By Yani Tan
The Ateneo de Manila has been around for 150 years, has survived a world war and various civil unrests, has produced a host of successful alumni, and is continuing to adapt to our fast-developing borderless world.
Below is an article about adaptive mechanisms and how Ateneo dealt with the different time periods it has lived through.
The Ateneo Under American Rule
The Ateneo de Manila University founds its origins in the history of the first teaching order in the Philippines by the Society of Jesus sent to the Philippines in 1581 as missionaries. They founded the Colegio de Manila, which later became known as Universidad de San Ignacio, the first royal and pontifical university in the Philippines and in Asia. Later, it was noticed that the Society encourages its native students to be more self-governing which threatened the foreign powers. With this, the Society was expelled and dissolved, and surrendered the San Ignacio to the Spanish authorities.
The Ateneo de Manila University considers its foundation in the year 1859 when another 10 Spanish Jesuits that were sent to the Philippines to do missionary work in Mindoro and Jolo took over and began operating the Escuela Municipal de Manila. The Escuela was a primary school maintained for some 30 children of Spanish residents living in the city of Manila.
The Escuela eventually changed its name to Ateneo Municipal de Manila when it became licensed as a school of secondary education. Slowly, the Ateneo expanded its reaches and grew in number. It started offering bachelor degrees and other fields of study such as surveying, agriculture, and business.
The Ateneo did not fail to teach its students proper education. Jose Rizal studied his secondary education here in the Ateneo and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He was an exceptional student who used his skills in literature to bring out and spark the beginning of nationalism to many of the Filipinos under the Spanish rule. He was eventually found out and was killed by the Spaniards.
The Filipinos revolt against the Spaniards eventually started and many students and graduates of the Ateneo took part in the Philippine Revolution. One of which is Deodato Arellano. He with Andres Bonifacio, Ladislao Diwa, and other revolutionists founded the Katipunan that rebelled against the Spanish rule. Another Atenean, Gregorio Del Pilar joined the forces of the Katipunan under the leadership of Andres Bonifacio. Juan Araneta, also an Atenean, lead the Negros Revolution against the Spaniards. Brothers Antonio Luna and Juan Luna are also significant figures during the Philippine Revolution. Many Ateneans were involved in the rebellion against the Spanish rule and the Philippine Revolution.
It was with the help of the Americans that the Philippines became free from Spanish Rule. The Treaty of Paris in which the Philippines was handed over to the Americans and is again under foreign rule. The Ateneo de Manila lost its government subsidy and the Jesuits removed the Municipal from the school’s name.
Eventually, the killing of Filipinos by Americans sparked another war for independence in the Philippines called the Philippine-American War. Many Atenean heroes also took part here and many died in the process. Antonio Luna, on his way to meet Aguinaldo, was assassinated. Gregorio del Pilar died in the Battle of Tirad Pass. Two of the Filipinos’ best generals were killed and the power of the Philippine Army rapidly diminished. With more defeats, Emilio Aguinaldo, the first president of the First Philippine Republic surrendered to the Americans that resulted the fall of the First Philippine Republic.
The Philippines gained back their independence with the Treaty of Manila. The Ateneo de Manila University was taken over by American Jesuits. The Ateneo campus continued to expand its reaches and housed other Jesuit instutions of research and learning such as the Manila Observatory. The Ateneo campus that was originally located in Intramuros was destroyed by a fire. Fortunately, an American Jesuit named Fr. Richard O’Brien led the relocation of grounds to Padre Faura St., Ermita. The campus was devastated again during the World War II.
The Philippines got caught up in the WWII when Japanese invaded the country. Since Americans were still staying in the country, the Filipinos together with the Americans fought against the invading Japanese. The Ateneo campus was affected by the war and was devastated. The only statue that remained standing from the destruction during the WWII was the statue of St. Joseph and the Child Jesus that now stands in front of the Jesuit Residence. Other usable remains of the old structures from the previous Ateneo campus was also saved and used as remnants of the old Ateneo Campus. Such structures that still live one are the iron grillwork and the statue of Immaculate Concepcion.
WWII caused lots of destructions but fortunately the Ateneo de Manila University survived the calamity. After the war ended, the Padre Faura Campus soon reopened a year after the war ended. The Third Philippines republic was also established. More progress and development happened during the Third Philippine Republic. It was a time to strive to become better again and the Ateneo did not fail to get up back on its feet. In 1952, the Ateneo, under the American Jesuit named Fr. William F. Masterson S.J., was relocated. Most of the Ateneo units were moved to its current campus – the Loyola Heights Campus. Over the years, the Loyola Heights Campus gained popularity and became the center of a dynamic community. The Padre Faura Campus still continued to house the professional schools of the Ateneo.
