In this issue: NEWS | LCHS TRACERS | EDITORS' NOTES | E-MAIL TO THE EDITORS | COLUMN | FEATURE | SPECTRUM STAFF

Jimmy Ling, 44, Passes Away
By Suniel Lim (Batch '66) and Igdono Caracho (Batch '66)

Jimmy Wong Ling, of LCHS Grade School Batch '65, also known to his friends and contemporaries as Tat Kiong, died of a stroke last June 20. He had a stroke early morning of June 20, went into a coma and passed away around noon of the same day.

It was his first attack. He was 44 years old and would have marked his 45th birthday on Nov. 23. He is survived by his wife, Meley, and four children, three girls and one boy.

Jimmy was owner & proprietor of Gemini Industrial Sales, on Mercado St., Iligan City, and an active member of the Iligan Volunteer Fire Brigade currently headed by Calixto Tan. He was also involved in various social works undertaken by civic clubs for the benefit of the city's indigents and the needy.

New Cardiologist is an LCHS Alumnus
By Henry L. Yu (Batch '69)

Dr. Marlon T. Co, M.D., is the latest addition to the list of doctors, notably in the field of Cardiology, who graduated from LCHS.

Marlon finished his elementary education from LCHS in 1973. He graduated from the Kong Hua High School in Cagayan de Oro for his secondary education. He took up his B.S. Medical Technology from Southwestern University, Cebu City, after which he proceeded to his medical proper at the Dr. Jose Rizal Memorial College of Medicine at the Xavier University, Cagayan de Oro. He had his residency training in Internal Medicine at the Cebu Doctos' Hospital, and took his fellowship and specialization in Cardiology at St. Luke Medical Center in Metro Manila. Marlon now holds clinic at the Cebu Doctors' Allied Medical Sciences building, Cebu City. He is a nephew of Robert and Edwin Co.

Iligan Celebrates 47th Charter Day

Iligan City celebrated its 47th Charter Day anniversary last June 16 with a flurry of pomp and pageantry. The five-day celebration, dubbed "Adlaw Sa Iligan", included such festivities as the 10K Freedom Run, Bunting Contest, Bailes de Ayer, cultural shows, sports tournaments, fairs and exhibits.

Iligan became a chartered city on June 16, 1950 by virtue of Republic Act No. 525 signed by then President Elpidio Quirino. On Nov. 29, 1984, Republic Act No. 395, series of 1984, declaring June 16 of every year as "Adlaw sa Iligan," was approved by the city council, to commemorate and celebrate the founding of Iligan as a Charter Day.
 

This section traces the whereabouts of significant personalities related at one time or another to the LCHS community. Contributions from our readers to this section are most welcome.

John Liu Says Hello to Batch '62

John Liu (Lao Kiat), the amiable, Mandarin-speaking teacher of the LCHS Chinese Department in the early 60's, is now director of St. Peter the Apostle School, Paco, Metro Manila. He will retire next year after dedicating his life's pursuits to his career as an educator. He resides in Manila with his wife and three children.

He visited Cebu last year and had an emotional reunion after 34 years with one of his LCHS students, Lydia Sy-Chona (Batch '62, Chinese third year high school). While in Cebu, he also met with another former LCHS colleague, Agustin Wu (Ngo Nai Kong).

In his Cebu visit, Mr. Liu asked Lydia Sy-Chona to convey his best regards to all his nine students of Batch '62 and to let them know that he missed them all. He also brought along the original works of all his students of Batch '62 in Chinese theme writing complete with their individual pictures, which he has kept with him all these years.

Mr. Liu's nine students of Batch '62 were [see photo attachment, from left to right]: Lydia Sy (now in Cebu); Elsa Ang (Cebu); Corazon So (Cag. de Oro); Dy Po Hua (Iligan); Wilson Lao (the only male student in the class; he passed away in Cebu three years ago); Eliza Uy (Iligan); Nelly Ang (U.S.A.); Leoncia Sy (Cag. de Oro); and Victoria Go (U.S.A.).

Photo Attachment

This issue includes a photo of LCHS Chinese Class of 1962, along with an inset photo of John Liu and his family taken in 1994 (subject of this issue's LCHS TRACERS). The photo, however, may show up only as substitute icon on the HTML edition dispatched to our HTML subscribers. That's because the photo, like previous Spectrum graphics, is linked to the server of the web page and requires the viewer to log on to the web site in order for it to show up on the HTML copy.

Nevertheless, subscribers of our e-mail and HTML editions may view the picture by opening the e-mail attachment using Netscape or Internet Explorer, or any standard graphic software installed in their computer. Otherwise, they may also view the picture by logging on to this web site (under Personal Links/LCHS Alumni Newsletter): http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/2972/
 

Iligan Loses a Pillar

From: lai@iligan.com
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 20:47:38 -0700

With the sudden demise of Jimmy Ling, Iligan City lost not only a pillar in the business community but also one of its very active, civic-spirited, law-abiding citizens. On our part, we personally mourn the untimely big loss not only of a tested family friend but also of a true ally. May Jimmy rest in peace.

Alfredo N. Lai
Iligan, Philippines

What could be more pleasant than reminiscing the wonderful memories of the glorious era of the 1960s?

