The Office of Counseling and Guidance (OCG) mourns the loss of
Guidance Services Specialist (GSS) Delia D. Laguyo who died Jan. 13
after a long and fierce battle with cancer. She was 64.
An office under the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs (OVCSA), OCG made the announcement of her passing on their Facebook page on Jan. 16.
Laguyo served UP Diliman for 33 years. She began as a graduate
assistant on Jan. 15, 1982, then as a library aide at the College of
Science on Aug. 1, 1987 before transferring to OCG as Guidance Services
Specialist GSS on Oct. 1, 1992, where she remained for 28 years until
she opted to retire last Jan. 31, 2020.
A dedicated professional, Laguyo worked as an examiner for
pre-employment and scholarship psychological testing and for qualifying
examinations in graduate and certificate programs in different UP units
particularly in the Diliman Extension Program in Pampanga.
She also chaired the annual University Job Fair, an OCG major event,
on several occasions. She chaired the event for the last time in 2016.
She was resource speaker and facilitator in various training,
seminars, and other student-related activities in different colleges in
and out of UP, and held various administrative positions such as OCG
Special Disbursement Officer and even as Vinzons Hall Building
Administrator.
Laguyo received the 2013 Gawad OVCSA for her more than 25 years of service in UP.
Laguyo also served as examiner for the UP College Admissions Test (both on-campus and provincial assignments).
Affectionately known as “Ma’am Delia,” Laguyo served as a motherly
figure to her co-workers, who describe her as “a dear friend who
believes and trusts in God no matter what she is experiencing, even
taking time to send messages of love and concern.”
Some of the encouraging words she was known for are “continue to be
an advocate of kindness to others,” “smile lang; miss ko na ikaw,” and
“continue your journey to read and follow God’s plan for you.”
A woman with deep faith in God, Laguyo sent the following message to
her co-workers during her last months: “My mind says I am strong, but my
body aches. God is good, He always sustains my strength. Let us praise
and thank God together!”
We send our sympathies to the family of Dr. Linda T. Esquera (BS’68 UPI), who passed away last January 15, 2021. She was the Head of the Department of Health in Zambales.
Her wake is in San Marcelino, Zambales. Interment will be on January 19, 2021 at 7:00 am. [Al Destacamento]
Chemistry professor Eva Marie A. Ratilla., PhD passed away on Dec. 14
due to chronic myeloid leukemia and complications of diabetes. She was
59.
“Ever the scientist, she kept abreast of the latest research and
advances on the molecular aspects of treating her condition and sought
to obtain these latest medical treatments, even joining in experimental
drug trials. Through it all, Eva performed her duties and
responsibilities as professor at the institute to the fullest, where she
taught Advanced Inorganic Chemistry courses too undergraduate and
graduate students,” the UP Diliman College of Science (CS) posted in its
Facebook page.
She was instrumental in the establishment of KKP-DICAF (Kapisanan ng
mga Kimika sa Pilipinas – Division of Inorganic Chemistry and Allied
Fields) where she served as its first Chairperson. KKP-DICAF hosted the
10th EURASIA Conference on Chemical Sciences in Manila in January 2008.
Ratilla also contributed in the early development of the Materials
Science Program of the UPD CS and College of Engineering. Her areas of
specialization are in Inorganic Chemistry, Chiral and Molecular
Recognition and Discrimination, and Computational Chemistry. She had
numerous researches published in ISI journals and presented in local and
international conferences.
Ratilla earned her PhD in Chemistry from Iowa State University in 1990. She was a post-doctoral fellow at the Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan in 1998.
UPCM Professor Emeritus Adelaida Dalmacio-Cruz MD Class 1953 passed away today December 29, 2020. She is a mother to all her students and our beloved teacher who taught us to love Pathology. We will miss her. May she Rest In Peace. Our condolences to her children Chito (UPCM 79), Raul (UPCM 80), Gina and to the rest of her family. (Photo taken at the 2004 UPMASA AGC in California).
National Artist for Theatre and University Professor Emerita Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio passed away yesterday, Dec. 29. She was 90.
Known as the “Grand Dame of Southeast Asian Children’s Theater,” Lapeña-Bonifacio was conferred the title National Artist for Theatre, the country’s highest recognition for artists, on October 24, 2018.
