BENIGNO V. ALDANA NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL:

The School with  a Series of Names

The school’s name went through a series of changes. In 1948, the “Junior” in the school’s name, Pozorrubio Junior High School, was already dropped. The Parliament Bill No. 1023 authored by former Assemblyman Roque R. de Guzman of Region 1 paved the school’s nationalization on November 12, 1982 by virtue of Batas Pambansa 252, thereby, it was renamed from Pozorrubio High School to Pozorrubio National High School.

By virtue of Batas Pambansa 807, Pozorrubio National High School was again renamed to Benigno V. Aldana National Memorial High School on April 27,1984. It was subsequently named in the honor of a prominent Pozorrubian, educator and Director of the Bureau of Public Schools, Benigno V. Aldana who was born on November 19, 1898 in Pozorrubio, Pangasinan. Prior to the passage of Batas Pambansa Blg. 252, the Bill was sponsored by former Congressman Tony Villas through the initiative of DECS Head Executive Assistant Lucio B. Fernandez. Behind the renaming of Pozorrubio National High School to Benigno V. Aldana National Memorial High School were to two equally distinguished Pozorrubians, namely, Dr. Florencio M. Buen, Provincial Schools Superintendent of Pangasinan, and Dr. MInda Cascolan Sutaria, Assistant Director, Bureau of Elementary Education.

Not long after, the word “Memorial” was dropped from Benigno V. Aldana National Memorial High School on August 12, 1994 under Sangguniang Bayan of Pozorrubio Resolution No. 103, s. 1994. Hence, the school’s name, Benigno V. Aldana National High School, remains until to this day.

The school had produced its first batch of 37 graduates and had their commencement exercise at the Plaza Pergola in 1947 with Nelia Magno as the Valedictorian and Ador Salazar as Salutatorian. In the following year, this 1948 batch had the distinction of holding their commencement exercise for the first time in the school’s new quadrangle with Jose P. Magno, Jr., who retired as major general and became the former Presidential Adviser and former Chairman of the of GSIS and close confidant of President Fidel V. Ramos, as Valedictorian and Rosario Estrada as Salutatorian.

BENIGNO V. ALDANA: The Man Behind the School’s Name

Dr. Benigno de Vera Aldana was the former Director of the Bureau of Public Schools.

He was the son of Dionisio Aldana and Magdalena de Vera. He was  born in November 19, 1898 in Pozorrubio, Pangasinan. He finished his secondary education at Pangasinan High School, Lingayen, Pangasinan in 1916. After he graduated in high school, he enrolled at Philippine Normal School, now Philippine Normal University, where he graduated with honors in 1925. In his insatiable love of knowledge, he continued his studies at the University of the Philippines where he obtained his Bachelor of Science in Education, major in English 1931. In 1933, he continued his master’s degree in Educational Administration, major in Small Public Schools Finance at the University of California at Berkeley, California with his thesis entitled, “Development of a Foundation Funding of Public Schools in the Philippines”. 

His career in the public school was successful as began in his career in education in 1916 as a high school teacher. In a span of three years, his promotion was quite impressive.  From being a classroom teacher, he was promoted to elementary school principal. He was then promoted to high school in 1920 and supervised teachers in 1921. Subsequently, he became a Supervisor in 1926. Eventually, he became the    Division Superintendent of Schools in 1933 covering the provinces of Bukidnon and Camarines Sur. In his leadership, he served  as  “master of the special touches” on the Academic Division of the Office of Education.   President Quezon appointed him as a technical assistant solely on budget-related matter to the Commission before the Secord World War broke out.. In 1954, he was the adviser to the President on education. He was the Superintendent of Private Schools before he was sworn in as Deputy Director of Public Schools by President Ramon Magsaysay in 1955. Two years after, he took the leadership in public schools department as an interim and soon after as permanent.

In July 1957, he was elected as one of the five vice-presidents during the 20^th World Conference on Public Education held by UNESCO in Geneva, Switzerland.

His retirement from office did not stop him from working as an educator.  He taught as  professor at the University of Manila, Arellano University and the National Teachers College. With his passion of writing, he wrote scientific works and extensive teaching and psycology.

Dr. Aldana authored the following books: The Curriculum of the Philippine Public School: its History and Development (1935); The Educational System of the Philippines (1949), which received good review by the Office of UNESCO in Paris; and Public Schools in the Philippines: Its Administration and Finance. He also co-author of textbooks, two of which are in English: Fundamentals of English majors and the Fundamentals of Educational Psychology.

He had been in four months of retirement when he died of a heart attack at UST Hospital on July 6, 1963.

He served and dedicated his 47 years of his life in government service! Truly, he deserved a lasting memory of his unselfish service in the government. That’s the reason why we carry his legacy and as Benignians, we are proud and great!