Professor Jose S. Domantay, was born in Malasiqui, Pangasinan on November 5, 1897, of middle class parentage whose father was a town mayor for three consecutive terms. The fifth of the twelve children in the family, he started schooling in 1906 at the Primary School of his town. He attended the Intermediate School in a neighboring town in San Carlos and finished his Intermediate Course in his town in 1913. He attended his 1st and 2nd year secondary course in Pangasinan High School, transferred to the Liceo de Manila in 1915 and graduated from the National Academy in 1917, presently known as the National University. He entered the College of Liberal Arts of the University of the Philippines in 1917, took Preparatory Medicine but was forced to quit schooling for one year due to illness. After one year of recovery, he worked as Senior Clerk in the Treasurer's Office in his town, he being a 2nd Grade Civil Service eligible. In 1919 he transferred to the Philippine Census Office in Manila with a view to pursuing his studies in the State University. He became a self-supporting student and had to shift to a Vocational course offered in the evening. In 1921, he earned the title of Associate in Arts; in 1923, the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy; and in 1925, the degree of Bachelor of Science in Zoology. He worked during the day at the office of the Dean, College of Liberal Arts, and attended classes in the evening. In 1923, before finishing the Bachelor of Science in Zoology, he was appointed Assistant Instructor in the Department of Zoology. Three years later, he was promoted to full-fledged Instructorship in Zoology. During this time he met his inspiration in life in the person of Cecilia Reyes who was then taking the course of Education in the same State University. He got married in the early part of 1927 just before his wife finished Bachelor of Science in Education (B.S.E.). His marriage has given him the real inspiration and incentive to make good in life.In 1928 he graduated with the degree of Master of Science in Zoology in the State University. In 1937, he transferred to the former Bureau of Science (Division of Fisheries) as Temporary Fishery Technologist. He was assigned to the Tenth Fishery District in Mindanao as Fishery Officer with station in Zamboanga City covering the entire Southern Mindanao and Sulu. In 1938 he passed the Civil Service Examination for Fishery Technologist with a rating of 94.25% and was given a permanent item at the Fish and Game Administration (formerly Division of Fisheries). In 1941 the Fish and Game Administration was reverted to the Division of Fisheries under the Department of Agriculture and Commerce and he was given the position of Zoologist. During the last war, he was suspected of being a Pro-Japanese for the simple reason that among the things he left at his home when he evacuated to the mountains were some Japanese souvenirs consisting of wall painting of a Japanese Geisha girl and a Japanese Lucky Doll given to him by the out-going and in-coming Managers of the former Sea Foods Tuna and Fishing Corporation in Zamboanga City.
The different offices under the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources were reorganized and he was contacted through the local provincial government of Zamboanga and was compelled to report to duty against his will. The Fisheries Bureau was merged to the Forestry during the Japanese time. When conditions became normal in 1945, he was reinstated to his former position of Zoologist in an acting capacity. In 1947, he was reappointed Zoologist. Not long afterward in the same year, to Ichthyologist. In 1957, he was promoted to Chief, Division of Fish Culture at the Cental Office in Manila; In 1958, to Chief of the Inland Fisheries Division. In May 10, 1961, he was blessed with the position of Assistant Director of Fisheries. In January 1, 1962, he was made Officer-In-Charge of the Bureau of Fisheries (Acting Director) which position was vacated by the automatic retirement of the former Director.
On several occasions, before the last war, he was offered several scholarship abroad. In the State University just before the outbreak of the last World War he was listed first among the list of the faculty members going abroad for a fellowship which he missed when he transferred to the Bureau of Fisheries where several opportunities were also available, but unfortunately after passing couple examinations given, for some reasons or another failed to be sent. In 1948 he accepted an offer of scholarship from the Allan Hancock Foundation with the assurance of a research fellowship. He was extended an official detail appointment by the Philippine Government and a Travel Grant with Fulbright Scholarship from the U.S. Foundation in the Philippines. In the later part of 1948, he left for Los Angeles Southern California and reported to the Allan Hancock Foundation under the guidance of Dr. Irene McCulloch. He worked for his Ph. D. course in the University of Southern California after passing all the required entrance examinations. The research work assigned to him was the taxonomic study of the Holothurioidea Collections of the Foundation from the Eastern Pacific collected from 1938 to 1950 by the Velero IV and previous sister boats I, II, III including some materials from the South Pacific comprising over over 10,000 specimens all preserved in liquid.