A playwright, puppeteer and an educator, she was the founding artistic director of Teatrong Mulat ng Pilipinas, a children’s theater and puppet theater company established in 1977.
Upon her retirement in 1995, UP bestowed upon Lapeña-Bonifacio the rank of University Professor Emerita“for her exceptional achievements and outstanding service.”
Among her works were 10 books, 16 plays, 30 plays for children and
more than 130 short stories for children published by the Philippine
Journal of Education. She has also produced a number of poems, short
stories and essays.
Among her notable plays were “Sita & Rama: Papet Ramayana,”
staged at the 2006 Kaohsiung Country International Puppet Festival in
Taiwan, at the 2017 UP Diliman Month and “Papet Pasyon (The Passion Play
in Puppetry)” which was first presented at the Cultural Center of the
Philippines in 1985 and henceforth became a yearly presentation at UP,
Intramuros and other provinces since 2006.
Two of her short stories were translated into other languages, namely
“Tia Purificacion,” (German) and published in Frauen Auf Den
Philippinen Frauen in Germany and “The Stairs,” (Dutch) and published as
part of the book Het Ver-Welken Van De Regenbloesem in Amsterdam. She
managed the Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio Papet Teatro Museo.
Lapeña-Bonifacio received numerous awards, among them the Carlos
Palanca Memorial Award in Literature for One Act Play for “Dalawang
Bayani” in 1995, and the second prize, Full Length Play for “Chinchina
and the Five Mountains” in 2006. In 2017, she received the City of
Manila Outstanding Citizen Award and the Quezon City Most Outstanding
Citizen Award in 2013.
She earned her MA (Speech-Theatre Arts) from the University of
Wisconsin-Madison in 1958, where, through a Fulbright-Smith Mundt
Scholarship, she enrolled in the Beloit College of Graduate Summer
Theatre Scholarship (1957-1958). She graduated with an AB (English)
from UPD in 1953.
Born on April 4, 1930 in Binondo, Manila, she was married to
Professor Emeritus of Sociology Manuel Flores Bonifacio, and is the
mother of Prof. Amihan Bonifacio-Ramolete, PhD, the current College of
Arts and Letters dean.
TeatrongMulat
announced on their Facebook page that Lapeña-Bonifacio’s wake is
scheduled from Dec. 30 to 31, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., at the Imperial Classic,
G/F Funeraria Paz Araneta Ave. Visitors are requested to comply with
the IATF health protocols.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be given to Teatrong Mulat ng
Pilipinas Foundation, Inc. through GCash 09189032040 (Ma Amihan R), BDO
S/A 006520231060 (Ma. Amihan Ramolete), or LandBank S/A 3076 1038 86
(Ma. Amihan Ramolete).
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of National Artist Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio, University of the Philippines Professor Emeritus and Founding Artistic Director of Teatrong Mulat ng Pilipinas at 7 AM, December 29, 2020 at the age of 90.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be given to Teatrong Mulat ng Pilipinas Foundation, Inc. through GCash 09189032040 (Ma Amihan R), BDO S/A 006520231060 (Ma. Amihan Ramolete), or LandBank S/A 3076 1038 86 (Ma. Amihan Ramolete).
Gwendolyn R. Tecson, Professor Emeritus of the UP School of Economics (SE) passed away on Dec. 6. She was 74 years old.
A lifelong academic, she joined SE as instructor in 1971 and served
the School in various administrative capacities, including director for
public affairs, chair of the undergraduate committee, and later
department chair. She retired as full professor in 2011 and was
subsequently appointed as professor emeritus.
Her students remember Tecson for her lucid teaching and her empathy
for students, though these never diluted her insistence on excellence
and academic integrity.
Tecson was an early product of the SE master’s program. Tecson took
her undergraduate degree from Saint Theresa’s College, which honored her
with its Teresa’s Light Award for Education in 2019. After her M.A.
from U.P. she completed her PhD at Hitotsubashi University under the
renowned Ippei Yamazawa, becoming the first Filipino to complete an
economics doctorate from Japan. She was fluent in Japanese and French.
Tecson’s main line of research was international trade and industrial
economics. She was an important member of the group that published two
highly influential works that at the time were the most extensive and
authoritative studies of the country’s system of industrial incentives.
