"She was a warm, sincere, absolutely pleasant person, always ready with help, advice and the wisdom earned over the years."
My good friend, colleague, adopted elder sister, and virtual mother, Nelia Teodoro Gonzalez, passed away at noon of June 19, 2021. She was 97. She was a victim of bacterial pneumonia.
Nelia was a member and treasurer of the board of governors of the Manila Overseas Press Club, Asia’s oldest press club. She was also governor and treasurer of the Philippine Constitution Association (PhilConsa).
I remember Nelia as a very warm, sincere, absolutely pleasant person, always ready with help, advice and the wisdom earned over the years. There was no mean bone in her body. If she was displeased with you or didn’t like you, she never showed a hint of it. She was very religious and prayerful. She always managed to deliver the prayer during MOPC and Philconsa meetings, and boy, her prayers were often kilometric, delivered with deliberate cadence that made the prayer seem longer than it seemed.
To me, Nelia is the “Mrs. UP” –University of the Philippines, the premier university she loved and cherished and served with distinction and loyalty as member of its ruling board of regents. Gonzalez would consider her position as a UP Regent the most fulfilling assignment she has ever assumed.
In 2006, UP honored Nelia with a gumamela or hibiscus flower named after her. On the same occasion, she was also honored with the Nelia T. Gonzalez Alumni Service Award and the Nelia Teodoro-Gonzalez Professorial Chair grant.
The Hibiscus rosa-sinensis ‘Nelia T. Gonzalez’, was the first of the “Oblation Series” of hibiscus launched by the Institute of Plant Breeding, College of Agriculture (now the College of Agriculture and Food Science), UP Los Baños, bred by Dr. Pablito M. Magdalita and Reynold B. Pimentel, as part of UP Los Baños’ contribution to the UP Centennial celebration. This account is according to UP writer Celeste Ann Castillo Llaneta.
In the early summer of 2006, Regent Gonzalez accepted this honor during an occasion that also marked the launching of the Nelia T. Gonzalez Alumni Service Award and the Nelia Teodoro-Gonzalez Professorial Chair Grants.
According to writer Llaneta, “the gumamela is bright orange, with prominent red-eye and yellow edges. Orange is flamboyant, energetic, and vibrant, reflecting the honoree’s strength, enthusiasm, fascination, success, and encouraging quality.”
Nelia spent nearly eight decades serving UP, her people and country.
Writes Llaneta: “She was an agriculturist, agro-industrialist, social entrepreneur, resource developer, public administrator, civil servant, UP Regent, president of the UPLB Alumni Association, vice president of the UP Alumni Association, a host of leadership titles in numerous agribusiness corporations, organizations, and foundations, holder of a UP Doctor of Laws degree, honoris causa, one of the UPAA Lifetime Distinguished Achievements awardees named during UP’s centennial in 2013, an icon for the Philippine agribusiness industry, and one of the University’s most outstanding alumni, a veritable pillar of the UP community.”
Nelia followed in the footsteps of her agriculturist father. She had a Bachelor of Science degree in Plant Pathology from the College of Agriculture (CA), UPLB, in 1944. She was the only female graduate in that batch.
Later, she earned her Certificate of Government Management from the UP College of Public Administration in UP Diliman in 1977.
From the UP College of Agriculture, Nelia served briefly as an agronomist at the Bureau of Plant Industry. She helped the late industrialist Salvador Araneta manage the Araneta Institute of Agriculture (now the De Salle Araneta University) and the Republic Flour Mills (RFM). She also served as general manager and vice president of RFM.
According to Nelia’s colleague and friend National Scientist and former UP President Dr. Emil Q. Javier, “Easily the most notable contribution of Tita Nelia and her team was the introduction of broiler poultry contract growing. RFM was the first integrator, providing day-old chicks, feeds, veterinary supplies, and growing technology to contract growers and buying back the birds at competitive prices. The scheme proved to be very successful, and the rest of the industry followed suit. As a result, to date, the broiler industry is one of our most productive and regionally competitive sectors in agriculture.”
Through the Punla sa Tao Foundation (PSFTI), which she headed, Gonzalez helped organized backyard poultry raisers into a cooperative, mobilized support from local government units, linked them with a microfinance entity (Sikap Bidani), and enrolled them with an integrator, Bounty Corporation–all done in a model small farmers contract growing scheme called Manok Mabuhay Program.
Gonzalez was also a pioneer in the local production of corn and soybean hybrid seeds with the establishment of Phil Hi-Bred, Inc. in the early 1970s. “Sourcing the original seed parent materials from Pioneer Hi-Bred Seed Company in Iowa and mobilizing local expertise,” Dr. Javier writes, “she established hybrid seed production operations in South Cotabato, in a 40-hectare farm in Naujan Oriental Mindoro and a 1,000-hectare farm in Bansud, also in Oriental Mindoro.”
After her stint with RFM, Nelia established ventures into real estate development, commercial fishing, and corn hybrid seed production.
In 1980, she also served as an assistant minister of Agriculture by President Ferdinand Marcos.
At DA, Nelia played a vital role in the banner agriculture programs of the time—Masagana 99, Masaganang Maisan, Pagkain Bayan at Gulayan sa Kalusugan, and Bakahang Barangay. In addition, she supported area marketing cooperatives and credit and farm insurance.
According to Llanera, throughout her illustrious career as an agro-industrialist, she established a pest control management business, a livestock and poultry magazine, and an agribusiness company.
