Cover Photo By Danni Lim
Cover Photo By Danni Lim.

Building Benilde, Brick by Brick


Due to the challenges caused by the pandemic, Benilde is striving to recover and to rise up with its management and operations, one aspect at a time.


By Jillian Cu, and Zophia Emmanuelle Tendido | Tuesday, 7 September 2021

From the launching of the Benilde Online Learning Term towards Virtual Benilde, on-campus health safety protocols, internet subsidies, staff retrenchment, scholarship reduction, to limiting on-campus costs and operations; Benilde has been through a lot to remain standing amidst the pandemic’s devastating effects and turning them into something greater—opportunities. 

Endings for new beginnings

The College was astounded when not just one, but three major College administrators, namely, Chancellor Robert Tang, Vice Chancellor for Academics Geronio Ulayao, and Vice President for Lasallian Mission and Student Life Neil Pariñas, will step down from their positions effective August 31.

In response, Benilde President Br. Edmundo “Dodo” Fernandez FSC, along with the Search and Transition Committee, opened nominations and applications to find a new set of admins. After careful deliberation, Mr. Benhur Ong, Mr. Angelo Marco Lacson, and Ms. Ma. Veronica Templo-Perez were appointed to respectively take over by September 1.

“I always believe that new energy is new life. New people would bring in new things. [...] The good thing is they’re all from Benilde. They do understand the culture in Benilde, they do know the people, they do know what Benilde stands for, so they will bring in their new energy and new life into all of this. I’m really hopeful with this new team,” Br. Dodo stated in an interview with The Benildean.

Opening Benilde SHS

Benilde decided to open its doors to a wider audience as it launched Benilde Senior High School (SHS) effective A.Y. 2021 to 2022.

Benilde offers Accountancy and Business Management, Technical-Vocational-Livelihood, General Academic Strand, and Arts and Design, all tailored for an entrance-exam free transition to their track’s corresponding college programs in Benilde once the required grade is met. 

“We live up to the true co-ideals and mission of Benilde to be able to provide these meaningful, [innovative] educational programs. We would like to immerse them [and hone] them the skills they need before they go to college,” Benilde SHS Principal Mr. Jay Binueza shared with The Benildean.

From the ideal target of 300 enrollees, 325 students were accepted and 236 of them confirmed as of August 16, 2021, with 52% of the students coming from the Arts and Design strand.

“We hit our recalibrated projections but I would be honestly saying that I was hoping we’d really get a lot more. However, it’s not that bad,”  Br. Dodo stated, pointing out that the marketing started only last January 2021 after the permission from the Department of Education for SHS. 

“Our enrollment is down partly because our programs cater to industries that are almost currently not working like Hotel and Restaurant and Tourism,” Br. Dodo explained. However, he is projecting that tourism and other fields will pick up once restrictions are lifted.

Given the marketing delay , Br. Dodo could not help to get nervous and dispirited along the way but he is grateful for the reached target and hopes to increase enrollees by the next academic year. 

“I am always happy at what God gives us, so, okay na ako ‘dun. Our [mission] is to build on that and hopefully we get a bit more for next year,” Br. Dodo added. 

Setting sights for Benilde Boarding School 

As Benilde goes entirely virtual, there are still laboratory and studio courses, particularly for SHRIM and the School of Design and Arts (SDA) students, that cannot be offered in any other modality except through face-to-face. Culinary, as a skills-based profession, is one of those programs that are very difficult to be adopted online.

“Benilde has a reputation of having very good culinary students with a high level of skills. So if you take out those [progressive] culinary lab classes [where the skills are learned and enhanced], it’s [their skills] not going to be that well-honed, ‘di ‘ba?” Culinary Arts track Chairperson Chef Margarita Marty mentioned in an interview with The Benildean.

To address the concern, Benilde is gearing up for possible face-to-face classes through the Benilde Boarding School (BBS), where Culinary Arts students will conduct classes in the Angelo King International Center in a bubble concept.

Once implemented with IATF and CHED's approval, Chef Marga and Br. Dodo hopes for a possibility in opening the concept to SDA and other schools should the BBS be effective. Benilde was planning to submit the proposal last term but because of the surge and economic viability, it took a while before they planned to revive it again. As of the moment, Benilde is “trying to apply again” for IATF and CHED’s clearance. 

“It could be the beginning of opening the doors of the school again. Education should have a social aspect and so, face-to-face classes are necessary,” Chef Marty stated.

In addition, Br. Dodo emphasized, "There is still value in coming to school. There's social interaction. (...) Labs cannot be replicated at home."

What’s next?

Amidst the challenges, Benilde still continues to innovate and expand its plans to further stand on its pillar for the Benildean community’s current and future stakeholders.

“I think Benilde’s legacy will be stronger because we adapted to change. There are many criticisms to how it was handled, but coming from where I was standing, I think Benilde took the best it had, evolved, and moved forward,” Chef Marty highlighted.

“Flexible learning is really here to stay. There are some aspects of flexible learning that can be adapted. (...) (But) at the end of the day, our goal is to teach you. And by teaching you, it means teaching you correctly. We don’t want to compromise your learning,” she added.

As Benilde transitions into the post-pandemic world, "Benilde of the Future Initiative" is currently in the works to merge traditional and digital learning into one system. As Bro. Dodo shared, "I think Benilde will become a new Benilde. In fact, I think it will be a better Benilde.” 

As Benilde is resiliently thriving away from rock bottom, there is only one way to go with its future legacy—and that is up.

This article is also published in The Benildean Volume 7 Issue No. 2: Restored.