INTERNET NEWSLETTER OF THE ALUMNI OF LANAO CHUNG HUA SCHOOL
Vol. II - No. 41, February 1, 1999, Iligan City, Philippines

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Iligan City will receive P20.8 million in infrastructure projects from the Dept. of Public Works & Highways this year.  Most of the funds will go to river control to prevent floods in barangays near the Iligan River. For the river control project, P4.6 million will be used for the Tambacan portion, P1.2 million for Poblacion, and P3.23 million for Mahayahay. The DPWH also allotted P3.1 million for the Iligan-Bukidnon road.  Other projects include the widening of the highway from Dalipuga all the way to Ditucalan. The Nonocan Bridge will be widened to four lanes.

Iliganon priest chosen for prime post

An Iliganon priest, Fr. Victor L. Lluch, has been elected head of  the province of the Order of Augustinian Recollects, with the Philippines as its central house. Fr. Lluch, son of Victor T. Lluch and Teodora N. Leonar of Iligan City, will serve as its Prior Provincial.  Fr. Lluch, born May 1, 1935 in Iligan, studied at the St. Michael's College in his elementary years. Aside from his religious and educational activities, he is also the founder and adviser of the Dramatics Guild of the University of San Jose Recoletos, Cebu City.  He directed a number of plays, among them "My Fair Lady" and "Oliver Twist."

The Platters to perform in Cebu

The Platters, the popular quartet of the 50s and 60s, will perform in Cebu on Feb. 16, 1999.  The concert, to be held at the Grand Ballroom of the Waterfront Cebu Hotel, will start at 8:30 p.m. Ticket prices are P1,000; P700; and P400. Among the great hits of The Platters are "Only You," "Twilight Time," "The Great Pretender," and "Remember When."

New Members.  Two more new members have recently been added to the LCHS-AA roster.  They are Cecille Woo Cerna and Lorelie Ang Librado. Cecille is employed with Banco Filipino, Iligan Branch; while Lorelie is a registered nurse.

Siao-Goreospe Nuptial.  Best wishes to Jon Mark N. Siao and Racquel M. Goreospe on their wedding last Jan. 23 at the St. Agustine Metropolitan Cathedral, Cagayan de Oro City. The groom is the son of Franklin "Bobo" Siao (Batch '62) and the former Irma Mae Neri.

New Mother.  Congratulations to Fanny Lim Tan (Batch '81), who gave birth to a 6-lbs., 11-oz. baby boy christened Lance Kai Tan last Jan. 8. Fanny lives in Edison, New Jersey, U.S.A., with her husband Jimmy Tan. She is the younger sister of Dr. Jane Lim, (Batch '71), and Richard Lim (Batch '69), et al.

Letter from Pedro Campugan
January 25, 1999

To Edwin Co, CPK Mercantile, Labao St., Iligan City

Through you, please convey our heartfelt thanks and gratitude to you and your fellow alumni, namely Joselyn Ang, Robert Co, Franklin Siao, and Elsa Lagrosas for voluntary but unfathomable support extended to me during my confinement at the Dr. Uy Hospital for six days. Again, thank you and more power.

Pedro Campugan, former LCHS teacher

By Ernesto L. Yu, M.D., Batch '65

Best Screen Make-Over:  Alpacino_8@hotnail.com. Alex just can't severe his umbilical knots with his body double. Can it be because Dr. Do Little easily oozes at the slightest "scent of a woman"? He is one lucky dude to maneuver scratch-free from all the legal hagglings brewed by thousands from the Don Corleone family tree who squabbled over the birthright to affix Mr. Pacino's magical twinkles on their computer names. Come February 19, I won't be astonished if my Miami paisano will refashion his suit and sport Brad Pitt's spotlight tag as arthritic Alex will scramble for his big 5-0 celebration and will tragically transform himself into a short-fused male menopausal nut.

Best Sideline Watcher:  Rene Tio's timely and well-versed feedbacks in the Spectrum's e-mail section stroke us with the blissful flavors of small fame and made us conscious that someone appreciates our persuasion, trademark grumbles and inner jumble of words down to the last breathing punctuation marks. His brand of lullabies for the senses are sufficiently intense to stimulate our hearts and souls to lavish our gazette with classy journal entries, quality write-ups and a pack of inspiration that prods us to a heavenly mating of Webster and Thesaurus. Without such forthright counter punches, we will be in the dark if our bylines are contaminating or grossing out anyone; or, for the paying readers, is the weekly newsletter worth the cost of bypassing beers and peanuts for a night? Keep the juice flowing, fishers.com. Hopefully, your award will arouse others to bombard our editorial suite with floods of sound-off thumps. We need the likes of Jocelyn Ang and Jeanne Nacague Te.

