Internet Newsletter of the Alumni of Lanao Chung Hua School Vol. 3, No. 11, August 9, 1999, Iligan City, Philippines RENDEZVOUS IN CEBU Grand reunion top gun meets  Spectrum "top gone" Grand reunion top honcho, Suniel Lim, visited Cebu City last July 26 to confer with key men of the Spectrum on preparations for the LCHS grand alumni homecoming on Aug. 3-5, 2000. And he did not return home empty handed. The Steering Committee chairman was treated to a flurry of ideas and suggestions on how best to shape the success of the affair during the Cebu powwow attended by Charles Sy, Henry Yu, Igdono Caracho, and Roderick Ngo. After the brainstorm session, Suniel handed over to Cebu area coordinator Rod Ngo his share of reunion fliers, official receipts, and registration forms for Cebu based alumni. Earlier during the day, Suniel was given a first-hand look at the Spectrum database, how each issue of the Spectrum is prepared and dispatched to its subscribers on the Internet. Suniel Lim (extreme left), at a dinner meeting with Spectrum keymen,  from left: Charles Sy, Henry Yu, Igdono Caracho, and Roderick Ngo.

EDITORIAL STAFF Charles O. Sy, Editor Henry L. Yu, Associate Editor Correspondents: Iligan - Johnny Chen, Alfred Lai II, Teresita Racines, Vinson Ngo, & Roger Suminguit. Cebu - Igdono Caracho. Metro Manila - Marie Janiefer Lee. Canada - Peter Dy & Mike Lee. Australia- Leonardo Tan. U.S.A. - Ernesto Yu, Alex Rodriguez, & Aurora Tansiokhian Founded Aug. 1, 1968. Published fortnightly since its revival on April 15, 1997. Distributed free on the Internet to LCHS alumni and supporters worldwide. Postal address: LCHS Alumni Association, Lanao Chung Hua School, Pala-o, Iligan City, Philippines. Website: http://www.iligan.com/~lchs/alumni/ For subscription, contact: Johnny Chen, Tel. No. (063) 221-3883. E-mail: johnchen@iligan.com For submission of manuscripts, E-mail: charlesy@cnms.net 51 WEEKS to Grand Homecoming

I have noticed something in the Spectrum staff box that has misled some readers of the printed version of this newletter to think that it is free.  The current staff box reads in part: "Distributed free to LCHS alumni, friends and supporters worldwide." Maybe it should read: "Internet edition is distributed free to LCHS alumni..."  Just a little suggestion.

Mark T., Iligan, Philippines, mark@iligan.com

(Editor's Note: The description has been reworded, as suggested. Thanks a lot.)

New staff member

With this issue, we introduce our newest staff member, Roger Suminguit, of Batch 1973.  Roger joins our pool of correspondents covering Iligan City. He is tasked to track down and gather dossiers on LCHS alumni and former teachers for the Spectrum's "Tracers" column. The job fits Roger to a T as he moves around a lot in Iligan and other parts of Mindanao. A man about town, Roger runs an engineering firm in Iligan called  Global Techno Environment Consult, Inc. He is a past president of the Iligan Amity Lions Club, and former secretary of the LCHS-AA.

In touch with Jiz de Ortega, et al
By Roger Suminguit (Batch '73)

Remember Cresenciano Kong Jiz de Ortega, former teacher of LCHS?  I had the pleasure of exchanging a few chats with him recently. Henry Lagrosas, Rey Suminguit, Jackson Wong, all of Batch '72, and I got together for dinner with Jiz Ortega last July 19 at the Sunburst Fried Chicken, Iligan City. We talked about the good old days at LCHS and took pictures of our gathering.  Mr. Ortega taught at LCHS from 1965 to 1969. He taught P.E. and was Grade VI class adviser. After LCHS he joined the Bureau of Custom - Iligan Port in 1972, where he is now its administrator. He is currently residing at Tambo, Iligan City.  He says he can still remember all of his LCHS students. He is looking forward to seeing his former students again soon. And how about our school bus driver of the old LCHS? Remember his name? We all knew him then as "Medes." His full name was Nicomedes Namario (now deceased).  He had a son who also studied at LCHS by the name of Vicente "Titing" Namario. Every LCHS student who had taken the old school bus at one time or another will never forget the affable Noy Medes. How about our former school janitor? He was Salvador "Bador" Pagente, who always kept our campus in tiptop condition.  Very soon, we will also arrange for a get-together with Fidel Fuertes, Crisanta Alcover Ayson, and other teachers of LCHS for our feature in this column. Abangan!

