Lessons from my elders

To this day, my memories of my dear maternal grandmother, Lola Andrea Rivera, and my mother, Mama Pining, remain vivid. Their teachings still ring in my ears. For instance, I’ve learned from Mama that “if you build a home for yourself, the door must face where the sun rises,” the reason being that doing so will ensure that the house dwellers will receive boundless graces and blessings all throughout the days of their lives.

For her part, Lola told me, “Dodong, since you love fine things, you must learn to have your own means of income.” Such advice sent me out on a small enterprise – being a shoeshine boy. My business venture did not last very long, but Lola’s words stuck in my mind.

And, of course, there was Papa Inting, who said that “good character cannot be fully taught in the classroom.” Those words seemed to contradict Papa’s mission of putting up his Visayan Institute – now University of the Visayas – whose mission is to raise decent, respectable people who would be good members of the community and good citizens of the country. But, no, Papa knew too well that life is not contained in the four walls of the classroom; there are many other influences on the formation of a person beyond the school system.

And yet Papa did all he could to teach good values to the students. He knew that a college degree alone won’t guarantee a person’s success in life. His school gave its students the fundamentals for their individual quests towards righteousness.

Those lessons from my elders played an key role when we were making preparations of the centennial anniversary of the University of the Visayas. I thought of Mama Pining when I had a design made for the UV Centennial Gate in time for our centennial celebration. It came to my mind that the gate, being the “door” to the University, should exude a welcoming feeling to students and alumni who would be returning to their former home for four years or more. The gate is facing east, where the sun rises.

While I must admit to being hurt by unkind comments against the University in the past, I’ve since learned to take those as a challenge. Being jeered as “Ateneo de Colon,” or “Eskwelahan sa Pobre,” among others, has fired me up to do my best for the school that my father started. The mockery has become the fuel that sustains my fire.

We have constructed a new eight-story building dedicated to my mother, UV co-founder and inspiration, Inday Pining Rivera Gullas. In Papa’s name, the six-story College of Medicine building in our Banilad, Mandaue campus gives our medical students access to upgraded learning facilities and a highly conducive study environment. These are in remembrance of Papa and Mama, who worked so hard together to produce “kings and queens who do not wear crowns but are royals just the same.”

Our College of Medicine now welcomes both local and foreign students to its doors and has grown in number in recent years. My friend Dr. David Pillai is helping out and sharing with me a passion for continuous academic growth and development. We have the same wish and desire to establish a wellness hub for Cebuanos in the Banilad campus.

Back at the UV main campus, the new Inday Pining Building has a two-floor library named Don Vicente Learning Resource Center. The entire seventh floor of the building is devoted to the Gullas College of Law, with fully air-conditioned classrooms and a moot court. The building also houses the Inday Teresing Hall, dedicated to our sister Teresing whom I didn’t have the chance to meet as she died in infancy, a modern and fully furnished auditorium that can accommodate 400 people. The building also has newly equipped Science laboratories occupying an entire floor. There’s also the Crime Laboratory of the College of Criminal Justice Education, considered one of the best in the country. At the same time, the classrooms of the College of Education are fully air-conditioned. 

I now smile to recall how Mama warned Eddie and I against the idea of both of us going into politics. She threatened to close the University if that happened. Upon the passing of Papa Inting in the 70s, Eddie was a neophyte congressman, just starting what would be his long years in public service. I was the one to assist Mama in running the University. And when Mama Pining passed away in 1984, it dawned on me that I was to take over the task of setting the direction of the University. It drained me many times along the way – keeping pace with the demands of time, addressing the changing and varying needs of learners – but with hard work and perseverance, and God’s blessing, everything turned out well.

It’s by the encouragement and good example of my elders that I am able to nurture a deep faith in my constant companion, Señor Santo Niño, with the ever-protective arms of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the watchful eyes of Mama Mary and the intercession of my brother, Servant of God, Bishop Teofilo Camomot. I am most grateful to God for being with me all the way.

There have been countless people of humble beginnings who have changed the course of their lives for the better with the knowledge they gained at UV. I can only hope that they have also built a good character for themselves after leaving the University. I hope that they have remained humble, and have become more humane, God-fearing, compassionate, and a true child of God – for this is what my father aspired to achieve.