Monday, July 17, 2006
USJR's Youngest President
By Jenara Regis Newman
AT 35, Rev. Fr. Anthony Arante Morillo, OAR, is the fifth and the youngest president of the University of San Jose Recoletos (USJR), just meeting the age requirement for the presidency of the university. For him, it’s no big deal. “It’s just another assignment. I may be president today. Tomorrow, I may be assigned elsewhere.”
Born in Calubian, Leyte, on September 15, 1970 to lawyer Teofilo Morillo (deceased) and Juanita Arante, Fr. Morillo says he grew up in a home where nuns and priests were regular visitors. Probably, that must have been when he felt the call to priesthood. But, he adds, that until the very moment he said his vows on April 5, 1997, “I was not sure I would actually be a priest.”
His first assignment, from 1997 to 2002, was as a missionary/parish priest in Taliao, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and in Linyuan, Satimen, Pingtung, Taiwan, Republic of China. For this, he had to learn Mandarin. While there, he was also in charge of the Filipino communities.
In 2002, he was assigned to San Sebastian College – Recoletos in Cavite City, where he was vice-president for student welfare and head of student affairs. A year later, he was assigned to USJ-R in Cebu, and was again in charge of student welfare, as well as scholarship director, sports moderator, Reads coordinator, Ad-drac ensemble moderator, Forward moderator and NSTP/CWTS coordinator, at the same time that he took up MA in English Administration in the university, prior to his being elected by the university’s board of trustees as president. His formal investiture took place July 7 at the Mt. Carmel Parish.
Humbly admitting that he “may not be the best qualified for the presidency,” he nonetheless says that “this must be God’s plan for me.” He is confident that he will succeed because he has fellow religious whom he can tap, as well as the deans of the different colleges of the university. His style, he says, is “consultative-participative” in the manner of Jesus who always goes down on his knees and consults the Father.”
He is focused on preserving the strengths of the university and is focused, as well, on what the university is all about, a learning institution. As sports moderator, it did not matter to him if the school team did not win, provided all the athletes would pass in their studies which, for him, made them “champions.” His main thrust is to retain the school’s Paascu level 3 and autonomous status. It’s a great challenge, one that surely the young and the energetic Fr. Morillo can meet…with, of course, the wholehearted cooperation of the whole Josenian community to all of whom he is reaching out.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 17, 2006 issue)
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