INTERNET NEWSLETTER OF THE ALUMNI OF LANAO CHUNG HUA SCHOOL
Vol. II - No. 22, September 14, 1998, Iligan City, Philippines

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Members of the Lanao Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc., (LFCCCI) led by Pres. Christopher Chua Teck-An, joined other business leaders from Iligan in a luncheon gathering with Pres. Joseph Estrada during his visit to Iligan City last Sept. 4.  President Estrada was in town for the formal turnover of the Iligan-Cagayan de Oro Corridor stewardship.  In ceremonies held at the MSU-IIT gym, key government officials and other NGOs representing the two Lanao provinces and component cities signed a covenant for peace & order and a gunless society  in the presence of the President.  The LFCCCI was represented by Christopher Chua, Richard Sy, Jose Tek Hua Lim, Henry Siao, Sy Chu Pin, Jimmy Co, Johnny Sim, and Suniel Lim.

Henry Yu writes for Cebu's leading paper

Dr. Henry L. Yu (Batch '69) is now a regular columnist of The Freeman, one of Cebu's leading newspapers.  His column, called "Day Break," comes out weekly in the Sunday magazine supplement of the paper. It deals with topics of general human interest.  This early, his column is already gaining a good following among Cebu's newspaper readers. Henry was the founder and co-editor of the Campus Keeper, student publication of LCHS in 1968.

Online registration for alumni now in full swing
By Teresita Racines (Batch '67)

It's "all systems go" for LCHS alumni anywhere in the world to apply for membership in the LCHS Alumni Association through the Internet. Membership Registration Form is now available on the LCHS Alumni Home Page (http://www.iligan.com/~lchs/alumni).  To register online, observe the following steps:

(1)  Remit/deposit your lifetime membership fee of P500 to the Savings Account of "LCS Alumni Association", No. 0670-71652-8, Allied Banking Corp., Iligan Branch, Iligan City;
(2)  Fax a copy of your remittance or deposit slip, with your name indicated on it as depositor, to Teresita Racines, c/o Vy Beng Hong, Fax No. (063) 221-5301. (It is important that you indicate your name on the deposit slip to be faxed to the Association because the bank book doesn't show who made the deposit);
(3)  Fill in the Membership Registration Form on the alumni home page.  Your data will automatically be routed to the Association after clicking the "Submit" button; and
(4)  Upon receipt of your Registration Form and fax copy of deposit slip, an Official Receipt shall be issued to you or, if you are an out of town resident, the O.R. shall be mailed to you by post.

Letter from Colorado
Wed, 26 Aug 1998 16:02:06 PDT

I enjoy reading your Spectrum.  It's nice that you can keep in touch with one another through this newsletter.  Please include me in your mailing list.  I wish we, Cebu Eastern College alumni, can have ours, too.  At least you'd know the whereabouts and whatabouts of those who were popular in school then. By the way, who among your alumni got married to my second cousin, Joy Limkimso?  I forgot his name.  Is Stephen Sy of Lian Hong an alumnus of LCHS?  He is the Manila franchisee of Ethan Allen.  This is a first class furniture store here in the U.S. More power to your alumni newsletter!

Susan Lim de la Cruz, Larkspur, Colorado, U.S.A.
iko1031@hotmail.com

The article of Alfred Lai II on the demise of my uncle Jesus Chan, and his family (Spectrum, Sept. 7, 1998 issue), reminds me of many childhood memories we shared with my cousins. Somehow, one way or the other, their lives have touched all beyond my memories. My cousin, Natalie Chan, was an Occupational Therapy student and a schoolmate of my sister Charo, at Cebu Doctors College. She would have graduated this year. On that tragic day in 1996, my sister persuaded Natalie not to go home earlier but on the following day, together with her. But Natalie was adamant that day, eager to go home, since it was a family get together for the Christmas break. There are no words to express the loss of my family's significant family circle. I hope Alfredo Lai's article expresses the same intent to heal and recuperate what has been lost to us. May their souls rest in peace. Mr. Lai, my former classmate and friend, Godspeed to you in your journey to become a successful columnist and to your dignified profession.

