Dr. Reynaldo Dante G. Juanta, OAM, JP

PNU President, Atty. Lutgardo Barbo, honored guests from the Philippine Senate and the House of Representatives, PNU Vice Presidents, Deans, Faculty, and Administrative Staff, Fellow PNU Alumni, with special mention of Alumni who flew all the way from the United States and from Australia, namely, Cleofe Calara Anciano, Aurora Catalan Bushman, Ed Mandani, Freddie Tesalona, Corazon delos Reyes Juanta, Rosarito Plamenco, Zuvilla Ramirez, and Emilita Leyzon.
Friends, ladies and gentlemen:
We, the  graduates of PNS-PNC-PNU,  like visiting our Alma Mater.   We look with nostalgia on the years spent here with friends and classmates and with our professors. Some professors were good-natured. Others were justifiably called terror professors, while a few exhibited strange “tililing” complex in the manner they taught and treated students.
We had happy memories about the Friday Social Hour that many enjoyed in the 50’s and in the 60’s.  Some of those who came decades later will remember the daring and outrageously mischievous escapades of classmates,  beating and missing classes to see movies downtown and in Makati. Some like to think of friends who took fancy of the opposite gender in  class and in other year levels. Some may recall adolescent “crush-ng-bayan” type;  others are reminded of former boyfriends and girlfriends however many or few  they might have had.
My friends: many alumni chose to stay in the country, while some journeyed and tried a new life opportunity in different parts of the globe.   A number of alumni from the United States, like Adelia Fallar PNC Class 1961, and from Australia, gathered in PNU last year, July 1st, 2008, to meet with fellow alumni in the Philippines.  They came up with a scheme that has global perspective that would connect alumni across the world. Thus, the PNU Global Alumni Association was born. The idea initially sprang from the fertile mind of Alfredo Freddie Tesalona, PNC Class 1964, of New York City and is now the Vice Mayor of hometown Lubang, Mindoro Oriental. The assembled group created an Interim Committee to plan and oversee some projects aimed at assisting PNU on its strategic institutional development programs.
With the energetic PNU President,  Atty. Lutgardo Barbo, PNC Class 1966 and Architect-Sculptor Nemi Miranda, and support from  the PNU Alumni Association through its president Dr. Teresita Domalanta, PNC Class 1964, the PNUGAA worked furiously hard in putting up a monument as a symbolic icon of the University on Ayala Blvd.   PNU President Barbo thought earlier about the Monument.   I was glad to see his  dream to turn into reality during his watch as PNU President. 
It was no mean feat frankly speaking to carry out plans, to mobilize resources, to raise funds, to meet schedules to complete the project in time, when all Officers of the PNUGAA were operating from 3 distant continents!  Their political will had defied time and space.  Rodolfo Bernardo, PNC Class 1962 chairman, lives in Ohio;  Rosita Gallega-Galang Class 1965 treasurer, teaches in California;  Abundio Alolod, Class 1964 secretary,  works in the Philippines; while I, the co-chairman, live in the wild among the kangaroos, dingoes and koalas in the earth’s antipodes Down Under Australia!   But we have the PNU President Atty. Lutz Barbo in Manila working closely with us.  We thank him for assiduously helping us, orchestrating our overseas effort to finish the first project on time.
Today, April 19, 2009 is the inauguration of the PNU TORCH MONUMENT.  It is a golden day in the history of the Philippine Normal University. The day is heralded with enormous historical significance when Philippine Normal University  is acknowledged and is renowned in the Asia-Pacific Region as a leading Centre of Excellence in Teacher Education.
On behalf of Rudy Bernardo and Rosita Gallega-Galang  who sent in apologies, and in behalf also of Abe Alolod, the donors and members of the PNU Global Alumni Association,  I wish to  thank everyone for coming to witness the formal unveiling of the PNUGAA TORCH MONUMENT.
Finally, let it be remembered that this Memorial pays tribute to all alumni and students of PNS-PNC-PNU.   Therefore, on this day the 19th of April 2009, the PNU Global Alumni Association proudly  presents and formally turns over the Torch Monument to the President of Philippine Normal University.   God bless PNU, our beloved alma mater!