By Menelito Mansueto (with information from MSU-IIT Department of Philosophy and Humanities Faculty)
The Department of Philosophy and Humanities of MSU-IIT is blessed with 42 graduates this year 2022, the department’s pioneering batch. To start the new academic year this August, the department had its students’ orientation to welcome the young aspirants and discuss matters related to the face-to-face class implementation after the pandemic. Currently, 151 students, from the first to the fourth year, are enrolled in the program—Bachelor of Science in Philosophy, Major in Applied Ethics, in line with MSU-IIT’s academic and research thrust, which is geared toward technology and science.
Under Prof. Fernando V. Garingo, the department plans to offer the degree—Master of Science in Applied Ethics in the coming years. The successful approval of the offer of a baccalaureate program leading to a degree in philosophy was due to many related aspects. First, the baccalaureate program in Philosophy has long been existing in Mindanao; in fact, the very first to offer the baccalaureate degree in philosophy was Mindanao State University, Main Campus in Marawi City, as early as the year 1961.
One of its magnanimous alumni is the late Dr. Rolando Gripaldo from De La Salle University—one of the giant forerunners of Filipino philosophical theorizing—who first enrolled as an engineering student but later shifted to Philosophy and graduated around 1970. Aside from its excellence in engineering and technology courses, MSU-IIT also excels in law studies. The degree in Philosophy could also serve as a pre-law course for those aspiring to pursue law school. The department is also in its current efforts to seek approval for a baccalaureate program leading to a degree in humanistic studies (arts and musicology or equivalent course).
The current lineup of faculty of the department includes Prof. Alvert Dalona, Prof. Oliver Perater, Prof. Joharel Escobia, Prof. Lex Rei Hilario, and me, for the philosophy roster, and Prof. Ernesto Zaldua Jr., Prof Boylie Sarcina, Prof. Hernenigildo Dico, and Prof. Ian Embradura, for the humanities roster.
The significant number of enrollees for the philosophy program was very much overwhelming to my sight. I was accustomed to seeing very few young people interested in philosophical studies back in our days. Only religious seminaries, human formation centers, and affiliated institutions had dared to offer the course as it is a requirement for aspiring priests and theologians. I see the current rise of enrollees as a manifestation that Mindanao is indeed a fertile ground for philosophical studies, aside from the demand for teachers to teach philosophy under the K-to-12 program of the Department of Education.
More than half of our current enrollees are women. The irony, however, is we currently do not have a woman instructor of philosophy in the department, something the all-men faculty have endearingly missed. MSU-IIT Department of Philosophy and Humanities anticipates witnessing a vibrant future for the department and the future of philosophical studies in Mindanao.
The demography of our students includes delegation from the Muslim community, as well as from the Christian and other denominations. Philosophy is a viable eye-opener for socio-cultural and political issues as the discipline is well-engaged in critical and conceptual theories. MSU-IIT Department of Philosophy and Humanities is warmly indebted to the ideas that germinate from the geniuses of Professors Omar Bataluna (retired), Fernando Garingo, Zardo Toroy (✝), Julie Olazo Lao (retired) and Alvert Dalona in their efforts to establish the program, which began in the year 2015.
In 2021, the department has been granted the Certificate of Program Compliance (COPC) by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).