Due to the limited time granted him by the Philippine Government for his official detail, he had to excel more efforts to double his time to accomplish something. After the Fall Semester, he worked the whole day from Monday through Saturday enabling him to finished almost half of the materials assigned him during the semester. He obtained the grades of "A" in the 8 units graduate courses he took for his Ph.D. degree. During the summer of 1949, he passed the Foreign Language Reading Knowledge which made him qualified to be a candidate for the P.h. D. degree. He also took the Graduate Survey Examination which was required of all regular graduate students.
In the Fall Semester of 1949 he was allowed to carry 12 units of graduate work which was 4 units in excess of the regular 8 units allowed to fellow graduate students. The 12 unit courses and his researches at the Foundation kept him busy until late in the evening. With the 20 units advances credits which he earned from his MASTER OF SCIENCE IN ZOOLOGY at the University of the Philippines, he had in all 40 units toward the P.h. D. degree. The required number is 60 units equivalent to three years work. It was for this reason that he had ask for an extension of his official detail from the Philippine Government to enable him to take more units. He was granted an extension of six months in two different quarters of three months each.
In the following Spring Semester of 1950 he was allowed to carry 14 units by the Dean of Graduate School which was an exceptional privilege given him. In the following Summer of 1950 he registered in 6 units research work in absentia for the South Pacific Holothurioidea which he had already accomplished in the later part of his stay at the Foundation for the Philippine Holothurioidea which he brought along with him and to be continued further with more materials in the Islands. In the same Summer, he took the preliminary written examination required for P.h. D. degree. It was very unfortunate that with the friction between his major professor and adviser with the Head of the Department of Zoology, he had a rough sailing all the way through.
Upon his arrival in the Islands in the later part of 1951, he continued his marine researches in Zamboanga City. In 1952, he was recalled to the Central Office, Bureau of Fisheries in Manila and was assigned to the Dagat-dagatan Salt-water Station in Malabon. He continued his marine researches and display of all scientific collection he brought along with him from Zamboanga which formed the nucleus of the Biological Museum of Fisheries at the University of the Philippines.
Before he left Zamboanga in 1952, he was instructed to proceed to the Turtle Islands in the Sulu Archipelago to study the Turtle Fisheries with the object of promulgating rules for their conservation. He also took the opportunities of studying the marine fauna of the Taganak Island vicinity and the development of the most abundant species of marine turtle of the place. In Dagat-dagatan Salt-water Station he had the opportunity of studying the brackish-water fauna of the place which were left in abeyance for a while for further study. They may continued and published later from time to time together with some other he had worked out from other places in the Islands. Other forms were assigned to some of his graduate students to work for their Master of Science materials.
In 1954 he joined the Graduate School of the University of Sto. Tomas and had the opportunity of advising several graduate students who worked for their Master of Science (major in Zoology, Biological Sciences). He organized and developed the Biology Research Laboratory from a very small stockroom to a more decent spacious laboratory with the help and support of Rev. Fr. Alfredo Panizo, O.P., Dean of the Graduate School, University of Sto. Tomas who recognized the importance of marine sciences. Under this Laboratory, several researches in biological sciences were worked out and published.
It is in connection with this Research Laboratory where several researches were undertaken on marine life and were he gained recognition of a faculty award conferred to him by the University in 1970 for his long meritorious service with distinction.
In 1956 when he was still with the former Bureau of Fisheries, he was given an assignment to lecture on General and Systematic Zoology and General Fisheries in the Philippine Institute of Fisheries Technology up to the time when the Institute was transferred to the State University in 1958. During his incumbency as Acting Director of Fisheries he worked for the conversion of the former Bureau of Fisheries to Fisheries Commission. He retired from the service of the government in 1962 upon reaching the retirement age of 65. Since then he continued working with the Graduate School of the University of Sto. Tomas where he was connected until 1970. He worked at the "Biology Research Laboratory" on scientific researches with Grant-in-Aid from the National Research Council of the Philippines on the Monographic Study and Check List of the Philippine Littoral Echinodermata from materials he had collected for the last three decades from the different parts of the Islands, plus his extensive collections lately which when published will be a monumental souvenir of his scientific career in marine science.
Some of his previous works were published in the Acta Manilana of the U.S.T. Research Center entitled: (1) Aquatic Resources of the Philippines: (2) Notes on the Development and Breeding Habits of CHELONIA Japonica and (3) Summary of a Monographic Study and Check List of the Philippine Littoral Echinodermata.
