INTERNET NEWSLETTER OF THE ALUMNI OF LANAO CHUNG HUA SCHOOL
Vol. II - No. 24, September 28, 1998, Iligan City, Philippines

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It's fiesta time in Iligan City on Sept. 29, the feast of its patron saint, St. Michael the Archangel. A series of festivities, marked by pomp, color and fanfare, has been lined up for a week-long celebration.  There are cultural programs and sports fests presented by the city government, public and private schools, as well as civic organizations.  The "Miss Iligan '98" coronation is also one of the highlights. The business sector, on its parts, has set up an agro-industrial fair.   The celebration culminates with the annual solemn procession and street dancing dubbed Wara-wara sa Kadalanan with devotees clad in an assortment of colorful costumes depicting through reenactments the legendary battle between Señor San Miguel and Lucifer.

(This new section, the brainchild of alumni officers, Vy Beng Hong & Terry Racines, is a free-for-all corner that embraces everything concerning LCHS alumni.  It is open to all alumni who wish to put in a good word or two about fellow alumni, birthday greetings, anniversaries, alumni tidbits, trivias, or even queries concerning the Alumni Association.)

Alumni doctors open new clinics
Dr. Belinda Cu-Lim, a student of LCHS until Grade IV (1976) opened her new clinic last Sept. 8 in Iligan City. The clinic is situated next to the J&K Hardware in Pala-o. At the opening of her clinic she offered free consultation which started at 8:00 a.m. till 8:00 p.m. Dr. Cu-Lim is the daughter of Maria Jo (Batch '58) and the late Cu Che Yong . She is married to Juanito Lim of Masbate and they have 3 sons namely:   Job Lemuel, John Aaron and Jake Joshua. Dr. Cu-Lim is a graduate of the Cebu Institute of Medicine and passed the board exam on the same year.  Meanwhile,  two other alumni doctors in Cebu City also inaugurated their new clinics last Sept. 18 at the new Chong Hua Medical Arts Center, located at the Cebu Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce compound, J. Llorente St. Dr. James Yared Gaite opened his Dermatology, Dermatologic & Laser Surgery Clinic at Room 403 while Dr. Arthur Dy (Batch '75) has his new E-N-T clinic at Room 404.

Remembering Iligan's Fiesta
Sun, 09 Aug 1998 22:07:27 +0800

I missed those times in Iligan when as early as ante-bispiras, we would have folks from Dalipuga, our copra base, spending the days with us at our Roosevelt Extension home to prepare and cook native delicacies for three straight days. We would have a pig grown at our backyard, groomed for this occasion. After a year of feeding with lamaw, it would have grown fat and big, and this would be our main staple for days. Bispiras would be the i-haw day and hence the feasting started. A big portion of the meat would be for adobo. Soon there would be embotido, dinuguan, etc. Piglets would be brought in from Dalipuga, and roasted at our backyard. The lechon would be served for lunch on fiesta day.  How I missed those times, the preparations, the backyard cooking, the good natured barrio folks who spent days with us, their barrio cooking menu, the sounds of pig wailing, of chopping boards, the cracking of firewood, the scent of smoke, of cooking ... these comprised  95% of the fun in celebrating a fiesta.  Quite memorable.

Rene Tio (Batch '70), Cagayan de Oro, Philippines
fishers@cdo.weblinq.com

I never thought that LCHS would someday have its own Web page. It made me so proud to be a part of the Alma Mater. But somehow this site would not have been possible without the dedication of the staff of the Spectrum. I'm very proud of the achievement of the staff whose hard works really paid off. To the staff, let me extend my warmest CONGRATULATIONS! God Bless & More Power!

Jose U. Tan Jr., M.D. (Batch '84), Cebu, Philippines
surgcdh@cebu.pw.net.ph

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

When was the last time I was a choking casualty in the delicious morsel of Iligan's fiesta extravaganza? Thirty long years! This missing link is fiery enough to spark my decomposing mental circuits to recycle a stockpile of mummified memories of St. Michael's feast day on Sept. 29.

