Perez, Felix P.
HS 1939, BSC 1942
DECEASED
1975
DLSAA Distinguished Lasallian Awardee
A La Sallite who reached one of the highest positions in the Catholic hierarchy of the Philippines is the Monsignor FELIX PEREZ (HS '39, Com '41), who is the Bishop of Imus, Cavite. The prelate, the son of a Manila businessman, Fernando Perez, remembers that he received his first Holy Communion at the school on Taft in 1926. Perez spent the war years in Los Banos, Laguna, with his parents. This was the place where he pursued his vocation for a religious life, and entered the San Jose Seminary of the Jesuits, which was then located at La Ignaciana, now a Jesuit retreat house in the suburb of Santa Ana. He was ordained a deacon, and taken by the late Archbishop Rufino Santos to the Obras Pias, or financial branch of the See of Manila, because he was good in accounting. He was named assistant to Monsignor Antiporda, who had also studied at La Salle. He was ordained on April 9, 1955, "precisely on the 13th anniversary of the fall of Bataan", Perez recalls wryly. For six years, from 1961 to 1964, he served as the chaplain of DLSC, and afterwards succeeded Father Patricio Lim (also a La Salle graduate, and son of General Vicente Lim) as chaplain at the UP. Recognizing his value to the Church, the Vatican elevated him to the bishopric of Imus in 1969. Perez is active in various religious financial organizations, and is a trustee of his alma mater. As Bishop of Imus, he has introduced and maintained sound financial management of the diocese and has effected a model of collegial decision-making and dialogue among the priests of his diocese.