UP KALILAYAN

The UP KALILAYAN LOGO

The Precursor

Undaunted by the rigors of admission and excruciating registration and challenging education processes in the ‘70s that were distinct to U.P., each solaced one another at the start in chance encounters. Youthful six (6) high school graduates of Maryknoll Academy (M.A.), Lucena City started out their journey to the U.P. life in 1973. Unexpectedly, they found themselves existing in a niche of ostensible beings. The vastness in land area and (in contrast to the sizes of school campuses and buildings in Lucena at that time) relatively huge school buildings of the premiere national state university Diliman campus and metropolitan living awed them momentarily. Distant from home, they longed for family and friends. These were the raisons d'être that lured them closer. Before the year was over, persons and edifices became familiar.

Happenstance introduced them to other M.A. alumni who were upperclassmen. In 1974, the inception of forming a U.P. Maryknoll Academy, Lucena City Circle was the consensus. This idea was ephemeral however and in a formal meeting at the U.P. Vinzons Hall, it was decided to forgo with the name but persist on with the quest to unite with others. Before the year was over, the group grew in numbers with diverse school affiliation and geographic origin. Foremost of the founding members were Rene Raya, Aurora Regalado and Rosario Vendiola, from the U.P. Manila units.

Absolutely, so long as one was able to trace roots back to Quezon Province, anybody belonged. Cartolina, Manila paper and pentel pen were materials used to spread the message which were thumbtacked to bulletin boards of the College of Arts and Sciences and its Pavilions. Responding to the posted invitations, fellow Quezonians were drawn to attend at the announced appointments. After a series of weekly meetings and every time with new faces the assembly of fellow Quezonian students gradually grew in numbers which was transitorily called U.P. QUEZON VARSITARIANS. Guillermo Franco and Jose Pepon Olivera, who were already juniors, presided in some meetings.

The Ferment

On the national front, the writ of habeas corpus was suspended in 1971. Martial Law was imposed the following year. As a consequence, the Diliman Commune became a myth. Its vestiges nonetheless were evident. In bulletin boards and on walls, slogans of protest defiant of the establishment proliferated.

The Philippine Collegian’s heads and inside articles were expositions of the brutality and fascist nature of the Marcos dictatorship and its puppetry and subservience to U.S. imperialism. Leaflets and booklets dealing on the same subjects and suggestive of alternative radical recourse abound ubiquitously--in the classrooms, hallways, comfort rooms, ikot rides, everywhere. Isko for Iskolar ng Bayan took up the cudgels for patriotism and nationalism.

The Office of the Student Regent subsisted for a short while in 1973. When it became defunct, the University Administration successively in its stead up to the mid-70s constituted short-lived student bodies--the First Consultative Committee on Student Affairs (CONCOMSA I), then the Second Consultative Committee on Student Affairs (CONCOMSA II), and later the Committee on Student Affairs (COMSA), all under the Office of Student Affairs (OSA).

These bodies were adjuncts of the OSA and membership were appointed. The Philippine Collegian’s funds were managed by the University Administration. The call at that time was for the restoration of students’ rights and welfare. Student Governance was of paramount concern. The fight was on and livid students rallied to the causes to restore the University and College Student Councils, Office of the Student Regent and recognition of student organizations.

The U.P. KALILAYAN AND THE INTERIM SECRETARIAT

In the First Semester of Academic Year (AY) 1975-1976, the University Administration alarmed of the growing student restiveness in the Diliman campus was constrained to hand down the procedures for the recognition of student organizations.

Cognizant of the necessity of official university recognition, the U.P. Quezon Varsitarians assemblage was put to task in search of the appropriate name. Research works ensued and soon it was decided to be known as the U.P. Kalilayan. The correctness of the chosen name is fortified by many scholarly works. Notable is Elsie S. Ramos’ Master’s Thesis in 1970 entitled “Kasaysayan ng Quezon Province (1571-1907) who also became a Faculty Adviser.

The original Constitution and By-Laws provided for an Interim Secretariat in AY1975-76, as a transition body prior to the election of the Directorate, which was tasked to work out for the official recognition of the U.P. Kalilayan. The Directorate is derived from the period of the Directory during the last decade of the 18th century French History. However because the term Directory is associated to PLDT and Board of Directors to corporate entities, the Directorate was preferred to uniquely identify with U.P. Kalilayan at that time.

