Holy Angel University (HAU) has announced that it will confer this year the degree Doctor of Humanities, honoris causa, on the former Secretary of Education, Bro. Armin Luistro, FSC, whose reforms and initiatives during his term transformed the landscape of Philippine education.
The University’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved the HAU academic community’s choice of Bro. Armin,based on the alignment of the HAU mission with Bro. Armin’s vision of quality education as a tool for uplifting and empowering the youth.
Bro. Armin is the first Filipino Superior-General of the De La Salle Brothers worldwide and was recently appointed by Pope Leo XIV as a member of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life. The initials FSC after his name stand for Fratres Scholarum Christianarum, which is Latin for Brothers of the Christian Schools, the religious institute (or congregation) founded by St. John Baptist de La Salle in France in 1680. Bro. Armin is the 28th successor of St. John Baptist de La Salle.
He will be the University’s 10th recipient of its honorary doctorate, joining Manuel V. Pangilinan, Washington Z. SyCip, Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, Christopher and Victoria Bernido, Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, Amando Tetangco Jr., Ramon Jimenez Jr., and Pablo Virgilio Cardinal David.
Bro. Armin will fly to the Philippines on December 5 to attend the conferment ceremonies at the University Theatre.
Bro. Armin was serving as President of the De La Salle University System when President Benigno Aquino III appointed him Secretary of Education in 2010. He was previously the Provincial of the De La Salle Brothers in the Philippines and President of the National Federation of Religious Brothers in the Philippines (NFRBP).
As DepEd head, Bro. Armin initiated reforms in teacher training, curriculum development and access to quality education in remote and impoverished areas, but his greatest legacy is the implementation of K-12, which added two years to the country’s basic education curriculum and thus aligned Philippine education with global standards and provided students with better preparation for higher education, employment and entrepreneurship.
Bro. Armin’s compassion for the poor, the suffering and the marginalized shone through his activism in advocating for social justice, peacebuilding, and holistic disaster response.
A native of Lipa, Batangas, Bro. Armin is the nephew ofthe well-loved, well-remembered Encarnacion Aranda, the first teacher recruited before Holy Angel University (then Academy) opened in June, 1933.