# Guimaras State University

Guimaras State University (GSU) is a public university in the island province of Guimaras, Philippines. It is mandated to provide advance education, higher technological, professional instruction and training in the fields of education, technology, agriculture, fisheries, engineering, arts and sciences, forestry, business administration, hotel and restaurant management, tourism, health sciences, computer technology, criminology, maritime and aviation education, and other related fields of study. It consists of three campuses: the Salvador Campus, Mosqueda Campus, and Baterna Campus.

## History

The Buenavista Vocational School, around which the Guimaras State University eventually grew, was founded under the provision of Republic Act 3933 in 1964 with Representative Rodolfo Tiamson Ganzon of the Second District of Iloilo as the leading sponsor of the bill.
The hard work of many local officials starting with Hon. Tomas Junco, who backed a resolution to persuade the legislature to establish a vocational school in Buenavista, led up to the creation of BVS when RA 3933 was passed on June 18, 1964. Representative Fermin “Nene” Zarandin Caram of the Lone District of Iloilo City made an effort for the implementation of the law. Four years later, through the efforts of lawyer Ernesto G. Gaduyon and Iloilo governor Abelardo D. Javellana, the philanthropist-lawyer Juan Z. Salvador, Jr. bestowed a 12.36-acre lot taken away from his lands in Barangay McLain, Buenavista, Guimaras, to be the school site. This significant bequest led the school to honor him by taking his name to refer to the main University grounds.
In 1980, the school was approved of offering post-secondary courses. The two-year trade technical and technology courses opened the door to the offering of higher education courses, which are either terminal or ladderized (a new system of education in the Philippines that allows learners to progress between Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and college, and vice versa). In 1992, the year Guimaras was proclaimed as a regular and full-fledged province, the Sangguniang Bayan (municipal council) of Buenavista passed a resolution requesting Representative Alberto “Albertito” Javellana Lopez of the Second District of Iloilo to put his back for the conversion of BVS to Guimaras Polytechnic College.
In July 1994, Representative Lopez filed House Bill 6252, in Congress, seeking the conversion of the BVS into a polytechnic college. On March 3, 1995, President Fidel V. Ramos signed Republic Act 7944 into law, showing out the conversion of Buenavista Vocational School into Guimaras Polytechnic College, which would offer general secondary curriculum, professional, technological courses.
In June 2000, a consultation and public hearing on House Bills 7382 and 5807 sponsored by Representative Emily Relucio-Lopez of the Lone District of Guimaras was organized at the GPC Function Room. With 179 listed participants from public and private sectors in attendance, all sectoral representatives expressed full support for the conversion of GPC, Buenavista and Western Visayas College of Science and Technology (WVCST)–Guimaras Extension in the Municipality of Jordan, into a state college.
Then, in the first regular session of the Eleventh Congress, Representative Dante Ventura Liban and Representative Emily Relucio-Lopez filed House Bill 12358 (in substitution for House Bills 5807 & 7382). On June 8, 2001, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed Republic Act 9138 into law. The law established the Guimaras State College, merging the Guimaras Polytechnic College in the Municipality of Buenavista and the Western Visayas College of Science and Technology–Guimaras Extension in the Municipality of Jordan. The GSC in Buenavista was the main college grounds of the college and referred to as GSC Salvador while the one in Jordan was referred to as GSC Mosqueda Annex; [and the one in San Lorenzo was referred to as GSC Baterna Annex—an expansion during Dr. Rogelio T. Artajo's presidency].
GSU has had a mandate, from its very inception, to offer undergraduate and graduate courses in technology education, agriculture, fisheries, engineering, arts and sciences, forestry, business, health, computer, criminology, nautical and short-term vocational-technical and other continuing courses that may be found to be needed and relevant. It has promoted research, advanced studies, extension work and progressive leadership in each area of specialization ever since its beginning. Too, it has provided primary consideration through the integration of research/studies for the development of the Province of Guimaras.
For the next five decades, a principal, five administrators, an acting administrator, and an SUC president would take the helm and lead the school to its current level of excellence: Jose E. Esquera, Florencio D. Doromal, Cerilo P. Tamayo, Arthur Clemente, Mercedes R. Regalado, Teodoro B. Alenton, Hector G. Zamora, and Dr. Sofronio D. Dignomo.
Over 50 years later after its founding, the Philippine Congress approved GSC's conversion to University status by way of RA 11335, and President Rodrigo Roa Duterte signed it into law on April 26, 2019.
Today, having been the first state college in the whole Philippines to be Institutionally Accredited (IA) by Accrediting Agency for Chartered Colleges and Universities in the Philippines, the Guimaras State University awards 58 bachelor's, 8 master's, and 4 doctorate degrees—and it is going on with more degree offerings.
With a promising future, having been the first state college in the whole Philippines to be included in the group of 11 state universities and college by Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for its Internationalization Network Program, the university is positioned to become the most student-centered university in research, teaching, and public engagement on the island, in the West Visayas, and beyond.