In the face of cynicism, hopelessness, poverty and despair, and even the hard reality of failure, Mr. Onofre Pagsanghan has managed to go on and prove the world that yes, dreams really can come true. Mr. Pagsi, as he is affectionately known, has, through persistence and faith, built many beautiful things in his life, havens of light and inspiration in a world where beauty and goodness seem to be on the brink of being choked off by darkness and despair. For, in addition to his being a teacher, writer, poet and director, a man of the arts, he has always been a dreamer.

He was born on June 12, 1927, to Hipolito and Vicenta Pagsanghan. Despite their poverty, the Pagsanghans lived a happy life. He managed to enter the Ateneo High School through the kindness of their parish priest, who wrote a letter to a friend, the Rector of the Ateneo of 1941, in Padre Faura.

It was during his fourth year as a high school student that he pioneered the organization that would later be known as the Knights of the Sacred Heart. Fr. Raymond Gauff, S.J., his homeroom advisor at the time, invited him to teach Christmas carols in a boys’ club in the slums of the Holy Trinity Parish in Balic-Balic, Sampaloc.

Every Sunday, Mr. Pagsi went, teaching songs and catechism to barefoot boys in torn and dirty short pants, the sons of labanderas, carpenters, and jeepney drivers. He tirelessly made this weekly journey for the next four years, at the same time working for a degree in Education at the Ateneo College. The Knights soon became a major part of his life, so much so that even after he graduated fro college and landed a teaching position at the Ateneo High School, Mr. Pagsi stayed on as its adviser. Not long after, the Knights of the Sacred Heart would evolve from a Sunday catechism class into a parish organization that met everyday and where, aside from catechism, English grammar, composition, literature and public speaking were taught. And gradually, the Knights of the Sacred Heart grew from a handful of brawling boys into a closely knit Christian community.

Many attribute this growth to Mr. Pagsi’s extraordinary charisma, and his talent to transform even the most mundane lessons into “moments of grace.” He attributes it to the uncanny ability of work to bond people together, to unite them in the purpose of reaching a single goal. And the Knights certainly did a lot of work, from making parols to caroling all night and then rising to sing for the Misa de Gallo in the morning.

To raise funds for those boys who wished to enter the priesthood but could not because of poverty, Mr. Pagsi hit upon the idea of producing annual plays to supplement the earnings from their caroling. It was then that he began to transplant several well-known plays into Filipino, because it was the language the people of Balic-Balic were most comfortable with. The idea met with great success, with the plays being performed to a full house, or rather, a full street.

The grace that Mr. Pagsi has so often spoken of and spread for most of his life was clearly at work in the transformation of the Knights. To this date, eight boys from the Knights are ordained priests, and many more of those who began as barefoot and dirty boys brawling in the streets have made names for themselves in the world, and can now send their children off to private schooling without financial aid. Even after fifty years, the Knights still continue to form young and hopeless boys in Mr. Pagsi’s tradition of reckless, “crazy” idealism.

In 1960, Mr. Pagsi left the Knights of the Sacred Heart, closing one chapter in his life and opening the way to an entirely new dream. By this time he had been teaching for over ten years, and because of his long experience with theater, had been appointed director of the Ateneo High School Dramatics Society. Between 1956 and1964, the Society produced plays exclusively in English. The desire to change the generally apathetic attitude of people to Filipino led Mr. Pagsi and his group to start experimenting with plays in Filipino. The first of these were Julian Balmaceda’s “Sino ba Kayo?” and Soc Rodrigo’s “Paa ng Kuwago,” presented along with Who Ride on White Horses, a play on the life of Blessed Edmund Campion. With the advent of Filipino plays, the group gave itself a Filipino name: Dulaang Sibol. An old ticket gives the date of the change: April 2, 1966.

