(note: article originally published in SED LEX June 1995 Vol.2 No.1 written by Atty. Grace Navato.)
Professor
Araceli Baviera:
Forty
Years of Heeding the Siren’s Call
“Students
today are just robots.”
Professor Araceli Baviera removes
her eyeglasses and places then on her desk which was awash with books and slips
of paper. Then she fixes her eyes on me and repeats, “They’re like robots;
they’re too dependent on those xerox machines and no longer digest cases.”
Leaning back on her chair, she adds, “By the time I was in third year, I could
digest a case in five minutes.”
She recalls that, as one of the twenty
or so female students in her batch, she had to prove her mettle twice over. “We
had to show that we could make it because they [referring to her male
professors and classmates] still looked down on women as not the equal of men.”
Law school had never figured in her
plans. In fact, her Liberal Arts adviser, upon seeing her grades in Laboratory
subjects, recommended that she take up Medicine. But she scotched the idea for
three reasons: one, she could not stand the sight of blood; two, there were
already too many doctors in her family; and, three, her father wanted one of
his children to take up Law. “Since I was getting very good grades,” she says
unabashedly, “he thought that I could make it.” Her father’s ambition sustained
her for the first year; after that, “Nagustuhan ko na rin.”
Her batch was supposed to graduate
in 1942 but they never did climb the stage for their diplomas. War broken out
on December 1941, and the College
of Law was closed down
for three years. To the harassed female students, the event had its positive
side. “That last semester, I was promising myself that after finishing school I
would not touch a law book anymore.” Her mouth twists into a wry smile as she
glimpses the books scattered on her desk. It was only in 1944 when she was able
to take and pass the Bar exams.
She first worked as a real estate
lawyer. Then, thinking that she might as well learn from the experts, she
transferred to Justice de Joya’s law office. It didn’t take her long to realize
the truth: “Pareho lang pala kami ng alam!” she laughingly recalls. She
concedes, though, that the learned Justice had excellent legal writing skills,
and that he taught his associates how to write forcefully. Before long, Atty.
Baviera’s motions for summary judgment were earning raves from her colleagues
and even from the judges who sat on her various cases.
Dean Vicente Sinco recruited her for
the academe in 1955. She has been teaching (“Without interruption,” she
stresses) ever since. Her workload consisted of eighteen to twenty-one units
per semester, an overload even by today’s standards. Also, some of her classes
were located in what she referred to as “the Manila extension” (UP Manila), which meant
daily trips to and from both campuses. “I was young then” she says matter-of-factly,
without any trace of wistfulness.
Except for a brief teaching stint in
Lyceum University
a few years ago (“Laurel
begged and begged until I gave in.”) Professor Baviera has taught exclusively
in UP during her forty-year career as a law professor. The impressive list of
subjects that she has handled over the years – Taxation, Labor, Roman Law,
Legal History, Torts, Statutory Construction, Property, Succession, Sales,
Local Government, Criminal Procedure, Evidence – reads like the UP Law
curriculum. At present, she is teaching Civil Law Review. And to think that she
supposedly “retired” in 1985.
Despite her busy schedule, she found
time to participate in the drafting of proposed codes on various subjects
(aviation, transportation, maritime law, election law, to name but a few) which
were submitted to President Marcos and his Cabinet for deliberation and
enactment. Sadly, only one was signed into law: P.D. 1529, otherwise known as
the Property Registration Decree. Along the way, she was able to write a treatise
on Sales, which was published by the UP Law Center
as part of its Philippine Jurisprudence Project. She was also one of the
drafters of the Family Code.
The professor waved away the idea of
taking up higher education. “I should be contributing rather than studying.”
was her tart rejoinder, implying that she had no need of it. She scoffered,
“Iyong mga estudyante ko natapos nga pero hindi naman nag-improve.” So much for
the fame of Harvard and the glory of Yale – the professor obviously is not
impressed.
She half-complains about her work
schedule (she handled mostly evening classes last semester), and recounts how
she had advised the Dean to start recruiting and/or training someone else to
take her place. Yet every succeeding semester finds her trodding along the
College halls, in her way to teach another bunch of seniors their civil law.
The fact that the Dean still has to find someone of her caliber bespeaks well
of the quality of her teaching. And the amazing fact that she keeps on heeding
the siren’s call of the College for her services, despite her poor health and
supposed retirement, gives us an inkling of what Araceli Baveira, Professor of
Law, is made of.
