AND so it came to pass that the Board of Regents of the University of the Philippines convened to select the next (22nd) president of the National University.
No, no — don’t get confused as I am not talking about two members of the UAAP in one breath. UP has been named the National University by law, although yes, that now causes some confusion, because there is another National University (self-named rather than by law) and both the National University and the National University are members of the UAAP (and both with basketball teams of championship caliber, mind you). But I digress.
This is a piece about the new president of the National University which we will call by its more familiar (and famous) name, UP.
UP now has a president-in-waiting and that is none other than Atty. Angelo Jimenez, known to friends and contemporaries as Jijil. He was chosen by the BOR after he and six (?) other candidates were interviewed individually, asked to explain their points of view about certain national as well as UP-specific issues.
Jijil was not a surprise choice though he wasn’t the “sentimental” favorite, especially of the progressives along the UP community; the latter was UP Diliman Chancellor Fidel Nemenzo, son of former UP President Francisco Nemenzo Jr.
‘… many of the fundamental issues of three or even five decades ago still remain, and it is in addressing these issues that UP can — and should — play a key role, as a voice of the collective hopes and dreams of the People whose funds ensure its continuing existence.’
To be fair, Jijil has his own progressive credentials.
As a UP product all my life I had the opportunity in that campus to know both these gentlemen. Fidel was the UP Elementary School batchmate of my older brother, and Fidel’s younger brother Leonid was my batchmate in grade school and high school. I remember a particular day in the 1970s that I was caught by my father donning red headbands even as an elementary school student, because I got them from Leonid. And I remember a particular day in the 1980s when we all were holding our breaths wondering whether Fidel — who had been shot during a rally at the Welcome Rotonda area — would live, or die.
Jijil I knew in my college years, thanks to campus politics. I remember the year he ran against former Marikina Rep. Miro Quimbo for UP Student Council chairman and won; his victory, I told Jijil, reinforced my faith in the UP studentry, who I said now have demonstrated that they looked beyond looks.
Because of my admiration for Jijil he was one of 11 other high-achiever college friends I invited to join me at PILIPINAS 2020, and in 1994 we hosted Dr. Alvin Toffler in Manila in a half-day forum that filled the ballroom of the EDSA Shangrila to the rafters. (From that group has emerged one senator, two UP Student council chairmen, four UP USC councilors, four lawyers, one airline captain, one former Usec of OPAPP, and me.)
And so, it is with best wishes and prayers that I look forward to Jijil taking the helm from Atty. Danilo Concepcion and steering the university we both love through the challenges of this new year and new era. The UP of today is no longer in many ways the UP of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s — because neither is the world. But at the same time many of the fundamental issues of three or even five decades ago still remain, and it is in addressing these issues that UP can — and should — play a key role, as a voice of the collective hopes and dreams of the People whose funds ensure its continuing existence.
Mabuhay, Pres Jijil, and good luck.