Short of a Faculty Adviser, the founding members forfeited the chance to be recognized during that First Semester. The Second Semester of AY 1975-1976 saw the fortuitous return from sabbatical of Professor Helen Estacio-Lopez. Not only was she genuinely Quezonian by birth but consanguinity factored being the elder sibling of Rebecca Estacio, one of the founding members, and upon solicitation of her consent, the Professor gladly accepted the nominal office of Faculty Adviser. At last, U.P. KALILAYAN came to be.

The U.P. KALILAYAN AND THE DIRECTORATES

The original Tambayan, which was like home away from home to founding members, was situated at the balcony of second floor lobby adjacent to the east wing of Palma Hall. The U.P. KALILAYAN Bulletin Board was carved with its logo designed by the collaborative efforts of Norman Reyes and Arturo “Roy” Racelis. The collegial set-up of governance was adopted by the original Constitution and By-Laws with the Directorates to assume the reigns. Gerardo Garcia and Benedicto Baronia were the first and second Executive Directors for the AY 1976-77 and AY 1977-78, respectively.

Among the initial activities were meetings, food sales, social gatherings and parties. The first and only pursuit outside of the campus was the U.P. KALILAYAN QUIZ SHOW moderated by Joseph A. Regalado and participated in by students of the Quezon Provincial High School, Maryknoll Academy, Sacred Heart College, Luzonian University and others.

The U.P. KALILAYAN AND THE U.P. SANLAHI

Nineteen Seventy-Five was a milestone year. The tenure of the COMSA expired at this time. Student organizations which were officially recognized congregated into student alliances to fill in the void in the U.P. Diliman campus student leadership. Thus, student with regional membership formed into the U.P. SANLAHI. It is the acronym for ISANG LAHI.

In its Founding Congress and Social Night sometime in October of 1975 at the then U.P. Alumni Center, the U.P. SANLAHI formally was organized with the attendance of the memberships of the following: U.P. AGUMAN (from Pampanga), U.P. CAGAY-ANON (from Cagayan de Oro City), U.P. DAVAWEÑO (from Davao City), U.P. IBALON (from Camarines), U.P. KALILAYAN (from Quezon), U.P. MANDALA (from Nueva Ecija), U.P. NAMNAMA (from the Ilocos), U.P. PANAGHI-USA (from Cebu), and U.P. SQUIRES OF PALARIS (from Pangasinan),

U.P. SANLAHI together with the Fraternities Alliance, Association of Pure and Applied Science Societies (APASS), Alyansa ng mga Samahang Agham-Panlipunan (ASAP), and the Dormitory Residence Councils surrogated and functioned as the university student coordinating body. They pressed for the restoration of the university and college student councils.

THE U.P. KALILAYAN AND THE INTERIM CAS STUDENT COUNCIL

Like dousing with water to extinguish the fire, at the height of organized student dissent, the University Administration obliged and called for the election of the Intermin CAS Student Council in AY1976-77. The Student Alliances named their nominees to compose the U.P. SAMASA (for SAMAHAN NG MAG-AARAL SA SINING AT AGHAM), the Student Party ticket for the interim council. Overwhelmingly, they won in that electoral race and one of the Interim CAS Councilors was Ricardo Calayan, U.P. KALILAYAN’s very own.

It was the first of its kind during the Marcos one-man rule, a social experiment of sorts. Consequently, other academic units held their own student elections and eventually, the student governments within and outside of the U.P. Diliman campus were restored. The administration of the funds of the U.P. Collegian eventually was turned over to its Editorial Board. Student Campus newspapers were revived as well.

Excerpts from THE HISTORY OF QUEZON PROVINCE by an unknown author

Historical evidences seem to prove that before the arrival of the Spaniards in the Philippines, the northeastern and southern parts of the then Province of Quezon were among the few of the most ancient settlements of the archipelago. The population of the province, which may have numbered but a few thousands, dwelt in villages and village being the unit of government among the settlements. The pre-historic period of the province was as vague as it was barren in historical data.

