Tarlac celebrates centennial of RP’s first public high school

TARLAC CITY — Many may not be aware of it, but Tarlac is home to the country’s first public high school — the Tarlac National High School — which is marking its centennial this weekend.

The celebration, however, will be simple. It will be held for two days, and the guests of honor will be Tarlac’s top political leaders, namely, Gov. Jose Yap Sr., Reps. Gilbert Teodoro Jr., Benigno Aquino III and Jesli Lapus, representing the province’s three congressional districts, and this city’s mayor, Genaro Mendoza.

The Tarlac National High School (TNHS), established on Sept. 1, 1902 by the American colonial government, produced some of the country’s best leaders, among them the late statesman Carlos P. Romulo, the first Filipino to hold a top position in the United Nations, and novelist-academician Jorge Bocobo, seventh president of the University of the Philippines.

Old location

Prof. Lino Dizon, Tarlac’s contemporary historian and chairman of the Center for Tarlaqueño Studies of the Tarlac State University, said the TNHS (formerly the Tarlac Provincial High School, later renamed Tarlac High School) was put up at the eastern end of what was the Plaza del Toro. That was during the incumbency of Tarlac’s second Filipino governor, Alfonso Ramos (the recognized first Filipino governor of the province is Gen. Francisco Makabulos, who founded the local Katipunan chapter in his hometown of La Paz and liberated Tarlac from Spanish control).

Plaza del Toro, along Romulo Boulevard, is now the main campus of the Tarlac State University. The country’s first high school was founded on what is now the three-story Smith Hall, home of the TSU’s College of Arts and Sciences.

Dizon said the TNHS’ first principal was Dr. Frank Russell White, one of about 600 American teachers who arrived in the country on board the USS Thomas — thus, the term "Thomasites" — on Aug. 21, 1901.

The Tarlac historian insists that White should be similarly recognized as the country’s first public high school principal.

The TNHS’ establishment, Dizon said, was in compliance with a March 7, 1902 order of the American colonial government which authorized the establishment of such schools which the Thomasites were to manage.

White, however, only served as principal for two months, as he was later appointed division superintendent for the province.

According to Dizon, the school initially had 35 enrollees, which increased to 93 before the end of 1902.

One of its first students was Bocobo. The academician’s daughter-biographer wrote: "Dr. White took special interest in my father because he was always at the top. He predicted that my father would someday be an ‘eminent man of his country.’"

First school building

Dizon said the TNHS’ first building, a two-story structure, was made of Oregon pine. It had two classrooms and an assembly hall on the second floor, while the principal’s office and four other classrooms were on the ground floor.

Except for the equipment, which Dizon said were all imported from the US, the total cost of what was the Tarlac Provincial High School was P48,000.

White initiated the school building project, while Gov. Ramos directed its construction. But it was not until January 1904 when the school building was finally completed.

"A large flag of the United States, the gift of the Martha Washington Society of New York, was unfurled at the time in honor of the first public high school in the Philippines," said Dizon.

The following year, Don Marciano Barrera, a native of Concepcion, hometown of martyred former Sen. Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr., donated a monument in honor of national hero Dr. Jose Rizal.

"There were those who (said) that this was the first statue ever built for the national hero in the whole of the Philippines," Dizon said.

Under Pangasinan

At the time when the Tarlac Provincial High School was established, Dizon said the province was under the schools division of Lingayen, Pangasinan.

With a permanent school building, he said the school then opened in 1906 a "school of carpentry," then called the "Boys’ Trade."

"Woodworking and drawing were introduced early in the course and were done in the basement of the old government building which faced the provincial high school," stated the Tarlac High School Historical Sketch of 1918.

The old government building referred to is presently located in the TSU’s College of Engineering compound, now being renovated to house the university’s Center for Computer Studies.

The same building was used by Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo for his Cabinet when his revolutionary government fully functioned in Tarlac while they were on the run from pursuing American occupation forces.

Unfortunately, the Boys’ Trade building was razed by fire, also in 1906.

"All the equipment used in the course was lost," said Dizon.

First vocational school

Three years later, the late Tarlac governor Jose Espinosa ordered the construction of a three-room "temporary building" for the Provincial Trade School (PTS), which would primarily provide vocational training.

After its establishment, the PTS began admitting Grades 5 and 6 pupils. In 1918, the building was described as having been "built of reinforced concrete," "well-preserved" and housing 91 boys for the trade course, Dizon said.

The PTS building soon replaced the old government building of Tarlac, as the provincial capitol was transferred to a hilltop about a kilometer west of the country’s first public high school.

The PTS building was to become the TSU’s Engineering campus decades later, Dizon said.

TNHS at present

With its old site now occupied by the TSU’s main campuses, the TNHS presently stands in between two roads named in honor of Tarlac’s prominent sons — Romulo and Gen. Makabulos.

The school’s main campus, one of the province’s most populated, is located just behind the Diwa ng Tarlac Convention Hall.

It now has an extension campus, the TNHS-Annex, in Barangay San Miguel right beside Camp Gen. Servillano Aquino, headquarters of the Armed Forces’ Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom). The annex caters to high school students from Tarlac City’s southern villages.

Quoting from the school’s first souvenir program, Dizon said it was only in 1918 when the public high school produced its first batch of graduates.

As part of the TNHS’ centennial celebration, Dizon, who has written extensively on Tarlac’s history, is coming out this coming month with a new book titled Mr. White: A Thomasite History of Tarlac Province, 1901-1913.