Tan, Quilongquilong join Board of Trustees

Two prominent Jesuit priests joined the 15-member Board of Trustees, the University's highest decision-making body.

Fr Mars Tan SJ, President of Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan, and Fr Jose Quilongquilong SJ, Director of the Philippine Jesuit Aid Association, are the two new trustees, elected to the board during the meeting of the Ateneo de Manila University Inc last 7 November 2020. The appointments were announced via a memo from the Office of the President on Wednesday, 25 November 2020.

Tan will serve a 3-year term from 7 November 2020 to November 2023, while Quilongquilong will serve from 7 November 2020 to November 2022, or two years.

They replace Fr Eric Velandria SJ, and Fr Jose Ramon Villarin SJ, immediate past president of the University. Velandria’s term was cut short by his resignation, after he was appointed as the Coordinator for Jesuit Refugee Service for Global Education, based in Rome. Villarin, meanwhile, ends his tour of duty with the BOT after 20 years.

Meanwhile, four current trustees were re-elected for 3-year terms: Dr Fabian M Dayrit, Fr Gabriel Jose T Gonzalez SJ, Fr Karel S San Juan SJ, and Ms Bernadine T Siy, the current chairperson. Their current terms will end in November 2023.

Here are the short biographies of the two new trustees, from the Office of the President:

Mars P Tan SJ

Fr Mars Tan SJ is the newly appointed President of Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro City. Prior to this role, he served as Rector of the Jesuit Community at Xavier for the past 10 years and was the Director of the McKeough Marine Center. Apart from teaching at the Biology Department of Xavier, he is a board member of the Manila Observatory and the Xavier Science Foundation.

Fr Mars holds a PhD in Environmental Science from the University of Notre Dame Australia; an MS in Environmental Science from the University of the Philippines; an MA in Theology from the Loyola School of Theology, Ateneo de Manila; and a BS Biology from Ateneo de Davao. A known environmentalist, his doctoral studies focused on the Sedimentation Dynamics of the Cagayan de Oro River Catchment and its implications for the coastal marine habitats of Macajalar Bay.

Jose VC Quilongquilong SJ

Fr Jose “Joe” Quilongquilong is concurrently Rector of the Jesuit Community in Ateneo de Manila and Director of the Philippine Jesuit Aid Association. He is also an Associate Professor of Spirituality at the Loyola School of Theology where he served as president from 2013 to 2019.

Fr Joe holds a doctorate in Sacred Theology (STD) from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome; an MA in Theology from the Loyola School of Theology; and a BS in Sociology from Xavier University. His areas of interest include Spiritual Theology, Ignatian Spirituality, Theology of Vocation and History of Christian Spirituality.