The first [Bautista, Power, Tecson, et al. 1979] covered the 1970s and
showed how the structure of protection in the 1970s had not
significantly changed since the 1960s. The second [Medalla, Tecson, et
al.2 vols. 1995] documented improvements following the liberalization of
the 1980s and, at the same time, warned of their partial reversal.
Apart from trade, Tecson studied the development role of small and
medium scale industries and was interested in the peculiar trends of
Japanese foreign direct investment in the Philippines.
Tecson was a meticulous and thorough researcher with an eye for
detail. She was one of the few practitioners doing industry- and
firm-level studies to regularly include interviews of firm-owners and
practitioners aside from simply relying on statistics and desk research.
She conducted research focused particularly on the automotive and
electronics industries. Together with a Japanese sociologist professor
and friend, she made many trips to Sta. Rosa, Laguna, for exam-ple, to
interview workers in car assembly plants.
She never wore her faith on her sleeve but lived it fully. She was a
devoted member of Notre Dame de Vie, a Catholic secular institute,
originally founded in France, whose main formation center in the
Philippines is at Encanto, Angat in Bulacan. It was there that she spent
her last few years.
She will be deeply missed by colleagues, friends, and students alike.
Tributes poured in for the late Giovanna Fontanilla, UST’s longtime public affairs chief and one of the most well-loved figures on campus who died of a heart attack last Dec. 6. She was 62.
For much of her 41 years in UST, Fontanilla served as the “face” of
the University, an ambassadress of Thomasian culture and education,
while also steering the school through some of its “most challenging PR
crises.”
Under Fontanilla, UST helped promote news media literacy and citizen
journalism, which was acknowledged by ABS-CBN’s news chief Ging Reyes.
“Her positive energy and compassionate leadership were an
inspiration. She strongly believed in providing relevant tools and
worthy role models in the training and education of future journalists
and media practitioners,” Reyes said in a statement.
Varsitarian publications adviser Joselito Zulueta
recalled how Fontanilla “bore the pressures of handling the public
affairs of the Pontifical University—more than four centuries old and
admittedly not a controversy-free institution—with grace and optimism.”
“Even during the most challenging of PR crises, she never lost her
cool,” he said. “For many people in the media like me, she was the ever
smiling, welcoming face of UST for nearly three decades. We will miss
her terribly.”
Felipe Salvosa II, head of UST’s journalism program, described
Fontanilla as a “steady hand and a stabilizing force,” citing “her
professionalism, dedication and loyalty.”
Fontanilla was also best known for her positive energy, which was
often seen during orientation for new students. “She’s always beaming
with her smile and demeanor,” said Central Student Council Secretary
Rafael Lipat, who helped organize one such event in 2018.
“I love her enthusiasm and zest for life,” said Faye Abugan,
assistant director of UST’s Communications Bureau, who also described
Fontanilla as a “visionary” for initiating the establishment of the
Educational Technology Center, the school’s main multimedia resource
arm.
Her one-time boss, former UST secretary general Fr. Isidro Abaño,
O.P., said he and Fontanilla started major campus events like the annual
Christmas Gala, and established UST Tiger Radio.
Fontanilla was also remembered by those whose careers she had
inspired, such as Haydee Claire Dy, who was her student in speech
communication at UST’s College of Education.
“Every time I teach my college students, I remember how this
professor taught us, when I was a student and those strategies I apply
in my own classes are how I saw it in this professor,” said Dy, who now
teaches at the Lyceum of the Philippines University.
Hernandez’s Facebook post
Said Philippe Jose Hernandez, assistant director of the
Communications Bureau: “She mentored so many along the way, having
juggled office work with teaching, and left behind a legacy that those
remaining must build on.”
Fontanilla was considered one of UST’s most dedicated educators,
having been feted with the Dangal ng UST Award in 2001. It was a
recognition as well of her loyalty to the university where she earned
her education degree, magna cum laude, in 1979 and her doctorate in
English language studies in 2017.
In between, she received a master’s degree in education from the
University of the Philippines in 1982, and took a specialist training
course at the Loughborough University in England in 1994.
She is survived by daughter Genevieve Fontanilla Trinidad and her daughter’s husband Al Niño Trinidad, and son Immanuel Fontanilla.
She was a disciplined career woman who led the biggest textbook publishing house in the country
ANCX Staff
Young Esther at age 15, while still studying at Colegio de Santa Rosa, Intramuros.