Even after such calamity and devastation, the university and its students persevered. In the year 1958, Fr. Francisco Araneta S.J. was appointed as the Ateneo’s rector and became the first Filipino rector of the university until the year 1965 when the Marcos Era started. In 1959, the Ateneo de Manila celebrated its centennial year. In 1960, Fr. Francisco Araneta S.J. founded the MBA program, later known as MBM program, in the Ateneo.
During the next few decades, the Ateneo experienced an escalating instability that overwhelmed the university as an active movement of Filipinization. There was also a growing awareness of the problems of the country that needed change. Through the 1960s, the Ateneo strived to become a university that rooted important Filipino values onto its students and was active in the reformation of the country’s needs for poverty and injustice.
In the year 1965, Ferdinand Marcos was elected as the new president of the Philippines. It was also in the same year that Fr. Horacio de la Costa became the first Filipino Provincial Superior of the Philippine Province of the Society of Jesus. 4 years later, Pacifico Ortiz S.J. became the first Filipino president of the Ateneo de Manila University.
There was a rise of student activism in the Ateneo during the 1970s. Ateneans were more involved in student organizations and public relations with other colleges and universities. There were many who experienced expulsion and violent government dispersal as these Ateneans protested to many of the rising injustices of the country. It was on September 21, 1972 that the President Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law and the Ateneo tried hard into keeping the university intact. The university maintained low status and normalcy as to prevent military men from being stationed in the university.
It was on the year after that the Jesuit schools decided the start of justice education and the formation of the “men and women for others”. It was on the same year that the Ateneo College opened its doors for its first female students.
The Padre Faura Campus was eventually closed as all of the university’s professional schools were moved to either the Loyola Heights Campus or in H.V. de la Costa St. in Salcedo Village.
Two famous Ateneans sparked another revolution against the Marcos Regime. One of which is the famous Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, a Senator who became a big threat to Marcos, who was assassinated upon his return from the U.S. Another Atenean Alumnus named Evelio Javier, also an Antique Governor, was gunned down due to his uprising against the Marcos Regime and with this sparked again many people especially Ateneans to join thousands of other Filipinos in the People Power Revolution or EDSA Revolution and finally ousted Ferdinand Marcos from presidency. Ninoy’s wife, Corazon Aquino, became president after Marcos and so started the peaceful years of the Philippines and of the Ateneo.
The Ateneo de Manila was very active in terms of relief operations and volunteers to help many of those affected by calamities - the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo and the coming typhoons that hit the Philippine archipelago especially the island of Luzon. Despite the coming of these calamities, the Ateneo de Manila still flourished and developed into a well-known university where Ateneans are truly regarded as men and women for others.
The recent calamity, typhoon Ondoy, became one of the most destructive calamities Manila has ever encountered. Still, Ateneans were active and started their search for people either through texts and Internet posts. Volunteers and relief operations followed and many Ateneans help prepare as much food as they can get to give to those affected by the typhoon.
The Ateneo later on partnered with Gawad Kalinga and later on launched many Kalinga Programs so as to continue its volunteer and relief operations to those in need and affected by calamities.
The Ateneo de Manila University lived up to its name and expanded more fully and successfully. The professional schools of the university were restructured to become the four current schools of the Ateneo: SOSS, SOM, SOSE, SOH. Many of the structures and buildings we see in the campus were built during the 21st century. Such structures are the Moro Lorenzo Sports Complex which Atenean athletes were able to train for their upcoming competitions in the UAAP, the Science Education Complex, the Leong building that houses the social sciences, the MVP, the University Residence Halls, and the newest building on campus - the New Rizal Library.
Now, Ateneo just recently celebrated its sesquicentennial year and continues to uphold its traditions of rooting Filipino values and becoming men and women for others. Ateneans, I believe, stand for what they know is right. The Ateneo de Manila University has been through a lot and has survived many of the wars it got caught up in. The university persevered and survived many of the havoc it experienced in the past history of the Philippines. Until now, it continues to grow and expand more into becoming one of the Philippine’s top universities. The Ateneo de Manila University’s history tells us not just of the university’s foundations but also the many struggles and challenges that the Ateneo has faced to become the university it has become.
