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Inspirational Story
From
Scholastican to Militant
By Constantino C.
Tejero
Philippine
Daily Inquirer, Life Section, Feb. 18, 2001
Inquirer
News Service
Last December, when Equitable-PCIBank senior vice president Clarissa G. Ocampo appeared on TV and sat as witness in the impeachment trial of former President Joseph Estrada, a nun of the Good Shepherd Convent in Quezon City was shocked.
Sr. Mary Ofelia Endaya, RGS, blurted out to herself: Clarissa Grey — my student! Is this the little girl who sat before me in the classroom for four years at St. Scholastica’s grade school?
In January, while still staying in a safehouse with other witnesses who stood up to the President, Ocampo wrote her mentors: "Please allow me to thank you for the basic foundation in my character you helped build. I was in St. Scholastica for 17years and there’s no denying that you have been instrumental in strengthening the values my parents instilled in me at home.’’
After seeing Ocampo on TV and learning she was a Scholastican, journalist Paulyn Paredes Sicam, who was also a Scholastican, went teary-eyed and said to herself: I should have known. Unmistakable! Matatag.
"That’s the hallmark of a Scholastican,’’ says Sicam. "When she sets her mind to something, she’ll do it. Kung may commitment siya, gagawin niya.’’
Sr. Mary John Manansan, OSB, president of St. Scholastica’s College in Manila, agrees: "She’s a typical Scholastican, and we are, of course, very proud of her.’’
This is one of the school’s value-related goals: the sense of self-affirmation that enables responsible decision-making.
Run by Missionary Benedictine Sisters, the school offers what its prospectus describes as "an education that blends pedagogy, innovation, professionalism, emphasizing academic excellence for social responsibility.’’
The mission: "To educate Scholasticans to be true and finished women of character, approaching life in the 21st century with a sense of God and a strong service commitment to a globalized society, especially to those who have less in life.’’
This molding of a strong woman, intelligent while very socially oriented, is what gives rise to the perception that there is a culture of militancy in this school. It is somewhat confirmed when one finds at the forefront of almost every pro-people campaign or anti-government rally a phalanx of Scholasticans from different generations, both students and alumnae.
One of them, Cherith Dayrit, reportedly the political officer of the armed propaganda unit of the New People’s Army, made news last year when she was killed by the military in Isabela. She was the school’s student council president and a double-major graduate, cum laude.
Ruth Cervantes, former president of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines and editor of the school journal The Scholastican, is now a national figure in street demonstrations and the alliance officer of the political party Bayan Muna.
So, is there a Scholastican culture?
"It depends on how you define culture,’’ says Sr. Manansan. "I can’t say there is such a culture because we haven’t made a study. But if you mean being socially conscious, I can say that our students from kindergarten to college are progressive as a whole.’’
Cecile B. Gutierrez, vice president for academic affairs and a Scholastican since kindergarten, winces when the term militant is mentioned. "I won’t say 'militant', but a 'progressive' way of thinking. We inculcate in our students a solidarity with the poor and the oppressed, a concern for all, alleviate suffering. We always feel that there should be justice and equality for all.’’
How is it then that the activism of these women seems more prominent than of those from other girls’ schools?
"You couldn’t say St. Scho is more activist,’’ says Sicam. "I think St. Theresa and St. Scho medyo pantay.’’
Florina F. Castillo, principal of the grade school since 1983 and also a Scholastican, agrees: “St. Theresa’s College is very socially oriented, but not as visible. Assumption has a very good social program, pero quiet, hindi maingay katulad namin.”
The school was founded on Dec. 3, 1906, by Mother Ferdinanda and four others in a small house on Moriones Street, Tondo, starting with six paying students and 50 for free. The following year, it was moved to a bigger place on San Marcelino Street in Malate to accommodate a high school and several student boarders.
Today the flagship school on Leon Guinto Street has an enrolment of 6,500 from kindergarten to college. It has sister schools throughout the country which are among the prime academes in their respective regions: St. Agnes in Legazpi City; St. Scholastica in San Fernando, Pampanga; St. Scholastica in Bacolod; and Holy Family Academy in Angeles City. Opening in June is St. Scholastica-Westgrove in Silang, Cavite.
The behavior, attitude and actuation of a typical Scholastican student may be said to be largely shaped by Benedictine education. It is an education with a monastic character and a very strong sense of community governed by a Holy Rule.
