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A match made in heaven best describes the marriage of performing couple Robert Seña & Isay Alvarez. In their collaborative recording Dueto, music lovers would instantly fall for the sweet, contagious love the couple evokes in their singing.
“Because we produced Dueto, we hand-picked the elements that we wanted to include in the album,” Alvarez said. “Although we exerted a lot of effort, we are both very happy with how it came out.”
Seña and Alvarez spent their college years in UST during the early 1980's. Although both of them were Thomasians, their love story unfolded only after college as their paths never crossed when they were on campus.
“I was ahead of him by two years,” Alvarez said. “We never met inside the campus though.”
Taking AB Sociology major in Translation in the Faculty of Arts and Letters, Alvarez belonged to the first batch of Artistang Artlets when it was organized in 1981, a year short of her graduation year. She was also a member of the UST Action Singers. Meanwhile, Seña, who took Industrial Design in the University, was a member of the Salinggawi Dance Troupe and the Atelier Cultural Organization. Although they knew people from each other's organizations, they never met.
“I even told Robert my amazement about us not even meeting each other in the then UST Cooperative Canteen during break time,” Alvarez said.

Perfect combination
Growing up, Alvarez always joined school songfests. Her love for music started when she saw and heard Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music.
“I even wanted to be her sister and until now I do,” Alvarez said. “I think she inspired me the most to penetrate the world of theater later on.”
Seña, even at a young age, was always being asked to perform at family gatherings because of his breathtaking singing prowess. A play in Fort Santiago that he saw as a child inspired him to become a theater artist. “I was only 10 years old then and that play really sank right into my mind as very impressive.”
Their aspirations continued to blossom in college. Alvarez became active at the Artistang Artlets and the UST Action Singers (forerunner of today's UST Singers). When asked about her fondest memories in UST, she would mention her friends in those two organizations. “Up to now I'm still very well-bonded with my batch mates in Artistang Artlets,” she said.
Meanwhile, Seña enjoyed the arduous life of an Industrial Design student. It was in the strain of putting up exhibits and staying up late at night finishing projects that he found his best friends and colleagues. Seña was then already performing in stage productions in the now defunct Metropolitan Theater.
“Those activities are really close to my heart,” he said.
Meanwhile, right after her classes, Alvarez would go straight to the Metropolitan Theater to sing with the chorus in theatrical productions there. Later, she was soon given roles to play until she portrayed Monina in Gines Tan's 1985 musical Magsimula Ka. It was during her stint in the musical that she met Seña who was also in the production. They were introduced by their friends during rehearsals and gradually, the two performers became close. Although they became inseparable during the staging of Magsimula Ka, their relationship was purely platonic. No sparks flew between the graceful alto and the vibrant tenor.
“There was nothing romantic initially,” Alvarez recalled. “Even up to the time when we went to London to do Miss Saigon, we were just very good friends.”
Four years later, they found themselves performing together in the original 1989 London production of the hit musical Miss Saigon. Alvarez narrated how Seña would sweetly send her flowers or fruits during rehearsals. “He never failed to surprise me,” she said. “Robert is really sweet and thoughtful.”
In the musical, Alvarez played the role of Gigi, the world-weary prostitute who sings the heart-breaking song Movie in My Mind, while Seña played Thuy, the man betrothed to the female lead, Kim. But outside of the fiction of the stage, musical romance was blooming between the two actors.
In 1991, three years after the opening of Miss Saigon, Seña and Alvarez got married in a civil wedding in London. Two church weddings followed, first in London, then in Manila. Alvarez left Miss Saigon after getting pregnant with their first daughter, Maria. Seña, meanwhile, played the role of Judas in the hit West End revival of the musical, Jesus Christ Superstar, and the lead role of the engineer in the German production of Miss Saigon.

