FORMER Faculty of Civil Law Dean Dr. Amado Dimayuga was conferred the title Dean Emeritus last Nov. 23 at the UST Medicine Cinematorium.
Dimayuga who served as the Faculty’s dean for 12 years, from 1989 to 2001, is the fifth former dean to be given the title in the University. He is also the first and only male dean to receive such a distinction.
Other recipients of the prestigious honor were former deans Dr. Magdalena Villaba of the Faculty of Arts and Letters, Dr. Norma Lerma of the Faculty of Pharmacy, Dr. Carmen Kanapi of the College of Science, and Dr. Lourdes Custodio of the College of Education.
“We are honoring a person, an authentic man of the law, a professor of law, who for many years, has dedicated his life primarily to legal education. And this dedicated service he rendered to his beloved alma mater, the University of Santo Tomas,” said Rector Fr. Tamerlane Lana, O.P.
A magna cum laude graduate of the UST Faculty of Civil Law in 1951, Dimayuga passed the Bar examinations with a grade point average of 87.71 percent and obtained his doctorate in Civil Law sobresaliente from Universidad Central de Madrid in 1953. He has been a law professor since 1954 and a Bar Reviewer in Commercial Law since 1989.
During his term as dean, Dimayuga was very particular about the excellence of the Faculty’s professors. According to new Civil Law Dean Justice Jaime Lantin, Dimayuga believed that a law professor must not only be excellent in his field but effective in teaching students.
According to Lantin, the Faculty improved its passing percentage in the bar examinations and even produced topnotchers under Dimayuga’s tutelage. Last school year, Prudence Angelita Kasala ranked eighth in the bar exams. These achievements included the University among the top four law institutes in the country.
“It is the heart of an educator that vibrantly beats in his being that enables him to stir the faculty of Civil Law to greater heights. Above all, it is his being a Thomasian that enables him to inspire numerous students,” Lana said.
According to Lana, Dimayuga is “an educator by heart” because, despite a lucrative life legal practice, he chose to stay in the academe for more than 40 years.
“I have chosen the academe. The academe has a special attraction for me, the financial rewards have never been great but, spiritually, it is very gratifying,” said Dimayuga.
Dimayuga is a member of the Judicial and Bar Council representing the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and of the Commission on Higher Education Technical Panel for Legal Education.
Dimayuga was also a member of various committees in the University such as the Academic Senate, Board of Justice, Board of Governors-UST Hospital, Board of Justice-Benavides Foundation, and Board of Justice-UST Seminary.
He was a recipient of two professorial chairs for Constitutional Law from the Don Benito Legarda Foundation and the President Diosdado Macapagal and Dr. Eva Macapagal Foundation. Dimayuga also received the Outstanding Thomasian Alumni Award last year.
“My friends, the sheep skin I just received will be a minor repository of nostalgic memories of my 50 years stay in my alma mater. My initial years as a struggling young teacher, my first initiation as dean, my 12 years distributing diplomas to young graduates on this very stage, and a myriad of other mementos which I will forever treasure,” he said.