It may not be out of place to mention that during the Japanese time, Prof. Domantay engaged in some scientific activities useful and lucrative to help him support his family.
He went to the manufacture of toilet soap in a small scale from the ash of coconut palm and coconut oil. With some extract of some local scented plants and flowers, he was able to produced beautifully colored and perfumed non-irritating finished products. The finished products which were trade marked "LUD" (after his daughter) were sold like hot cakes in the community.
He also manufactured a non-irritating face powder from the pulverized egg shell and rice powder. With these products he was able to maintain the daily subsistence of his family up to the time when the Americans liberated the Philippines from the Japanese.
During liberation time he made use of his knowledge in fermentation and distillation. He went to another business with the American G.I. as customers. He improvised a distilling apparatus from a gasoline drum with aluminum coil in the absence of copper coil and went into whiskey distillation.
Such were his activities and means of earning during the Japanese occupation and during the early liberation.
His evacuation to the mountains and his very close association with different wild animals in the forest particularly with the different birds, has developed his love for nature. The limited resources he had in his evacuation area has developed his creative mind and ability to produced the commodities he needed in the absence of regular imported articles.
His nuptial with his late wife who has given him all the inspiration, luck and good fortune in life, gave him five children. The first child is the late Gadiel, borne in July 14, 1927. He finished Mechanical Engineering, had been a pensionado in U.S. Fisheries in 1947-48 and became the Principal of the Southern Mindanao College of Fisheries in Zamboanga. He married Purification Varela and were blessed with six children. The second is Benedicto borne in May 6, 1931, finished Law and passed the Bar Examination. He was connected with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources office in Zamboanga City in various high level positions the last of which as Assistant Director. He retired from the service at the age of 60. He is married to Rosalina Alfaro with four children. The third is Jose Jr. borne on September 6, 1934, finished Doctor of Medicine and became one of the District Health Officer in Zamboanga City. He is presently the school physician of the Western Mindanao State University. He married the late Ressureccion Cruz of Pasig and they have two children. The fourth is Lourdes, borne after 10 years in April 27, 1944, a Dietitian formerly connected with the University of Sto. Tomas and United Laboratories. She is married to Rogelio Nera, a banker, with two children.
After the birth of the Junior in 1934 there were apparently no more signs for the conception of more children. It was at this period when two girls were borne under the same roof and were adopted as members of the family, namely Filomena, borne on November 24, 1939 and Dorothea on October 8, 1940. On April 27, 1944 the couple were blessed with the only girl, Lourdes and followed by the last boy, Norberto on June 6, 1947, who died at the age of five. The two girls enjoyed the care and love of the whole family, finished their Bachelor Science in Commerce and are married to Antonio Torilla and Servillano Robes with four children and three children respectively.
In 1948 before he left for the United States, he was granted by the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources permission to acquire and explore public lands for agricultural venture. Mrs. Domantay, his wife was the one who implemented the exploration and acquisition of the land. With their eldest boy Mrs. Domantay explored some virgins lands where she almost lost her life when she fell down from the back of the carabao she was riding on. The land explored was located in Culasian, Titay, Zamboanga del Sur. After arriving from the United States in 1951, they had the land surveyed, registered and incorporated under family corporation "DOM-REY ESTATE" which means DOMANTAY-REYES in June 1951. In 1961, a husband of a relative of his wife was sold 10,000 shares from the unsubscribed capital stock of the family Corporation which was not paid in cash, thinking it was a subscription. The couple relative of his wife got interested to claim half of the property, and through all kinds of manipulation and accusation they filed charges in Court one after another to the prejudice of his wife which contributed to her early death. It is in the acquisition of this property and routinary judicial proceedings which proved the real worth and ability of his wife by thick and thin to stand side by side with him to depend their rights in time of adversity. This is a lasting memory which binds them together in this material world.
Luckily before his wife died in August 4, 1969 all the children have already been through with their studies and stably established in their profession which was her wishes and dreams when still living.
In the year 1970, after long years of service in the government and in private Institution, at the age of 74, whose forced retirement was long overdue he had decided to retire and spend his few remaining years with his children, to develop the agricultural land they have acquired and to finish all unfinished scientific works which he has started when still in the Biology Research Laboratory of the Graduate School of the University of Sto. Tomas.
