|
SMSS Alumni and Friends Foundation
Opening Remarks and Report
March 5, 2005 Meeting
St. Luke and All Saints Mission Church
Union New Jersey
By Lambert Sagalla
Fellow SMS Alumni and Friends,
Thank you so much to each and every
one of you for taking time to come to attend this St Mary's School, Sagada [SMSS] Alumni and Friends
gathering. I know that most, if not all, of you had to forego some activity or
activities in order to come and attend this meeting. Salasalamat tay pinateg yo
nan invitation manang Inez ken dakayo. Wa-ay mo ammo yo en sak-en nan men in-inbital
et egay kayo enmali.
I initiated the holding of this mini-SMSS
Alumni and Friends gathering to ask for your help, to solicit your ideas or to
seek your advice on what we, US based SMSS alumni and friends, can do to help
sustain the current effort to rehabilitate SMSS.
I reckoned that there was no better group to ask for help, to solicit ideas or
to seek advice from, than SMSS alumni and friends. More so if the alumni and
friends are fully appraised of what difficulties SMSS is currently experiencing
and what efforts have already been implemented or planned to help keep SMSS
continue its mission of dispensing quality education to our Sagada and other
hinterland community folks .
So, the first part of the program,
hopefully the shorter part, will consist of informative reporting interspersed
with a free-wheeling discussion on recent developments in our alma mater; and
some demonstrations of help options. Hopefully, these will encourage each and
every one of us to get involved, in one way or the other, to help avert closure
of SMS. I was particularly encouraged by the statement of my younger brother,
Jerry Abeya, that Alumni and Friends are pregnant with ideas on how to help
SMSS. That all that is needed for Alumni and Friends to give birth to their
pregnant ideas is a meeting such as this.
I will now start the first part of
the program with a general overview of what has transpired in SMS during the
last 5 years or so, its difficulties and steps taken to try and overcome these
difficulties.
As most of you may have already been
informed, SMSS had been subjected to extreme financial difficulties due mainly
to:
-
The proliferation of free public
school education not only in the town and barrios of Sagada but also in most
towns and barrios throughout the Cordillera Administrative Region or the old
Mountain Provinces plus Abra, which constituted the main source of enrollees
to St. Mary’s School in the past.
-
The Autonomy agreement between the
Episcopal Church of the United States [ECUSA] with the Philippine Episcopal
Church [PEC] which apparently stipulated a gradual reduction in ECUSA subsidy
to PEC operations starting in 1990 and to end in 2007 when PEC will have
attained full autonomy status.
Free public schools in Sagada itself
and other former feeder communities for SMSS students drew significant would-be
students of SMS resulting in a drastic reduction in SMS enrollment and
consequently the tuition-fee-income flow to the school has significantly
diminished.
As PECUSA subsidy to PEC declined, so
was the amount of subsidy from PEC to the Episcopal Diocese of Northern
Philippines [EDNP], the administrator of SMSS.
With the reduction in enrollment and
EDNP subsidy, SMSS was forced to operate under a very lean or stringent budget
resulting in a pay scale for its faculty and other school employees which was
inferior to that of government public schools. This resulted in a deterioration
in the quality of education dispensed by SMSS as reflected by the almost
consistent mediocre performances of SMS students in regional and national
school examinations. Apparently, SMSS has not been a priority employment
prospect for good school teachers and SMSS had to be contented with whoever
school teacher was willing to accept the sub-par SMSS pay scale.
With no viable solution in sight to
the financial squeeze brought about by a drastically reduced enrollment and PEC
subsidy, EDNP chose to seriously consider closing the school and floated that
idea. Strong public resistance and encouraging initiatives undertaken by quite a
number of SMS alumni and friends, to try and avert SMS from closing, seemed to
have helped to keep SMS afloat during these difficult years.
However, whether SMSS alumni and
friends can sustain support to SMSS at a consistency and magnitude required to
ensure continued operation of the School must have been an unresolved concern
of EDNP. Consequently, EDNP announced in 2003 that it will no longer be able to
sustain operations of SMS beyond 2005.
Cognizant of the educational,
spiritual and socio-economic upliftment that SMS helped foster for our people in
the past and still is capable of fostering in the future, quite a number of
spirited alumni and friends led by the late manong Frank Longid adamantly
opposed any plans of closing the school.
These SMS alumni and friends
“die-hards” sincerely believe that St. Mary’s School can still be transformed
into a source of quality education with strong emphasis on science and
technology, tempered with the tenets of Christianity, such that:
-
It can be an alternative source of
education for students whose parents are primarily concerned about the quality
of education that their children will receive and are willing to pay for it as
proven in many quality schools in Baguio and Metro Manila such as Brent
School, the International School, La Salle High School, UP High School,
Montessori Schools, and others.
-
It can be an institution that can
foster the development of indigent but talented indigenous students in
hinterland communities through scholarships or grants incentives.
-
It can be an institution that can
share its resources/expertise with other schools [public or private] towards
providing quality education to Igorots and related people in hinterland
communities of the Philippine Cordilleras.
