HAU Diamond Jubilee Year begins March 8

Holy Angel University will formally open its Diamond Jubilee Year on March 8, 2008, coinciding with the school’s Founders Day, or birth anniversary of the school’s founder, Don Juan D. Nepomuceno. 

The HAU academic community led by the University President, Dr. Arlyn S. Villanueva, will join the members of the Nepomuceno Family in wreath-laying ceremonies at the founder’s gravesite, to be followed by a Holy Mass  officiated by Archbishop Paciano B. Aniceto, D.D., Chairman of the HAU Board of Trustees.

The highlight of the celebrations is the inauguration of the multi-million St. Francis Xavier Building which houses the new University Library and new University Theatre, as well as the groundbreaking ceremonies for the new University Chapel.

“We have prioritized these three edifices because we want to give the best facilities for our students’ intellectual, cultural and spiritual development,” Dr. Villanueva said.  “Our next project is the University Sports Complex, which of course answers our students’ physical development needs, thus completing the formation of the whole person, which is our University’s mission statement.”   

The gala opening of the new University Theatre will feature performances by the Manila Symphony Orchestra and the University’s student choir, band, string ensemble and dance theatre. 

Holy Angel University began as a high school in 1933.  Don Juan Nepomuceno and parish priest Fr. Pedro Santos opened the school in response to a clamor for a Catholic high school offering quality but affordable education.

In 1933, the only Catholic school in town (Holy Family Academy) offered only elementary education, and the only high school (Angeles Academy) was not a Catholic school.  “There was a high school that offered quality education, and that was Pampanga High School,” Robby Tantingco, Director of the Center for Kapampangan Studies, said.  “However, it was located in San Fernando, some 17 kilometers away from Angeles.”

“Holy Angel Academy was a combination of all three: a high school (like Angeles Academy) that offered quality education (like Pampanga High School) that was Catholic (like Holy Family Academy),” Tantingco said. 

In his book Laying the Foundations: Kapampangan Pioneers in the Philippine Church 1592-2001, historian Dr. Luciano PR Santiago considers Holy Angel “the Philippines’ first Catholic school run by laypersons,” i.e., previously, all Catholic schools in the country were managed by either parishes or religious orders.

The school’s first principal was Ricardo Flores, a former teacher from Pagsanjan, Laguna.  “Dr. Flores devoted practically all his life to the school, eventually becoming its President and later, President Emeritus.  By the time he died in the 1980s, people were calling him Mr. Holy Angel,” Tantingco said.    

“Holy Angel University lived through the best of times and the worst of times, from World War II to political and social unrest, martial law, faculty strikes, student boycotts, volcanic eruptions, lahar, pullout of Clark Air Base,” Tantingco added.  “Through it all, it stood firm, growing steadily and helping Angeles survive and transform from a small, sleepy town to a city with a galloping economy that it is today.”

Today, Holy Angel University is recognized as the biggest and most prestigious university in Central Luzon, having earned an autonomous status from the government and a rare Level III accreditation rank from PAASCU, considered the country’s toughest accrediting body for private schools.