ARAULLO HIGH SCHOOL BATCH 2003

y of Manila—Arellano High, Torres
High and Abad Santos High—were all named after Supreme Court
justices. Arellano High is named to honor the first Chief Justice of
the Philippines, Cayetano Arellano. Before that, Arellano High was
called the Manila North High School throughout the American and
Commonwealth periods of our history. Torres High is named for Associate Justice Florentino Torres. Abad
Santos High honors Chief Justice Abad Santos, who was not only a
model in upholding the rule of law, civil liberties and commitment
to dispense justice fairly but died for his commitment as a martyr. He was executed by the Japanese invaders. Although the Araullo, Arellano, Torres and Abad Santos high schools
also excel in their own ways these days, there is something lacking
about them now that somehow places them below the level of certain
iconic private schools, some specialized Science high schools and
the UP High School. During the Commonwealth period and up to the 1950s, the public
schools under the Division of City Schools of the City of Manila
were the producers of some of the best minds to emerge into the
national consciousness as educators, writers, economists, diplomats,
lawyers and even presidents. In those days the graduates of these
schools—in the main—could all be relied on to pass on the basic
virtues and a sense of honor to their children. In the days before
World War II it was said that the graduates of these schools could
teach basic education—in good English—to their own children and to
formal pupils if they were hired to teach right away. Those who are still around after the tutelage they got from their
Araullo, Arellano, Torres and Abad Santos teachers in the fifties
and earlier will swear how their English, Math, Biology, General
Science and Vocational Education teachers all contributed to their
skills and their knowledge, to their ability to comprehend and
absorb higher studies at colleges and universities. Among the alumni were three former presidents,
Manuel A. Laurel and Elpidio Quirino; the inimitable
foreign secretary and first president of the United Nations General
Assembly Carlos P. Romulo; and the country's grand dame of
pediatricians, Dr. Fe del Mundo. How much happier and fulfilled the present generation of Filipinos
would now be if Araullo High and its brethren, and the many
government high schools that were opened after the Second World War,
had maintained the standards of teaching and discipline that were
brought to this archipelago by the Thomasites.