Foot and Fire

It was the opening of lights in the Angelicum School, a structure which is built as a mansion residence.  We braved the croed and the traffic to find the festive mood of the night, to our pleasant surprise! *** The mansion turned school. *** The band. *** masskara mode? *** *** The entertainers. *** Some daring head dress there! *** The center of all that glitters! ***

How this mansion became a school. The concept of a school catering to the individual needs of each learner was on the mind of Fr. Rogelio B. Alarcon, O.P. when he was a student of Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Manila. In 1972, he (then the first Prior Provincial of the Dominican Province of the Philippines) was able to convince some educators and the Provincial Council to establish a non-graded school. It was to be called Angelicum after one of the Dominican houses of studies in Rome and in honor of the Dominican Angelic Doctor of the Church St. Thomas Aquinas, the Universal Patron Saint of Catholic schools. The first Angelicum School (now Angelicum College) was founded in Quezon City in 1972. The second was established in Teheran, Iran in 1974 and was later closed when war broke out. In 1978, Angelicum School Iloilo was opened with 70-plus students and four teaching staff. Angelicum School Iloilo, which occupies the Lizares Mansion compound, has an area of 16,500 squar...