Back where they belong
Despite the greener pastures in London, the couple decided that it was better for them to raise their growing family back in the Philippines.
“We were waiting for our papers in order to become residents in London, but when we had a baby, we didn't think that London was the best environment to raise children, so we forfeited our residency and went back to the Philippines,” Alvarez said.
“It was really the best decision for us because here we get to rest, go on holiday, and spend time with our kids. In London, we had to work non-stop because the shows were eight times a week,” Seña added.
At present, the couple has three children: 20-year-old Maria, 13-year-old Roberto Jericho, and seven-year-old Emilio. After Emilio was born, Alvarez took a break from the stage to raise her kids. She would wake up at six in the morning to drive her children to school.
Meanwhile, Seña continued to work on stage companies. He played Emilio Aguinaldo in Miong, Ravana in Rama at Sita, and Judas in the Philippine production of Jesus Christ Superstar.
Alvarez returned to the limelight through plays such as Himala, My Fair Lady, Mga Anghel sa Lupa, West Side Story, Once on This Island, and They're Playing Our Song. Both of them reprised their original roles in the Philippine production of Miss Saigon in 2000. They also produced a show together, Love You, Hate You, Love You, at the Music Museum last year.

To God be the glory
Both credit their strong faith in God for the success of their personal and professional lives together. “For some people, being together as a couple and working together at the same time is difficult. But because we're both Christians, we try to do an excellent job in everything that we do,” Alvarez said.
Aside from this, what separates the couple from the rest of the artists is their undying support for Filipino music. According to the couple, through their newest album, they aim to revive the beautiful Filipino songs of the past that they believe should not be forgotten.
“What we really want is for Filipinos to be exposed to a different kind of music genre and at the same time, for them to appreciate old Filipino music,” Seña said. “Hopefully, artists like us who are trying to bring these songs back to life would succeed in this endeavor.”
The couple encouraged Thomasians and aspiring performers not to give up, to cultivate their craft, and to join organizations that will help them improve and develop their talents.
“Don't be afraid to explore different things, and when you learn something new, don't forget to share your discovery,” Seña said.

THE UST Archives houses a repository of countless documents, manuscripts and records of the country's oldest university. For many people, reading, collecting and maintaining dog-eared pages seem may be an impossible task taking years and years to accomplish.

But Fr. Fidel Villarroel, O.P. continues to labor in the task of conserving and preserving the collection. He has served as UST's archivist for 47 years. He has grown old with the task, just like the archives. Yet, he sees his job as “the most beautiful thing” he has experienced in life. Villarroel is a self-confessed bookworm who loves to read and browse through antique documents– an unsurprising fact for a man who, early in life, had shown signs of becoming the keeper of memories past.

Preaching history
Growing up in the town of Tejerina in Leon, Spain, Villarroel was inspired to become a priest by his high school teachers at the Dominican schools of La Mejorada and Santa Maria de Nieva.
“It was during high school when I developed the vocation of being a Dominican priest. That was the only thing I thought of taking as I was contented to become like my Dominican professors someday,” Villarroel told the Varsitarian.
While in high school, he became interested in studying grammar, language, Spanish history and literature. Although he had an inclination toward history, he did not consider becoming a historian since he was already focused on fulfilling his vocation to the priesthood.
But destiny intervened for Villarroel. After he was ordained in 1953, he and his classmate were sent to London by his Dominican superiors to take up post-graduate studies in History.
“I was sent away to England, for three years, to take up History at the University of London,” Villarroel said.
After finishing his Master's degree in History in 1957, Villarroel was assigned to the Philippines to head the Spanish department of the University, a post he held for 22 years, from 1957 up to 1966, and then from 1968 until 1981. It was in UST that he obtained his doctorate in sacred theology.
Villarroel was appointed archivist of the University in 1959. He said he was the first person to hold the post after a hiatus of six years when his predecessor, Fr. Jose Maria Gonzales, O.P., left the post in 1953. It was also during this time that Villarroel began to research and write about Philippine history. He was especially interested in Filipino patriots who studied in UST, such as Jose Rizal, Fr. Jose Burgos and Marcelo H. Del Pilar.
“Since my arrival in the country in 1957, I always had the history of the Philippines in mind. Most of my books and my researches have been about Philippine history and also Church history,” Villarroel said.
Villarroel has authored some 20 history books, most of which deal with the history of the University and the Philippines. Among them are Apolinario Mabini; Father Jose Burgos, University Student; Jose Rizal and the University of Santo Tomas; Lorenzo Ruiz, the Protomartyr of the Philippines and his Companions; and The Dominicans and the Philippine Revolution.
His solid works in history have earned Villarroel national and international acclaim. Among the awards he received were the National Book Award, Catholic Authors Award, Dr. Eufronio Alip Award for Historical Research, Outstanding Thomasian Awardee for Historical Research, St. Antoninus of Florence Award for Humanities-Church History, and Gintong Aklat Award from the Book Development Association of the Philippines.
Villarroel was also invited to speak at international conventions such as the International Conference on the Historiography of the Church in China held in Belgium (1991) and the International Seminar on Ferdinand Magellan (2004).
Outside of UST, Father Villarroel enjoys a reputation as a masterful historian and scholar. Popular historian Ambeth Ocampo at one time wrote a column reporting how Father Villarroel exposed several historical errors in just one short paragraph by a Filipino historian. Researchers from other institutions also praised Father Villarroel for readily helping them in navigating through the labyrinth of the UST Archives and for his selfless assistance in their researches.

