Recollections and Connections

By Gideon Pilar, MD

I will try to put six decades of Philippine Union College in a nutshell of five to six minutes. I would categorize PUC’s history into 2 eras: pre-war and post-war eras.

Pre-WW2

Students of the pre-war era primarily graduated from high school, then they were sent to the missions to serve in their assigned capacity. Some stayed to finish a two-year course, while a few continued to finish a degree. Others would return in the summer to take subjects toward attaining their degrees.

Post-WW2

In the post-war era, there was an increase of enrollment because of the hiatus in their education due to the war years. New missionary faculties and teachers from the United States arrived under the presidency of Dr. Andrew Nelson, namely: Professor and Mrs. Carl Jones, Prof. and Mrs. Earl Hilgert, Irene Wakeham, Nellie Ferree, and others. The first batch of graduates served as leaders and teachers in various missions and academies and church school while a few went on to pursue their medical degrees.

The most interesting part of the graduation exercises was on Sabbath afternoon called Golden Cords ceremony. A large map of the Philippines was placed on the background of the stage from which emanated golden strands to the different areas of the mission fields where the graduates were assigned positions of service. This later had to be discontinued in some point in time because there were more graduates than positions to be filled. Graduates had to look for work in the Far Eastern countries and even across the Pacific for mission fields like the U.S. and Canada, even down under.

 During my high school years I used to help clean classrooms at the end of the day in preparations for the next day. In summer I kept the lawns trimmed and green by using a hand-pushed lawnmower under the sweltering heat of the summer sun. Later Ben Escarra set up a shoe repair shop with me as his apprentice. Later his brother, David [Escara], joined us. I became adept at the trade so that Pastor Tawatao, our math teacher challenged me to make him a pair of shoes, and I did. He was so proud of his shoes that for years to come he would talk of his hand-made shoes to anyone who would listen.The 

CRISIS – The college faced a crisis in the early 1950’s when Dr. Nelson had the brilliant (idea) of transferring the college to Bukidnon. He pressed hard to fulfill this dream but a lone dissenting voice opposed and advised that another college be set up in Mindanao but leave PUC alone. The Union board finally saw the light of his stand. The rest is history. Mountain View College was established and PUC survived for another day. But that lone dissenting voice forfeited his teaching position.

LESSONS LEARNED - What lessons have I learned from school days in PUC? First and foremost, it taught me the dignity of labor, that no job be it so menial, that one cannot stoop down to perform. The preacher says in Eccl. 9:10, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might.” Work develops in one a character that would stand the test of time. Another lesson learned is that Christian education is never cheap. If one is blessed with parents of means they would have to fork out the money, otherwise you have to work and earn it the hard way, but when you do you will appreciate it all the more.

Post-Post-WW2

In the late 70’s a move to transfer PUC to Silang, Cavite was in earnest. This time there was no opposition. I first saw the site proposed in 1982. There were no roads to speak of; we had to drive through sugar cane fields. One afternoon some of the students had to be bused in to help clear the sites for the construction of the buildings.

Meanwhile, the old PUC campus was sold to Eternal Gardens. The buildings were demolished to the ground. Even the centuries old sprawling mango trees where students activities were often held was cut down, and unlike the tree in King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, even the stump and roots were not spared. At that point in time the PUC alumni had virtually become orphans- no campus to and proudly proclaim, “This is our alma mater.” Although AUP [Adventist University of the Philippines] has magnanimously adopted the PUC alumni it is not the same. We never tread the halls of AUP nor walked around its Silang campus. Even now, I hear old alumni their thoughts that the old campus should have not been sold but rather kept, not as another college but perhaps as a satellite academy.

Today, the campus where once shouts and laughter of care-free students pervaded has been replaced by an eerie silence as twilight deepens into darkness and the departed rest in their perpetual slumber…

Is AUP still "The School that Trains for Service"?

So what connection is there left between PUC and AUP? For one thing, the PUC school song has been adopted by AUP with just changes in the acronym. The PUC faculty and professors were transferred to AUP to support the teaching staff, but by now most, if not all have already retired. Hopefully, the motto of PUC – The School that Trains for Service – has been incorporated into mission statement of AUP in principle or in spirit, which would be a lasting bond between the old and the new.

When all of PUCs alumni shall have passed on, and PUC, as we knew it, shall have ceased to exist but only as a distant memory relegated to the archives of SDA Christian education, my prayer, above all is:  "May AUP continue the tradition of preparing citizens for the kingdom of heaven as did PUC."