FRIENDS AND RELATIVES OF THE LATE UP PRESIDENT VICENTE G. SINCO, ladies and gentlemen:
It is a privilege to give this tribute to a mentor, scholar, and practitioner in the law. I have no doubt that there are other lawyers with more knowledge of Dean Sinco's labors in the practice of law, especially in terms of causes he espoused, his court battles, his triumphs and victories. But, like President Sinco, these colleagues and associates are gone, silenced forever by the advent of death. They can no longer speak to us, and their knowledge of his deeds is lost.
My tribute to President Sinco as a lawyer is circumscribed by our short period of professional relationship, through two years-1960 and 1961-augmented by personal knowledge of the main develop- ments of the years (1958 and 1959) of his presidency in the U.P., due to my overstay as resident in the U.P. men's dormitory.
I was a young associate in a tax firm when I received a personal letter from President Sinco to join the University and to work with him as legal assistant, plus a lecturership in the U.P. College of Law. I reported for work on the first working day of January 1960. During that first week, he called for me twice and in two short meetings, he had outlined the highlights of my work for the next two years and beyond as legal counsel of the University. Immediately, I could see the focus of the concern of President Sinco as head and leader of the University. He wanted to establish, en- trench and develop a system for educating a core of intellectually adept scholars who would then provide leadership in the triad of University education: the sciences, the humanities and letters and the professions. President Sinco was very clear in his idea of the support systems for achieving the main thrust of his academic program.