Remembering Don Vicente Gullas

January 12 last Monday was the 120th birth anniversary of the founder and first president of the University of the Visayas, Don Vicente Gullas. On that day the entire UV community paused to recall the life and time of one of Cebu's pioneer private school educators. This was indeed an undertaking worth doing, for of what use is a university schooling if one does not get a generous seasoning of his school's ideals and aspirations?

For Visayanians (as UV students and faculty are known) such ideals reside in the person of their "Grand Old Man" who even after his time has remained their exemplar of a man whose success in life was gained through hard work, sacrifice and essential goodness.

Among the personnel in the University at present, this writer had had the opportunity to work closely with Don Vicente and in the process observed his character traits. He was a man of quiet disposition, his face always exuding a sense of calm acceptance of what was going on around him, not in a mood of que sera sera, but in a manner of one who was perpetually at peace with the world. Of course there were times when displeasure would cloud his countenance, as when I told him one day that one of our teachers abandoned her classes, but that state would just be a passing one for then he would be back to his smiling self more so if he knew that something was being done to correct the situation.

When one's boss comes around to see what's going on in one's work place the usual feeling is anxiety and a sense of discomfort. One fears for instance that somehow some lapses may be discovered, or that the boss may not be properly attended to. But I and my staff (at the defunct UV Labangon Academy) did not experience such feeling. The reason was not that president Gullas was a frequent visitor of the school, but that his kind of supervision was not fault finding but moral boosting.

As he would step out of his car, he would usually go straight to the principal's office, walking in his usual measured gait, all the while half-smiling as he entered the room. I would then offer him my seat, but oftentimes he would not take it preferring to talk things out while standing or walking around the school premises. More often than not it was not about the school operation we would discuss but something else - current social issues, religious activities, successes and achievements of UV teachers and students and such topics.

At times he would ask us teachers what our plans were to improve our educational status. We would then chorus that we were taking masteral courses, to which his response would be a spirited approvation. (We found out in later years how right the Old Man was for when we joined government service a masteral degree became a passport to a higher assignment.)

We did not realize it at the time, but years later after reading his The Art of Living Well and after repeated exposure to his classroom talks (visiting classrooms and talking to students being the Old Man's strategy of inspiring the young), it dawned on me that the UV President was not supervising us as teachers but inspiring us to take extra efforts towards higher levels in our chosen career. Basically, he was a success motivator like Og Mandino or Rick Warren, whose passion was to see people succeed in life. But unlike them his focus was the less privileged, the poor man's kids, who would otherwise languish in privation without the intervention of education. This explains why in his writings injunctions like this frequently appear: "Never cease to strive and learn. Everyday, improve your physique through exercise, your mind through study, and your heart through the practice of virtue and self-control. Work hard and pray and help your fellowmen in need as much as you can."

This explains too why in his talks with students he would highlight stories of alumni and teachers who succeeded in breaking away from the cycle of ignorance and poverty and rose to become outstanding personalities in their respective careers. I remember he would mention the names of former congressman Tomas Cabili, of former Surigao governor Duque, of lawyer Amadeo Seno and many others who all worked their way through college and became exemplars of success.

Education, Don Vicente would repeatedly remind his young listeners, is the most effective instrument of social mobility. This, coupled with the capacity to work hard and to undergo sacrifices plus an abiding faith in the Almighty, can transform an individual from poverty to adequacy, from illiteracy to learning. He dished out this nugget of wisdom not as a mere theory but as something borne out of his own life story - a boy of humble origin who rose to prominee through sheer guts, persistence and sacrifice. 

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