It was truly a period of my life, totally spent in the city of Iligan, marked with childhood innocence, curiosity, and listening to the tete-a-tetes of those schoolmates ahead of our class, or the banters of the teenage friends/classmates of my elder sister and brothers. It was an era represented by dances like the cha-cha, boogie, twist, jerk, soul, etc., which were the main things we did during weekend jam sessions. It was a period punctuated by autographs, penpal writing, and listening to radio stations (notably DXIC's Jukebox Jamboree hosted by Vivien Lee Dilit, or DXRI and DXMI). Oh, what fun we had calling the radio stations for endless requests for our favorite songs with this typical line: "This song is heartily dedicated to..."

And what about the words we scribbled on Christmas card envelopes marked "From: Guess Who?" or "From Someone who Cares" or "Sealed with a kiss"? Oh, those yuletide seasons when we would go to school on Saturday afternoons to decorate our classrooms, using green or white crepe papers, cut them and wrapped them around the twigs! And who could forget those "chin-chin" gifts (exchanging gifts actually) during our class Christmas parties? Those were the times when we had our real taste of the great outdoors as we explored the marshes and swamps of Bayug in search of the trees with the right symmetry for our Christmas decor.

Well, all these are but generalities. Let's go into particulars or specifics with my memories of the Iligan and the LCHS that I knew of in the 1960s, and along with them, the people who made a mark in my life as a grader (1960-1965) and as a high schooler (1965-1969).

Monday, June 13, 1960, was the first day of classes at LCHS. I was in Grade II under Miss Corazon Alpuerto (who has remained unmarried, and is now residing in Madridejos, Cebu. I met her once in 1982 when she was a patient at the Metro Cebu Community Hospital where I was then a resident physician in the Department of Internal Medicine. What a small world! What a nostalgic encounter!) So, 1960...I was then a lad of 8, a leader among the boys in our class, with Alice Ngo-Militante as leader among the girls group. It was a friendly competition which we have carried over and kept even until now that we are both pursuing our careers as doctors.

1961 - we were in Grade III under Miss Anacorita Campugan (the sister of Pedro Campugan, then the teacher-in-charge of the Grade V pupils). One unforgettable funny event was a female classmate who was asked to recite the Panatang Makabayan in our classroom and all of a sudden her skirt fell off to our great amusement. That girl was Yolanda Chiu. I remember how we would giggle and blush whenever we were paired with the girls, and vice versa. And how we would quarrel over the brooms and husks when we were assigned as sweepers of the day. I will always remember 1961, specifically the 10th of February, because that was the day my younger sister, Evelyn, was born. She took away my position as the family's youngest for 9 years. But she was such a bundle of joy!

1962 - we were now in the last year of our Primary course (Grade IV). Miss Concepcion Yap was our teacher-in-charge. In one of our P.E. sessions, while we were playing kundisi, I was hit on the nose which caused me to have nosebleeding. I was rushed to the faculty office for emergency treatment, after which I was sent home aboard the yellow-orange school bus driven by Nicomedes.

March 30, 1963, Saturday, saw us marching up the stage with pride and joy for our graduation from Grade IV. It was also at this time that my eldest sister, Mila, graduated from high school, along with her ka-batch like Leoncia "Ahon" Sy, Elsa Ang, Elisa Ma, Cristina Lim, Siok Ching Dy, Ursulina Bernardo (valedictorian), Godfrey Siao, Romeo "Chung Bing" Go, Catalino Binolinao, Dy Sik Hem, Jesus Dy, and Manuel "Aki" Tan. The lady graduates wore an all-white long-sleeved blouse and skirt with corsage on the left side of their blouse, while the gentlemen graduates were in white long-sleeved shirts with neck tie and black pants. Top tunes of this era were the songs "Crazy" by Timi Yuro, "Sad Movies" and "Aldela".

The following feature is an excerpt from a paper delivered by Teresita Ang See at the International Conference on Cultural Conflict and Integration in Southeast Asia held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Jan. 4-5, 1997. The article, published May 5, 1997 in "Tulay", a publication of the Kaisa Para sa Kaunlaran, Inc., is serialized here with permission of the author.

As the Philippines faces the demands of globalization and vast changes as it enters the Asia-Pacific century, there is a need to examine whether we have broken down the barriers between our own peoples and cultures and resolved conflicts and tensions within our own national societies and borders.

The Philippines successfully hosted the APEC forum last November, which ushered in new strategies and action toward more rapid globalization and bringing down of barriers to trade and investments across national borders. However, within our own national society, we continue to be beset with concerns and problems with religious minorities like the Muslims in Mindanao and indigenous minorities like the Ifugaos and Kalingas in the mountain provinces, as well as the ethnic minorities like the Chinese in our midst.

The issue of national integration or majority-minority relations has always been a topic of concern, especially in Southeast Asian countries made up of an amalgam of different races, cultures, traditions and beliefs. In a recent conference held in Kuala Lumpur, scholars presented papers examining cross-cultural conflicts and differences that divide and cultural factors that unify or integrate national societies. In the case of the Philippines, the conference examined the case of the ethnic Chinese minority and its integration or mal-integration into mainstream society.

The Philippines is made up of a pluralistic blend of indigenous cultures with a predominant Malay base but is also influenced heavily by the east due to early trade with the Chinese, Indians and Arabs and by the west due to 300 years of Spanish colonization and 50 years of American rule. With this long tradition of foreign borrowing and the well-known traditional hospitality of Filipinos, Chinese culture as a source of conflict is not as intense as the experience in other countries. Undercurrents of racial tension, with the ethnic Chinese as targets, have always existed in Philippine society, but more than cultural differences, racial tensions arise more from disparities in economic position or status and in class differences. In fact, the Filipino religious culture, instead of being a source of conflict as in other Southeast Asian countries, is a factor for cohesion between the Filipinos and the Chinese.