UP Portia Sanctuary: How a sisterhood led to the creation of this safe space
UP Portia Sorority, the only duly recognized law-based sorority in the University of the Philippines’ College of Law, runs what they call “bar ops,” or bar operations, for their members who are taking the bar exam.
“Our goal is that the only thing that the bar takers would need to do is to study and take the bar. Logistics, we have it planned, everything—from hotel and transportation to food, even the smallest of tasks. If we can do it for them, we do it for them,” said Patricia Quilala, the sorority’s president, who is in her final year of law school. “We print their materials, we do wakeup calls.”
Each bar taker is assigned a primary buddy. But there’s also a bar buddy team at their beck and call. “If there are tasks that a bar taker would want them to do, they would do it, no questions asked. This is an initiative where we get to practice all of our virtues—loyalty, discipline, excellence, trust and secrecy,” said Quilala.
This year there were 32 Portia bar takers, with 69 residents (members still enrolled in the UP College of Law) serving as their buddies. Next year, it will be some of those residents’ turn to be taken care of as they take the bar. This is something the members of the sorority have been doing for decades.
“We call it Portia Love,” said lawyer and law professor Jannet Cruz-Regalado, former Portia president and chair of the board of trustees of the UP Portia Sorority Alumnae Association.
Outnumbered
UP Portia Sorority began as a club in 1933. Quilala said, “Back then, the ratio of women to men was like, one to 20 in UP Law. The dean wanted the women in UP Law to have a community because they were outnumbered. Since 1933, we’ve been thriving on that concept of community.”
Today, Quilala said that women outnumber men at the law school and the sisterhood continues—with bar ops being one of their most important initiatives.
“It’s our biggest love letter to the sisses,” said Quilala.
UP Portia Sorority has another love letter, this one not just for members but for everyone: the UP Portia Sanctuary, a beautiful, green space for rest and relaxation at the UP Lagoon in front of the Faculty Center.
“The pandemic taught us a lot about mental health and we realized we needed a place where we could congregate … When we saw the site, we felt that this was going to be a lovely place where people can go and rest, reflect, communicate, commune with nature,” said Cruz-Regalado.
They got approval from the university last year. Their goal was to complete the project by October because it was National Mental Health Awareness Month, and they succeeded. They are holding the sanctuary’s inauguration today.
Last year, Portian and businesswoman Bernadette Juarez was listening to her sisters discuss plans for the sanctuary and got roped in. “They were talking about wanting to have a place to rest or just be. I happen to be a regular meditator, and I’ve been to so many places all over, so I had an idea of how the place would look like.”
They needed a landscape architect. Juarez was introduced to landscape architect Paul Santamaria. “He also happens to be an alumnus of UP. I thought he would be the best candidate to execute the concept.”
Santamaria also saw the project as a way to give back to his alma mater. “This is an opportunity to help and give back to the students,” he said.
Santamaria’s firm, Element Potentials Design Group, took on the challenge and did the design for free. It was a team effort, he said, that involved landscape architect Eric Estonido, their lead designer, and Edward Ramirez, senior designer and project manager. Santamaria’s brother JR is an agricultural engineer and they also needed his expertise. “There were roots of old acacia trees on the site and ayaw namin galawin.”
They spent months transforming the space, working around the roots and the weather.
Meditation pods
Juarez said, “At the sanctuary, we have a path to illumination, the path to knowledge. There are 24 meditation pods separated by landscape so people could have privacy. They could go there and think, or think about nothing, without being bothered by anybody, without anybody casting any judgment at all. Like the invitation to our inaugural reads: pause, rest, refresh, reset.”
Quilala said, “It’s really part of our culture to stay by nature and to sort of meditate, because it gets kind of suffocating, especially in UP Law. It’s stressful. We have this thing called babad and banlaw. Like, after you have a bad recitation, you wash it all off, then go again. This really helps us.”
The space isn’t just for Portians, it’s for everyone to enjoy, said Cruz-Regalado.
“There are a lot of people who come from all over to the University Oval,” said Juarez.
There’s another safe space at the university for Portians: the Portia Room, freshly refurbished with the help of the alumni, which is where we conducted our interviews.
Refuge
The Portia Room may have moved locations within the UP Law building, but it has always meant the same thing for members of the sorority: a refuge.
Juarez said, “I went to law school by accident. So Portia saved me, because otherwise the four years would have been terrible.”
Cruz-Regalado recalled her days as a law student. “It was really stressful. Our room, the sorority, and the sisses were always our haven. After a bad recitation, we cry in the room.”
Even today, UP Portia is a big support for Cruz-Regalado. “When I’m so stressed, I call a sis… We’re always a call away.” Her daughter is also her sorority sister.
Once a Portian, always a Portian. After the bar results come out, the alumni are inducted into the Portia Alumnae Association.
During our interview, there were Portians between the ages of 25 to 64 in the room and they all chit-chatted like a group of close girlfriends—sisters, really.
“We were so lucky that we have this and, since the pandemic, we felt that we owe it to the larger UP community to share,” they said. That’s what they’re doing with the UP Portia Sanctuary.
The sanctuary is just one of many UP Portia projects and initiatives. They have talks, auctions, social gatherings. There’s Portia Week. Quilala said, “That’s when we just showcase what Portia is all about. It’s a good way to sort of introduce the sorority to the community.”
There’s also a Circle of Traveling Sisters that explores the world together, having gone to Hanoi, Bangkok, different parts of Japan. Next year, they’ll go to Jeju Island.
Scholarship
They have a Samaritan Fund for the medical needs of their sorority sisters and also the Elenita Giron Alay Aral Fund, a scholarship fund inspired by one of their founding members who was a generous woman. Her daughter, lawyer Ma. Eileen Giron, also a Portian, sees it as the continuation of her legacy. Cruz-Regalado said, “We’re able to tap on the generosity of the other sisses.”
That’s also how the Portia Sanctuary became possible.
We walked to the Portia Sanctuary. It was still in progress when we visited but you could already see its beauty.
Santamaria said, “It has the elements—earth, water, they also asked for bird baths and bird feeders. It’s very therapeutic. It’s a place where you can enjoy fresh air.”
Santamaria’s team chose plants that are resilient and easy to maintain. There’s a pathway lined with Palawan cherry blossoms. “It’s going to be beautiful when it blooms,” he said.
The Eugenia shrubs will grow into hedges, achieving that desire for privacy for each meditation pod. Santamaria also loves how the sanctuary looks at night.
The project will be turned over to the UP administration, but Portia and the Element Potentials Design Group will help maintain it. Juarez said, “That’s why architect Paul is the right partner… kukulitin ko siya.”
The sanctuary is a gift from the Portia sisterhood and they’re excited for people to use it.
It’s the fruit of what Cruz-Regalado calls their “absolute and pure love.”