Best Dumb Movie:  "Titanic." I have been to the theater twice for this platinum film remake and dried my lacrimal glands to drought level thrice on the video version. Somehow, the brilliant and intelligent cast never learned the no-brainer lesson. They succumbed to the same scenario and disaster every time. Why can't they steer clear of iceberg on a moonless night the second time around? Perhaps I sorely need the interactive flip of this Oscar runaway winner. Or maybe, it's time to smash the preceding time-worn punch line?

Best Alien Invaders:   Loloy Tan and his Sydney band. His breakneck, in-and-out disappearing act in Buffalo offered me a glimpse of an overbooked vacation timetable  and of the colorful absurdities of an Aussie flock touring at the speed of light and evolved scratch-free with installment after installment of tickling narratives on culture shocks and close encounters with the dinosaur kind. Trading compliments and ancient tales in basic Iligan dialect without culminating in hurling bolos and knives at each other was the safe highlight that scooped this title, which was doubly cemented by the mailed souvenir photos that escorted his designer card of gratitude.

By Leonardo "Eddie" Tan, Batch '66

September 12 was the second last day of our trip. With our planned day trip to San Diego being cancelled due to a niece's slight fever, my former classmate and friend Tessie Go instead came to LA. With her husband Charles and son Chris, they arrived at around 11 a.m. and, thanks to Andrew's direction, they reached our address without a hitch. I was happy to see my old classmate Tessie whom I had not seen for more than a decade. And for the first time, I met her wonderful husband and their athletic teenage son.

They then took us to the new Chinatown, populated mostly by Taiwanese, in a suburb called Monterey for a dimsum lunch. Then we went to Hollywood Boulevard for a walkabout of stars where the sidewalks were adorned with names of stars, whether in movies, television, or music. We ended our walk at the Mann's Chinese Theater where the hands of some more famous stars were forever impressed on the concrete pavement. It was there that some tv shows were recruiting some people as audience. The anchor of the new show was a former basketball star and Chris was very eager as he is a great basketball fan. So off we went to the tv studio and were seated in the special front seat in "I Don't Believe You Said That". We were filmed applauding and yelling but only our backs were shown! That was an experience. We got a closer look at how tv shows were prepared. We declined to sit for another show. Instead we went to the original Chinatown and had a heavy snack. Then we went strolling along the small shops. All in all, it was a wonderful day in which we were thoroughly entertained and exhausted at the end of the day.

Sunday, Sept. 13, our trip's last day. After a final quick shopping, Andrew took us to Newport Beach and had a late lunch at the Hooters. We went upstairs and I almost stumbled when I missed a step. Simply because I was distracted by the very sexy well-endowed blonde waitresses in very short pants and showing a lot of cleavage. The view outside was spectacular with the marina, but the scenery inside was more enticing and it made the food more appetizing and tastier.  And that was my last fabulous impression of America the beautiful!

After saying our good-byes to Andrew's wonderful family, he then took us to the LA airport for our final trip back to Sydney. The 747 plane was not full this time and it was more comfortable. We had good movies but I was just so tired and tried to sleep. But I could hardly sleep in the plane so my mind just kept on rewinding the trip which was coming to an end. I gained a few pounds. I had been to many wonderful and beautiful places. Took more than a dozen rolls of pictures. Travel broadens our mind. And I learned a few things along the way. However, what I learned most was that the true value of our trip lies with the great and wonderful people whom I just met and saw again. The renewal of friendships and acquaintances amongst relatives and friends.

After 14 hours of flying later and skipping a day, we arrived here in Sydney in the early morning of Sept. 15. A dream trip had just come to an end. I came back home to the real world. And it was time to mend the big hole in my pocket!

By Henry L. Yu, M.D., Batch '69

Today, after 20 years since my graduation, my prayers are answered.  It may have taken that long for my wishes and prayers to be heard, but the fact that they are heard is enough to make me happy that somewhere out there, there are people who have selflessly thought of coming up with this noble and humanitarian friendly project.  I believe that being doctors alone will not be enough.  We have to have compassion and the sincere desire to help and serve those of us who have less in life.

It pains me to realize how much a child in the world is forced to suffer from emotional and physical trauma brought about by having such deformity which, in actuality, can be cured with a relatively simple surgical procedure.

For those of us who have not experienced how it is to be poor, it may take a while to realize how much these poor children and their families are suffering, much more for those with physical deformities.  Expectedly, these children suffer in silence, living and accepting reality, believing that this is their fate and destiny, that there is no more hope for them to lead normal lives, or to look normal just like all the rest of the kids around.

But the good news is: With Operation Smile, there is going to be hope for these children.  It will change their lives, it will make them smile most probably for the very first time, feeling confident that for now they too have a place in the sun, that they too are the children of the same God as our God.

