St. Mary’s School of Sagada – 100 years of education

Published January 31, 2013 8:29pm

The present building of St. Mary’s School of Sagada Photos by Alma Louise Bagano

“A Century of Education and Learning: Honor the Past, Cherish the Present, Inspire the Future” is the theme of the Centennial celebration of St. Mary’s School of Sagada (SMSS). St. Mary’s School of Sagada culminated its year-long centennial celebration on December 8, 2012 in the compound of the Episcopal Church Mission in Sagada. The school is located within the 34-hectare land in the Poblacion donated by the people of Sagada to the Episcopal Church in the early 1900’s. The highlight of the celebration was the unveiling of the bust of Rev. John Armitage Staunton erected at the Memorial Park constructed along the road at Mabbay Curve, Nangonogan, Sagada. Ribbon cutting was done by 99-year-old Flora Bondad Abeya, the oldest alumni present, who studied at the Girls’ School from 1922-1924, assisted by Thomas Perry Killip, the President of the Alumni Association.

Lakay Patrick Bawing unveils the bust of Rev. Staunton with Betty Capuyan of the Episcopal Churchwomen of Sagada Deanery.

Lakay Patrick “Wa-aw” Bawing, representing the elders of the village, and Betty Capuyan, representative from the Episcopal Churchwomen of St. Simon Peter in Demang, Sagada, unveiled the bust before the inauguration and blessing by the Rt. Rev. Brent Harry Alawas, Bishop of the Diocese of Northern Philippines. The Memorial Park with the Commemorative Bust adds to the many attractions in this tourist-travelled town in Igorot-land. It is strategically located where a spectacular view of the Sagada Mission is seen in the background, lighted by the misty rays of the sun peeping through the copse of trees at dawn, and brightened by a beautiful sunset. The bust is a sculpture of cold cast bronze done by the Tamawan Village artists of Chanum Foundation based in Baguio City. To commemorate Rev. Staunton’s life and works, the people of Sagada partook in a community potluck, coordinated by the stakeholders of St. Mary’s School, after a Thanksgiving high mass at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, and following the unveiling ceremony at the memorial park. The festivities ended up with the lighting of one hundred sky lanterns at the school’s open field to send a message that SMS will continue sharing the light to the world, wherever they are. True to their school slogan “Adi tako bokodan di gawis” (Let us not be selfish with our blessings), everyone is an inspiration to the future of their alma mater and to the community of Sagada.

99-year-old Flora Bondad Abeya, oldest of St. Mary's living alumni, cuts the ribbon during the inauguration of the Centennial Marker and Memorial Park.

The celebration had a kick-off ceremony with the lighting of the Mother Torch at St. Mary’s School last December 8, 2011, the school’s founding anniversary. The Mother Torch travelled all over the globe wherever alumni are organized and candle lighting ceremonies were held by these alumni chapter organizations. This Mother Torch was brought back home to SMS to be the source of light as the alumni gathered to celebrate their regular Grand Homecoming last March 28-29, 2012. The homecoming last March 2012 listed the most attendance in all reunions held in the past. With a total number of 4,187 alumni from the first graduates in 1932, there were 1,084 who registered for the alumni reunion with their families and friends. Despite the rainy weather, the gathering was a memorable and historic celebration as each one caught up with former classmates, teachers, crushes and former rivals over girlfriends and boyfriends. The never ending sound of gongs reverberated as the school hymn was sung amid the 15-minute fireworks display that woke the whole town and its neighboring municipalities. Truly, it was filled with memories to cherish forever, and reasons to look forward to the next gathering. St Mary’s School graduated many professionals who are leaders in their own fields in local and international levels. Albeit it lost its fame two or three times in the 100 years of her existence, it ranked 8th-10th in the national level from 1960-1962, according to the achievement tests given to all private high schools in the country. Dr. William Henry Scott, a well-known historian of Philippine culture, first came to the Philippines as a missionary to teach at SMS in 1954, and later became Principal of the school for two years. It was with his students at SMS where he first gathered information about the culture of Sagada and the Cordillera through his Journalism Class. His body is buried in the cemetery of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, a place where he spent most of his meditations while he wrote his books. St. Mary’s School will participate in the town fiesta on Jan 31-Feb 3, 2013. The festival is a joint celebration of the town and the church, a tradition began by the Missionaries. The town will celebrate its 3rd Etag Festival on the first day followed by the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus Christ in the Temple and the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Church of St. Mary The Virgin, on Feb 2nd. by Alma Louise Bawing–Bagano, Class 1977

St. Mary’s School's post-war school building, 1953-1954. It was razed to the ground by arsonists on the night of May 8, 1975.

