagmay clarified that the other two are referred to as “lineament features” because ground ce for faulting has not yet been found.
Discrepancies in dates: the unveiling of the UP Oblation ARLYN VCD PALISOC ROMUALDO
In the course of our research for the article “UP urban legends: fact or fiction?” we came across discrepancies on the date of the inauguration or unveiling of the UP Oblation. Former UP President Rafael Palma commissioned then UP School of Fine Arts Prof. Guillermo Tolentino to translate the second stanza of Jose Rizal’s “Mi Ultimo Adios” into a UP monument. Palma named it the Oblation. It was also known as “Paghahandog” in Filipino and “Oblacion” in Spanish. There is no official document that indicates when it was actually commissioned. All that is known is that Palma’s term as UP President was from 1923 to 1933. The Oblation first approved by Palma was a sculpture of a completely nude young man with arms outstretched and gazing upward. The fig leaf was later added at the suggestion of Palma’s successor to the UP presidency, Jorge C. Bocobo. He was at the helm of UP from 1933 to 1939.
National Artist Guillermo Tolentino (center) with Esteban Caedo (left) and Prof. Anastacio Caedo (right). Photo is reprinted with permission from Tolentino's daughter, Dalisay Tolentino Mendez, through her son Manuel Mendez. It first appeared in the book “Tolentino” by Prof. Rodolfo Paras Perez.
The cornerstone of the Oblation monument was laid on November 30, 1931 by Aurora A. Quezon, the wife of then Senate President and future Philippine President Manuel L. Quezon. November 30 was celebrated as National Heroes Day then. Between December 1948 and January 1949, UP was completing its transfer to the new campus in Diliman. On February 11, 1949, the Oblation was also transferred, accompanied by a motorcade of students, faculty and alumni. On November 29, 1958, the new Oblation monument cast in pure bronze was unveiled. Prof. Guillermo Tolentino supervised its casting in Italy. The original Oblation in concrete, painted to look like bronze, is now on the third floor of the UPD Main Library. Finally, with regard to the unveiling of the original Oblation monument, the dates vary. Documents at the UPD Main Library Archives state both November 30, 1935 and November 30, 1939 as the day the
Oblation was inaugurated. Sites and Symbols: UP Diliman Landmarks, published by the UPD Office of the Chancellor in 2000, has the following entry: “Dedicated to the country’s heroes, the Oblation was unveiled in 1939 at Padre Faura by Gregoria de Jesus de Nakpil, widow of Andres Bonifacio.” The University of the Philippines: A University for Filipinos, meanwhile, says, “The Oblation was first erected on the old Padre Faura campus at dedication ceremonies held on National Heroes’ Day in 1935.” The book was published in 1984 by the UP Communication Research and Development Foundation, Inc., based in the Institute of Mass Communication (now College of Mass Communication) and Edwina Koch Arroyo Design for the UP Diamond Jubilee Presidential Commission. The marker of the Oblation, however, begs to differ. It states that the Oblation was inaugurated in March, 1936.