Ateneo de Guipit
BACK in 1946, right after liberation, the Ateneo which was closed during the war wanted to reopen. Many Ateneo students studied in La Salle during the Japanese occupation. Because the Japanese Army occupied most of the La Salle buildings on Taft Avenue, the Brothers borrowed classrooms from Sta. Scholatica, two blocks away. The Ateneo boys fitted in well in La Salle. The Atenean boast was he could write and speak well but he did not know his mathematics. If one knew mathematics, he was not an Atenean. The La Salle Brothers shamed them by reading aloud the low marks in the bi-weekly tests.
Most Ateneans resolved to study their math and not allow their La Salle classmates to have an edge. In three months we were up to par in math with the La Salle boys. We learned the secret of the math prowess of the La Salle boys. We Thursdays, the free day at the time, the math teacher came to class to tutor one-on-one those who came for tutorials. In our class it was Bro. “Moon” Romuald who patiently explained what we did not understand in class. Since math is like a chain, that if you miss a link you could not pull on the chain, the rest of the lesson became unintelligible. Bro. Moon fixed the missing links. All teachers especially the Brothers in La Salle had a nickname. Our class teacher in third year was “Perico” because he had a big nose. Then there were Gestapo, Kamatis, Bijou, and others. Being in La Salle was a wonderful experience.
Since the Japanese killed the La Salle Brothers during the Liberation, La Salle also had a hard time opening after Liberation. I walked several days with Fr. Dowd of the Ateneo looking for a place to use. We looked at bodegas in Quiapo, then an abandoned house in Sta. Mesa, and many other places. Finally he was able to rent a Public School building in Guipit, Sampaloc (now Plaza Sta. Teresita); and a residence for the Jesuit teachers from the Hijas de Jesus. Across the Guipit Plaza was another public school building filled with refugees. Mr. Rodolfo Sarenas was the dean of Discipline and Registrar; he later became mayor of Davao. When he was angry he called us “nincompoops” and all the bad words in the dictionary!”
We were about 50 fourth-year high school boys and about 50 third-year boys in the morning. There were another 50 fourth-year and 50 third-year boys in the afternoon. From these 200 boys would come some prominent citizens like Vice President of the Republic Teopisto Guingona; the founder of Bancom and eminent economist Sixto Roxas; the head of the Manila Water District, Luis Sison; Secretary of Public Works Joe Dans; head of PDCP banking and Monetary Board member, Vicente Jayme; Rudolfo Tupas later ambassador to the Middle East; Gen. Germilo Ahorro; the Quintos brothers, the Montinola brothers, the Casimiro brothers. Louie Paterno, Marcelo Marasigan, and many more. From the third year class I remember Many Roxas, Ricardo Lopa, Onofre Pagsanghan of Dulaang Sibul, Max Soliven of Philippine Star, and Joe Tuason. Later on in lower classes in Guipit taught by Fr. Delaney were Gabby Mendoza of AIM, and Nardi Silos and Daniel Huang among many others. (I am sure I must have missed some prominent men, sorry.)
For some reason at one time we organized a delegation to ask Fr. Dowd to give us Latin classes on the supposition that that was what made the Ateneo students advantaged. He got wind of our request and as soon as the delegation entered his office, Fr. Dowd kept talking and, without letting us talk he dismissed us after 15 minutes.
Thinking back to those days, those two hundred or so boys were in a pressure cooker and would affect the areas of endeavour in which each of those boys chose. Few have heard of Ateneo de Guipit but it is an important phase of the Ateneo de Manila.