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Century man ushers in UP centennial
celebration
By Marlon Ramos
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 04:30am (Mla time) 01/09/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- Fernando Javier was ecstatic at being invited to
attend the alumni homecoming of the University of the Philippines’ College
of Engineering on Nov. 12.
After all, it had been a while since the UP civil engineering graduate
last hobnobbed with his batch mates.
But his excitement turned to disappointment on that night. Apart from
himself, no one from his Class of 1933 was present.
“I was looking forward to seeing even a few of my friends. But none came,”
he said, laughing. “I don’t know if any of them are still alive.”
Javier shouldn’t really expect to see many people his age still living --
or partying. A survivor of the Bataan Death March, he turned a century old
on Dec. 22.
On Tuesday, the man led hundreds of “Isko’t Iska” (Iskolar ng Bayan) from
various generations in jump-starting the yearlong celebration of UP’s
centenary.
He is the oldest living alumnus of the Philippines’ premier state
university, but is actually a month older than his alma mater.
“I am really glad that I’m still alive to witness this. I’m proud and
elated that I will join UP again,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer
on Sunday.
Sharp
Despite his age, Javier is mentally sharp. He can still recall the names
of the professors and classmates he met as a UP student almost 80 years
ago.
He doesn’t need a cane to walk. He still enjoys a bottle of beer after a
day’s work in his garden in Baguio City.
And he has fond memories of UP when it was still a three-building
university on Padre Faura Street in Manila.
After graduating from Laoag High School in Laoag, Ilocos Norte, Javier
went to Manila to take the UP entrance exam in 1928.
“I entered UP because I was told it was No. 1 in engineering at that time.
Although UST (University of Sto. Tomas) was more famous then, it was known
for its medical courses,” he said.
Born to a family of doctors and lawyers, Javier recalled having to study
hard: “UP professors were known to be very strict. You cannot pass your
subjects if you don’t study well.”
More than his parents, it was his elder brother and sisters who prodded
him to take up engineering instead of law or medicine.
“Almost all the students from our place failed in their first semester in
UP. So I was really pressured to pass my subjects. Luckily, I did not fail
any of my subjects in my first year,” he said.
“It also helped that students had no distraction during that time.”
Silent films
After school, Javier would go straight to his rented room near Intramuros.
He said that unlike now, UP students in his time rarely went to bars after
classes to share talk and beer.
“We just watched silent movies [starring] Charlie Chaplin and the others.
It wasn’t until the 1930s that we were able to see what we called ‘talkie
movies,’” he said.
The fraternities then were not known to be aggressive and violent,
according to Javier.
He himself did not need to hurdle hazing rites when he joined the Beta
Epsilon fraternity in 1931 as a junior engineering student.
“It was very peaceful then. There were no [frat rumbles],” he said. “I
really feel sorry to hear news of [rumble and hazing deaths]. It’s
terrible, really terrible. I don’t see why hazing can’t be stopped.”
Asked if he joined protest rallies as a student, Javier said: “There’s
none that I can recall. The system of education during those days was very
good.”
He said the only time students gathered “to argue with each other” was
when the late Carlos P. Romulo, then a young English professor at UP,
started to organize a debating competition.
He said the UP debating team, led by the late Teodoro Evangelista, always
emerged champion over other debaters from universities abroad.
War vet
After graduating from UP in 1933, Javier joined the Bureau of Public Works
as an assistant civil engineer in Palawan.
But his budding career in government service was cut short when war broke
out in other parts of the world in the late 1930s.
When Adolf Hitler’s troops started to overrun Europe, Javier, like most
Filipino men his age, joined the Philippine Army.
He served in the Army variously as brigade engineer and cadre commandant.
He also joined the US Armed Forces in the Far East.
As Japanese forces invaded the Philippines in 1942, he was assigned to
Batangas, Cagayan and other provinces to build cantonments, or temporary
military headquarters.
He also went to Limay, Bataan, to lead a military expedition to save war
materiel on Corregidor Island, which was under heavy bombardment.
It was then when he and hundreds of Filipino and American soldiers were
arrested en masse by Japanese forces.
Javier later took part in -- and survived -- the infamous Bataan Death
March to Capas, Tarlac, where thousands of Filipinos and Americans met
their end.
He said he had yet to meet a survivor of the 97-kilometer march apart from
his brother, Dr. Jose Javier.
Work abroad
Although he belongs to a landed clan, Javier had a hard time getting
decent work after the war.
He left the country to work in Okinawa, Japan, but returned after several
years when his wife died in 1958. He took off again shortly after
receiving an offer to teach young engineers in Afghanistan and Korea.
“Filipinos were really in demand abroad because our education was superior
to others. But now, it’s the other way around. We have been left behind by
our neighbors,” Javier said.
“The government seems to have neglected the education of Filipinos.”
At one point, Javier moved to Guam to work for the Environment Protection
Agency, a unit directly under the US federal government.
In 1983, after almost 30 years abroad, Javier retired from work and
returned to his motherland. He helped his siblings manage the mango and
rice farms owned by his mother’s family in San Fernando, La Union.
Now he keeps himself busy growing ornamental plants in his
144-square-meter garden in Baguio. His two children, a son and a daughter,
are based in California.
In his genes
But what’s the secret of his longevity? It must be in his genes, Javier
said.
(Dr. Javier, 98, still drives a car from his home in Quezon City every
day, and another brother, who is 91, still teaches at Fordham University
in New York.)
“You should also know how to lie. I mean, you should sometimes lie about
age,” Javier said in jest.
His many years abroad has kept Javier from attending the annual alumni
homecoming at UP.
And like a son who has long been away from home, Javier was delighted when
his niece, Maria Lourdes, and her husband, Alex Brillantes, dean of UP’s
National College of Public Administration and Governance, told him that he
had been chosen one of the torch bearers at the launch of the centenary
celebration.
“I’m just thankful that I was invited to participate in the alumni
homecoming after so many years of being away,” he said.
As UP turns 100, Javier said, it should take on a noble challenge: “UP
should produce great leaders who will steer this country to greater
heights. We need another Carlos P. Romulo, Rafael Palma and Wenceslao
Vinzons.”
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