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The Values of Our Founders
An Article Published in the FEATINIAN Based on a Speech given by Dr.-Ing. Adolfo Jesus R. Gopez on Founders’ Day March 6, 2012
We have celebrated Founders’ Day once more, on the 105th birth anniversary of Doña Victoria Lopez de Araneta. Doña Victoria was born on March 6, 1907. FEATI Institute of Technology was founded on June 6, 1946 by Don Salvador Z. Araneta and Doña Victoria. Don Salvador was the President of FEATI Tech as it was then known, until 1951 when he left to serve as the Secretary of Economic Coordination in the cabinet of President Elpidio Quirino. He handed over the presidency to Doña Victoria. On August 10, 1959, thirteen years after its establishment, FEATI was recognized as a University by the Department of Education. We therefore celebrate three important dates; March 6 as Founders’ Day, June 6 as Foundation Day, and August 10 as University Day.
By looking at our Founders’ work and writings, it is possible to get valuable insights into their lives and what their values were. How would their values compare to the FEATI University Core Values: Integrity, Scholarship, Accountability, Equality and Patriotism?
Don Salvador was a lawyer, having passed the Bar in August 1922. He is described as a nationalist, statesman, constitutionalist, civil servant, businessman-industrialist, and philanthropist. He served in the only two Constitutional Conventions of the Philippines, in 1935 and in 1971. He served as cabinet secretary for two presidents, Secretary of Economic Coordination of President Quirino and Secretary of Agriculture of President Magsaysay. He founded the Philippine Constitution Association, serving twice as its President, and he was co-founder of the National Economic Protectionism Association. Together with Doña Victoria he founded FEATI University, and set up pioneering industrial corporations, Republic Flour Mills, FEATI Industries, Republic Consolidated, AIA Feed Mill, AIA Biologicals and FEATI Bank. Doña Victoria was called “First Lady of Philippine Society” by the President of the Commonwealth, Manuel L. Quezon. She could rightly be described as a nationalist, educator, industrialist, philanthropist and devout Catholic.
The first prevailing theme in Don Salvador’s professional life is Nationalism. He viewed the Filipino as the equal of any person in the world and he envisioned a progressive Philippines making its own products for the use of its own people. The main objective of the National Economic Protectionism Association (NEPA) was to promote Philippine-made products. In our present FEATI Core Values, this is the same as Patriotism. Doña Victoria shared this passion with him, because she founded the Women’s Chapter of the NEPA.
Viewing the Filipino as the equal of any person in the world also meant that Don Salvador valued Equality, another of our Core Values. Husband and wife, Don Salvador and Doña Victoria were both born into affluence. They did not need to work; they did not need to earn a living. And yet they established so many companies. Right after World War II, they saw the destruction left by war. They believed that the establishment of industrial companies was the key not only to recovery, but to economic progress. The companies they established also provided opportunities for their fellow Filipinos. They believed in providing equal opportunities for as many countrymen as they could. This is the same reason that led Doña Victoria to establish a free school for girls, Victoneta School and an institution for children orphaned by the tuberculosis of their parents, the White Cross in the 1930’s. Most people easily think this is just philanthropy, but it was also to give more opportunity to the unfortunate and to “level the playing field” for them that she did this. It is most likely for this same reason that Don Salvador established the Araneta Institute of Agriculture (AIA) as a foundation, endowing it with one-sixth of his wealth. AIA became the Gregorio Araneta University Foundation. In addition in his writings, Don Salvador indicated that he wanted to “uplift the moral and social values of [Philippine] society” through “property ownership and capitalism for all”.
The value of Scholarship is well-illustrated by the fact that husband and wife founded several educational institutions, two of which have grown into universities and which are still in existence today, FEATI University and Gregorio Araneta University Foundation. It must be pointed out however, that the establishment of these universities was premised on the couple’s unshakeable belief that economic progress could come only with the supply of properly trained and capable technicians, technologists and engineers.
Doña Victoria was a devout Catholic; taking the time and the effort to visit the Pope in Rome. She received the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Papal Award in 1947 and in 1952 was awarded the Sovereign Military Order of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta, as well as the Cross of Merit of the Order of Malta. This devotion is very visible in the form of the Cross in our university seal today. Beyond religion and Catholicism, however, this devotion and compliance indicates Integrity, which both Don Salvador and Doña Victoria were to show everyone by refusing to work for a government that declared Martial Law in 1972. Rather than live in a country without freedom and equality, they chose to go into self-exile and stay in Canada. The direct consequence of this action was that in 1980, Doña Victoria relinquished the presidency of “her cherished FEATI University”, handing it over to her son-in-law and long-standing Dean of Engineering, Prof. Jose M. Segovia.
Finally, our Founders accepted the consequences of their act of integrity by staying away from the Philippines as long as it was under Martial Law. Don Salvador died in 1982 and Doña Victoria in 1988, without seeing the Philippines again. If this is not the ultimate in Accountability, what could it be?
When we reviewed our Vision and Mission and selected our Core Values in 2005, our Founders were no longer around, and yet, somehow, the five values we chose above the rest aptly describe how Don Salvador and Doña Victoria lived, dreamed and worked. They would be proud of FEATI University today!
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