The Oblation was made by Tolentino, then a professor of Fine Arts and posthumously declared a National Artist of the Philippines, with the help of Anastacio T. Caedo, his student apprentice. According to a book tribute to Guillermo Tolentino, it was his friend, Ferdinand Glenn Gagarin, not director-actor Fernando Poe, Sr. (as popularly rumored), who served as the model for the sculpture. Caedo would later become a professor of Fine Arts in the University himself, succeeding the deceased Tolentino. Caedo’s other works include a monument of the Philippine national hero Jose Rizal for the German government that was installed in the Jose Rizal Park in Idelstien, Germany.

The idea for the Oblation was first conceived during the presidency of Rafael Palma, who was the one to commission Tolentino to make the sculpture. Palma requested that the statue would be based on the second verse of Rizal’s Mi Ultimo Adios;

The concrete sculpture painted to look like bronze, measures 3.5 meters in height, symbolizing the 350 years of Spanish rule in the Philippines. The sculpture is replete with references of selfless dedication and service to the nation, and as Tolentino himself describes it;

Originally, the statue was completely naked, but, as morality was prevaling at that time, it was modified by former U.P. President Jorge Bocobo with the addition of a fig leaf to cover the genitals. The sculpture was funded by the U.P. students of 1935-1936, and was presided by Potenciano Illusorio and Jose B. Laurel, Jr., presidents of the student council during the first and second semester respectively and was dedicated on March 1939 at the University’s Manila campus where it stayed until February 1949, when the main administrative offices of the university moved to the new Diliman campus in Quezon City. The transfer of the Oblation to its new home served as the highlight of the move from Manila, which is historically referred to as the Exodus. The sculpture in front of the Quezon Hall at Diliman was installed facing west, purportedly a tribute to the American roots of the university. Today, that sculpture is only a bronze replica (which was recast from the original in Italy in 1950, under the supervision of Tolentino himself) dedicated on U.P.’s Golden Jubilee on November 29, 1958. The original sculpture is being kept at the Main Library (Gonzalez Hall), the former site of the U.P. College of Fine Arts.

Several replicas of the Oblation were made for campuses of the University of the Philippines, some by National Artist Napoleon Abueva. 2005 National Artist nominee Glenn Bautista, likewise, did his celebrated version of the Oblation in pen and ink as part of his schoolplates at the UP College of Fine Art under Professor Rebillon. The sculpture was registered at the Intellectual Property Office in the year 2004. Being the main symbol of the university, the Oblation is the centerpiece of many UP-related logos, like those of the Philippine Collegian and other official student publications, the UP Cooperative, and the UP centennial emblem. -Wikipedia

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