St. Mary's School's Continuing Journey (1987 to present) “. . .but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Isaiah 40:31 A gathering of eagles In December 1987, never-say-die SMS alumni gathered in Sagada to mark St. Mary's School's First Grand Alumni Homecoming. This came at a time when the school was facing extreme financial woes as a result of the annual 10% reduction of diocesan subsidy as the Episcopal Church in the Philippines moved towards full autonomy. Other church institutions in the diocese were caught in the same dire straits. State subsidy to public high schools and the stable pay of public school teachers gave SMS a run for its money. Salaries were sometimes delayed for months on end and the idea of closing SMS was seriously being contemplated. The lease of the school facilities to the government was an option being considered at that time. The eventual cutting off of full diocesan subsidy plus the opening of government high schools within the municipality in 1986 and particularly the opening of Sagada National High School in 1996, a close distance from St. Mary’s School, offering free quality education rose as twin threats to the school's continued existence. But even with the slump in the performance of SMS graduates in national examinations and the drastic dip in enrollment, it is to the credit of the embattled soldiers at SMS that they staunchly defended the home front with pitchforks notwithstanding overwhelming odds. This was the backdrop of the First SMS Grand Alumni Homecoming in 1987, a gathering of SMS lion-hearted eagles who refused to buckle under the threat of the school's perceived impending doom. Attended by alumni from SMS' first graduating class to the latest who just graduated that year, the event was filled with nostalgic euphoria as well as faith in the capacity of alumni and friends to revive a school apparently writhing in its death throes. The first president of the SMS Alumni Association (SMSAA), Frank I.O. Longid called on SMS alumni to put their shoulders to the wheel and rescue the school. This gathering, happening eight years after the school's 75th birthday, was nevertheless dubbed the school's Diamond Jubilee. Hoopla marked the event and the issue of historical accuracy was apparently sidelined amid the excitement of meeting long-missed former sweethearts, teachers, classmates and friends. In April of 2003, the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Philippines made the announcement that it would not extend its subsidy to the school beyond 2005. One month later, Longid, who had been preparing the groundwork for the incorporation of St. Mary's School and steered the SMSAA ship through years of uncertain weather, succumbed to prostate cancer. Thereafter, Mary Inglay Fokno took over as president of SMSAA. In September 2003, St. Mary's School was incorporated as St. Mary's School of Sagada, Inc. (SMSSI) and the indefatigable Rufino B. Bomasang was unanimously elected chairman and CEO of SMSSI at the board's organizational meeting. Bumas-ang has since then been very active in raising resources for the school through his corporate network and the holding of golf tournaments, among other things. Thomas A. Killip, whose friendship with Alfonso "Boy" Yuchengco paved the way for the completion of the Don Enrique Yuchengco Memorial Building, was elected president in the general SMSAA assembly of 2008, succeeding Fokno as SMSAA president. When eagles blink “Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all: the conscientious historian will correct these defects” Herodotus At the First Grand Alumni Homecoming in 1987, we may have been too swept away to pay attention to the error of commemorating SMS' Diamond Jubilee which should have been done in 1979. But William Henry Scott did not let this error slip. In his Brief History of SMS, which appeared in the 1987 SMSAA souvenir program, Scott wrote a gentle reminder:

Rev. John Staunton and his boys at the cogon-thatched church of St. Mary the Virgin, 1907

The first school building of the Mission of St. Mary the Virgin in Sagada was completed in 1912, just 75 years ago. It was a two-and-a-half story building, 36 x 90 feet, with siding and roof of pine shingles. Today it is the Girls Dormitory, the oldest surviving building from the original mission. But mission education had started eight years earlier when Father John A. Staunton and his wife Maria moved in with Señor Jaime Masferre in Batalao in 1904. They had brought four pupils with them from Baguio ~ one from Darlik, two mestizos from Banaue, and, and the grandson of a Spanish friar from the Ilocos ~ and Sagada children soon started coming out for lessons. The following May the Stauntons moved into Sagada and built a wooden and cogon house at the location of the present Pureza Kiley Memorial Gate. Here they took ten more students into their household, and here primary classes were taught for the next seven years. In 1907 there were 17 pupils with a mission budget of P60 for each, and three Ilocano teachers ~ Pedro and Fortunata Catungal and Victorino Balbin. (Underscoring supplied) The following account is also in Vol. LXXX of The Spirit of Missions published in 1915 by the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States. The Igorot mission-station nearest to civilization, though not the first in point of time, was established in 1906 by the Rev. S. S. Drury at Baguio among the Benguet Igorots. Our first work at Baguio was educational, and supplementary to that already in progress at Bontoc and Sagada farther in the interior. Several days' journey from Baguio, far up in the mountains; was a district centering in the barrio of Sagada where existed no civilization of any sort except that which our Mission brought. To this place went the Rev. John A. Staunton, Jr., in 1904. For some months, Fr. Staunton, as he is familiarly known by all, stayed with Senor Jaime Masferre, a coffee planter and retired Spanish army officer, and looked over the country. It was a widespread district of mountain and valley, pine-clad, with narrow trails winding over the hills and connecting the scattered Igorot barrios, in the neighborhood of which the skill of the natives had converted the steep mountain slopes into those marvelous series of terraced rice-fields which form the characteristic feature of the Igorot country. Fortunately, "Padre Juan," as Father Staunton came to be called, was a graduate in mining engineering of Columbia University, and he brought his expert knowledge to bear on this field where everything had to be built up from the beginning. There were no workers, no buildings, no money. When he was joined by his wife, they moved into their first home which was a small shed twelve feet square, formerly used as a goat shelter. There, for nearly a year, the Stauntons lived, taught school, conducted a dispensary, held services, and baptized more than one hundred converts. (Underscoring supplied) Staunton was conscious of the Church's mission to preach, teach and heal and he did that forthwith when he established the Mission of St. Mary the Virgin in 1904. Easter School in Baguio City was founded in 1906 and rightfully celebrated its centennial in 2006. There is no rhyme nor reason in celebrating SMS centennial later than Easter School when historical records show that Easter School was "only supplementary to that already in progress in Sagada."

The Rev. John A. Staunton Memorial Park in Sagada

St. Mary's School is celebrating its 108th birthday - well within the 2nd century of the school's founding. The centennial of Saint Mary's School is no trifling matter because it has bearing not only on the history of the school but on the history of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines. Let nothing dim the fireworks in the school's belated birthday bash but we should seize this moment to blast this historical blunder and set the record straight. The next centennial will be in 2104 - not a second later. Mark the date and don't be late! by Ben Longid, Class '66

Tags: stmarysschool, sagada