Leafing through an era of eons-ago, when dinosaurs were fertile reptiles rambling with full sets of incisors, is indeed a pleasing diversion to an established nine-to-five lifestyle. I recall the circus always came to town, featuring amusement rides that teased one's phobia of heights (ferris wheel) and strained one's sponge for dizzy spells (tumbling saucers). Likewise, shooting galleries dotted the festive fanfare where some of the ambling targets seemed vested with bullet proof shields, resistant to the pull of gravity in spite of being nailed to the core. Clowns and roving midgets infused spectacles to the carnival atmosphere with their cheery, dumb antics. The playful presence of those atypically stunted creatures was my Thanksgiving Day for surpassing the dwarfism criterion.

Bountiful culinary delights ruled the occasion: local cuisines that played hardball to the nagging threats of coronary and gallbladder maladies, enough to puff up any borderline dieters into oblong shadows with earth-stomping gaits. Lechon was always a decorated staple, a grease-buffed crispy temptation that, often than not, knocked anti-cholesterol advocates with one clean sweep. Bibingka - a native concoction-modification of the moist sponge cake sisterhood dressed in banana leaf - was a standard dessert that seals a dazzling siesta waltz in spite of the cascading jokes on its inherent sexual connotation. Furthermore, nothing drained the gastronomic experience better than the subtle punches of a national brew branded after Iligan's patron saint, San Miguel beer. This Philippine head-spinner is no stranger to any gala affairs; it contaminates closing remarks of most celebrations, in manicky or slurred tones!

No-School Holiday - This signified having the occasion to witness at the break of dawn how our domesticated pigs and poultry residents were critically poked, tediously dissected and delicately sautéed, utilizing all edible components-spare parts (solid, gel, liquid, whatever) for a savory medley. The holiday tag was a tough one to handle: Discovering how pets were helplessly murdered was synonymous to absorbing some nitty-gritty assassination tricks to pack against my Algebra teacher who never compromised the academic standard for bottom feeders like me.

What are the hidden agenda behind jotting a lengthy nostalgic prose about Iligan's annual Grand Slam? As you perversely nibble on plates of dinugoan, menudo, paklay and other uric acid-rich power lunches, I commune with you in spirit, begging to all on-call heavenly bodies to coat your stomachs with bracing antidotes against the moans and groans of over stuffing. Do remember that as you bulldoze your termite-like appetite into the alimentary institutions of fiesta-special pots and pans, a transplanted Iliganon in Buffalo, NY is longingly visualizing and profusely drooling at your every masterful, spoonful flick of the wrist. And munching, a learned reflex from acute psychological starvation, a suicide order of double cheeseburger and fries!

By Leonardo "Eddie" Tan, Batch '66

I just arrived here in Sydney a week ago after a month-long sojourn in the USA and Canada. I almost made it to Mexico with a quick visit to Tijuana thru San Diego. With my wife, her mother and the entire family of my sister-in-law, we totaled eight in the group.

When the United Airline's 747 finally touched down at Sydney International Airport after 14-hour flight from Los Angeles on Sept. 15, I heaved a great sigh of relief for surviving the month-long trip without any incident. The trip involved around 46-hour of flying time plus about a hundred hours on the road. The little inconvenience of an airline strike. The threat of 110 miles per hour Hurricane Bonnie, which was along the Atlantic coast of Florida while we where in Miami. My fear of flying was compounded by the well publicized plane crash of Swissair Flight 111 in the territorial waters of Canada while I was in that country. I was not only suffering from jet lag but more so from the extreme reverse weather conditions - Australia at that time was still in winter and we arrived in Florida in the middle of the worst heat wave! Speaking of wrong timing, our Australian dollar was at its lowest value compared to the greenbuck which was around 57 cents US, when 6 months ago it was around 75 cents!