Indeed, "No man is an island."  We need one another to work together in our journeys to life. The Cebu Medical Society, together with the many sponsors and partners of Operation Smile, also feel that indeed we are not just changing the children, they too are changing us.  And together, we are changing the world.

Operation Smile and the World Journey of Hope '99 will be in Cebu City from March 16-31, 1999 to bring with them the good news by performing reconstructive surgery on these children with harelip and other facial deformities.  This is a corporate matter with the doctors, volunteers, sponsors, donors, employees, and all those of us involved in this project working hand in hand with one goal in mind: To make the world a better one, by changing ourselves, by changing the lives of the children, they who are "the hope of the Fatherland."

As the song goes, "You and I will travel far together, we may never get to heaven, but it's heaven at least to try."  Truly, you and I will have to form a symphony in order to come up with a beautiful concert of life.  With Operation Smile, we hope to delete the letters I and M in the word IMpossible and make every dream possible IN HIS TIME.

We often learn the most from our children.  Some time ago, a friend of mine punished his 3-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper.  Money was tight, and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the tree. Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said, "This is for you, Daddy."

He was embarrassed by his earlier over-reaction, but his anger flared again when he found that the box was empty. He yelled at her, "Don't you know that when you give someone a present, there's supposed to be something inside of it?"

The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said, "Oh, Daddy it's not empty. I blew kisses into the box. All for you, Daddy."

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged her forgiveness. My friend told me that he kept that gold box by his bed for years. Whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.

In a very real sense, each of us as parents has been given a gold container filled with unconditional love and kisses from our children. There is no more precious possession anyone could hold.  -- Contributed by Ramon Aliño, Oroville, CA, U.S.A.

As the student body is the lifeblood of an educational institution, so is the student press the pulse that echoes its vital signs. Through the years, five school papers somehow managed to emerge in LCHS. Despite the absence of official recognition, these publications, albeit short-lived, managed to leave considerable imprints on the LCHS campus.

Scholastic Gazette.  The first student publication to surface in LCHS was called the Scholastic Gazette. It was conceived by Victor L. Chiu, then a high school senior (Batch '65). Almost single-handedly he went from classroom to classroom to campaign for student support for a publication that would carry their voice. The proposal met some initial resistance as the students were asked to shell out a certain sum to fund the project.  A series of debates ensued for weeks between the pros and cons. Eventually the idea gained acceptance. And on January 15, 1965, the maiden issue of the first LCHS student newspaper was published.

The Gazette was produced by a lean staff composed of Victor Chiu, as editor; and two other classmates, Alex Rodriguez as assistant editor, and Artemio Lagrosas as miscellaneous editor and staff artist. Extra hands in the preparation of materials like writing and gathering articles, typing, and mimeographing came from Ernesto Yu, Salvador Booc, Wilson Lim, Clemente Lim, Leonardo Tan, Suniel Lim, Ricardo So, and Robert Co.

Rich Resource of Talents.  Printed by mimeograph, the Gazette unearthed a rich resource of talents hitherto untapped in LCHS. While most of its materials were simply lifted from theme compositions of the students, they nonetheless underscored the fact that LCHS, then as now, didn't suffer from a dearth of ideas rich in wit, eloquence and sensibility. The newsletter even carried a Pilipino section that had all the indications of a bunch of LCHSians proficient in Pilipino and the vernacular, the likes of Gloricita Racines, Florfina Teh, Suniel Lim, Jesus Chin, John Go, Ernesto Yu, Alex Rodriguez and Carlina Dy.

Student Forum.  Despite its benign character, a notable part of the Gazette was a section called "We, the Students." The column paved the way for students to air views that were, by standard of the moment, fairly critical of the school. A few students were audacious enough to give vent to their sentiments in the forum.

Jesus Chin bewailed the lack of adequate scientific equipment in the school laboratory. "Things would have been better if our laboratory is equipped enough to attract the interest of the students in science," he wrote.  Another vocal student, Leonardo Tan, expressed his wish that "favoritism among some teachers would become a thing of the past." And Ernesto Yu, on his part, voiced his dissatisfaction with the school's toilet facilities and the inconvenient location of the library. "Where but in LCHS," he wrote, "can you find the smallest toilet in the whole island of Mindanao? And who would like to go to the library when it is placed as high as heaven with neither keys nor librarian?"

Enduring Editorial.  Topping the list of notable materials that found their way to the pages of the Gazette was its editorial in the maiden issue. It was a classic. In it Victor Chiu amplified Deogenes' lament on the subject of honesty with a message that is unmistakably relevant today as it was thirty years ago: "I am looking for an honest man."

For a pioneering effort, the Gazette had the making of a promising school paper going for it. Unfortunately, the paper lasted only a semester and folded up as soon as the school year ended with the graduation of the staff members.  (Next chapter: The Campus Keeper)