Guimaras State College

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HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE

Conceived in 1962, through an approved municipal council resolution authored by Hon. Tomas Junco, Sr., this College had its humble beginning as a secondary vocational institution- Buenavista Vocational School (BVS) in 1964 by virtue of Replubic Act No. 3933, the Act with representative Rodolfo Ganzon (2nd District of Iloilo) as it’s principal Author.

Due to lack of initial funding however, the school was opened only in 1968 after a God-fearing and kind-hearted Atty. Juan Z. Salvador, Jr., donated a 5-hectare lot from his estate at Brgy. Mc lain, Buenavista, Guimaras to be the school site, thru the efforts of then Mayor Abelardo Javellana and Atty. Ernesto Gaduyon,. During the first years of it’s operation, the school was managed by one school head, two vocational teachers, two academic teachers, and five non-teaching personnel. Very few students enrolled in the first and second year high school. The school then, was under the supervision of the superintendent of Iloilo School of Arts and Trades. Six years later, the Regional Director of DECS, Region VI-Western Visayas designated a Vocational School Administrator to run the school.

In 1980, the school was granted a permit to offer the Two-Year Trade Technical and Technology Courses which paved the way to higher education. Among these courses offered are Foods, Garments, Automotive, Building Construction, furniture and Cabinet Making, and Agriculture. More courses were opened later due to the demand of the people. Thus, Electricity, Electronics and cosmetology were added to the curriculum. All these courses are considered terminal and ladderized courses.
In July 1994, Representative Alberto Lopez, in response to a resolution passed by the Sangguniang Bayan of Buenavista, filed House Bill No. 6252 in Congress seeking the conversion of VBS into a Polytechnic College. In March 1995 , the Phillipines president, Fidel V. Ramos signed into law REPUBLIC Act No. 7944, converting the Buenavista Vocational School into a Polytechnic Tertiary School under the name, Guimaras Polytechnic College (GPC).

In June 2000, a consultation and public hearing on House Bill Nos. 7382 and 5807 sponsored by Representative Emily R. Lopez of the Lone District of Guimaras was conducted. Attented by participants from the public and private sectors, including government officials, faculty members, student and parents, everyone expressed full support for the conversion of GPC, Buenavista and WVST-Mosqueda Campus, Jordan into a state College. Then, in the eleventh congress first regular session, Hon. Dante V. Liban and Hon. Emily R. Lopez filed House Bill No. 12358 (in substitution of House Bill Nos. 5807 and 7382).

A year later (June 8,2001), the long cherished dream of the GPC community became a reality when Republic Act No. 9138, an act establishing the Guimaras State College, integrating therewith the Guimaras Polytechnic College in the Municipality of Buenavista and the Western Visayas College of Science and Technology in the municipality of Jordan, Guimaras was assigned into law by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.