However, it was a great trip in the sense that we had a great reunion with my in-laws whom we last saw about 20 years ago. And personally it was a very fruitful sojourn as I was able to meet all our Spectrum staff and columnists in that part of the globe except for my cousin, Dra. Aurora Tansiokhian, which I regret very much.  I met Dr. Alex Rodriguez in Miami, Florida; Dr. Ernie Yu in Buffalo, New York; and Mike Lee in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. While in Los Angeles, I was able to meet Abraham and Mrs. Tessie (Siao) Go, both former classmates and old friends.

A few days after we arrived USA, President Clinton made his first TV address where he first admitted inappropriate relationship with Ms. Lewinsky.  A few days before we returned to Sydney, the Ken Starr Report was already submitted to US Congress and was made available on the Internet. I hope our readers are already tired of reading the details of the Bill and Monica affair through the Web site. By now I presume everyone had already viewed the very humiliating video of Clinton's testimony at the Grand Jury. Maybe it is a good time for me to start writing about the details of my trip starting next week. Viva Señor San Miguel! And Happy Fiesta to all Iliganons!

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

Cousin Loloy "Eddie" Tan's articles "Australia Haunted by Its Past" and "From Convenience to Ghetto" made me search for an article that I clipped from The Economist in 1996 titled "Australia:  Whose Country?"

In that article, Pauline Hanson's maiden speech in Parliament was the topic.  Elected to Australia's Parliament as an independent after the Liberal party dropped her because of her views on race, she attacked Asian immigrants and called for an end to multiculturalism.  She said: "We are in danger of being swamped by Asians.  They have their own culture and religion, form ghettos and do not assimilate."

Do her sentiments surprise me?   No!  Ms. Hanson was no doubt speaking what she deeply believed and was just being true to herself. "Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices -- just recognize them," according to thhe late Edward R. Murrow, a correspondent for CBS news. What surprised me was her brutal candor.

All racial and ethnic groups have their own Pauline Hansons. The ethnic Koreans in Japan, the ethnic Chinese in Malaysia and Indonesia, the Filipinos in Saudi Arabia are subject to institutional discrimination. The Hutus and Tutsis in Central Africa (Rwanda), the Serbs and the Albanians are killing each other.  Asians against Asians.  Blacks against Blacks. Whites against Whites, Asians and Blacks.  Socioeconomic discrimination (against the poor) is universal. We are strange animals.

I attended a medical conference a few years ago.  The speaker was a white Harvard male.  He made me feel very uncomfortable when he said "bread lines in China and India" repeatedly so much so that I raised my hand and declared, "There are no bread lines in China."  A deafening silence followed.  I did not know for a fact if there were bread lines in China or not but that was not the point. He made me feel uncomfortable. To his credit, he understood and said, "I did not mean it that way."  Was it Euro-centric myopia and/or insensitivity?

After the conference a male Indian physician approached me and said: "I like what you said. Please keep it up."  Why didn't he speak up?

 A song from "South Pacific" goes:

"You got to be taught to hate and fear.  You got to be taught from year to year.  It's got to be drummed in your dear little ear. You got to be  taught to be afraid of people whose eyes are oddly made, and of people whose skin is of different shade, you got to be carefully taught before it is too late, before you are 7 or 8, to hate all the people your relatives hate... "

The ultimate test of acceptance is to welcome one's child's partner to the family regardless of race/ethnicity. My mother passed this test with flying colors.  She was a woman for all seasons.

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

Medications: (1)  Pills: They are stimulants to the Beta cells to produce and/or release more endogenous or your own insulin. (2)  Insulin: They are exogenous insulin injected into the skin due to the inability of the pancreas to produce enough insulin thus serves as a replacement.

