The National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) appointed two Thomasian educators as their commissioners, the Presidential Communications Office announced on May 6, 2024.

Asst. Prof. Maria Eloisa De Castro, a history educator in the Faculty of Arts and Letters, and Graduate School Professor Regalado Trota Jose Jr. were among the appointees of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as regular members representing the private sector at the NHCP, an attached agency of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

NHCP told TomasinoWeb that De Castro and Jose were appointed in “recognition of their published work in Philippine history and other academic fields recognized by scholars and the reading public.”

The two commissioners will help further the mandate of the NHCP as outlined in Republic Act 10086, which includes conserving and promoting the country’s historical legacies.

Jose served as the University's chief archivist from 2012 until 2021. He was one of the pioneer researchers at the UST Center for Conservation of Cultural Property and Environment in the Tropics (USTGS-CCPET). He was also a commissioner of the NCCA from 2011 until 2013.

Meanwhile, De Castro, who teaches history courses at UST, received an Individual Research Award from the NCCA in 2019 for her dissertation titled, “A Living Legacy: Philippine Secondary Education in the Spanish Colonial Period, 1865-1898.” Her 2007 book, “La Naval: Triumph of a People’s Faith,” was hailed as the Best Book in History at the National Book Awards.