Keeping the house in order

Despite his genuine interest in history, Villarroel was confronted with a formidable task when he started working as UST archivist. According to him, the archives were in a state of disarray at the time of his appointment.
“When I arrived here, the archives were located in a small room in front of the Fathers' Residence. It was unkempt, very dusty, disorganized and dark, with termites eating up some of the books,” he recounted.
He and his staff then began to restore the archives by arranging the documents according to year and topic, maintaining the cleanliness of the facility, and increasing the number of sections of the archives.
“Until now, I have been doing a lot of work in cleaning up the archives, putting it in order and increasing the number of our sections,” Villarroel said.
Some of the tasks that keep Villarroel and his staff busy are cataloguing the archived documents and restoring damaged centuries-old records.
“Many of the documents are breaking down in pieces, while some of the manuscripts are already unreadable, so they need restoration and preservation through chemical treatment,” he explained.
Villarroel also started microfilming documents stored in the archives such as baptismal records coming from different parts of the country dating back to the Spanish era.
Still more research
Aside from being the archivist and head of the old Spanish Department, Villarroel was also the Prefect of Libraries from 1978 to 1991 and adviser of the defunct Spanish student publication, La Voz Estudiantil, from 1957 to 1967. He has also been teaching Church History at the Faculty of Sacred Theology since 1963.
Moreover, Villarroel was involved in activities outside of the University such as serving as the secretary of the Papal Nuncio for 32 years (1959-1991) and also as the Dominican Promoter of Beatification Causes, which aided the beatification of the seven Dominican martyrs of Nagasaki of the 17th century and perhaps most important, resulted in the canonization of San Lorenzo Ruiz, the first Filipino saint, and several of his companion martyrs who were alumni or teachers of UST.
Despite his advanced years, Father Villarroel's heart remains close to historical research. His latest project is to write the last part of his planned three-volume history of the University. So far, he said, he has read about 700 pages of archived records from the 20th century that can help him finish the last part of his UST history.
“That is a very meticulous task because I have to read all the archived records from the 20th century which I still have to write about,” Villarroel said.
Despite all the pressure and strain of research, Villarroel said he enjoys his job as archivist. He added he takes particular joy that whenever he rediscovers long-lost information about the University.
“Finding data and information about the past, which nobody has seen before, makes the discovery one of the happiest moments of my life, especially when it pertains to the history of UST,” he explained.
Deriving intense pleasure from scholarship and research and love for any piece of history about Asia's oldest University, Father Villarroel vows to continue poring over the centuries-old documents stacked in the shelves of the archives, hoping to further save the memories of the University from dust and oblivion.

BEHIND the latest ABS-CBN teleserye, Walang Kapalit and other soap opera and movies that made an imprint in the mind and hearts of its televiewers is a former waiter turned film and television director.
Wenn De Ramas shares the popularity and honor to direct primetime soap operas such as Mula Sa Puso (1997), Saan Ka Man Naroroon (1999), Sa Dulo Ng Walang Hanggan (2001), Bituin (2002), Buttercup (2003), Marina (2004), and Kampanerang Kuba (2005).

