Dr. Benito F. Reyes
23 February 1966 to 23 June 1972
Dr. Reyes chaired the Planning and Working Committee in 1963 and was installed as the first President of PLM. His selection as the pioneer president was a right choice given his reputation as a long-time respected educator (Fulbright-Smith-Mundt professor at the Boston University in Massachusetts, Fulbright-Hays philosophy professor at the State University of New York, and lecturer at Harvard, Brown, and other pedigreed universities). Indeed, he was well-versed in manning a university from modest beginnings -- a herculean task imbued with spelling out either the success or demise of the grand plan to establish a true scholars' university. Endowed with a clear vision of nurturing a university that puts premium on the nobility of human character, his compassionate management allowed him to give all the support he could to the University for almost a decade. As the academic architect of PLM, he laid a strong foundation on moral values grounded on his philosophy of educating man as a human being, which philosophy remains ingrained in the current curriculum.
Succeeding Dr. Reyes were equally great players who have provided leadership in building the Pamantasan and shaping its future from the ground up.
Dr. Consuelo S. Blanco
21 December 1972 to 31 May 1978
Shortly after the imposition of Martial Law, Dr. Blanco became the second university president. Dr. Blanco was one powerful lady who knew how it was to be in the business of running a higher educational institution. Formerly the Dean of Education of the University of the Philippines before accepting a regency post in PLM, she inspired the university community and imbued everyone with fervor towards academic excellence. With PLM then being relatively new and yet virtually unknown among its ranks, she established early linkages and consortial partnerships with industry leaders for in-service trainings for the scholars, thus paving the way for PLM scholars to be admitted into reputable companies upon graduation. Her administration was marked by her advocacy for the scholars to shirk the timidity that comes from being poor and to have a self-respecting image, thus imbibing in them self-esteem and eventually, social esteem. Her presidency saw the completion and publication of the first university code that guided the University for a long time. With PLM then considered as a state university, she holds the distinction as the first-ever lady president of a state university. She remained in office until 31 May 1978 after being elected as the first president of a new state university, the Mariano Marcos State University, in the Ilocos region.
Hon. Mayor Ramon Bagatsing
01 June 1978 to 27 October 1982
The honorable Mayor Bagatsing, as the third President, did strike the right regulatory balance between providing more facilities to the students and pushing them to their limits to elevate Pamantasan to a much higher plane in the system of Philippine colleges and universities. Ironically, while concurrently serving as an incumbent Mayor of Manila, his enlightened presidency served as the bedrock for the operational autonomy of PLM from the long reach of politics. He allowed the then-Executive Vice President, regent Jose D. Villanueva, a free hand to administer the University as a well-respected US-educated management expert-technocrat. A former Manila councilor himself during his early 20s, Dr. Villanueva recognized the imperative to uphold the autonomous governance of an academic institution, along the academic tradition of Ivy League universities in the United States, if the PLM has to keep itself on track in gaining and maintaining academic and service excellence. Mayor Bagatsing exercised full reverence to this espoused principle -- leading to a dynamic growth for Pamantasan to strengthen its domestic foundations while blazing the internationalization of its presence. Henceforth, city mayors have carefully observed this tradition of preserving the full autonomy of the academe as an imperative to full development and progress.
Dr. Jose D. Villanueva
14 January 1983 to 30 June 1989
The management person that he is, Dr. Villanueva, as the fourth President, pushed forward the frontiers of knowledge research, strived for excellence in the delivery of instruction, and rededicated the Pamantasan to academic freedom. Educated by the famed Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a management doctorate degree, he instilled discipline while serving as the exponent of participative management, which approach made a big difference in inspiring the entire academic community to achieve academic and service excellence. During his presidency, PLM took the leadership of the Association of Southeast Asian Institutions of Higher Learning -- a first knack at putting PLM into the world map -- by becoming the third Filipino president of this respected organization. Credited for initiating sister-university relations with universities abroad, he also spearheaded the formation of the two (2) professional schools, namely, Law and Medicine.
Dr. Benjamin G. Tayabas
02 July 1989 to 24 June 1996
Picking up from an increasingly high-performing university, Dr. Tayabas, then-Executive Vice President, became the University’s fifth President. Certainly, it was easy for him to carry on the time-honored tradition of academic excellence. Armed with a doctorate degree in higher education administration from the University of Arizona and a master's degree from the University of Hawaii, he rallied the people to his aspirational world, strengthening further the passion for excellence and expanding its connectivity to other institutions, both at the local and international fronts. He also initiated the formation of distance learning programs through consortial arrangements with agencies and firms. His presidency also saw the establishment of the Association of Local Colleges and Universities (ALCU) in 1996, thus making PLM as its national headquarters, as well as the leader of the new brand of education in the Philippines.