High school life oh my high school life!
By Marie Janiefer Q. Lee (Batch '87)

For those of you who know this song by Sharon Cuneta, well, that was how our high school life was: "kay exciting, kay saya."  There were 24 of us when we graduated in 1987: 17 girls, 7 boys. Our class was considered a big class then; I don't know if the succeeding batches ever surpassed our number.

Dominated by girls, our classroom sounded like a marketplace during "happy hours," meaning recess time and dismissal time. There was always a topic to discuss, like the A-Team episode the other night or some new gossip about Tom Cruise or Don Johnson.  Or we'd be exchanging lyrics of hit songs like "Careless Whisper" and "King and Queen of Hearts" or that song by Mike Francis "Let me In."  We never seemed to run out of things to talk about.  The boys, on their part, would sometimes go into one corner, probably to avoid the noise, headed by Ernest Oliver Uy, and make funny stories about each other.  The other boys, like Romeo Sy, Benedict Co, William Cua, Edgar Villegas, and Warren David Lim would just laugh at the side.  I'm proud to say that our boys were considered a lot tamer than those from the other batches, maybe because the girls were always there to act as their older sisters. No wonder none of our boys is now married to any of our girls. We just know each other too well.

Our boys are mostly based in Iligan, most of them either have their own businesses now or are helping in their parents' business. The 7th guy, Albert Pua, perished last year when a section of their house accidentally caught fire.  I know our whole batch mourned his death. It's hard for us to accept that one of us departed so soon.  We just hope that he found peace wherever he is.

Of the 17 girls in our class, 7 are now registered nurses: Ruena Oblimar-Quinal, Finella Bernardo, Marie Joan Quimbo, Junith Chu, Mary Freylynn Siao-Obach, Janet Chun-Uy, and Angelie Tan.  Only Freylynn is now helping in her mother's clinic as a nurse, the rest are either working in a bank in Iligan, or managing a business. The others who are based in Iligan are Geraldine Tan, who's managing her family's trucking business; Genevieve Carlos, who's helping her parents; so is Jocelyn Bernardo.  While Ma. Olivia Siao and Jasmin Chu-Giniralao are with a bank right now.  Simonnette Bernardo-Sy is now happily married in Cagayan de Oro. So is Elizabeth Booc-Ong, who's residing in Cebu. Esperanza Valdez is also married and is working for Sara Lee in Manila, while Minie Lim, a med tech, is in Chicago pursuing a career.

The special bond that ties our class together is more than just the simple classmate-to-classmate relationship. We're more like brothers and sisters.  We grew up together; we saw each other when we lost our first baby teeth around grade one. We were together when each of us blossomed from little girls into young ladies.  We know around when our boys started to change their voices and when their heights just shot up.  We know what would make a certain classmate laugh; we also know what would make her cry. We've always considered our batch as the best and our high school life as the best part of our lives.  Haaaayyyy, “sana maulit muli."

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

Declaring personal holidays is a gold-standard treatment modality that psychotherapies readily prescribe to "prisoners" chained in self-imposed cruel world. Pills, no doubt, alter the biochemistry of brain hormones, sorting out the disarrayed dynamics of basket cases. Nevertheless, a wholesome trip that dampens and centrifuges one's unhealthy, god-awful thoughts in a blend of vibrant, revitalizing activities is a quick, sure-fire charge to power up a drained emotion-battery. Stress-abating approaches include scenarios where you idly sip wine, ears sprayed with the swoony rapture of the Carpenters' "Yesterday Once More", watching the clouds float by till they commune with the sleepy sun; where, under the baton of a seasoned tour guide, you learn the background knowledge of ancient cathedrals and quaint towns of a totally different cultural landscape; where you curl in the bedroom under the enchanting book version of Amy Tan's "Joy Luck Club", shedding sorry tears in the final dewy chapters, but not for yourself this time; where you comfort yourself in a carefree wandering along a pond, hurling flat stones into  the water and making rainbows out of its splashes; where you kill hours in an art museum, deciphering the every brush stroke of a Claude Monet's  garden painting, and realizing that there are keen details and masked  joy in the seemingly simple beauty of a water lily plant if you just widen your peripheral vision and be one with your senses; where, huddling the family troop on the porch in a muggy evening, you seek a refreshing breeze and savor soothing warmth in each others' laughters and tears. That, bosom buddies, is the essence of winding down the roads where eagles dare not to tread; wholly blocked out from your usual beds of tumult and torment, minting brand new, uncontaminated mornings in order to decelerate the propulsive saga of insane rat races!

