UP Campus life was filled with characters. The people that lived amongst the students and residents of UP Campus served the "republic" pretty well. There was Mang Eric, the plumber who knew everyone who lived in the sawali houses. He was on his bicycle from Area 5 and he would respond to all the plumbing problems of the residents on campus. There was Aling Lita, Mang Pedring from the UP Coop. They were the cashiers that we knew from our errands and runs to the community store. There was Mang Tino Baluyot, the patriarch of Barrio Cruz na Ligas. He sold fresh vegetables to UP residents in Area 14 and 17. There was the beautician and parlor ladies who coiffed the women who lived on campus. Mrs. SP Lopez used to go to Aling Remy who ran the beauty parlor at the UP Shopping Center. There is Mang Porong, the campus book binder who kept the dissertations and theses looking formal and ready for distribution to teacher panels during defense. There was Danny Purple, the campus lunatic who had a good heart. He livened up the "basement" cafeteria and mingled with campus luminaries.
Batang UP Campus 60-70-80's by Candy Lagmay Bandong is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.