Dr. Virsely M. dela Cruz
25 June 1996 to 30 April 1999
Dr. Dela Cruz pursued the same vision for the University. Believing in development and upward mobility, she empowered the scholars and the university community to the extent of securing a publicly transparent administration. Rising up from her long-time post of Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Dean of Education before that, she was a patron of the classic rudiments of education and thus spearheaded a massive review of the curriculum and a retooling of the professoriate. Like her lady predecessor (Dr. Blanco), she served as a paragon of the power and wisdom of gender equality in achieving strong and meaningful leadership.
Dr. Benjamin G. Tayabas
23 February 2000 to 22 February 2006
and 02 June 2006 to 01 August 2007
Dr. Tayabas returned to resume the post of university president at the turn of the new Millennium. As it was in his first term, he encouraged the academic community to contribute to a grand plan of benchmarking the new Filipino University, with the goal of making PLM a legendary university. He also initiated the expansion of colleges and graduate schools, and the establishment of the open university and other course offerings like the tourism and travel industry management.
Serving either as acting president or officer-in-charge for interim periods were Dr. Ma. Corazon T. Veridiano (Acting President: 01 May to 14 December 1999), Atty. Emmanuel R. Sison (OIC: 15 December 1999 to 22 February 2000), and Atty. Jose M. Roy III (Acting President: 24 February to 01 June 2006). Equally, these interim officials continued zealously the same academic focus and decisiveness for PLM to stand firm as the University with a difference.
Atty. Jose M. Roy III
24 February to 01 June 2006
Atty. Roy's short stint spurred zealousness among the professoriate and the rank-and-file to renew their passion to achieving a higher plenitude of excellence. His no-nonsense management style as a legal luminary and the chief judicial staff head of the Chief Justice, and his exposure as an eminent educator in other top universities in the country have brought a fresh perspective to the University. Lauded for his innovative visions, pragmatic solutions and swift actions, he engendered meaningful changes to the operations of the University which endeared him to the PLM community. As a University Regent at the time of his election by the Board as Acting President, the University Charter entitles him to a recognition as an officially-elected President of the University.
Atty. Adel A. Tamano » »
09 August 2007 to 31 November 2009
Atty. Tamano came in as a silver lining at the moment when a quest for credible leadership was the chief concern of the university community. Riding on his youthful charisma and unsullied credibility, he infused the most essential lifeblood that served as an impetus for a greater academic atmosphere. His idealism, sincerity and stakeholder-focused management style have cohesively unified his constituents and restored their trust to the top management. He attracted an awed following of officials, employees, faculty and staff whom he has started infusing with a new perspective in running his new sphere of responsibility that would deserve its reference as “The People’s University.”
Learning the ways of true leaders that “leadership is empathy,” he believes that “A leader must walk in the shoes of those he leads; a leader disconnected from his stakeholders will be ineffective,” so he kept himself abreast with what is on the ground directly from his constituents through constant interaction. In that way, he made sure that all services are optimized towards the upliftment of the academic excellence of PLM and its scholars, and at the same time ensuring that the best interests of the faculty and staff are highly considered. Knowing what his people actually needs had led to a legacy program that brought innovations with great impact and lasting change to the University. An exponent of transparency and modernization, he also instituted policy refinements that conduced to operational efficiency. The wide-ranging accomplishments he has achieved in so short a time were earned thru his “transformational leadership” where everyone is inspired to share his modest stake -- leading PLM to ascribe unto him the title, “Legacy President.”
Atty. Rafaelito M. Garayblas » » »
01 December 2009 to 30 June 2013
Coming in as a long-time public servant at the various echelons of the government, Atty. Garayblas knew it well how an agency of public nature must serve as the well-spring of service excellence while, at the same time, keeping itself focused on essential reforms and effecting sensible frugality. Productive workforce, prudent financial prioritization, and efficient utilization of resources -- otherwise known as backyard clean-up -- were the tactical gains that he was firm to realize in the initial days of his management.
By rationalizing the mobilization of institutional resources, including the implementation of austerity measures in 2012, while these were delicate community issues, PLM was able to sustain, if not exceeded and raised, the bar of the primacy of its academic excellence, while proving the viability of the concept that equitable institutional savings can be realized. He triumphed in laying down a foundation for a new set of standards of resource management and optimization -- maximizing the outputs or results from the investments, while reasonably minimizing the expenses and resource consumption.
On top of sustaining the legacy of excellence that is the birthright of PLM, the Garayblas presidency is characterized by sensible innovative changes of unmistakable impact at the backdrop of judicious spending. Institutionalization of needed technological reforms in the academic services and the rapidly growing development partnership with the industry were among the visible outputs of his term.
Justice Artemio G. Tuquero » »
03 July 2013 to 17 September 2014
Dr. Ma. Leonora V. de Jesus » »
September 2014 to June 2019
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