There is a point in our lives when the incessant barrage of tension headaches and daily loads of intimidating finger-pointings in the workplace deserve a healing intermission, a self-directed temporary ceasefire from dosing oneself with more of the same rut and circus that aggravate dwindling productivity and sparingly sprinkle salt to gaping mental wounds. Thus, the rationale for my much-needed quiet times to stop and stroll "to smell the roses", with sidekick Verna and a couple of intimates in a two-week trip to another continent. Stunning as it may sound, I promise to flood my column - no skip of a single beat -  with precooked paragraphs (you can't escape from my pen, my man!). After all, the Spectrum is my friendly, victimized outlet for scribbling compositional niceties and  silly sweetness, a willing buffer to the grim everydayness of life and to the sporadic, nasty psychological slaps in the art of breathing.

To a glowing someone in the solar system: I'll pick up your "nighty, night" beams and sunny delight out of the sound of silence, using the twinkling glitters of the recent past. Honest.  After all, I dearly treasure lullabies other than snores.

By Leonardo "Eddie" Tan, Batch '66

We are less than 5 months away from the biggest milestone we are lucky to experience in our lifetime, the turn of the century and the beginning of a new millennium for many. This will never be repeated for another thousand years!

As early as two years ago, all the Sydney hotels with the harbour view bedrooms were already booked full for this year's New Year's Eve celebration. Even hotels that are not built yet but with the promise of completion before this big night, with rooms facing the Sydney's Harbour Bridge where the biggest fireworks of the world will usher in the year 2000, have already been booked off the plan! And the room rates are 3 times higher than the normal peak season. The world attention is particularly centered in Sydney as it will be the first major city to celebrate the New Year of the New Century of the New Millennium! By the time the Californians sing Auld Lang Syne, we here in Sydney will be witnessing the glorious summer sunset of January the first!

Restaurants and function venues whose location are lucky enough to be alongside the magnificent Sydney harbour are now fully booked. Some venues are even offered to the highest bidders. A regular dinner for a normal night which costs around thirty dollars will now cost three hundred dollars per head. A function venue which is rented out normally for two thousand dollars now costs ten thousand. A buffet dinner atop the Sydney Tower which normally fetches $35 per head will now be $4,000 per head! With champagne flowing freely on the house! With that kind of money, one could fly around the world!  Sydney-siders cry foul and refer to the unjust exorbitant charges as a sting! The hotel and restaurant association claims that it is the law of supply and demand!  The labour unions are demanding 500% increase in wages for the workers to report for duty on this particular night! To hire a baby sitter that night will cost $750 - equal to a round trip air fare from Sydney to Manila!

Such is the reputation of this great metropolis' way of rejoicing on New Year's Eve that Sydney came out as the most favorite place to be during this great milestone in a survey conducted by the American Tourist Industry. The added bonus here is the weather during that time, right in the middle of summer. People will be picnicking outdoors in their casual light shirt and shorts. And it is the best time to fall in love. And of course there is this added element of Olympic spirit. January 1, 2000 will also start the city's official countdown to the Olympic 2000!

What is so special about Year 2000? Is it just the way of reckoning by the Christian world. A calculation that is still a subject of debates as to its accuracy. Some believe year 2000 occurred a few years ago. As far as our solar system is concerned, it is still the normal revolution of our mother earth circling around the sun.

Of course there is too much anxiety about the Y2K bug for the computer world whose hypes added to the grim scenario of a world coming to a disastrous end. For those less sophisticated communities around the world, they won't worry a bit about Y2K bug. Like some areas in Iligan, the constant worry would always be the basic: Y-2-BIG!

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

Cebu City. Monday, July 26, 1999 was one rare chance for us to be together again - Suniel "Boy" Lim, Charles Sy, Igdono Caracho, Roderick Ngo, and myself.  It was 4:00 p.m. when I got Charles' message sent through my Pocketbell beeper regarding a dinner get-together at Grand Majestic Convention Center. Exhausted from a day's preoccupations, I intended to rest early that evening. But how could I afford to miss the company of Suniel whom I haven't seen and  talked to for ages? The last time I saw him was at the interment of Jimmy Ling in Iligan in 1997. But that was an ephemeral meeting. So, that particular evening was my chance. The four of us (Charley, Igdono, Roderick and me) may be staying in the same city, but we seldom get the chance to be together here. Well, it was shooting two birds with one bullet!

