MNHS-MAIN History

After sixty long years of its existence, the Muntinlupa National High School has really gone along way. Established on August 3, 1945 as Muntinlupa High School, this institution has shapen the lives of every individual living in this highly urbanized city of southern Metro Manila.

Establishment and Growth

            In July 1945, a couple of years after the Japanese occupation, everything had to be reestablished, reorganized and rehabilitated including the children's educational system.

            With the damages brought by the way, many parents in the New Bilibid Prisons Reservation were faced with the problem of how their children complete high school. The most accessible high schools were in Binan and Manila. Of course travelling at that time was not only expensive and difficult, but it was oftentimes risky. To send their children in Manila high schools would mean cost of board and lodging which was impossible for low-salaried government employees; especially those living in the Prisons reservation.

            After a thorough study of the problems faced by many parents and symphatizing with the plights of the idle out-of-school boys and girls, the then Director Eriberto B. Misa and other ranking officials of the Bureau of Prisons considered the establishment of a high school in the reservation.

            Thus, on July 17, 1945, they sent a letter to the Office of the Secretary of Instructions and Information, requesting for the opening of public high school within

the reservation. This request was immediately approved and from there emerged a new public high school in the vicinity.

            Undersecretary Florentino Gayco of the Office of Public Instructions instructed Division Superintendent Vicente Garcia to organize the school with two teachers to start with. Mr. Cesar S. Tiangco was sent to the Prisons reservation to organize classes. A fixed rate of P100 per student was also approved, prior to the P10 monthly basis, as a means of maintaining the proposed school at the beginning.

            Children both within the reservation and nearby barangays and the town outside were enrolled. With Mrs. Lourdes Tibayan and Mrs. Catalina Roque, two first year classes were organized and regular sessions started on August 5, 1945.

            The classes were housed in a shop of the Prisons Construction Section. Putting up a partition in the middle of the rather long shop formed two rooms. In 1949, four years after those difficult struggling years, the first graduation exercises were held with the Recaida sisters leading the graduates as valedictorian and salutatorian.

            With the school population growing steadily, it was seen that the Construction Shop (which served as the school building for ten years) was already inadequate for the school. It was during the incumbent term of Superintendent Javier that the school was required to have a site of its own. As a standard high school site should be no less than eight hectares, a lot had to be found in an unoccupied area of the reservation. It was the late Mr. Alfredo M. Bunye, then superintendent of the New Bilibid Prisons, who recommended the site now occupied by the school. The area was surveyed in 1951 by a team of the Coast and Geodetic Station, and the Secretary of Education drew papers and the Secretary of Justice reserving to the Muntinlupa High School the 10.5-hectare lot it now occupies.

            With the site secured, the next move was to give the school of standard building. Director Eustaquio Balagtas of the Bureau of Prisons made representations with the Senate President Eulogio Rodriguez in 1953 for national aid. As a result, P10,000 was earmarked from the pork barrel fund of the late Congressman Eulogio Rodriguez Jr. under RA No. 920.

            On August 15, 1954, during the incumbency of Dir. Bunye as Prisons Director, the construction of the new school building started. Prison labor was utilized. Needed lumber was shipped for the building to be finished. It was inaugurated on August 6, 1955 with appropriate ceremonies at which Governor Isidro Rodriguez and the Director of Public Schools, Benigno Aldana were the principal guests. Thus in the school year 1955-1956, Muntinlupa High School left its old building in lieu of the new one. In that year, there were two sections in the first year, three in the second year, one in the third and two in the fourth year.

            At the new site, the school continued to grow in population and plant provincial aid was received yearly in increasing amount. While the school was reestablished by the prisons, it had somehow came to be generally accepted as a regional provincial high school on account of the provincial aid given to it and the supervisory and administrative control exercised over it by the Bureau of Public Schools, particularly then Division Office of Rizal.

            Muntinlupa High School then become Muntinlupa National High School in the year 1977 upon the approval of a congressional bill stating that the school be converted into a national secondary school. Seasoned educators have handled the school as its principal - Mr. Cesar S. Tiangco (1945-1976), Mrs. Marcela B. Ponce (1976-1991), Mr. Felix A. Balbaguio (1991-1995), Dr. Isabelita L. Montesa (1995-2006), Dr. Dominico C. Idanan (April – July 2006) as OIC and presently being managed by Dr. Estrella C. Aseron (August 2006 - present).

            From that time on, because of the school's commitment of providing quality education to its populace, enrolments gradually increased from that year onwards. At present, the school boasts of an enrolment of 9510 distributed among the different year levels- First Year- 2789; Second Year- 2879; Third Year- 1882 and the Fourth Year classes with 1960. It produces an estimate of more than two thousand graduates annually.

            The school, which had its humble beginnings, through its benevolent, unselfish, industrious employees, faculty members, administrators and benefactors, was able to stand the test of time. Since then, it has become a celebrated institute in Muntinlupa City. (From Amelia D. Hicap - Lopez Files, MHS Batch '65 and Former MNHS Faculty)