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<img src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-18/tatay-bautista.webp" alt="Fernando Tatay Bautista" loading="lazy" />
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(Fernando "Tatay" Bautista)
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As a young boy, he joined older brother Vicente in peddling Liwayway magazine and haunting the docks daily as a bootblack. He attended different primary schools and the Manila North (present day Arellano) High School, before putting in four years at Philippine Normal School for an Elementary Teacher's Certificate. He became a plumber's assistant to continue with his studies. He wanted to take up Law, but the family couldn't afford it, so it was decided that he would be the maestro.
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At 20, he started teaching at Sta. Ana Elementary School at the same time attending evening classes at <a href="https://kahimyang.com/kauswagan/articles/1188/today-in-philippine-history-june-18-1908-the-university-of-the-philippines-was-established" class="news_link">University of the Philippines</a> (UP) at Padre Faura, where his future wife, Rosa Castillo, was a Botany classmate while also serving as a model teacher at the Magdalena Elementary School in Sta. Cruz. In the senior teachers examination in 1935, Rosa came out first and Fernando second.
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It took Fernando seven years to gain a Master of Arts in Education degree from UP. In 1936 he was appointed assistant principal of the Gregorio del Pilar Elementary School in Binondo (present day Jose Abad Santos H.S., and formerly the Meisic Elementary where he had studied for Grades 1 and 2). In 1937, he became principal of the Rizal Elementary School in Tayuman, the youngest in Manila at age 29, and with the highest degree. A year later he and Rosa tied the knot and had their honeymoon in Baguio.
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In June of 1940, an offer came to teach in UP Baguio, and Fernando grabbed it. Eventually, Rosa taught at the Baguio City High School. 
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March 10, 1908: Fernando "Tatay" Bautista, founder of University of Baguio, was born in Tondo, Manila