PRO DEO ET PATRIA
Aklan Catholic College

BY DR. CHARLES C. VILLANUEVA

Total development of man for God and country Every decades-old educational institution has its own story to tell.

Many of their stories did not happen in vacuum or on a silver platter, but based on strong determination, passion and clear vision to pursue.
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
The noble idea of establishing a collegiate educational institution in Aklan had its inception before World War II. The period of August to October 1941 was devoted to its organization, but the outbreak of the War stalled its foundation. When liberation came, prominent men and educators in Aklan banded together to organize the college.

A committee composed of seven members, chaired by Digno Alba, was constituted. A finance committee, headed by Vicente Salido and a committee on style to draft the Articles of Incorporation and By-laws headed by Atty. Ludovico Peralta were also formed.

Another group was constituted to conduct a campaign for stockholders and students throughout Aklan.
On August 18, 1945, in a meeting of stockholders, the draft by the Peralta Committee was approved and submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Moreover, the 15 incorporators and the members of the Board of Trustees were elected. There were 73 original stockholders of the Aklan College, Inc.
The Aklan Catholic College along Gabriel M. Reyes Street in Kalibo, Aklan.Classes, though, formally opened on July 9, 1945 with Filemon Guerra as the first Dean of Aklan College.

He organized a strong faculty, many of whom were M.A. degree holders. The College occupied the concrete building owned by Vicente Salas Reyes located at the corner of the former Plaridel Street (now Pastrana St.) and 19 Martyrs Streets.
In June 1948, the College moved to its present site on Arch. Reyes St. Courses offered in the collegiate department ranged from the Two-Year Normal, leading to Elementary Teachers Certificate (ETC), Two-General Preparatory, leading to the degree of Associate in Arts (AA) to the complete courses in Education and Liberal Arts, leading to the degree of Bachelors of Science in Education (BSE), Home Economics (BSHE), Bachelor of Arts (AB), Bachelor of Science (B.S.) and Bachelor of Philosophy (Ph.B.).
The first certificate of recognition was granted to the College on July 1, 1947, and was personally brought by Bishop Jose Ma. Cuenco to Kalibo on October 2, 1947.

Of the 90 students who enrolled in the collegiate department during the first year of the College, 35 students graduated in 1947 from the Normal Department and from the Liberal Arts Department with ETC and AA.
Due to his interest in education in his diocese and because his father was from Kalibo, His Excellency, Most Rev. Jose Ma. Cuenco, then Archbishop of Jaro, joined the college during the latter part of its second year.
Joining Bishop Cuenco were several members of the clergy, worked in the faculty and the administration. Religious instruction was then integrated in the curricula and the college was converted into a catholic institution.

Archbishop Cuenco invested R85,000, then a big amount, for the purchase of books, apparatus, and equipment, reconstruction of the college building, construction of the Reserved Officers Training Corps (ROTC) armory and Home Economics building and payment of salaries.

Owing to his deep interest in the institution and inherent magnanimity and benevolence, Arch. Cuenco has been generally regarded as the Patron of Aklan College.
Among the early activities and groups of the College were the annual oratorical contests, dramatic presentations and dance extravaganza, the Student Council, the Debating Club, the annual college popularity contest and the magnificent coronation ceremonies which follow election, the folk dance demonstration, convocations, the Junior reception, the publication of an annual called the Acorn (now Acian) and subsequently named the Aklan Collegian (now the official publication of the college department).
Aklan College is the first higher education institution in Aklan to offer law and graduate school courses. Anticipating the need for a college of law in the province, Aklan College offered Bachelor of Laws in 1958.

Judge Peralta became the first dean. The College of Law was closed in 1972 but was reopened in 1992.
In 1964, the graduate school was established to provide school administrators both in public and private institutions with the needed graduate education or Master’s degree. In 1969, the College offered engineering courses in response to the clamor and demand of the Aklanons.

The College administration put up an engineering building in Andagao, Kalibo. The program there was closed, however, in 2002 when the last batch of students graduated.
Msgr. Adolfo Depra assumed rectorship on July 19, 1988. His position title was changed to President by virtue of the SEC-approved amendments made on the Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws. Right after his investiture, he saw fit to call the first grand alumni reunion in February 1989.

