Many people receive awards and adulations for their outstanding achievements. Still, very few have had the honor of having a flower named after them.
University of the Philippines (UP) Regent Nelia Teodoro Gonzalez, who passed on last June 19 at the age of 97, is one of these singular individuals.
The gumamela or hibiscus flower that bears her name, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis ‘Nelia T. Gonzalez’, was the first of the “Oblation Series” of hibiscus launched by the Institute of Plant Breeding, College of Agriculture (now the College of Agriculture and Food Science), UP Los Baños, bred by Dr. Pablito M. Magdalita and Mr. Reynold B. Pimentel, as part of UP Los Baños’ contribution to the UP Centennial celebration. Regent Gonzalez accepted this honor in the early summer of 2006, on an occasion that also marked the launching of the Nelia T. Gonzalez Alumni Service Award and the Nelia Teodoro-Gonzalez Professorial Chair Grants.
In a column published in the Philippine Star on April 4, 2006, columnist Domini M. Torrevillas recalled the event: “Dr. Desiree M. Hautea, who presented the Hibiscus tribute…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.'”
What’s in a name?
The life of UP Regent Nelia T. Gonzalez, or Tita Nelia as she was fondly called by friends and colleagues, gives weight behind the name of the flower bred to honor her.
In the over seven decades since she graduated from UP, Nelia Teodoro Gonzalez has come to known by many titles: agriculturist; agro-industrialist; social entrepreneur; resource developer; public administrator; civil servant; UP Regent; president of the UPLB Alumni Association; vice-president of the UP Alumni Association; a host of leadership titles in numerous agribusiness corporations, organizations, and foundations; holder of a UP Doctor of Laws degree, honoris causa; one of the UPAA Lifetime Distinguished Achievements awardees named during its centennial in 2013; icon of the Philippine agribusiness industry; and one of the University’s most outstanding alumni, a veritable pillar of the UP community.
Inspired to follow in the footsteps of her agriculturist father, Gonzalez or earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Plant Pathology from the College of Agriculture (CA), UPLB, in 1944, marching as the only female graduate of UPCA at the time. Much later, she earned her Certificate of Government Management from the UP College of Public Administration in UP Diliman in 1977.
Agriculturist, agro-industrialist, entrepreneur
After graduating from the UPCA, she served briefly as an agronomist at the Bureau of Plant Industry. She later helped the late industrialist Salvador Araneta manage the Araneta Institute of Agriculture (now the De Salle Araneta University) and the Republic Flour Mills (RFM). Finally, she served as General Manager and Vice President of RFM. She worked with a capable team to accomplish many notable achievements. National Scientist and former UP President Dr. Emil Q. Javier, in his essay first published in the Manila Bulletin on February 24, 2018, cited the lasting impacts of these achievements on the animal industry.
He writes: “Easily the most notable contribution of Tita Nelia and her team was the introduction of broiler poultry contract growing. RFM was the first integrator, providing day-old chicks, feeds, veterinary supplies, and growing technology to contract growers and buying back the birds at competitive prices. The scheme proved to be very successful, and the rest of the industry followed suit. As a result, to date, the broiler industry is one of our most productive and regionally competitive sectors in agriculture.”
Later, through the Punla sa Tao Foundation (PSFTI), which she headed, Gonzalez helped organized backyard poultry raisers into a cooperative, mobilized support from local government units, linked them with a microfinance entity (Sikap Bidani), and enrolled them with an integrator, Bounty Corporation–all done in a model small farmers contract growing scheme called Manok Mabuhay Program.
Gonzalez was also a pioneer in the local production of corn and soybean hybrid seeds with the establishment of Phil Hi-Bred, Inc. in the early 1970s. “Sourcing the original seed parent materials from Pioneer Hi-Bred Seed Company in Iowa and mobilizing local expertise,” Dr. Javier writes, “she established hybrid seed production operations in South Cotabato, in a 40-hectare farm in Naujan Oriental Mindoro and a 1,000-hectare farm in Bansud, also in Oriental Mindoro.”
After working for the RFM group, Gonzalez established her own businesses in real estate development, commercial fishing, and corn hybrid seed production. In 1980, she was appointed as Assistant Minister of Agriculture by then President Ferdinand Marcos and played a vital role in the banner agriculture programs of the time—Masagana 99, Masaganang Maisan, Pagkain Bayan at Gulayan sa Kalusugan, and Bakahang Barangay. She also supported area marketing cooperatives and credit and farm insurance.