Mr. Pagsi had made real another dream, and through the realization of this dream came the outpouring of even more. Through Dulaang Sibol, Mr. Pagsi contributed much to the mainstream of Filipino culture, even revolutionizing it with his experiments with Filipino plays. Yet to the Sibolistas, those who have worked with him through the years, Dulaang Sibol and Mr. Pagsi have meant so much more. As grace transformed the Knights of the Sacred Heart, so grace transformed Sibol from a mere theater group into a family, a brotherhood. For more than a theater, Sibol has been a home and more than simply a Managing-Director, Mr. Pagsi has been a father to the many students who have come and gone over the forty-odd years the company has been in existence.

The reckless and “crazy” idealism of Mr. Pagsi gave to the Knights of the Sacred Heart he brought to Dulaang Sibol. Here, an almost insane counterculture exists, one that fully encourages and even fuels the drive of the youth to dream, to strive, for the ideal, though it may be beyond reach. Here, he teaches the power of prayer, the virtue of trust in God, and the gift of Christ’s friendship. Through his faith and persistence, this old dream merchant has sold many dreams and taught many young men to reach for the stars.

Later on, Mr. Pagsi set up a tutorial school for the underprivileged, and named it Sibol-Hesus, for it would be an extension of Dulaang Sibol, and “sprung from Christ.” Staffed by Sibol alumni who teach without salary, it provides tutorials in English and Mathematics free of charge. Crazy? Perhaps, but a happy sort of crazy, a Christ-like sort of crazy, nonetheless.

In 1966, he founded Dulaang Sibol at the Ateneo and has been its Managing-Director since. His work in Dulaang Sibol has attracted national recognition. It is high school theater with, as critic and National Artist Leonor Orosa Goquingco put it, “professional polish.” For Dulaang Sibol, he has translated Jean Annouilh’s Antigone into Filipino. He has likewise adapted Thornton Wilder’s Our Town into Doon Po sa Amin, and J.M. Barrie’s Dear Brutus into Wala sa Ating mga Bituwin. With his students he co-authored Adarna and Sa Kaharian ng Araw. Sinta!, his transplantation of Tom Jones’s The Fantasticks, with its more than 130 performances to date, is one of the longest running plays in Filipino theater history.

Under his vision and guidance, the high school students have written plays in Filipino, which critic Alfred Roces of the Manila Times called “the first important breakthrough for the national language.” Significant among these are Paul Dumol’s “Puting Timamanukin” and “Ang Paglilitis ni Mang Serapio,” perhaps the most frequently performed Filipino one-act play; and Tony Perez’s “Hoy, Boyet. . . .”

Among his former students are Nonon Padilla, Batch Saludo, Johnny Manahan, Jim Paredes, Noel Trinidad, Subas Herrero, Dindo Angeles, Leo Martinez, and Jun Urbano.

He has likewise pioneered in incorporating musical competition in the study of Filipino to stimulate greater creativity in and love for the national language. The now nationally famous “Hindi Kita Malilimutan” is the musical composition of a First Year student of his, Manoling Fransicco; the lyrics of the song are the fruit of a collaboration of Mr. Pagsi and his First Year class.

He has lectured extensively throughout the Philippines, literally from Aparri to Jolo, on education topics, specifically on “Teaching as a Vocation.”

Words are indeed too small and feeble to fully capture the great spirit of this great man. Yet he will never accept accolades of glory. He often quotes his one driving desire: “God’s Will. . . nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.” And for many of our youth, he has poured out with all his might everything he has, everything he is, everything he hopes to be, with an almost holy recklessness, for his God. In his teaching, in his writing, in his speaking, in his directing are his offerings to Christ. His faith has been nothing less than inspiring, to those he has taught.

In a world where the seeds of dreams and idealism are all too often choked off by the weeds of cynicism and despair, Mr. Pagsi has grown a veritable Eden of dreams. And, by his example, he has taught us all that yes, one can dream one’s impossible dreams, and reach one’s unreachable stars, if one has the faith and vision to see it through.