UV launches Gullas health card today

In celebration of Don Vicente Gullas' 118th birth anniversary today, University of the Visayas executive vice president Jose "Dodong" Gullas yesterday said the school would launch the Vicente Gullas Memorial Hospital privilege health card for its students.

The oldest university in the Visayas which was founded in 1919, UV was considered as one of the country's largest schools with six satellite schools located in Pardo, the towns of Minglanilla and Compostela, and the cities of Mandaue, Danao, and Toledo. Its medicine school and hospital are located in Banilad.

Gullas, the youngest son of Don Vicente, said the privilege health card, which has a minimum price of P575, entitles an enrollee to an annual physical examination.

Aside from that, the enrollee can avail of a 10 percent discount for hospital rooms, 10 percent discount for individual laboratory procedures and five percent for X-ray.

Don Vicente had started the study-now-pay-later plan as the university's main thrust to provide education to those who do not have the opportunity to study.

Don Vicente also loves writing, authoring several books that include a Cebuano, English and Spanish Dictionary. His other works were the "Lapu-Lapu", "Character Education," "Some of the Sweetest Stories Ever Told," "Deep Thinkers," "Great Doers," and "The Art of the Living Well."

According to Gullas, he will be re-launching "The Art of Living Well" on March 12. The first printing of the book was done in 1950.

The book launching was supposed to be launched today, but it was postponed due to the other activity.

Gullas said the book is decidedly the major work of his father. Basically, the character-building book contains precepts and ideas on how to become successful in life through positive thinking and proper behavior driven by strong determination and willingness for self-sacrifice.

Gullas, who helps shape public views through publishing and reviving The Freeman in 1965, said the book is intended to be used by students of fourth year high school, and of arts and sciences students in college.

The 176-page book also reinforced with stories on well-known personalities, including Don Vicente's own appraisal of the events in the lives of these people. The author also succeeded in driving home his moral message that life is worth living and that success and greatness are within the reach of everyone no matter how humble his state in life is.

The reader of the book will notice that at the end of each chapter are questions, which are designed to redirect the attention to significant points treated earlier. The book has 17 chapters.

Gullas said they would invite Department of Education Secretary Jesli Lapuz as the guest of honor and speaker during the re-launching of the book.

Born in Maasin, Leyte on January 12, 1898, Don Vicente first studied in the Cebu Provincial High School and later transferred to the Manila High School where he finished his secondary course in 1913. Working his way in college as a newspaperman attached to Cable News American and later as a sportswriter of the Manila Bulletin, he took up law and three years later, on his third year in college, he took and passed the bar examination.

In 1919, the young lawyer with the support of his brother, Paul, also a lawyer and a member of the Philippine Assembly at that time, founded the Visayan Institute, which became university in the 1940s.

Don Vicente died at the age of 72 on December 22, 1970.

The Gullas family invites the Visayanians and Cebuanos to attend a Mass today at 11:00 a.m. at the Inday Pining Hospital Chapel, and at 4:00 p.m. at the Cempark.

Masses will also be held at the satellite schools - 7:30 a.m. in Mandaue City, 8:00 a.m. in Pardo, Minglanilla and Danao City, 10:00 a.m. in Compostela, and 3:00 p.m. in Toledo City. - Garry B. Lao/LPM