-
It can be an institution that will
raise the bar of academic excellence not only in Sagada community but the
entire Cordillera Administrative Region to the overall benefit of Igorots and
related people.
-
It can be an educational
institution that will complement, not compete, with the Sagada National High
School since it will target as its enrollment base the entire Cordillera
Administrative Region of the Philippines and will not be confined to the
Sagada Municipality.
At this juncture I am sure many of
you are silently asking the question: is such transformation for St. Mary’s
School even possible considering its current precarious financial situation as
well as the growing stiff competition from public schools?
They say that “ If there is a
WILL there is a WAY “. There are several meaning of “will” in
the dictionary so lest some of us are confused of what is being referred to here,
we refer to that which indicate a deligent purposefulness or strong
determination. Thanks to Kabunyan [the Almighty] there is such a WILL and clear
WAY in the quest to keep St. Mary’s School functioning.
Perhaps, the late manong Frank Longid
epitomized the unyielding WILL of a legion of SMS alumni and
friends that it behooves us who have benefited much from the sacrifices of
missionaries and strangers in building and maintaining St. Mary’s School for
almost a century, to likewise do whatever it takes to keep St. Mary’s School
functioning for those coming after us.
We are grateful to the late manong
Frank Longid for sharing significant amounts of his financial resources as well
as valuable time to keep SMS functioning. But above all we are grateful for his
unyielding conviction that SMS must live on, even in the face of a contagious
depressing view that St. Mary’s School has outlived its usefulness and painful
it maybe, we have to let it go. This depressing view was and still is shared by
some respected individuals both in the private and public sectors, including
some SMS alumni and PEC think tanks. So one could just imagine the WILL,
the fortitude and mental toughness that manong Frank had to muster to counter
such adverse assessments while rallying alumni and friends that closing SMS is
not an option and never will.
Kabunyan must have looked with
favor on what manong
Frank was earnestly trying to accomplish for his hinterland folks, for lo and behold another strong-willed
individual in the person of manong Rufino Bomasang came forth to team up with
him to help transform SMSS back to its stature as a source of good quality
education for Igorots and related people.
Notwithstanding his responsibilities running a multi-billion corporation, the
Philippine National Oil Exploration Company [PNOC-EC] as well as the duties of
a member of the board of directors/trustees for several colleges and
corporations in the Metropolitan Manila area, manong Rufino found time for
helping St. Mary’s School including registering and taking over the helms of
St. Mary’ School of Sagada, Inc.. Moreover, he assumed his SMSS
responsibilities fully aware of the prognostications of soothsayers that St.
Mary’s School, Sagada is already history.
Through his extensive corporate
connections, manong Rufino was able to help generate financial and material
support for SMS. The MEROS Book donation to SMS; the cost of renovating the
bathrooms and several school rooms; and bringing the best science school teacher
in the world to conduct a science workshop at SMS, among other things, were
realized through the efforts of manong Rufino. The
Chairman of the Board Update
in the “Alumni Forum” page of the “Save SMS Sagada Website [www.smssfoundation.com
] can give you a better accounting of the contributions and services that manong
Rufino has and still is doing for SMS. I urge everyone of you to visit our
website.
If a dream is the unconscious product
of a strong “WILL”, another testament to the strong will of manong Rufino
that SMS must continue its mission of dispensing good quality Christian
education to our people, is his “Impossible Dream” which I had the privilege
of reading from a private email. According to this email which he entitled
“Impossible Dream”, manong Rufino dreamed that he will be able to generate
substantial financial support to SMS from his rich philanthropists friends in
the oil industry and so he wanted to make sure that donations to SMS from U. S.
based corporate and philanthropist donors will be tax deductible. Ilowalo tako
ta men balin ay POSSIBLE nan impossible dream manong Rufino.
Another “Intungin di Kabunyan”
[another strong-willed individual] is Dr. Dennis Faustino. Indeed, birds of the
same feathers flock together. A non-Episcopalian, Dr. Faustino opted to forego
the comforts of living afforded by an affluent family and a distinguished
position as assistant principal in an internationally recognized school in Metro
Manila, to come to hinterland Sagada to help St. Mary’s School survive its
difficulties. Likewise, taking into consideration the fact that Dr. Faustino is
fully aware of the quagmire that St. Mary’s School was and still is in,
including the not-so-encouraging assessment of not a few individuals that SMS
has nowhere to go but be relegated to the dustbin of history, I can not help but
conclude that he is indeed a “God Send”, and that our alma mater, by divine
intervention, will overcome its present difficulties.
The 5-Year Development Plan that Dr.
Dennis Faustino authored in consultation with the faculty, alumni and key
members of the Sagada community may yet prove to be his greatest single
contribution to St. Mary’s School and the Igorots in general. The 5-Year
Development plan details the “WAY” in what we said earlier that “If there is a
WILL, there is a WAY”. It is a blue print for transforming St. Mary’s School
into a source of good quality Christian education as we envisioned it to be. I
have, therefore, included said 5-Year Development Plan as Annex A of this
report. Thanks to Francis Killip who was kind enough to make copies of the
report so that all of you may have a copy. If the copies are not enough, it is
accessible in our website at:
http://www.smssfoundation.com/5-year_plan1.htm
. We will discuss parts of the report in the “Formation of Committees” portion
of this business meeting later on.
