A novel is composed of many chapters. Three of the most important chapters of my own life story involve Chairman P. O. Domingo.

The first was when we were students of the Philippine College of Commerce and Business Administration (PCCBA), way back in 1948. We were both in the evening classes together with our now dear Manila Mayor, Alfredo Lim. We were also in the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC).

P. O. was a very hardworking student. He was a student leader and you could see that he was different—outstanding in the crowd, not only fluent and eloquent in speaking but also an inspiring leader, even during that time. He was a candidate for the Supreme Student Council, for which I campaigned for him because I believed in him as a good leader. And he made it. He became a delegate to the Supreme Student Council—the first ever Supreme Student Council organized in PCCBA, which later became UE.

The second chapter was when we both served under former President Ferdinand Marcos. At that time, I was head of the rice agency and P. O. Domingo was President of the Philippine National Bank (PNB). He did a lot of changes in PNB. He brought class and pride to PNB and to the banking world. If you had seen PNB before P. O. became President, you would have seen the very big change. He made PNB a world-class bank, one of the biggest in Southeast Asia, and it became like a bank in London. Incidentally, he had spent a lot of time in London, as a Manager of PNB and Vice President for its European operations.

Through his leadership, of course, he supported me when I was with the National Food Administration (NFA). Our transactions ran to billions of pesos. But maybe you would not realize that during that period, he was also part of the team that worked on “Masagana 99.” He was part of the lead agency that financed Masagana 99, which made this country self-sufficient in rice and able to export rice to about 16 countries throughout the world; for seven or eight years, we were exporting rice. P. O. Domingo was part of that team.

You may not realize as well that when he was PNB President, the people around him that helped him do his job at PNB were UE alumni. The former UE President Rose Cajucom, Baby Castro, of course our Executive Vice President Carmelita Mateo, and some of the other officers of this University were among the very efficient executives that helped P. O. when he was PNB President. He was also the one who introduced the “Bank on Wheels” program during Masagana 99. He brought loans to the doorstep of farmers’ homes. That’s why we have a UE TechnoBus; it was inspired by the “Bank on Wheels” that he launched back then.

I want you to know that Dr. Francisco Dalupan Sr., who was then President of this University, recognized our work and gave us a University Award. I was given in particular the Outstanding Award for Government Service. But for P. O., President Dalupan gave him the Most Outstanding Award. He was the most outstanding alumni of this University, and he was the first one to receive that award from our University.

The third chapter also involves the word “Maharishi.” When the Maharishi came into the UE environment, Chairman Domingo called a meeting of the alumni leaders at The Manila Hotel. I was there; the late Ofelia Salas was the one who called the other leaders. He brought the news that we might become a Maharishi University and it was not good. He asked us to help avoid this from happening. So after that meeting, it was P. O. that continued relentlessly, and pursued to avoid the takeover of UE by the Maharishi. And he was also the one who went to our now Honorary Chairman, Dr. Lucio Tan, to ask him to help and support the University. I think Dr. Lucio Tan told P. O.: “I don’t know anything about education, but if you will be the one to run it, manage it, I will support you.”

That’s what happened. So our dear friend P. O. managed this University. He cleaned up the place. It was in a mess—not only academically but physically; it was very dirty. If you had come here during that time, you would have been ashamed of the University. I know Mayor Fred Lim helped him a lot during that time, in the cleanup of the University. As we all have since known, UE has become a successful educational institution. Of course, P. O.’s burning passion has been for UE to be run by UE alumni. Of course, there are exceptions; we have to get very good talents, like Dr. Ester Garcia. But you will notice today, most of the University’s key positions are held by UE alumni. And even when he was at PNB, when P. O. was hiring UE graduates, approved agad. I think most of us prefer UE graduates; even Mayor Lim prefer UE graduates at City Hall, and I did that too in NFA—we hired a lot of UE graduates. But that is the spirit of UE.

You know, P. O. was very generous to the UE Alumni Association, Inc. All of the requests of the Alumni Association for projects were approved; lahat ng hiningi ng UE Alumni Association kay P. O. approved, walang bawas. That was how much he loved the UE Alumni Association. As a matter of fact, he wrote a beautiful letter to the present President of the UE Alumni Association, Mercy Candelaria; Mercy cried when she got that letter.

You know, P. O. had a grand design for the University. He didn’t want UE to stay only in Manila or Caloocan or Quezon City, but he was talking about UE in the Visayas, now up north, maybe in the Ilocos Region. But he has left us. And it’s now up to us to continue his legacy.

P. O. was an impeccable person, a perfectionist. I think his family knows this as did his coworkers—highly intelligent, scholarly and very careful with his words. He was a great boss, a great leader, a great father and a very great grandfather. And of course he was a very great human being. It is an honor to have had the opportunity of working with him. UE is most fortunate to have had him; as Dr. Garcia has mentioned, we will dearly miss him. Without him, UE would not exist today. The UE community will forever be indebted to P. O. Domingo.

So in behalf of the UE alumni—there are more than one million all over the Philippines and all over the world—we would like to convey to the Chairman’s family our deepest sympathy and sincerest love for our friend P. O.

Before I end, I want to inform you that we got a message from the UE Chorale, who are up to now grieving the loss of P. O.: I would like you to know that they are working very hard in Europe. They just got two championships—one in Italy and one in Spain. These are all dedicated to P. O. And they have two more championships to attend to and they are coming home at the end of the month. They also want to extend to the Domingo family their deepest and heartiest condolence.

Thank you.