“It is an honor to serve Asia’s oldest university, and to meet wonderful people like you. Love UST.”
UST Rector Fr. Herminio Dagohoy, O.P. expressed gratitude to the University during a testimonial luncheon marking the end of his eight-year rectorship on Jan. 15.
“I have said a lot in the past eight years [but] allow me to just repeat the words of St. Paul: ‘I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy,'” Dagohoy told University officials at the Dr. Robert C. Sy Grand Ballroom of the Buenaventura Garcia Paredes, O.P. Building.
The outgoing Rector also proclaimed how serving UST was an “honor and privilege.”
“It’s an honor to serve the Asia’s oldest university. Also it’s a privilege and honor to meet wonderful people like you throughout the years,” he said.
Dagohoy, the University’s 96th Rector, emphasized that the achievements of the University for the past eight years were not solely because of him, but because of the collective efforts of all Thomasians.
“I remember, we were once told that as missionaries, we have to always remember three things: to say hello, love and say goodbye. We come, we build and leave,” he said.
“Please, also pray for me and remember me with gladness,” he added.
Dagohoy, 55, an accounting graduate who found his priestly vocation in the Dominican Order, served as internal auditor and director of finance and administration of UST Hospital before being named UST Rector in June 2012.
He was rector of Angelicum College in Quezon City and prior of the priories of Santo Domingo, also in Quezon City, and St. Thomas Aquinas in UST.
Under his rectorship, UST was able to survive the difficult transition to the post-K to 12 educational system with the opening of the UST Senior High School in 2016.
He oversaw the construction of three new important structures: the Central Laboratory Building, the expanded UST Hospital, and the Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati Building that now houses the Senior High School.
Apart from the Senior High School two other academic units were established: the Institute of Information and Computing Sciences (2014) and the Graduate School of Law (2017).
Dagohoy broke ground for two future campuses — Santa Rosa in Laguna and General Santos City in Mindanao, and led the revamp of the Dominican educational system that saw the Angelicum schools in Quezon City and Iloilo and Aquinas University in Legazpi City subsumed under the UST educational tradition.
It was also under Dagohoy’s rectorship when the University hosted Pope Francis’s papal visit in 2015.
The Filipino Dominican province also took over UST in 2014, under new statutes approved by the Vatican.
Vice Rector Fr. Richard Ang, O.P. assumed the post of acting rector.