The rule of Spain over the province was marked by noteworthy changes. After Manila and some of the neighboring towns and provinces have been brought under the Spanish sovereignty, and when those parts of the Islands at distant places refused to obey the conquerors, Miguel de Legazpi, the first Spanish governor-general of the Philippines, sent Juan de Salcedo, a Spanish lieutenant, on an expedition of conquest. In 1571, after subduing Taytay and Cainta, Rizal Province, Juan de Salcedo explored the neighboring regions, traversing what is now Laguna, and the central part of the territory that comprises the present Province of Quezon, on his first southward exploration as far as the gold mines of Paracale in Ambos Camarines (now Camarines Norte and Camarines Sur). The following year, Salcedo led the famous expedition along the northeastern coast of Luzon. He visited the ”contracosta” towns of Casiguran, Baler, Infanta and Mauban which were among the oldest settlements in the Philippines.

On the sixth anniversary of the founding of these coastal towns by Salcedo, two missionaries began their work of converting the people of the province to the Catholic faith. They were Fray Juan de Placencia and Fray Diego Croposa who made their way thru forests and jungles in order to put up the sign of the cross. More towns were founded by them.

The territorial jurisdiction of the province was for various times shared by different provinces. The southern and central portions, for example, were in 1585, under the jurisdiction of the province of Bonbon, sometimes called Balayan. The northern portion was divided between Laguna and Nueva Ecija.

In 1591, the central regions of the province, then a part of the district of Kalilayan which comprised Mondoro, Lubang, Batangas, Camarines and Marinduque, was created into a province under the name of Kalilayan. Its provincial capital was the town of Kalilayan, now Unisan. The province was later placed under the Diocese of Nueva Caceres which was founded in 1595. The Bull issued by Pope Clement in 1595 was instrumental that P4,000.00 be set aside for the maintenance of the diocese. Fray Francisco Ortega, an Augustinian friar, was the first bishop of the diocese while Don Simon Alvarez became the first alcalde mayor of the province from 1625 to 1655.

In the beginning of the sixteenth century, there were already established in the Bondoc Peninsula, the towns of Kalilayan (now Unisan), Pitogo, Macalelon, Catanauan, Mulanay, San Narciso and Guinayangan.

The subsequent growth of the province of Kalilayan under the Spanish authority was not without life and color. Immigration from Laguna, and to a less extent from Batangas, led to the founding of the inland town of Tayabas at the foot of Mount Banahaw. According to the Franciscan report of 1649, Lucban, with 1600 inhabitants, evidently an outgrowth of the very much larger town of Majayjay, was included in the long list of Laguna towns, which were under the jurisdiction of the Franciscan Order. The town of Sampaloc was founded by immigrants from Lucban and from neighboring towns of Laguna. Immigration, too, from the “contracosta” towns and perhaps to some extent from Camarines, resulted in the establishment of the east central towns of the province. In about the year 1740, thru immigration from the west and the east, the towns of Tiaong, Candelaria, Sariaya, Atimonan, Lopez, and Gumaca were established.

Depredations and plunders by the Moros were rampant during the Spanish regime. Like many other provinces, the province of Kalilayan suffered from the aggressive attacks of the Moros.

The pillage of the provincial capital of Kalilayan in 1609 by a strong force of Moro pirates caused the inhabitants to abandon the village and to transfer the settlement to Palsabangon in Pagbilao. In the year 1798, a fleet of some twenty-five Moro boats harassed the village of Baler and other towns on the coast, like Casiguran and Palawan, devastated them, and seized about 450 inhabitants. Among them were three parish priests, one of whom was sold for P2,500.00. This was the worst attack on the province of Kalilayan from the Moros as many friars and other inhabitants were killed. The towns along the southern coast and of Bondoc Peninsula were also at the pirates’ mercy. These pirates had their headquarters in Burias Islands, from where they issued in making their raids. These depredations continued almost to the end of the Spanish regime.

It was during the darkest period of the Moro piracy, about the middle of the eighteenth century (1749), when the coast towns became so unsafe that, to avoid further attacks of the pirates, the provincial capital was moved from Kalilayan to the town of Tayabas which remained as such for one and half centuries. This town soon gave its name to the province itself. The watch tower standing at the entrance of the harbor of Lucena, the present provincial capital, as well as like structures that can be seen along the coast towns of the province, proves the necessary vigilance the natives had to take to insure themselves against the attacks of the Moro pirates.

Down to the close of the nineteenth century, the annals of the province of Tayabas were simple and brief, the period being spent in slow growth. The attacks of the Moros upon the coast towns and the revolt of the “Confradia” were events and movement which significantly affected the early development of the province.

See Also

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