Our get-together was supposed to end at 9:00 p.m. but it dragged on till 1:00 a.m. So many things were discussed, recalled, and talked about: the coming Grand Reunion, its details, recalling places, updating whereabouts and whatabouts of fellow alumni. That meeting gave me an idea on what to tackle in my column.

So, let me take you back to the Iligan of our youth, the city that we knew, circa 1960s. LCHS was then located at Roosevelt Ext. Fronting it were the houses of the TIOs (Jim, Otay, Lily, Loklong, Rene, Tata); the DYCHUTEEs (Elizabeth, Robert, Siony); the KHOs (Luis, Oya, Teng-Teng); the TANs (Adelfa and siblings); the DYs (David, Arthur). To the right of LCHS were the houses of the GOs (Rosalinda, Lando, Tita, along with cousins Emma, Elizabeth, and Elena Yap); the NGOs (Helen, Alice, Roderick, Susan). And who would forget the famous Elite Bakery? The Sacred Heart Hospital of the Casiños?

Sabayle St. was where the abodes of the following stood: the BINOLIRAOs (Tony, Inting), California Bakery, St. Peter's College, Iligan Post Office; Acme; Masarap Carenderia, Heyrosa Quality Store, etc. Along Cabili Ave. were these stores: Lanao Arkay Radio, Manila Bazaar, Iligan Construction Supply, Al Toro Hotel, Premier Theatre. Then we have Quezon Ave. where the following were located: Salatan Grocery, Liong's Restaurant, Canton Restaurant, King's Theatre, Washington Trading, Tay San, Iligan State Shoe, Sen King Bee, Tin Lu Sing, Ang Suan Em, Iligan Good Morning, Tropical, the house of the SYs (Nelson, Charles, Lydia, Jane), St. Michael's College, the church, Sen Hua Trading, Lian Hong, Brilliance, Kian Chiong, DXIC, Lian Guan, Lim Chay, Excelsior Bakery, and Alaska Ice Cream.  Along Washington St. were: Miguel Fish Trading, Lian Tay, Dy Un Soy, Nena's Luncheonette, Tam Wong, Hing Huat, Manila Baratillo, Sen Chin Bee, Padilla Quality Store, Dy Cham Shoe Store, Capitol Trading, King Sing Bazaar, Pasing's Grocery, Oro Bonito, the Iligan City Plaza, Police Dept., Everlast Bazaar, 7-Up Studio, Doris Dept. Store, PNB, Casa Esperanza, Hamilton Dept. Store, Sampaguita Bakery, Dy Chu Eng, Siao Bon Po, etc.

Other equally popular business establishments included: Jam Chiong Tailoring, Dina's Barber Shop, Naring's Store, Crystal Educational Supply, Tan's Refreshment Parlor, Oriental Restaurant, Century Theatre, Goodwill Refreshments, Kapit Bahay, Vision Arts Studio, Lard's Studio, Neil's Tailoring, Gaite's Beauty Parlor, Keng Hong Trading, Krisland Commercial, Tan Lam, Hong Yao, etc.

So many years have passed but the memories of these places remain vivid in my imagination simply because these were the popular places where we went to for our varied personal needs, the places which were once a part of our childhood. Iligan in the 60s was definitely smaller, simpler, and more peaceful. We roamed around the city in t-shirts and slippers, or riding a tartanilla, a jeepney or minica, where practically anyboby knew everybody.

Thirty something years after, how does Iligan look like now? Are these places still there? Wonder what happened to them. But no matter what, no matter how, Iligan will always remain a very dear part of our lives because it is where we spent our growing-up years, of discovering and awakening, of laughter, fun and tears. Indeed, we left our hearts in Iligan, along with the memories too hard to forget despite the passage of time. Forever, we will be true-blooded Iliganons, the students that we once were back in our beloved LCHS.

So come Grand Reunion, we will all be there once again to savor the Iligan ambiance, breathe the Iligan air, trudge along the narrow city streets, or go marketing. Let us all experience once again the things we did when we were young, and feel like we are in paradise, even for a short moment, thanking the city in general and LCHS in particular for making us what we are today. Yes, we were the Iligan kids of the 60s. And we will all be back to the same city as pure Iliganons deep in our hearts. The city that we knew, Iligan - the penultimate place to be come Aug. 3-5, 2000. Iligan, here we come!

By Aurora H. Tansiokhian, M.D., Batch '58

My deepest condolence to the families of Mr. Dy Sun Kang and Ms. Jeanne Nacague Te.  I will always remember Jeanne as the person who inspired me to write on Viagra and who was gracious enough to send me an E-mail after that.

