Oct. 3, 2000

His Excellency Mons. Pedro Dean, D.D.
Archbishop of Palo
Archbishop's Palace
Palo, Leyte

and

Very Rev. Magdaleno Fabiosa, S.V.D.
Provincial Superior
SVD Southern Province
Cebu City

Your Excellency and Your Reverence,

The DWU Jubilee Foundation, which was organized by DWU alumni and friends to "promote and support the restoration of DWU to its original apostolate of quality Catholic education in Leyte and Samar", requests you to urgently attend to the reopening of DWU in the immediate future. We believe that the Catholic educational apostolate in Region VIII, which DWU was ably addressing, deserves utmost priority and importance. It should not be subordinated to secondary interests and conditionalities, which would indefinitely postpone the reopening of DWU.

We hold that the interests of the parties involved - the Archdiocese of Palo, the SVD, the DWU Employees Union and the Excluded Former Employees of DWU - are not incompatible. A sincere, transparent and honest dialogue and discussion, in the spirit of the Jubilee Year, will be very helpful towards the solution of seemingly conflicting interests and the subsequent reopening of DWU. A strictly legal approach to the problem may take years before DWU can reopen, to the detriment of the educational apostolate in Leyte and Samar.

Even now we are receiving indications that the Union and the Excluded Group are agreeable to a settlement that will involve only DWU properties outside the main campus in Avenida de Veteranos in Tacloban City. This would leave the main campus intact, and therefore make real the immediate possibility of DWU's reopening by June 2001, even if the actual determination of who and how much each qualified DWU employee should receive of the settlement may take longer, and may have to be eventually resolved by the Courts.

The DWU Jubilee Foundation offers its services in hosting this dialogue and discussion in the spirit of the Jubilee Year. It also stands by its commitment to help restore DWU to its original apostolate among the youth of Leyte and Samar.

In the reopening of DWU, we are proposing three alternatives ranked in order of priority:

1. Option 1: Reopening by the SVD
   • The SVD shall reopen DWU by June 2001, giving emphasis to tertiary education;
   • The Archbishop of Palo shall be entitled to one seat in the Board of Trustees. Another seat shall be reserved for an alumni representative;
   • The terms and conditions of the 1958 Deed of Sale of the school by the Archdiocese of Palo to the SVD shall obtain mutatis mutandis.
2. Option 2: Reopening by the Archdiocese of Palo
   • The Archdiocese shall administer and manage the school for an interim period of at least five (5) years, at the end of which the legal ownership and administration of the school may revert to the SVD upon mutual agreement of the parties concerned, under the same terms and conditions mutatis mutandis of the 1958 Deed Of Sale of the school from the Archdiocese of Palo to the SVD; and
   • The SVD may continue its involvement with the school even under the administration of the Archdiocese, by having two seats in the Board of Trustees.
3. Option 3: Reopening by Another Religious Order
   • The Archbishop of Palo shall take over the school and assign/turn it over to another religious order under basically the same terms and conditions as the above-mentioned 1958 Deed of Sale.

In formulating the above options, we took into consideration the urgent need for a Catholic institution of higher learning in Leyte and Samar, and some provisions of the 1958 Deed of Sale wherein the Archbishop of Palo turned over the then St. Paul's College of Tacloban to the SVD, to wit:

"IV. That the SOCIETY OF THE DIVINE WORD shall use these lands and properties for educational purposes, especially and as far as possible for the maintenance and further development of the institution known as the ST. PAULS' COLLEGE."

"V. That the above-described properties and all improvements and any land, buildings or equipment which shall have been later acquired by the ST. PAUL'S COLLEGE and which are in direct and actual use by the College as such, shall be turned over to the ownership and possession of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Palo in case there are circumstances which will be beyond the control of the contracting parties forcing the abandonment of the educational and religious work of the Society of the Divine Word with no hope for its resumption in the foreseeable future, that in this case the terms of the conversion of the property rights shall be determined by the Apostolic Nunciature and/or Apostolic See in Rome."

We trust and pray that for the sake of the people of Leyte and Samar, who are the real owners and stakeholders of DWU, the above conflicts may be resolved, and that DWU may once again continue its solid Catholic apostolate among the youth.

We await your favorable consideration of this matter.

Yours in the Divine Word,

Fideliza G. Noel Chairperson, Board of Trustees
For the DWU Jubilee Foundation

copy furnished:

• His Excellency the Most Rev. Antonio Franco, DD
  Apostolic Nuncio
• Very Rev. Antonio Pernia, SVD
  Superior General
• Dr. Ester Garcia
  Chairperson, Commission on Higher Education
• Bro. Andrew Gonzales, FSC
  Secretary, Department of Education, Culture & Sports
• Hon. Bienvenido Laguesma
  Secretary, Department of Labor
• Hon. Roy Seneres
  Chairman, National Labor Commission
• Hon. Remedios Petilla
  Governor of Leyte
• Hon. Alfredo Romualdez
  Mayor or Tacloban City
• Mr. Julius Obaldo
  President, DWU Employees Union
• Atty. Cesar Merin
  Representative, Concerned Excluded Former DWU Employees