In 1993, an article in the Sunday Inquirer magazine asked a question that raised a number of academic eyebrows: “Has UP Lost Its Soul?”
Read the article in full here.
The article released the results of a study by two UP Diliman professors entitled “The Meaning of UP Education”, which surveyed the knowledge, attitudes and values of UP students and faculty. The results showed that UP students and faculty rated the values of honor, excellence and leadership highly, which was to be expected. However, the values of social responsibility, ethics, and morality? Not so much.
This question of UP’s role as national university and the presence or absence of its soul echoed throughout the term of UP President and National Scientist Emil Q. Javier (1993-1999). In response, the Ugnayan ng Pahinungod, the volunteer service program of the University of the Philippines, was instituted across all the UP constituent units, making it the first university-based formal volunteer service program in the country. In 1998, the Pahinungod fielded its first batch of volunteers under its Gurong Pahinungod program, mobilizing UP alumni, students, faculty and staff as “Teachers to the Barrios” to public schools in underserved communities for a period of 10 months.
For the next 25 years, throughout leadership changes and shifts in administrative priorities, throughout national and global crises, the Ugnayan ng Pahinungod’s Gurong Pahinungod (GP) program continued to quietly and steadfastly send volunteers to some of the country’s most remote, neglected, sometimes inhospitable and even conflict-ridden communities to teach basic and secondary education to children and adults as well as conduct various community-based projects that make full use of their UP education and skills.
On December 9, 2023 at the UP Asian Institute of Tourism in Diliman, the Pahinungod’s GP program celebrated another milestone, and one that has been a long time coming: its first reunion of Gurong Pahinungod volunteers, from Batch 1 to Batch 13, hailing from the different UP CUs.
“Nag-isip kami kung paano ba ipagdiwang ang National Volunteer Month [ngayong Disyembre],” said UP System Ugnayan ng Pahinungod Director Marie Therese A.P. Bustos in her welcome remarks. The answer was clear: “Kailangang magkita-kita muli ang lahat ng mga Gurong Pahinungod, dahil ito ay isang intrinsically joyous event. Kasi tuwing nagtatanong kami sa mga ibang GP dati, ang sinasabi nila ay sana magkita-kita kami muli.”
Gurong Pahinungod: Past, present and future
It was indeed a joyful event as the UP GP volunteers from different batches, courses and campuses swapped stories of their experiences as Gurong Pahinungod—teaching classes in a classroom made of little more than wooden posts and corrugated sheets, teaching high school Science and Math to students who were 18 years old or older, and doing any number of odd-jobs to benefit the families and communities of their students.
As one member of Batch 1 recalled: “Kapag naging Pahinungod, kailangang jack of all trades ka. Sa batch namin, noong wala pang allowance, may mga sumali sa singing contest sa radio station. Hindi naman nanalo, pero nakakuha ng P1000 to P2000” to support their lessons and fund their community projects.
“Ikaw lahat!” another former GP volunteer interjected, amidst laughter.
“Kaya napakalaking tulong ng Pahinungod sa akin,” the first volunteer continued. “Ngayong lawyer na ako, jack of all trades pa din ako. Nasa cooperative ako, nasa water district–kahit saan, kasi natutunan ko sa Pahinungod ang kung paano mag-adjust at maging flexible. And the one thing that is constant is: our dedication to serve.”
UP Mindanao Pahinungod Director Michael A. Gatela updated the GP alumni on the current landscape of the Gurong Pahinungod Program, including the deployment of the latest batch of GPs, Batch 13, to areas in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, in accordance with a memorandum of agreement for educational cooperation signed between UP and the BARMM Ministry of Basic, Higher, and Technical Education (BARMM-MBHTE). For future GP Batches, including Batch 14 who have recently completed their preparatory training in pedagogy and content, the next target-beneficiary community will be in Barangay Kabasalan, Pikit, North Cotabato, which, as Director Gatela revealed, has only one teacher teaching 250 students.
“The Gurong Pahinungod are ambassadors of UP to the communities,” Gatela added, reporting that the Pahinungod has been expanding its engagements with communities for its programs, including the GP.
Pahinungod: Pagtanim, muling pagsibol, pagmumukadkad
Two UP Presidents attended the milestone event. UP President Angelo A. Jimenez congratulated the GP alumni, and pledged his support for the Pahinungod and its programs, especially the Gurong Pahinungod, expressing his desire to locate Pahinungod and its spirit central to what it means to be a university.
Of course, Dr. Emil Q. Javier doesn’t “miss Pahinungod events if I can help it.” The reason? “Among the many things associated with my administration as UP President, the Pahinungod is the one closest to my heart,” he said.
President EQJ regaled the GP alumni with stories from the Pahinungod’s early days, revealing that at one point the Pahinungod had about 6,000 volunteers. “After all, the Pahinungod is not new to UP. We had that all along. The idea of the Pahinungod was really creating a formal program of the University beyond the purely voluntary work of our faculty, staff and alumni.”
Addressing the GP alumni, he said: “Many of you are leaders in your respective communities, executives of corporations, heads of agencies. In practically all walks of life, we are producing leaders, but this time, these are leaders with a heart. That’s what the Pahinungod ideal is all about: producing people not only with excellence, leadership and honor, but people who care for their communities and the environment.”
Former UP System Ugnayan ng Pahinungod Director Grace H. Aguiling Dalisay shared this sentiment as she expressed her appreciation for the support of three UP Presidents for the Pahinungod—to Javier, for creating it; to former UP President Danilo L. Concepcion for reviving the UP System Pahinungod office in 2019; and to UP President Jimenez for his support for the Pahinungod’s expansion.
“Nakikita ko na na maaaring maraming pang pagbabago gaya sa iba’t ibang anyo ng GP,” she said of the Gurong Pahinungod’s 25 years and counting. “Ngunit ano pa man ang mangyari, hindi magbabago ang ating tiwala at pag-asa na may magagagawa tayo at yung mga sumusunod pa sa atin upang maiangat ang kalidad ng edukasyon sa Pilipinas.”