CHAPTER 15

The Philippines, Part 2: Holy Angel University—A

Catholic Family University

Alma Santiago-Espartinez and Leopoldo N. Valdes

Holy Angel University (HAU) is a non-profit Catholic Higher Education insti-

tution in Central Luzon committed to providing access to high quality educa-
tion from primary school to graduate study. HAU has a seven-hectare campus
located in Angeles City and a 10-hectare property in Ayala Alviera in Porac,
Pampanga in anticipation of growing enrollment in the coming years.
Holy Angel University is part of a narrative of the Nepomuceno family and
their family enterprises that dates back to 1933. The Nepomuceno descendants
continue to run several for-profit businesses in Angeles City and institutions
that offer quality education in Angeles City with the notable successes and set-
backs normally associated with family-run firms. Having begun on a one-hect-
are lot, Holy Angel University’s idyllic campus now sits on a prime property in
the heart of Angeles City. Its story is one of a family-owned operation emerging
from a painful past to a promising present and a hopeful future; from a strug-
gling unknown to an internationally recognized institution. After close to a
century, the Nepomucenos still manage the business, cognizant of the chal-
lenges of a changing and more competitive world.

1 History

In 1933, Juan D. Nepomuceno started Holy Angel Academy (HAA) as a fam-

ily-owned enterprise with the purpose of establishing an affordable quality
Catholic coeducational high school in the Philippines founded by the laity.
Juan D. Nepomuceno established the school with the help of Fr. Pedro Santos,
regarded as the school’s co-founder (Mendoza, 2004). One of the motivations
was that his eldest son wanted to attend high school in their hometown.
After engaging Ricardo Flores as the principal, Fr. Santos and Nepomuceno
spent a frantic summer and several thousand pesos of Nepomuceno family
money to start the school. They were passionate about providing affordable
and quality Catholic education; the origins of this venture have been chron-
icled in Ricardo Flores’s memoirs (1992). Its growth over the years from high

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2020 | doi: 10.1163/9789004423435_015

The Philippines, Part 2 229

school to college and later to university in 1970 was marked by obstacles and
challenges. Today, Holy Angel University (HAU) has become an indispensable
contributor to the quality of life and prosperity in Angeles City.

2 From Academy to University

Holy Angel Academy (HAA) began as a four-year high school in an empty par-
ish residence in June 1933 with a total enrollment of 78 students. During the
following two years, enrollment rose to 89 and then to 150.
Hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 8, 1941, Japanese forces
invaded the Philippines. HAA along with all schools in the Philippines ceased
operations. At the end of WW II, the founders regrouped and HAA reopened.
The challenges to restore normalcy included reacquiring the main building
from the American military forces, finding, and re-hiring teachers and man-
aging a large intake of students who had not attended school for several years.
Until 1945, all administrators had been male and all instructors, female. With
the hiring of male instructors, the problem of gender-pay equity emerged.
At the same time, movements towards unionization and leftist politics were
growing with consequences for HAA.
In 1947, HAA acquired a license from the Bureau of Private Schools to start
a two-year junior normal college and offer a non-degree elementary teacher’s
certificate in response to an increasing demand for qualified teachers follow-
ing the war. At the same time, HAA started an evening high school to serve the
workers of the nearby Clark airforce base.
In 1948, HAA opened the College of Commerce, the first college established
at HAA. Javier Nepomuceno was named the first dean of the College of Com-
merce and launched a three-year bachelor’s of science in commerce diploma
patterned after the Dela Salle College curriculum. With their first graduates
in 1951, Holy Angel Academy became Holy Angel College (HAC) with Juan
Nepomuceno as its first president. Due to its growing population and increas-
ing curricular offerings, the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and College of Edu-
cation were established. In the 1960s, other colleges were opened offering
secretarial education and engineering. The graduate school opened in 1966
with a master’s of the arts in education.
On December 4, 1981, Holy Angel College became Holy Angel University
(HAU) with Mamerto Nepomuceno, a younger sibling of Javier, as the first uni-
versity president.
HAU started out on one hectare surrounded by sugar cane fields owned by
Juan Nepomuceno. HAU expanded into a prime seven-hectare property that