He also came up with laugh-out-loud movies which eventually become instant hits. Included in the roster are Ang Tanging Ina (2003), Volta (2004), D'lucky Ones (2006), Kapag Tumibok ang Puso (2006), and most recently, Ang Cute ng Ina Mo.

Making of a director
Life is a complicated script full of twists and turns. Wenn De Ramas knows this. What he is now is hardly prefigured by his 1987 graduation as a Hotel and Restaurant Management (HRM) student of UST.
At that time, De Ramas dabbled in events organizing, management strategies, and accounting, not film-making.
“Tourism and HRM were among the popular courses during my time. Sadly, things changed after the EDSA revolution,” he said.
But De Ramas does not regret taking HRM instead of a communication course.
“I learned management and accounting, which were my favorite subjects back then,” he said. “I have been able to apply these whenever I do production work since it deals with budgeting, supervising, and dealing with people.”
Known for his romantic Claudine Baretto soap operas and hilarious Ai Ai de las Alas comedies, De Ramas participated in short skits when he was in elementary school and was a member of the theater group in his high school. His passion for directing was further developed when he joined Teatro Tomasino, the official theater guild of UST, during his freshman year.
At Teatro, he immersed himself in learning the ropes of production such as lighting, directing, and even acting. “I also enjoyed working on props, make-up and costumes,” he said.
Aside from being a student and a loyal member of Teatro Tomasino, De Ramas was also a scholar of the University. Since his modest family could not afford his tuition, he had to maintain a high grade in order to retain his scholarship.
He shared one of his secrets on how he got through college life despite the seeming impossibilities: “I never bought any books that we needed in class,” he said. “I would borrow the books from the library, then return them in order to borrow the books needed for the next subject the following day.”
Being an HRM graduate, De Ramas applied as a waiter at the Aristocrat restaurant and worked there for two years. Although he was promoted to supervisor, he resigned soon after.
“I thought that it was time to resign because being supervisor meant that there was no other way up,” he said. “I had to move on. That was the peak for me at that job.”

True calling
From being a waiter and a supervisor in Aristocrat, De Ramas landed a job at ABS-CBN in 1990 after an old colleague from Teatro Tomasino recommended him as production assistant for the sitcoms Bistek and Abangan and Susunod na Kabanata. He has been with the network ever since.
“I was eventually trusted to handle the role of executive producer in a variety of shows which applied all the things I learned in UST like management skills, budgeting, and dealing with psychotic artists,” he jokingly said.
De Rama's said that in his directing, he is inspired by the late film directors and National Artists Lino Brocka and Ishmael Bernal.
His lack of formal training in filmmaking was overshadowed by his vast experience in production and theater. In 1998, he directed his first movie, Dahil Mahal na Mahal Kita, a drama topbilled by Rico Yan, Diether Ocampo, and Claudine Baretto.
De Ramas has proven his competence and flexibility as a director. He not only excels in directing television dramas and comedies; he has also achieved success as a film director.
“My mentors at ABS-CBN had intentionally trained me to do dramas in TV and somehow convinced me to venture into making comedies in the big screen,” he said. “It must have been really a calling for me because it has never crossed my mind to actually turn my passion into a profession,”
“I don't have a particular style when it comes to directing because it depends on the genre or story of the project,” De Ramas said.
Despite his flourishing career in show business, De Ramas said he plans to eventually go back to his first love and not let his degree in HRM go to waste.
“I plan to open a restaurant of my own,” he said. “But as of now, doing movies is my main priority.”
UST will always have a special place in De Ramas' heart as he really enjoyed his studies and extra-curricular activities in the University. He advised UST students to take advantage of what Thomasian education has to offer.
“I'm proud of UST and of course, Teatro Tomasino,” he said. “I loved my stay in the University and I am truly proud to be a Thomasian.”

WORLD-CLASS pianist Reynaldo Reyes has always believed that passion is the key to exceptional musicianship. It was this passion for music that led him to simultaneously attend UST High School and the UST Conservatory of Music and graduating at an early age of 17.

