By Marisol Bo-oc | 08:55 PM December 05, 2020
A Boholano who became president has died aged 91, the University of San Carlos (USC) said Saturday, Dec. 5.
On a Facebook post, USC said Fr. Margarito “Mar” Alingasa, SVD passed away this morning, December 5, at the St. Arnold Janssen Home in Tagbilaran City. He was 91 years old.
Father Mar, a native of Bohol, was the second Filipino president of the University of San Carlos (1975-1979).
Born in Tagbilaran in 1929, he was ordained at the Divine Word Seminary in Tagaytay in 1957. Fr. Mar obtained his Master of Arts degree in Audio-Visual Communication from Indiana University.
Fr. Mar oversaw the “Filipinization” of USC, as mandated by Presidential Decree No. 176, which covered all private corporations and educational institutions.
He successfully steered the University during this financially and emotionally difficult period of transition that saw the end of subsidies from Germany, leaving USC to find alternative sources to support its programs, starting with professorial chairs from the late John Gokongwei Jr., followed by the San Miguel Corporation and the Sycip Gorres and Velayo Foundation.
It was also during his terms that the pioneering research institutions in the country, the USC Cebuano Studies Center and the Office of Population Studies, were established.The College of Nursing (now under the School of Health Professions) was also established during Fr. Mar’s presidency, side by side with the development of the Instructional Media Center.
After his presidency, Fr. Mar remained active in advocacies and was instrumental in the establishment of the Cebu Uniting for Sustainable Water (CUSW) and was a member of the Cebu Archdiocesan Commission on Family and Life.