Carlo Bodiongan (Batch '89), New Jersey, U.S.A.  (On behalf of my family)
Elcarlo7@aol.com

New LCHS home page

The LCHS Alumni Home Page now comes with a more user-friendly layout and an array of new and jazzy features. The web site now features online registration for LCHS-AA membership.  A directory of members complete with their postal addresses is now available.  One can also browse the history of LCHS online.  There are new links to personal home pages of LCHS alumni; an interactive shipping guide where the viewer can obtain current data on various shipping schedules throughout the Philippines, plus a whole lot more.  Visit our home page now on  this URL: http://www.iligan.com/~lchs/alumni

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

Holy Moses, a mere 22% made it safely to shore in this year's Physical Therapy board exam! That is a nightmarish deja vu along the line of the historic Titanic's mortality-morbidity rates. To triumph against all the odds that the demigods (hired guns who stubbornly man the pass-fail buzzers) conceived and instituted with harassing force is a deserving big bang in itself. You need a balanced load of extraordinary IQ, structured study sessions, prioritized Monk lifestyle, tamed hormones, incredible survival skills, multiple novena dates , a string of lucky charm, and resistance to deadly sweats. No wonder Miss Charo Bodiongan, a focused alumna who was drilled, molded and certified by LCHS traditions during her formative years, breezed through this slim statistic. And our school beat goes on.

By Leonardo "Eddie" Tan, Batch '66

This is a sequel to my earlier article which was about three rituals or ceremonies we usually encounter in the public functions, which were actually practised during the medieval ages. This time I just discovered some facts about our calendar which was one of the foundations of the early civilization - astronomy.

We have seven days in a week. Why not five or ten days in a week? The old Roman calendar during Julius Caesar's time had eight days in a week. And just after the Bolshevik revolution, the Russians were enjoying a four-day week. Is it of biblical reasoning such as "...on the seventh day, God rested."?  Apparently, it was because in the early days of astronomy, there were only seven planets known to man aside from his native Earth. And they named  these seven days according to them.  So we have Sunday - for the Sun, of course; Monday for Moon; Tuesday for Mars (Latin Mardi or Martes), Wednesday for Mercury (mercredi or meircules), Thursday for Jupiter (jeudi or jueves), Friday for Venus (vendredi or viernes) and Saturday for Saturn (samedi). If only our ancient astronomers had the luxury of sophisticated modern day telescope, they could have easily discovered Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Maybe then we would have ten days in a week. Thank God, they did not. Otherwise, we could be working longer before our weekend break!

Is year 2000 a leap year or not?  I thought it was automatically a leap year since it is divisible by 4 and it is an Olympic year. No doubt about that! But year 1900 was not. Why is it? This is yet another device by our astronomers to adjust our time and days to as accurate as possible. Actually it is never accurate to say there are 365 days in a year. It is plus 5 hours and a few minutes. Almost a quarter of a day more. That is why we have leap year every four years except century years. However, when it comes to centuries, like year 2000, the applicable divisor should be 400 instead of 4. So year 1600 was a leap year but not 1700 nor 1800. Not even 1900. Before the year 1582, all century years were leap years and the Julian calendar was becoming inaccurate by about 10 days. So Pope Gregory XIII instituted this change of calculation.

So the next century year that will also be a leap year would be year 2400. Who cares! We will all be long gone by then. Just give us the days of our lives.

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

To compliment is to praise.  To complement is to complete.  This author merits no praise for having misspelled complementary [as complimentary]  in her previous article.  Hence, a compulsion to write this article!

Until recently, many of us trained in Western medicine believed there was but one approach to healing:  conventional "scientific" allopathic medicine (AM) utilizing drugs, surgery, and high technology.   Wiser by virtue of our contact with the East, we now realize that AM does not do it all.  It needs help in some areas especially involving touch, words, and relationships. These are offered by a miscellaneous group of treatments or modalities called alternative or complementary or integrated medicine.

I will call it complementary medicine (CM) rather than alternative medicine because it is not a substitute for allopathic medicine.  It supplements AM.   Examples are acupuncture, hypnosis, music therapy,  biofeedback, imagery, massage, therapeutic touch, chiropractic, aromatherapy, herbal therapy. A panel convened by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) supported the use of acupuncture for nausea and vomiting during chemotherapy and early stages of pregnancy. Some prestigious hospitals in the US are using hypnosis in the operating room.

CM flourishes most when conventional medicine is least successful as in back problems, obesity, and chronic pain. When AM is effective such as in diabetes mellitus, most infectious diseases, and various conditions requiring surgery, CM is little used.

The widespread use of CM (one study found one-third of all Americans used CM at least once a year) is forcing doctors to learn more about it.  There are now academic centers established by the NIH to evaluate CM treatments. A survey last fall found 75 of the 117 responding US medical schools offered elective courses in CM or included those topics in required courses.

What to do?  See a conventional practitioner first.  Remember, the strength of CM is in its therapy not in diagnosisand treatment of serious medical illnesses.  If you make an informed decision to use CM, make sure your medical doctor knows about it. Many allopathic doctors are not familiar with CM therapies so you may have to educate him/her but a few also practice CM.  Watch out for fraud (expensive tests, 100% cure rate, too good to be true).  Make sure it is safe.  Ask "How long and how much?"

