NONPROFIT University of Saint Anthony (USANT), which provides quality yet affordable and accessible private education in Iriga City, Camarines Sur, has reiterated its commitment to ensure the utmost welfare of its students, faculty members, and employees as it prepares to celebrate its 80th founding anniversary in February 2027.
Chief among its major infrastructure projects is the Santiago D. Ortega Jr. Memorial Library that is set to open next year. The university’s new learning facility-a modern, four-story academic center that promotes learning, research, and intellectual development of its community-will serve more than 1,000 students, faculty members, and staff at any given time, providing dedicated space for reading, thinking, collaborating, and creating. It will have a welcoming lobby area, reading areas, discussion rooms, computer rooms, an oral defense room, individual carrels, and a café.
USANT President Atty. Emmanuel ‘Mickey’ SD. Ortega maintains that competent teachers and efficient staff bring out the best in their students as the school brings out the best in their teachers and employees because they are well taken care of.
Here are some recent proofs: All 94 first-time takers from USANT passed the Nurse Licensure Examination (LE) in November last year, while it also had a 100-percent passing rate for its takers in May last year versus the 64.39-percent national passing rate. All USANT graduates passed last year’s LE for Certified Public Accountants or CPAs conducted in October last year, while only 34 percent of all takers on the national level hurdled the test.
The same is true with those who took the LEs for Criminology, Teachers (elementary education), Architecture, and Librarians, who tallied 100-percent passing rates. Not far behind are its Engineering and Teachers (secondary education) examinees who registered a 90-percent passing rate last year.
Lower tuition fees, scholarship grants
USANT, which also offers Montessori grade school, senior and junior high school, and post-graduate education, has earned a reputation for lower tuition fees and scholarships for deserving students.
As a nonprofit private school without a board of directors, USANT channels its tuition earnings into higher salaries for teaching and administrative personnel, as well as the continuous upgrade of campus facilities, which serve as the backbone of every school, according to Ortega.
The university president is working to raise awareness of USANT’s high standards to help open greater opportunities for its college graduates. He wants to end a difficult situation often faced by students from the provinces-a situation repeated at the end of every school year: employers often prefer graduates of prestigious universities from Metro Manila.
When he took over USANT’s reins in 2022, Ortega’s first order of the day was to raise teachers’ salaries. He believes in retaining and attracting highly qualified faculty members who shape an institution’s academic and research culture.
The university is the largest private employer in Camarines Sur’s Rinconada region with close to 800 employees-an 81-percent increase from three years ago. Ortega links this jump to the school’s reputation for prioritizing workers’ welfare.
The school’s board of trustees approved, in November last year, a salary increase ensuring the lowest employee salary will be at least P12,000 for five days a week. Minimum wage in Iriga City for the same period is P9,570.
People first
UNDER Ortega, USANT has followed a ‘people-first philosophy’ that has kept its workforce happy, encouraging its employees to ‘stay, grow, and build their dreams with USANT.’ This has enticed many professionals to find work at the university.
The university’s philosophy became evident when severe tropical storm Kristine (international name: Trami) ravaged Bicol in 2024, flooding areas that had not been prone to such a situation and leaving hundreds of families homeless. Several victims were employed by USANT, which immediately provided relief and other forms of assistance to assure them that the university has their back during times of crisis.
Affected employees received cash assistance, an early release of their 13th month pay, and full salaries paid even while classes were suspended. Students who lost their books to flooding were given subsidies, while relief packs were given to affected households.
Also important was the trauma counseling given to both students and personnel. Likewise, the institution’s tuition assistance program dubbed ‘Serbisyo Niyo, Kinabukasan ng Anak Niyo’ grants up to 100-percent tuition coverage for the qualified children of employees.
This school year, 123 children of USANT employees availed of scholarships or discounts, a considerable rise from the 68 children accepted last school year.
‘When we invest in the children of our staff, we build stronger families and better schools,’ Ortega said. ‘Care should not be seen as a cost.’
USANT’s social responsibility extends beyond the campus with ‘Alay sa Kapwa: A Chance to Change Lives,’ where employees actively participate. They help identify individuals or families in their communities who need assistance either in kind or cash, including their neighbors, relatives, and friends. The university makes Christmas donations to those beneficiaries in the name of the employees who recommended them.
Alay sa Kapwa reached 750 families in 2025, with funding of about P855,00.
Career growth, empowerment
Both teaching and administrative personnel are encouraged to hone their abilities through opportunities for career growth. Many who started at USANT as clerks, encoders, or assistants had been promoted to administrative officers, supervisors, and even directors and deans.
Faculty members are given opportunities to prove themselves worthy of promotion to assistant professor or associate professor. Ortega noted that at USANT, a ‘first job is never [the] final position. One is hired to grow, not to stay still.’
USANT employees have also completed 19,000 training hours last year-averaging 24.64 hours per employee-funded by a budget of P6,394,996. These training programs covered digital and artificial intelligence literacy and mental health awareness, among others. The university also sent employees to benchmark best practices in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Japan.