    "The death of any loved parent is an incalculable lasting blow.
    Because no one ever loves you again like that." --Brenda Ueland

My parents passed on many years ago. There is not a day I do not think of them. After their death, I have become more and more conscious of their presence in my life. I tied a piece of cloth to my luggage for easy identification and saw Mama doing it. I attended a lecture on geriatric hospital care and my parents were on my mind. I went to Turning Stone Casino this weekend and thought how Mama would have enjoyed it. Every time someone complains about how stupid a hired person (e.g., a maid) or a subordinate is, I would transmit my mother's wisdom:  "She wouldn't be your maid if she were smarter than you."  I think of Papa whenever I am washing dishes.  Growing up in Initao, Papa asked me to learn to wash the dishes and sweep the floor.  I refused because we always had help to do them, and what was there to learn?  My father was, of course, right. Like any task, to do dishes and sweep the floor properly need correct training and practice.

I did not think they would die as they would.  I did not expect them to die when they did.  At that time, I had not realized that each time we see someone might be the last time. The things I would have done and the words I would have said have been left undone and unsaid.  How I wish I could turn back the hands of time!  No amount of money can bring them back. I will never hear their voice again. If bereavement, according to Janet Frame, is "waiting, waiting for / a known death to be undone", then bereavement is still with me.

I know I have to let go. I have gone on with my life but there is a sadness in my heart.  Death has become a reality to me and I try to live each day as though it were my last.

Hug. Call. Listen. Talk to your loved ones today. It may be your last chance.

    "Show me a woman who doesn't feel guilty
     And I'll show you a man." --Erica Jong

Till next time.

Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874-1965) planned out specifically how his funeral service was to be held.  He requested that it begin with the playing of "Taps," the traditional military signal played at the end of the day or the end of life.  But when the funeral service was over, those in attendance were startled to hear the trumpet played the "Reveille," the straining military call that awakens troops at the beginning of a new day.

For some of us, like Churchill, the end of life in this world is the beginning of a new life. After a long life's journey, we are tired and weary, with labors to be finished and sufferings to be over. Yes, ahead lies the night of death. But thank God, morning is coming! Play the "Reveille" for the promised life that lies just ahead for the weary Christian travelers! As the Bible says, "To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord forever." Perhaps, the promised new day or new life is what Jesus meant when He said, "I am ... the Bright and Morning Star."

Spectrum columnist Aurora Tansiokhian wrote to me: "I am saddened by the sudden death of Jeanne Nacague Te.  I did not know her in person but I did read her contributions to the Spectrum."  I too, am saddened and I had not met Jeanne in person.  But I know, she had known and loved Jesus, and accepted His offer of salvation. That's it; she's "saved!" Now she's with the Bright and Morning Star, present with Him for all eternity.  I say to her: Till the next life, my unknown friend. There we shall meet.  Now, let the "Reveille" be played for her.

"Tragedy and comedy are but two aspects of what is real, and whether we see the tragic or the humorous is a matter of perspective," Arnold Beisser once said.

A few months back I attended the 6th International Electronics Engineering Course in Surabaya, Indonesia.  It was a 4-week program sponsored by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for Third World countries. During the third week of the program, we went on a field trip/sight seeing around Java Island.  We visited Yogyakarta to see Borobudur Temple, one of the eight wonders of the world; then on to Bandung and Bali.

On the last leg of our trip, at the waiting area of Denpasar Airport, I saw a mother struggling to hold her 8-month old baby with one hand while trying to prepare baby food with her other hand. Sensing her difficulty, I approached the mother and offered to hold the baby for the time being. While she was feeding her baby, in my broken Indonesian, I asked for her destination and her flight's airline. She replied, "To Surabaya on Garuda Indonesia Airlines."

So I said its good since I was also going to Surabaya on Garuda Indonesia; I told her not worry about her things because I would take care of them. While she was occupied with feeding her baby and I was watching TV, an announcement came on the paging system. Suddenly, my companions called me and said it was time for us to board. I immediately picked up the woman's things and motioned her to follow me since it was already boarding time. After my boarding pass was inspected I went inside the tubular entrance towards the aircraft. Then I heard somebody calling, when I turned around, the man who inspected our boarding passes was calling me. I thought this must be a mistaken identity, but when I looked closely I saw the woman waving at me. Ooops, something must be wrong, I went back and the woman told me that she wanted her things back  because we didn't belong to the same flight.  Oh oh ... And I thought I have done a good deed for that day to the woman. I guess this is what we call a good intention with bad result.