BEING a Thomasian does not end after graduation.
Dominant media personality and Philosophy and Letters Foundation chair Gregorio Cendaña said this in his final interview with the Varsitarian before he succumbed to cardiac arrest last Aug. 25 at the Philippine Heart Center, Quezon City. He was 76.
Cendaña, who was publicity head of the first UST Grand Alumni Homecoming last April 24, said that Thomasians’ duties continue through life.
“The students duties and responsibilities to the University become greater once they graduate,” Cendaña said. “They have to prove to their professors that they deserved to pass, that their parents’ money was well spent, that we are still the best school.”
A close friend of Cendaña, architect Felino Palafox, Jr. told the Varsitarian that Cendaña supported the activities of the Council of Alumni Presidents, now UST-Alumni Council.
“He used his connections to promote the homecoming,” Palafox, former chair of the Council of Alumni Presidents, said.
Although he worked for Ferdinand Marcos as principal propagandist of martial law, Cendaña was well-liked even by critics of martial law.
During his term as Marcos’s information minister and press secretary, Cendaña gathered broadcasters such as Korina Sanchez, Mel Tiangco, Ces Drilon, Doris Bigornia, Tina Monzon-Palma, and Loren Legarda-Leviste, who had lost their jobs after Marcos declared Martial Law in 1972. Cendaña employed them at PTV 4 and the National Media Production Center, which he both headed.
After Marcos’s ouster, Cendaña retired from government media service but became active in UST alumni affairs. He was in fact a leading light of the Thomasian Media Circle.
His remains were moved from Funenaria Paz to San Nicolas, Pangasinan where he was buried last Sept.2