The reunion of the college’s alumni was an occasion for Msgr. Depra to emphasize the Aklan College vision of acquiring a university status. When His Excellency, Msgr. Gabriel Reyes, was installed bishop of the Diocese of Kalibo and thereafter became President of the Board of Trustees of Aklan College, he shared the incumbent rector’s dream of Aklan College achieving a university status.
Additional courses were offered in 2002, such as the B.S. in Hospitality Management (BSHM), Information Technology (BSIT), Criminology (BSCrim), and the ladderized two-year Associates in Office Management, Food Service Management, and Computer Technology. The Graduate Education Program was also expanded in consortium with the University of San Agustin for the Masters in Business Administration (MBA) and M.A. Ed. major in English.

The Central Philippine University (CPU) has extended its graduate program to Aklan Catholic College to offer M.A.Ed. in Mathematics and the Doctor of Education (Ed.D.). These graduate programs are the first of its kind in the province of Aklan. Even as Aklan College celebrated its 50th anniversary in February 1996, expectations rose that under the present Presidency, Aklan College’s dream of becoming a university would be realized.
PRESENT TIMES
Today, Aklan College stands as the hallmark of academic excellence and achievements in Aklan and nearby areas. It continues to prove its prowess to the neighboring provinces, and even to the world.

It has never lost its goal by providing quality catholic education. It has strengthened its mission and vision to respond to the relevant needs and aspirations of the new generation. Owing to its accomplishments, the College realized it was timely that its name be given an identity that has long been its characteristic for years – a Catholic educational institution.

Thus, Aklan College became the Aklan Catholic College, claiming the title of being the first and remains to be the only Catholic school in the province.
Aklan Catholic College aspires to be the prime mover in Aklan of quality, excellent and relevant educational programs responsive to the human resource needs of the country.

It envisions to produce competent, productive and globally competitive, patriotic Christian professionals through the enrichment of its academic programs, conduct of viable resources and inculcation of strong moral values.

It is committed to providing dynamic management, highly qualified, competent faculty and staff endowed with strong sense of Christian values, technology-based instructions, support for educational innovations and development, efficient and effective delivery of educational services, and adherence to the total development of man for God and country.
In pursuit of the new vision, mission and goals of the college, ACC has exerted a great deal of effort to concretely move onward and realize its cherished aspiration.

Adhering to its thrusts of quality and excellence, the College has embarked on projects and activities that can truly change its perspectives in response to the gargantuan challenge of development toward producing globally competitive professionals and a supplier of graduates needed by the human resource base of the country.

Although resource-intensive, rigid, exhausting and challenging, the management has continuously pursued accreditation of its academic programs.
After a year of persistence, professional challenge, determination and hard work, the College has successfully hurdled the comprehensive criteria set by Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities (PAASCU).

In May 2004 three academic programs – the Teacher Education (BEED, BSED), Business Education (BS Commerce) and Bachelor of Arts were granted Level I Accreditation by the Federation of Accrediting Agencies of the Philippines (FAAP). This is a feat that only ACC has acquired in the whole province of Aklan.
More sustainable efforts and strategies are being adopted to maintain the various significant changes and development in the college.

Foremost are the recognition given by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and other professional organizations as selected satellite school of Western Visayas State University (WVSU) for Teacher Education in Region VI, having surpassed the national norm of LET for 3 consecutive years, and one of the Top 20 colleges and universities in the Philippines according to the 1999 Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey, to mention a few.
Infrastructure development projects were undertaken in the College like the construction of an AV Center, Research and Accreditation Center, Offices, renovation of the Hometel, alumni office, crime laboratories, science laboratories and air conditioned computer laboratories.

It has installed an institutional website (www.acc.edu.ph) to serve as window for the alumni, students and other stakeholders about the important information and events that are taking place in the college.
ACC’s alumni are everywhere – in government service, military, medicine, law, teaching profession, priesthood, business, politics, education and other fields of human endeavor. In addition to the existing alumni association, a group of enthusiastic alumni organized the AC Alumni Foundation to provide strong support to the alumni activities of ACC.

Alumni in the high school and collegiate departments are helping translate the aspirations and directions of the College into reality.
The Aklan Catholic College, as it casts its vision in the next decade, the guiding spirit enshrined in the vision, mission and goals, will continue to search for better approaches and modalities so that it can sustain adherence to quality and excellence and, at the same time, live up to its inherent mission of service pro deo et patria.