01/08/2025
๐๐ป ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ช๐ฎ๐ธ๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฆ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐บ
When Typhoon Emong unleashed its fury upon La Union, it did not spare DMMMSU. It battered the University with unrelenting wind, rain, and ruin. It tore through the campuses and operating units like a beast unchained, toppling trees, wrecking structures, and shattering glass windows into splinters of chaos. Trees and electric poles were wrenched from the ground. Classrooms and hallways were drenched with water. Buildings stood waterlogged, their walls soaked and weary. Roofs were peeled off like paper, hurled into the air, scattered like broken wings. Debris lay strewn in every corner. Mud. Wood. Twisted metal. Cables snapped and dangled. Power lines fell silent. Systems failed. And in the wake of it all, offices and learning spaces were plunged into darkness. Of stillness.
Devastated? No! We refuse to be.
Typhoon Emong may have battered our University, but it could never break our will. It tested the strength of our spirit, especially that of the administration, which bears the greatest burden of leading an entire community through the storm and, through the grace of God, to rise above it.
Yes. In the midst of chaos, the University does not falter. It rises! And it is still trying. Really hard!
President Jaime I. Manuel, Jr., together with University and Campus administrators, teaching and nonteaching personnel, did not retreat to the safety of offices. They did not wait for calm skies to begin the work. They moved while the winds still whispered destruction. They started the labor while the rain kept pouring. They stepped onto the ground, thick with dirt and despair, heavy with mud and memory.
They stepped into the aftermath. They cleared roads blocked by uprooted trees. They lifted and hauled away roof debris carried far by the wind. They swept broken glass from shattered windows, removed dangerous rubble, and repaired what could still be saved. They secured hanging electrical cables, aware that every exposed wire was a threat to safety.
They moved swiftly, humbly, and with care, driven by a single purpose: to rebuild a University that students could safely return to after studying in the safety of their homes.
They did not ask for recognition. They only hoped for little kindness from some students who seemed to have forgotten that the administrators and personnel, too, have their share of burden.
Some may wonder why asynchronous learning had to be implemented. The reason lies here not in the lack of understanding studentsโ plight, not in inconvenience, but in integrity. It was a decision born of care. Of urgency. Of love.
While classrooms are temporarily silenced, there is a louder message being written on the ground: that studentsโ safety is a priority, and that every effort is being made to restore order after the storm.
And perhaps the most important lesson of all? That students, too, are being called to rise, not as victims of the storm, but as warriors shaped by it.
And the clean-up drive? It was no symbolic gesture. It was not a photo opportunity. It was Bayanihan in its purest form. It was a mission. And in that mission, we saw what storms cannot break, the soul of a community. It was something stronger than wind, something louder than thunder, something deeper than floodwaters. Unity. Determination. Compassion. Something we ask of some students, of some individuals who still need to learn kindness, understanding.
So let this stand as a reminder not of what was destroyed but of what endured. Of the hands that toiled quietly while others doubted. Of the hearts that chose service over self. Of the leaders who showed up not in speeches, but in sweat.
To those who still struggle to understand, may they learn that resilience is not always loud, and kindness, not always seen. That sometimes, the greatest lessons come not from the classroom, but from the mud, the broken glass, the lifted roofs, and the people who stayed to rebuild, the people who choose to rise.
Because in DMMMSU, we do not just weather storms, we rise from them.
Together. Always.
Under God's loving care.
