Hibiscus ‘Nelia T. Gonzalez’

Very very few individuals receive the honor of having a flower named after them. One of this rare species is Nelia T. Gonzalez, who accepted last week the request to name a new Hibiscus hybrid after her. At a lunch attended by University of the Philippines officials and alumni and respected leaders of civil society, she gladly accepted the honor, as well as the Nelia T. Gonzalez Alumni Service Award and the Nelia Teodoro-Gonzalez Professorial Chair Grants.

The Hibiscus "Nelia T. Gonzalez" is the first to be launched under the new "Oblation Series," which is the University of the Philippines Los Baños’ "modest contribution" to the forthcoming UP Centennial Year celebration in 2008. This year UPLB’s Institute of Plant Breeding will be releasing new Hibiscus hybrids bred by plant breeders Reynold B. Pimentel and Dr. Pablito M. Magdalita.

Hibiscus breeding at the IPB started in 1994. During the past 12 years, IPB has released the following Hibiscus Hybrid Series: the "Centennial Series" released in 1998 named after the heroines of the 1898 revolution; the "Millennium Series," released in 1998 as tributes to UPLB women scientists who contributed to the advancement of Philippine agriculture, and the "Celebrity Star Series," released in 2002 and named after accomplished Filipina movie stars.

Dr. Desiree M. Hautea, who presented the Hibiscus tribute along with UPLB chancellor Rey I. Velasco, said the Hibiscus was named after the honoree because "Hibiscus is the Queen of Flowers and therefore, a fitting title to a lady who holds court wherever she goes inside and outside her house." The gumamela is bright orange, with prominent red eye and yellow edges. Orange is flamboyant, energetic and vibrant, reflecting the strength, enthusiasm, fascination, success and encouraging quality of the honoree. Dr. Hautea said, "Truly, it is not the flower that honors the woman. It is the woman that lends honor to the flower and the University that developed it, with her name."

Dr. Fernando Bernardo spoke glowingly of the honoree as deserving of the NTG Alumni Service Award. He said, "No other alumnus or alumna of UPLB has done greater wonders for both the UPLB Alumni Association and the UP Alumni Association than our honoree." He enumerated her "extraordinary record" which "nobody could match" as a strategic planner, leader, and manager.

When she was president of the UP College of Agriculture Alumni Association, she "charmingly" convinced presidents of different college alumni associations in UPLB to form a federation, which resulted in her selection as the Charter president.

"Aside from her business network, she has extensive linkages, which include linkages with powerful political figures, national women’s organizations, national and local government agencies, and media people. It is perhaps because of her extensive linkages that she is most effective as a fund-raiser."

To illustrate, Bernardo cited NTG’s spearheading of the fund-raising for the construction of the UPLB Alumni Center; as UPLBAA president, she successfully raised funds to support scholarships and professorial chairs for UPLB; she was very instrumental in the construction of the UPLB Rizal Centenary Carillon, which was inaugurated by President Fidel V. Ramos.

When she was elected vice-president of the UP Alumni Association, former Ambassador Ed Espiritu, who was the association president, "had so much confidence in her, and allowed her to run the association about 95 percent of the time." In fact, Ed said that because NTG was a "good strategic planner and organizer and team-builder and morale booster, she deserved to succeed him as president of UPAA." Indeed, NTG, as vice-president and de facto president, played "the most energetic and crucial role" in the building of the "Ang Bahay ng Alumni" in UP Diliman, a huge modern facility that has been generating substantial resources.

The NTG Alumni Service Award, said Bernardo, honors NTG, and promotes the ideals of alumni service to the university and to fellow alumni. The award will be given to one or two highly deserving alumni during the UPLB Loyalty Day and Alumni Homecoming. The award, said Bernardo, "in a way, will help in immortalizing our highly deserving honoree." Without the awards, though, NTG "is already immortal. She is already immortal because she lives and will continue to live in our hearts and minds as long as we live."

Former University of the Philippines president and UPLB chancellor Emil Q. Javier, who launched the NTG professorial chair grants, talked about NTG’s "outstanding professional career in agriculture," as she pioneered in poultry contract growing; in the feeds industry, soybean processing, wheat by-product exports, hybrid corn and sorghum products and tuna fishing. She has an "impeccable and innovative public service record" as she promoted cooperatives, popularized the Masagana ’99 hybrid rice, and credit and farm insurance.

Javier said that the greatness of a university is measured by the quality of its students, faculty, and richness of resources. There’s no problem with respect to the quality of students, the UP being "a preferred destination of the best young Filipinos, and having a reputation for quality education, the accessibility of its campuses, its being an Open University, and its charging of low tuition fees."

The challenge is to find resources that will attract and retain brilliant faculty members, many of whom have been lost to Ateneo and La Salle which offer salaries three times higher than UP.

UP President Emerlinda Roman expressed her appreciation for NTG, and echoed Dr. Javier’s hopes for more resources to keep the UP faculty, 400 of them having moved to other schools during the last five years. Still, it is a wonder that despite the low salaries, some 4,000 faculty members have decided to stay on under what is called "psychic income."

NTG spoke, expressed her thanks, and said that all that has happened to her came out of love, patience, and a relentless pursuit of excellence. Expressing their admiration for the honoree, were members of her family and very close friends, who donated something like P400,000 to the NTG professorial chair grants.

Former UPLB chancellor Ruben Villareal emceed the program, and Basil Valdez sang love songs.

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PASTAP NEW OFFICERS. The Philippine Association of Speech and Theater Arts Professionals (PASTAP) was recently organized in Legazpi City as an offshoot of the First National Conference on the KALAHI Cultural Care-giving Program and the UNESCO International Theater Institute Theater For All. PASTAP will help in the country’s effort to promote peace and development towards the UN Millennium Development Goals.

Elected officers are Dr. Ramona Bustamante-Raneses, president; Frank G. Rivera, National Commission for Culture, executive vice-president; Dr. Lilian L. Pena, vice-president for Luzon; Fr. Fritz Perez, vice president for the Visayas; Prof Helen Colmenares, vice-president for Mindanao; Perla Intia, secretary; Ruel Magayanes, assistant secretary; Dr. Elsie de Veyra, treasurer; Naty Garcia, auditor; Manuel Rangasa and Rafael Kapuno, business managers, and Dr. Rustica C. Carpio, public relations officer.

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