She was known as a trailblazer, a tireless worker, one among a rare
breed of women whose careers in publishing had that weight of national
importance.
Esther Asunción Vibal, who founded Vibal Publishing in 1953 with her husband HP Vibal, began her career in the newspaper business in post-war Manila. Fresh out of the University of the Philippines where she was an English major, a scholar, and a writer for the esteemed college paper, the lady from Camiling, Tarlac started out selling advertising space for the Manila Times. This was before she was given assignments to write for the women’s section of the newspaper and wrote a column called “A Little of Everything.” The man who interviewed her for the Times job, editor and owner, Joaquin “Chino” Roces, would become her mentor in both journalism and the business of print.
Esther Vibal as a UP junior receiving a garland of flowers from the senior class, an annual ritual conducted at the university until the early 1970s
The post-war years were exciting times in Philippine print media.
Esther’s peers included the young, spunky reporter Ninoy Aquino, and she
found herself polishing her craft by working with the luminaries of the
period, among them E. Aguilar Cruz, Carmen Guerrero Nakpil and Jose
Luna Castro.
The young Esther was known in her circle as the frugal one, skipping
meals to cut back on her expenses, always saving 3/4 of her pay while
her contemporaries spent their salaries on lavish purchases. There were
times she got her sustenance, according to her son Gus Vibal,
solely from powdered milk.
She was smart about money and knew early on the value of investing in real estate—which would serve her well when she and her husband quit their jobs and decided to venture into their own. Esther’s property in what was then Highway 54 (now Edsa) became the collateral for a loan that will help establish what would become Vibal Publishing House Inc.
Even in college, Esther found time to be both scholar and activist. As UP student council secretary, Esther was one of the student leaders who visited then President Manuel Roxas on a courtesy call.
In 1957, through Vibal, she launched Science in Schools, the
country’s pioneer science education publication, a supplementary school
magazine created for teachers. It was the year the first artificial
earth satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched, and science education had
become increasingly important for the West and the Philippine
government. Esther saw the advantage of melding her company’s mission
with that of the larger world.
When she finally went full time into the business in 1961, she
launched Vibal’s textbook publishing division which the house would
eventually be known for. While she immediately wanted to focus on sales,
the newspaperwoman in her knew the importance of quality content.
According to her son Gus, her mother was very hands-on with the
production of the company’s text books, hiring only the best
illustrators and authors to put these schooling tools together,
sometimes even editing the books herself.
She was a very disciplined career woman, according to Gus, as well as a very determined salesman. She would travel to different parts of the country, meeting with school superintendents and different textbook boards, bringing with her copies of Vibal’s books, courting them to use her titles.
Esther as a working UP student. Here she is walking to the Manila Times office, 1949.
While HP’s debilitating stroke was certainly one of the most
trying moments in Esther’s life, it didn’t stop the woman from
continuing on. She quickly created an executive committee to help her
run the publishing business—a decision that led to new successes for the
corporation, enabling Vibal to participate in the World Bank text book
publishing teaching and distribution program.
Esther Vibal passed away last Saturday, November 28, leaving the
leadership of the family business in the hands of her son Gus. He says
her mother was already 92 when she decided to step back from working,
and that even in her advanced age, Esther remained sharp and would even
regularly climb the stairs to her sixth floor office.
She may have left a company of 400 employees in a pandemic but was able to see it pivot to relevance for the contemporary age. Vibal, after all, is no longer just a book publishing business but has also gone into online courses and synchronous virtual classrooms—even before the global health crisis necessitated these tools.
A staunch advocate of women, Esther is shown here at a private meeting with then First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton during the latter’s visit to Manila during the Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Meeting on 20 November 1996.
In 2010, she was given the Ernst & Young Women Entrepreneur Award
“for blazing a trail in entrepreneurship, leadership and community
development.” Under her management, the award said, “Vibal Publishing
dominated the textbook publishing market, accounting for 50 percent of
textbooks distributed to 18 million Filipino children in public and
secondary schools.”
Esther Vibal said then that she was not just in this field of publishing for profit but “the spirit of sharing and [to] make it possible for every child to have an education, because it’s every child’s human right.”
It is with deep sorrow that we inform you of the passing of our beloved founder Esther A. Vibal on November 28, 2020. We offer our sincerest prayers for the eternal repose of her soul.
EAV’s legacy will live on forever.
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