In the natural and Divine scheme of
things, however, no matter the greatness of the “Frank Longid – Rufino Bomasang
– Dennis Faustino triumvirate”, they alone can not transform St. Mary’ School
to a cradle of good quality education that we all want it to be. They fully
realize this and so they have been clamoring for some commitment from the Sagada
Community, SMS alumni and friends and the Episcopal Diocese of Northern
Philippines.
And wonder of wonders, a legion of
alumni and friends came out with cash donations, student sponsorships, book
donations, computer and related equipment donations, science lab equipment
donations, etc. in a collective effort to help sustain SMS operations. It would
be a pleasure to mention the names of all of these kind hearted individuals one
by one in this report but it will take maybe 30 minutes to do so as well as bore
most of you to death. I tried, however, to enshrine their names for posterity by
posting them in our website. Please go to the Donations Update by manang Inez
in the Save SMS Sagada website [http://www.smssfoundation.com/inez_saley.htm]
to see who these kind hearted donors are. Each donation/contribution no matter
how small, is essential to the transformation of SMSS to a source of good
quality Christian education. Rest assured also that these are fully documented
by manang Inez in the records of SMSSAFF.
The full impact of these efforts,
however, on attaining self-sufficiency for St. Mary’s School has yet to be fully
realized. The 5-Year Development Plan has yet to be fully implemented and needs
time to prove its worth. In the meantime, we can not waver, we can not tarry in
our efforts to help SMSS continue dispensing the same quality education, that
have helped us become what we are now. This much we owe to those coming after
us.
Thus, to encourage more
tax-deductible contributions, Philippines based SMS alumni and friends led by
manong’s Frank and Rufino formed a non-profit corporation – St. Mary’s School of
Sagada, Inc. or SMSSI for short – which has taken over the administration of St.
Mary’s School. Following their Philippine-based counterparts, US-based alumni
and friends likewise organized themselves into a public charity foundation [SMSS
Alumni and Friends Foundation] and was able to obtain tax exemption under
section 501 (c) (3) of the U. S. Internal Revenue Code effective May 4, 2004. For a more detailed narrative on how SMSSI and SMSAFF came about please access the following
hyperlink:
http://www.smssfoundation.com/by_lambert_sagalla.htm
.
I have included the Articles of
Association and By-laws of SMSSAFF in this report as Annexes B and C. Again
thanks to Francis Killip for making extra copies so that each of you can have
copies. May I respectfully suggest that you take time to read the same, prepare
your comments, corrections and/or recommendation which we can discuss in a
larger US nationwide SMS alumni and friends forum to be scheduled later. To the
younger SMS alumni and friends, these materials can be valuable references
should you want to form or get involved in the formation of similar non-profit
organizations. I just hope and pray that some of your involvement will be for
the benefit of our less fortunate brethren back in the Philippine Cordilleras.
I took all the trouble of trying to
give as much information as possible on what alumni and friends are doing for
SMS in this report as well as in the “Save St Mary’s School Sagada website” –
www.smssfoundation.com .
A primary purpose is to show that there are SMS alumni and friends who are
sacrificing for SMS in the hope that their sacrifices will somehow rub on to
heretofore uninvolved alumni and friends. An equally important second purpose
is to show that we are not afraid of public scrutiny. We are for full disclosure
and accountability thus, our books are open for anyone to see. A third but not
the least important purpose is to convince prospective donors that their
tax-deductible contributions/donations are for a people trying to help
themselves; for an “honest-to-goodness” humanitarian endeavor.
I tried to highlight as much as
possible the accomplishments of manong Frank, manong Rufino and Dr. Dennis
Faustino for SMS. The idea is to encourage alumni and friends to take advantage
of the deep reservoir of good will that manong Frank helped generate for SMS
when he was still alive;
and to take advantage of whatever lifetime the Good Lord is willing to share manong
Rufino and Dr. Dennis Faustino to the "Save SMSS" initiative. If we had our way, we could have asked
the Almighty to allow manong Frank to stay awhile with manong Rufino and Dr.
Faustino to continue leading the “Save SMSS crusade”. But life is short. As I
mentioned a number of times in this report, these individuals are “God Sends”
for SMSS. Ay into kasin di mang-in-inapan tako es is-ison datona ay ipogao. With
our support, albeit in the form of enthusiasm [such as our presence and prayers
here this afternoon], we would be encouraging manong Rufino and Dr. Dennis
Faustino to continue harnessing their connections, resources and/or expertise
for the benefit of SMSS.
May our meeting this afternoon, small
it maybe, help keep the fire burning towards rescuing our distressed alma mater
for future generations of our people. Ta adi ma-iyam-amis wenno ma-oy-oyaw nan
Igolot. Again, thank you all for coming.
Lambert Sagalla
|