Being an educated medical consumer is difficult. There are lots of conflicting information.  According to Bernadine Healy former NIH Director: "We just have to keep information in context, stay up to date, decide what’s appropriate in our lives, and rely on a trusted professional for treatment and advice."

Enjoy the massage and the music.

By Alex S. Rodriguez, M.D., Batch '65

Diabetes Mellitus is a condition characterized by glucose (sugar) intolerance and other metabolic derangements, which result from inadequate secretion of insulin or target -tissue resistance to its action and lead to vascular changes and neuropathy affecting a number of organs. Take note that it is not the diabetes itself that is of most concern but the complications that this condition tags along with it.

Hyperglycemia (high blood sugar - N: 80-110 mg %) and diabetes can follow surgical resection of the pancreas, severe pancreatitis, carcinoma of the body or tail of the pancreas, and hemochromatosis (bronze diabetes), but in most cases the pathogenesis (cause) is not known. Insulin is produced by Beta cells in the Islets of Langerhans of the pancreas and the pancreas is found in the upper part of the left side of the abdomen posteriorly just below the lowermost rib on the left side. Insulin has something to do with the utilization and storage of glucose (sugar) in the body while glucose is the primary basic source of energy.

Clinical Features:  Types:  (a)  Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (IDDM, Juvenile type, or type I) comprises only 20% of cases. It often begins before age 15 and is characterized by abrupt onset; weight loss; requirement for insulin injections to prevent ketoacidosis; difficulty in maintaining blood sugar levels within normal limits, with  marked fluctuations in the blood sugar concentration (this condition has been referred to as brittleness); a less conspicuous genetic pattern type II diabetes; and a more conspicuous association with histocompatibilty antigens. The onset may follow a viral illness. Ketoacidosis is a metabolic imbalance in the body due to inability of the body to get rid of the waste products in the body resulting from uncontrolled diabetes mellitus. (b)  Non-insulin dependent DM (NIDDM, maturity onset or type II) constitutes 80% of the cases. Patients may need insulin therapy for control of symptoms but do not require it for survival. In this form, the principal problem may be in the delivery of endogenous insulin or resistance to it, rather than in its synthesis, especially in obese patients.

It was a difficult period in Iligan.  A time of disquiet and discord. Government forces under their Spanish command, were preparing to enter and seize Moro-controlled Lanao.  Preparations were under way as early as 1893.  They set up barracks and hospitals, and erected a railroad leading to Lonlukan.  They also built four boats right at the premises of Lake Lanao to make it easier for advancing troops to close in on the surrounding coastal towns.

A Country in Disquiet.  There were about 4,000 to 5,000 troops in the government contingent. In 1894, Gobernadorcillo Ayos was appointed as lead commander to spearhead the invasion.  Within ten days they took Kabatuan, Maria, Momongan, up to Manlaoyan.  Ayos was subsequently promoted for his victory.

Incidentally, at a time when preparations were made for the Lanao invasion in 1893, the Filipino people were already restive. There were sporadic revolts against the Spaniards. Dr. Jose Rizal had been exiled to Dapitan, and the revolution was gradually brewing.  By 1896 the Cry of Balintawak was heard, and Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo was elected as the supreme leader.  On December 30, that same year, Jose Rizal was executed by firing squad at Luneta.  A pall of gloom and state of disquiet stalked the land.  All our mails and parcel posts had to be inspected by the Guardia Civil and people were executed on mere suspicion of rebellion.  The whole country was in jitters and anxiety.

Starting Business in Iligan.  During the period from 1894 to 1895, commercial activities somehow started to take shape in Iligan.  From my salary I had saved about P700.  With that I resigned from my job to venture into a small business of my own.  The problem was I did not have any property on which to set up the business.  So I negotiated with Carlito Piño for him to construct a building on his land for lease to me.  Unfortunately halfway during the construction, the expenses had already reached P1,000.  Piño refused to continue and abandoned the project.  After repeated negotiations, I bought Piño's property including the unfinished structure for P600.  But still I had no sufficient cash left to resume the construction.  So I applied with the Bureau of Lands for a declaration on the property with a declared value of P3,000.  I used it as collateral to borrow from Mr. Sy Ti Ho of Cebu the amount of P2,000 with interest at 1.5% per annum.  With this amount I was able to finish the construction of the building.  That left me with a little over P1,000 in my pocket. I was ready to go into business.
 

Editors' Note:  The author, Sy Hock Yian, was the grandfather of Charles and Nelson  Sy.  The foregoing article is an excerpt of his memoirs written in 1937, entitled "Looking Back at Sixty Six," published in the book of the Sy Clan Family Tree.