During her long, storied career as an agro-industrialist, she established a pest control management business, a livestock and poultry magazine, and an agribusiness company. In addition, she served in the Manila Overseas Press Club board and introduced contract growing in the Philippines to enhance the partnership between the feed miller and the poultry raiser to assure both an equitable sharing of profit in the animal industry. She has also served at the helm of various real estate and agro-industrial businesses and rural communities.
UP Pahinungod volunteer, UP Regent, Loyal Daughter of UP
Dr. Javier describes Gonzalez’s commitment to UP as “legendary.” And in an interview with ABS-CBN News on July 6, 2015, Gonzalez herself mentions having served the University in various capacities graduating from UPCA.
In fact, during the 44th UPLB commencement ceremonies held on June 25, 2016, when Gonzalez was conferred the Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, she noted in her acceptance speech that she has been serving UP for more than 70 years, shaping the future of the University both personally and professionally.
One way she has achieved this is through her involvement with the UP Ugnayan ng Pahinungod, helping inspire the spirit of volunteerism in others, especially UP students and young graduates.
Her other primary service to the University was as a member of the UP Board of Regents, appointed by then-President Fidel V. Ramos for two terms during Dr. Javier’s term as UP President. Later, Gonzalez would consider her position as a UP Regent as the most fulfilling assignment she has ever assumed.
Her leadership in various UP alumni associations has left an indelible impact upon these UP alumni chapters and the university. For example, when she served as president of the UP College of Agriculture Alumni Association, she helped organize the presidents of different college alumni associations in UPLB to form a federation, the UPLB Alumni Association Charter president, and served as such for 15 years.
Aside from her business network, Gonzalez had also built extensive linkages with influential political figures, national women’s organizations, national and local government agencies, and media people. She made full use of these linkages to become an effective fund-raiser, spearheading the fund-raising for the construction of the UPLB Alumni Center. Further, as UPLBAA president, she successfully raised funds to support scholarships and professorial chairs for UPLB. Moreover, she was instrumental in constructing the UPLB Rizal Centenary Carillon, which was inaugurated by President Fidel V. Ramos, as well as the Ang Bahay ng Alumni in UP Diliman during her service as Vice President of the UPAA.
The University has been unstinting in its recognition of her achievements. The same day she was honored with the gumamela that bears her name, the Nelia T. Gonzalez Alumni Service Award was launched. The award is given during the UPLB Loyalty Day and Alumni Homecoming to one or two highly deserving alumni for exemplary achievements to promote the ideals of alumni service to the University and their fellow graduates. It is named after her, in recognition of her services to her Alma Mater, to the alumni of the UP System, particularly to UPLB, and to the Filipino people in general, exemplify the ideals of the UPLBAA and its members. As if having an award named after her didn’t honor her enough, Dr. Javier also launched the Nelia T. Gonzalez Professorial Chair Grants during the same event.
Later down the line, Gonzalez was awarded the UPAA Lifetime Distinguished Achievements Awards on June 22, 2013—during UPAA’s centennial year—to recognize her accomplishments as one of the country’s first top female executives and inspire generations of women across Southeast Asia with her business acumen.
Civic organizer, advocate, private citizen with a mission
In her acceptance speech, during the conferment of an honorary degree upon her, Gonzalez also enumerated some of the many other ways she has been involved in shaping the country—as Trustee of the Philippine Constitution Association and a member of the Consultative Commission for Charter Change. However, she has made a point of doing is “to serve the public as a private individual.” For example, she served on the board of the Philippine Tuberculosis Society, and she helped keep foundations such as ERDA Tech sustainable so that children from low-income households can get a good education.
She has advocated causes close to her heart, especially those of women professionals as chair of the UP Center for Women’s Studies Foundation, Inc.; and those of entrepreneurs as chair of the Small Enterprises Research and Development Foundation (SERDEF), a resource hub for SMEs in continuing partnership with UP Institute for Small-Scale Industries. As an expression of her spirituality, she also chaired the Order of the Carmelite Scholastics at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Carmel.
Stalwart and indefatigable, NTG continued in her civic involvements, humanitarian work, and public service well into her 90s. And while she has passed, the story of her life will live on in Nelia T. Gonzalez: An Entrepreneur’s Journey, a book published by the UPLBAA and formally launched in June 2015. The book was written by UPLB faculty members, with a foreword by former President Fidel V. Ramos himself. Scholars in agriculture, development, and women’s studies can also read about her in Nelia T. Gonzalez: The Woman, Her Life, Her Legacy, published in 2002 by the SEAMEO-SEARCA under their Women and Development Series.
UP Regent Nelia T. Gonzalez is survived by her family of six children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.