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“The ink of a scholar is holier than the blood of a martyr. I
cannot think of anything more emphatic than this to show what a high
virtue education is in the Islamic faith.”
Thus, Adel Tamano began his inaugural speech as
the 17th President of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM).
Manila City Mayor Fred Lim made history—the
appointment of the Harvard-educated Tamano makes him the first
Muslim president of a university outside Muslim Mindanao. Wearing a
black toga before thousands of students at the PLM auditorium on
January 31, Tamano acknowledged the irony of his appointment to head
a university within Intramuros.
“The walls of Intramuros were precisely made
to keep someone like me, a Moro, as well the other marginalized and
oppressed people of that time outside, while those in power—the
Spaniards and their minions—enjoyed the safety, the power, and the
luxury of the walled city. Intramuros was, at that time, a symbol of
oppression, discrimination, and persecution,” he said.
The youngest university president in the country
today, the 37-year-old is the son of the late Senator Mamintal
Tamano and Bai Zorayda Abbas Tamano. A brilliant and eloquent lawyer
like his father, the PLM president was the first Filipino Muslim
student given a scholarship to attend the Harvard College of Law. He
made history for Filipinos when he was elected as the graduation
speaker.
Even then, he focused on education and its
effect on multi-culturalism.
“For someone like myself, a Filipino Muslim,
studying at Harvard was an unbelievable opportunity,” he said.
“In the predominantly Muslim areas of the Philippines, out of 10
grade-school students, only two will be able to complete high
school. Those in the developing world know, firsthand, that
education is a truly precious commodity.”
Today, Tamano worries about underinvestment in
education, with a national shortage of 43,000 classrooms.
“We spend in the Philippines only about $650
per student, while in Thailand they spend about three times that
much. In Malaysia they spend a hundred times more per child than we
do in the Philippines,” Tamano said.
The young Tamano obtained a Master’s Degree in
Public Administration from the University of the Philippines. He was
a professor of law at the Ateneo de Manila University, Far Eastern
University, City University of Manila and Mindanao State University.
Tamano’s investiture was attended by
opposition leaders led by Senate President Manuel Villar Jr.
Senators Mar Roxas 2nd, Alan Peter Cayetano, Benigno “Nonoy”
Aquino 3rd, Jinggoy Estrada and Nene Pimentel joined Mayor Lim and
San Juan City Mayor JV Ejercito at the PLM investiture.
Tamano was prominently featured in media last
year as the spokesman of the United Opposition. The Philippine Star
in May 2007 reported, “Opposition spokesman Adel Tamano has
endeared himself to media and is now the subject of talk that he
could be the top-notcher of the next senatorial elections.
Tamano’s cool demeanor and his facility at expounding the
Opposition’s position in a simple, concise and credible way make
him a natural winner before the public eye.”
Columnist Ellen Tordesillas of Malaya wrote in
August 2007 that Tamano’s “good looks and intelligent statements
lent credibility to the opposition’s campaign much to the dismay
of Gloria Arroyo’s Team Unity propagandists.”
-- Amina Rasul And Samira Gutoc
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