She
was there as a silent witness to the century past,
Long
before Bienvenido N. Santos’s “Volcano”.
She
was there when records for Guinness was made;
To
shield proud parents from the heat of the summer sun,
Sharing
the joy of college days coming to an end.
She
was there for the last moment but nobody noticed,
Perhaps
sharing the President’s emotions
in
announcing her term to end.
She
was there, she was there … with the times well spent in the University.
Now
she had been there.
“She
had been there…” old timers of Bicol’s premier university may nostalgically
point to freshmen or visitors where an icon, a friend, a legacy once stood.
Perhaps
next to the four pillars (scholarship,
leadership, character and service) which are the core values of the Bicol
University, it is the 113 years Acacia Tree (Samanea saman) that unofficially symbolizes the University, rather
than the carousel and ice cream cart inspired steel and concrete monument.
It is fondly referred
to as the “Centree” of the Bicol University main campus located in
Legazpi City, Albay, Philippines.
The
ground where the tree is located used to be the sprawling site of the Albay
High Schools, adjacent to the Bicol Teachers College (formerly the Albay Normal
School), which had become the central of the Bicol University, merging with the
Bicol Regional School of Arts and Trades, College of Fisheries, College
Agriculture and other local public educational institutions.
Who
is the student from Albay High School to the present University status that has
no story to tell or his academic life not impressed on by the Centree?
Memories
have been fashioned in many ways by the tree that it has been endeared in the
hearts of many, like an assuring friend in all times.
The
tree may have been witness to many college romantic relations, sweet promises
as well as broken ones. It has shaded tired bodies after a soccer game, a hectic P.E. class or just a break between
classes.
My
fond memory of the tree is viewing it from a distance, from the classroom
windows of the Bicol Teachers College Laboratory School. Its embracing crown gives comfort even from a
distance during those quieter and simpler times. Walking home from school in the afternoon the
tree looks resplendent in the setting sun.
Too
bad that my student teacher in Grade 5 has disapproved of my crayon drawing of
the tree when he asked us to draw a sunset.
He had seen only the tree in my drawing but not its interplay with the
setting sun. Ah, my first frustration in the graphic art world, maybe a prelude
to one of my acrylic on canvas paintings being taken out from an art exhibit
because some conservative religious are to view the exhibit.
Trees
gives comfort as a friend would in one’s academic life that I immensely enjoyed early morning walks in
the University of the Philippines underneath the acacia tree lined Osmena and
Roxas Avenues.
I
would usually get off the bus at Quezon Hall and walk to the National Center
for Transportation Studies to enjoy the cool air and be cheered by the dew
laden grass glistening in the morning sun.
The
trees has inspired me in my design for a bicycle lane for the Diliman Campus.
This
routine I do even during my previous stints at the National Engineering Center
or Bocobo Hall, but not so for almost three years at NCPAG when I preferred to
sleep before my 9 o’clock Saturday classes.
Now
we may cease to wonder why school campuses are not without any tree, though in
my entire stay at MLQ University I saw no tree to really speak of.
The
Centennial Tree at the Bicol University has finally said goodbye after enduring
more powerful storms. It has been
uprooted by Typhoon Glenda (Typhoon Rammasun) on July 15, 2014.
Many
have been saddened by the bowing out of a true friend that an alumni may have. But as a song goes, “nothing lasts forever but
the earth and sky”.
