Of all the buildings in UP, it is the AS (Arts and Sciences), officially known as Palma Hall, that I have the most memories to cherish of. This home to the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP) is one of the oldest structures in the campus and is a center of many traditions, events and unique sceneries.

I just visited the campus last month. And of course, my destination was the AS Building. Many things have changed, I realized. There’s now a “No ID, No Entry” policy strictly being implemented. I was lucky that time the Manong Guard at the AS Steps still recognized my face and let me in. There’s also a “No Smoking” advisory especially inside Palma Hall, that’s why, I had to smoke warily at the AS 101 to avoid trouble from CSSP authorities.

While having a good time at the said building, I couldn’t stop myself from reminiscing college days at UP, older days yet not-so-old, that somehow shaped and molded me. I couldn’t stop from flashing back the memories of UP life at the fabled Arts and Sciences building.

Majority of General Education (GE) subjects that time were conducted at the Palma Hall. I took my GE courses like Philo 1, Social Sciences (Soc Sci I and II) and Humanities (Hum 1 and Hum 2) in the first, second and third floors. I also had a tiresome queuing of paying my matriculation since the AS Lobby that time served as payment center, aside from the College of Engineering, a mirror building of CSSP at the other side of the Academic Oval.

I attended several protest rallies, demonstrations, and educational discussions at the AS Lobby. That time, the lobby was the center of different political, social and academic activities. At least, it wasn’t easy to get permit to hold activities there, especially political ones. Aside from such events, the building was also the center of campaigns and ‘miting de avance’ during student council elections. I remember during one of my freshman days when I was invited by STAND UP to listen to a discussion on 125 across-the-board campaign at the lobby that eventually ended in a rally at the Liwasang Bonifacio. I also did the most tedious campaign for student council elections here, launched room-to-room routine from first to fourth floors.

If you’re staying at Kamia or Sampaguita dormitories, AS is just a stone’s throw from your residence. During my stint at the Narra Residence Hall (sad to say it’s now suffering from extinction), the second oldest dormitories where I had served as house council officer, I often took a walk to Palma Hall for my classes there. After classes, I hang out at AS 101 and mingled with my brods and friends at our Greenhouse tambayan. Our favorite past time was to tambay – to play cards and chess, to showcase and enjoy the guitar and singing, and most often, to just watch beautiful iskas passing by the AS Walk and Greenhouse tambayan. During lunchtime, we would go to CASAA at the right side of AS near Bio Pavilion or to Ate who served lunch for sometime inside the old Greenhouse.

The AS Walk also transformed into a commercial center during some period of time, special holidays or middle of semester. Booths would sporadically appear along the path, catering to various needs and interest of students. Some booths were set up for recruitment of organizations, while others (most of them) were intended for income-generating schemes, where you would find novelty items, books, magazines, tattoo, t-shirts, food, among others.

It was during tambay days that I became acquainted most with the AS. Only in AS you would see a bamboo tree (inside any other UP buildings), that there’s a small pond where I could hardly believe there still is fish thriving there, that there’s a family of cats scavenging for left-over on dilapidated trash cans, that during the start of semester there’s a long line of students either paying their tuition, doing appeals for admission, or getting some requirements for whatever purposes.

Not just happy and sad moments are associated with the premises of this historic edifice, but violent too. It’s a melting pot of many agitation, clashes or rumbles amongst fraternities. Several fraternities have tambayans in AS, together with college-based organizations. Based on my research, the AS was the last world for Rolando Abad who died during the ‘70s and Niño Calinao during the ‘90s due to fraternity-related violence. Even today, frat rumbles are still haunting the Palma Hall that brought headaches to the UP and CSSP officials.

But my most unforgettable story at AS was the Oblation Run. This fraternity tradition of Alpha Phi Omega has been causing uproar in Palma Hall for a long time. I did my first Oblation Run in 2001, which was actually a run against UP budget cut. It was in AS where my innocent body (or not-so-innocent) unveiled its nakedness to the public. Being the first in the bunch of runners then, oblivious to the big crowd at the AS lobby, was no easy feat. After setting foot at the AS Steps from a service van, the formation was all set until the time when at the middle of the crowd at AS lobby that my mask accidentally twisted that I had to fix it up. Seconds later, somebody grab my “future” without me knowing who she (or HE) was. And the rest is history.

It was a terrible experience but worthy to rekindle now. After that, I was no novice in running naked for a cause during that most-awaited event in UP. After all, when Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales declared that UP “breeds destabilizers and naked runners” I immediately responded to the call, went out from Makati City Hall where I worked then, and set foot at AS again to streak off my clothes and joined the special Oblation Run.

The AS or Palma Hall was there, the principal witness to my youthful years in UP.

I wish that this building would attain a new face and façade, while preserving its rich culture and tradition, as the University of the Philippines celebrates the centennial. It needs renovation, landscaping, new tambayans for organizations, additional facilities, and the like.