Types:
a)  Short acting insulin is rapid acting and of shorter duration of action. This is usually used for immediate control of blood sugar especially when a patient is really sick or has a complicated serious condition; b)  Intermediate acting like the NPH or N insulin is commonly used for controlled IDDM; c)  Combination between NPH and regular; and d)  Longer acting insulins.

We have the old ones and cheaper insulin preparation from animals like from the beef and the pork preparation which is slowly being replaced by the recombinant type like the Novolin and the humulin insulins. The recombinants are prepared from bacteria, thus has less immunity resistance problem.

The pills differ in their onset, duration and mode of actions and, of course, the presence of other concomitant diseases.

This piece tackles Alfred Lai's rejoinder (Spectrum, Aug. 31, 1998) to my article "America: Land of the Free?" (Spectrum, Aug. 24, 1998 issue), in which I reported my first-hand observations of some facets of life in the U.S.A.

Alfred Lai noted that "most heinous crimes like incest and murder" occur during self-gratifying or carefree indulgences like drinking.  That conclusion still remains to be proven.  Alcohol, per se, does not motivate a person to commit a crime.  On the high cost of car insurance, speed limits, and government restrictions, it is true that every government needs to collect its own revenues; that every car owner has to have insurance as mandated by law; that speed limits and hefty tickets are imposed for public safety. And, definitely, nobody wants to be awaken in the middle of the night by the fracas of one's neighbor.

Yet the point is: we are over-saturated with laws in the U.S.A. which, to some extent, go overboard. It is becoming ridiculous. To cite some examples, I was appalled when I read in New Jersey's major newspaper, The Star Ledger, about a man who was sued by his municipal town for refusing to patronize the town's water company and constructing his own deep well. Or, what about this? A person was held in contempt by the court and jailed for days when he wrote "Legal Extortion" in the memo section of the check he issued to pay the parking tickets. Here in the U.S.A., besides paying the municipal town where you have committed a driving offense, there are still other government agencies waiting to bill you.  These are just a few examples of the absurdity of the laws here. Yet, we have the notion that America is the" land of the free." The fact is New Jersey's cost of living is expensive compared to other places. The car insurance system here in NJ is absurd. A colleague of mine at UST, who happens to immigrate to Michigan, drives the same car as mine, yet he is paying 3 times less for car insurance than I am. It really takes an American to understand America.

In his closing statement, Alfred Lai draws a comparison between the American bureaucratic system and our own in the Philippines and asks: "Look where we are now?".  Perhaps, we should ask Manuel L. Quezon. Wasn't it he who said that "we are better off with a government run by rats than by foreigners"?

Only after reading the Spectrum (Sept. 21, 1998 issue) do I realize that I have been one of those people that you wish to meet again.  It has been 32 years, to be exact, since I last saw you. Wow! just imagine how time flies.

From your picture in the Spectrum, you really haven't changed much except for a pair of mustache and an M.D. degree added.  Otherwise, you're still  the Henry I have known for a long, long time; a guy with a ready smile. Your brother Dodong, the shy one who often turns red as a beet whenever he  is being teased.  Alex, too, was my classmate in Chinese classes. You and they are now accomplished doctors and are making us proud. Likewise to all our fellow alumni who fare well in their respective fields of endeavor. Keep it up, guys!

I still remember the past vividly like your playing takian with Alex Handumon  (a doctor too) and Mr. Ngo Nay Kong in the auditorium. Oh boy! You really can kick the takian so far that they couldn't reach it. There's more of those old memories but mostly are now lying dormant in my pandora's box.  Maybe it just needs a little perk-up then all will come tumbling down.

I'll just drop a few hints about me.  I work with my brother Amboy, and sister Dindin, in our farm, raising "boboy," according to the Muslim.  It's a tedious work yet rewarding. We do the artificial insemination (A.I., for short) to reduce the number of boars required and to add more gilts.

Hope you will schedule another visit to your home city and we will reunite with other batch mates, who are presently practicing in their different fields of business.  See you!  Happy Fiesta and Viva Señor San Miguel!