Reyes has always been a good student, although he never became an honor student. But he surprised himself when he decided to take high school and college.
During that time, students are still allowed to enroll in the Conservatory even without a high school diploma provided that classes are on private tutorial. Reyes even finished his Music subjects before finishing secondary school, but had to wait one year before he was allowed to graduate as minor subjects cannot be given until after high school. Being a high school and college student at the same time, he graduated from the University in 1950, Bachelor of Music.
After he graduated from UST, he continued his studies abroad, enrolling at the Conservatory of Paris where he won Premier Prix in 1957. The Premier Prix is a first prize title won in the year end-competition, a requirement for a music student to achieve before he is allowed to graduate. Upon graduation, he applied for his Master's degree and Artist's diploma at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University in Maryland where he became a faculty member of the University in 1960. He was also named “Musician of the Year” by the University of the Philippines in 1957, 1961, and 1965—the only Filipino to be honored at three different times. In the international setting, he was a prize winner in three international competitions namely, the Rio de Janeiro International Piano Competition in Brazil, The Busoni International Piano Competition in Bolzano, Italy, and the Marguerite Long International Piano Competition in Paris, France.
Seven years after being indicted at the Peabody Conservatory, he returned to UST to receive the “Golden Cross Award”, the highest award the University bestows on its alumni for his contribution to music.
According to Reyes, his early education in UST contributed to his success abroad.
“One reason why I am very grateful to UST is because they managed to give lots of advance training for its students,” Reyes said. “I was part of almost all of the events at the conservatory so I had a very rich early experience as a musician which helped me a lot in Europe and the US,” he said.

Thomasian, Filipino, and proud
Reyes has been a Music professor at Towson University (TU) in Baltimore Maryland, USA for more than 40 years now. However, his tenure at TU does not deter his loyalty to his alma mater. He claims that he owes his education to UST, and feels that he has to give back something that the University will be proud of. Because of this, he is now using what he learned to benefit other people by using music as a medium of improvement for those who are mentally ill.
But apart from being loyal and grateful to his alma mater, Reyes also claims to be a nationalistic person. Although he has been living in the United States for 54 years, he says that he has never changed his nationality.
“I am still a Filipino citizen and will forever be. I feel that if I change (my citizenship), I will be selling my soul and gratitude,” he said.
Wanting to contribute to the progress of the country's intelligence, Reyes regularly comes home twice a year for three decades now at his own expense and time to talk about the importance of listening to classical music to students and rural folk, and since 2001, has performed free concerts and talks on the importance of classical music not only in terms of art and aesthetics, but also of education.
“Filipinos in general are not well informed enough,” Reyes expressed.
The effects of classical music on the brain are already known to First World countries, but unfamiliar to most Filipinos. Reyes believes that most Filipinos have a misconception about music as something abstract which only sounds good to the ear. For Reyes, many schools do not teach it because they are not aware that it can also be an objective avenue for self-improvement.
“Our officials are also not aware of the benefits of listening to classical music so our curriculum barely touches on that subject,” he explains.

Music for the brain
In a previous article from the Varsitarian, studies have proven that listening to classical music does not only nourish the brain, but can also help the mentally-disabled to improve.
Classical music is a good source of neurons, or new brain cells, which are continuously generated throughout one's lifetime. Moreover, classical music is also used as therapy for abnormal people, anesthesia for operations, and also therapy for the sick and the mentally-challenged.
Commonly known as the “Mozart Effect,” scientific research explains that the physiological, psychological, mental, and socio-emotional effects of listening to classical music are beneficial to patients because it regulates respiratory patterns, improves memory, and decreases tension.
There have been several cases wherein playing classical music to patients during and after surgery helped reduce the pain. A research by Drs. Kathi J. Kemper and Suzanne C. Danhauer from the Southern Medical Association reported that a number of vascular surgery patients showed decreased pain levels after a music session.
True enough, Reyes himself found improvement in his son who was initially diagnosed with autism when he was born. Now 25 years old, he initially couldn't speak until his father taught him to play and listen to classical music on the piano. Reyes' goddaughter who was mentally challenged also began to talk after five years of taking up music lessons.
His first efforts on putting the music therapy theory into use has benefited his family.
“My success, my ambitions and my energies to succeed stem from my family's ambition not to fail. We don't have to always emerge at the top, but we have to try to be the best. Learning does not stop with aging and improving is not hindered by age. It is hindered by lack of desire,” he said.