She is being trained to lead a life regulated by the motto “Ora et labora” (Prayer and work). It is a shared prayer life surrounded by beautiful liturgy. Remember that the Benedictine monasteries were "the repositories and vanguards of learning and culture in the Middle Ages.’’
So, of course, the girls’ school on Leon Guinto still has that impregnable atmosphere of a convent or a monastery amid the riot of street vendors, motorists, pedestrians, mulcting policemen and drug pushers in that part of the metropolis. Walking softly on the grass under its ancient trees, wending your way around a pergola, and treading through its hushed shadowy hallways, you feel you’re in another world, of another time.
“During our time, when the school was still run by German nuns, they imposed strict discipline, obedience to rules, piety, and there was an emphasis on academic excellence,” recalls Cecilia Muńoz Palma, former justice of the Supreme Court, who belonged to High School Batch 1931. “We were taught foreign languages—French, German—music, literature, history. The idea was to produce a very educated girl in a convent-like atmosphere. I remember there was a student from a rich family who was expelled because she danced ballet in a program outside the school. Dapat mahinhin, masunurin, tahimik, mapagdasal...”
Everything that she was not, she now laughs. "My conduct was very bad. For instance, there was a rule of 'No speaking during mealtime,' but I was a talkative child. So I often got punished, like, being made to stand in the corridor or on a corner.’’
So she was already a child rebel as early as the 1920s? "Oh, not rebellious—just naughty.’’
And that was why she didn’t proceed to college in St. Scholastica? "My mother wanted me to be a pianist. Hindi ko kasi kursunada... I wanted to be a singer... And my father was a lawyer, who was in love with the poor—so I followed his footsteps.”
Sicam, who was of High School Batch 1963 and graduated with an AB-English degree in 1967, remembers the twilight of that era: “When you were kneeling, the hemline of your dress should touch the ground. At kailangan naka-kamison ka, not just bra. There was this girl who was made to do board work in our math class, and while she was standing there writing on the blackboard, the teacher (a German nun) shrieked across the room: 'Harlot!' We all turned and saw that the girl was not wearing bra. She was driven out of the classroom. Kami talaga, Wow! nakakatakot!’’
There was still an elitist image about the school in her time, but she had witnessed the crumbling of the citadel, so to speak.
"I don’t know if it was a conscious shedding,’’ says Sicam. "But it did disappear, very gradually. Pag-alis ng mga German and the Filipinos took over, mas 'user-friendly' na. The younger nuns were socially aware.’’
And this was when the roots of militancy started to stir?
"Oh, gosh!’’ Sicam exclaims. "The word militant was not yet used then. Those were our milk-and-cookies days. We were socially aware, yes, because we had a students’ outreach where we visited poor communities, Sapang Palay, Vitas in Tondo, the home for the aged, Welfareville. But it was not the time to take these issues to the streets. We were not yet hinog. Our social concern was more into networking, meetings, volunteer organizations. We organized children and taught them catechism, but we were required then, and we got credits for it.’’
Sicam continues with a trace of excitability in her voice: "We missed the real activism by a year. It was only after I graduated from St. Scho. Ang class nina Maan Hontiveros ang napurungan. You know, it was the time of Joma Sison, the KM [Kabataang Makabayan]. But it wasn’t UP that influenced St. Scho in activism. It was La Salle, the group of Chito Sta. Romana—doon nagsimula. I had a friend, a Benedictine nun, who disappeared and became an NPA. But I was introduced to the streets only when I started covering the student beat for the Chronicle in 1969. I’ve always been a reporter.’’
The upsurge of social ardor and zeal for justice on the St. Scholastica campus Castillo traces to the Vatican itself. "When the Church called for social justice at that time, it was actually a call to all Catholic schools," she recalls. "And all the Catholic schools redefined their emphasis in education from purely academic excellence to education for justice. But it seemed stronger here with us maybe because of the leadership. [Sr. Manansan was the college dean in the 1970s.] Starting in1975, the social orientation of the school became its major concern. Maaga lang kami na-liberate from book learning."
Being the administrator of the grade school, and espousing a newer mode of learning called the experiential method, is practically the molder of future militants. And she is only being true to one of the school’s milieu-related goals: love for one’s country that deepens the commitment to empower the marginalized.
But she’s too humble to own up to it. "The first St. in a small fishing community in Tondo—seguro doon nagsimula ang social consciousness ng mga Scholastican,’’ she says, smiling slowly. "You know, the roots begin in school."