01/03/2023
HISTORY OF ALPHA PHI OMEGA PHILIPPINES
In 1950, SOLOMON LEVY, a Professional Scout and a friend of Bro Dr. H. Roe Bartle (a.k.a. “The Chief”), then the National President of Alpha Phi Omega USA, came to the Philippines to help generate more interest among Filipino Scouts.
Upon the urging of “The Chief”, he gave a short talk and distributed three copies of Alpha Phi Omega publications: Questions and Answers, National Constitution and By-Laws, and Ritual Rites and Ceremonies to a group of Filipino Scouts. Bro DR. LIBRADO I. URETA, an Eagle Scout and a graduate student at Far Eastern University, Manila was among the audience.
This caught the interest of a group of scouts at the Far Eastern University in Manila. It may have been because the Alpha Phi Omega helped their library or maybe because the idea of a scouting-based fraternity just struck fertile ground.
Bro. LIBRADO I. URETA and a group of over twenty scouts and advisors immediately began organizing work. On March 2, 1950, the first organization of Alpha Phi Omega outside the United States of America was established in Room 214 of the Nicanor Reyes Hall, Far Eastern University, Manila, Philippines. The Alpha Phi Omega of Far Eastern University is now known as the Alpha Chapter.
Alpha Phi Omega rapidly and healthily grew in the Philippines. In its third year, it became a national organization with seven chapters chartered in Manila and Visayan campuses. On October 27, 1953, the Alpha Phi Omega International Collegiate Service Fraternity was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as a non-stock, non-profit, non-dividend corporation.
Frank Reed Horton pronounced, “As Scouting is worldwide, so should Alpha Phi Omega be worldwide, gradually in the colleges and Universities of all nations,” and so it did.
Happy 73rd National Anniversary ALPHA PHI OMEGA PHILIPPINES.
Greetings from Epsilon Tau Chapter and Epsilon Tau Alumni Association.
