Wed, 10 Jul 2002 08:13:42 -0600
Our deepest sympathy to Bebe, An Sim and Family. --Hesing & Melania, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, e-mail: Jesus.Dy@gov.ab.ca

Wed, 10 Jul 2002 12:18:33 -0600
To Bebe and family: We are very sorry for your loss. --Peter (Batch '66) and Tita Dy, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, e-mail: pdy@telusplanet.net

Wed, 10 Jul 2002 22:58:08 +0000
Our prayers for the eternal rest of the late Ma Bon Tek.  --Alex Rodriguez (Batch '65) & family, Miramar, Florida, U.S.A., e-mail: gates000@bellsouth.net

Wed, 10 Jul 2002 20:13:36 -0500
Dear Bro. Pare Bebe, Sis Fe & family: My family and I are extending our profound condolence on the demise of your father. Our prayers will be with him on his journey to be with the Supreme Architect of the Universe. -- Pare Greg, Sis Mary, Gregory and Geralldine, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A., e-mail: gregdy@juno.com

Date:  Mon Jul 15, 2002  11:40 am
To Bebe Palang and Family: Our deepest sympathy. --Johnson (Batch '64) and Irenea Dy and family, Orland park, Illinois, U.S.A., e-mail: ireneady@hotmail.com

GAH: Three days too long?

In may still seem too early but come to think of it, after GAH2000 we are already half way into GAH2005, slated in the third week of July 2005.  Pretty soon preparations shall be under way back home to lay the groundwork for GAH2005.  To set the pace for another successful grand homecoming, we wish to solicit your personal inputs on a fundamental aspect of the affair.  This concerns the duration of the GAH.  While many are of the opinion that a three-day affair was fairly appropriate, there are likewise many others who think that three days are too hectic and too long.  They feel that the activities, such as those included in GAH2000, could be held in two days without sacrificing the fun and enjoyment.  Appropriating the GAH activities in two days, they say, will allow our homecoming alumni more free time to spend meaningful moments with their family members and close friends.  What do you think? --Charles O. Sy (Batch '67), Cebu, Philippines

Three days is good especially for those who are now residing outside Iligan. If one is exhausted on the 2nd day then he has to stay home but for others who didn't have enough of the action will not be deprived of such opportunity. --Alex Rodriguez (Batch '65), Florida, U.S.A.

In my personal opinion, two full days and two nights would be enough: registration, luncheon like the one we had on Day 3 with the first GAH except this time it will be on Day 1. We can have the Filipiniana Night with talent show and program on the first night. Day 2 can be for chika-chika with classmates or picnic, then at night time we can have the gala. We can have speakers for the luncheon on Day 1 and gala on the 2nd night. --Evelyn Go (Batch '77), Texas, U.S.A.

Why not 2004?

People around us today are just with us on loan. They could be taken from us any time. I don’t believe in postponing something that we could do now.  Or something we could do sooner.  On this note, I come to the next issue discussed in the e-group and that’s the next GAH in 2005.  As unrelated as this two issues may seem, for me, they are somehow connected.  Because both issues bring out the same feeling of fear, fear that the name of somebody close to us might appear first in the Obituary. Fear that the next GAH may be too far away, that we might no longer see the people we wanted to see if we wait for 2005.  Can’t we have it sooner?  I know that some people may say that “it’s easy for me to say” because I’m not directly involved with the preparations. But just like before I’m willing to help in whatever way I could.  And with the blueprints of the first GAH in place, I’m sure that the next one won’t be as difficult as the first one where everything had to start from scratch. --Janiefer Q. Lee (Batch '87), Manila, Philippines

Can we slice off a year in the next planned alumni reunion in Iligan – 2004 instead of 2005?  This way, we can tap and stomp on, while still concrete-solid (pardon the pun), the skeletal debris and sediments of the foundation of our youthful idealism and dreams. --Ernesto Yu (Batch '65), New York, U.S.A.

Letter of thanks
Monday, July 8, 2002 - 06:43 PM

To all our friends and family:  On behalf of my family, I would like to express our heartfelt and sincere thanks to all those who said prayers and provided me and my family support during our bereavement.  I felt so helpless being far away but your simple words of consolation and expression of sympathy meant a lot to me.  My special thanks to my forever friend Loloy "Ed" Tan, Peter and Tita Dy, Jesus and Melania, Lecon and Letty, Roger, Charles Sy and everyone who helped us go through the difficulty and pain of disbelief.  Again, thank you. --Jaime Andaquig, Phoenix, Arizona, USA, e-mail:  andaquig007@yahoo.com

History of LCHS
July 16, 2002

I like reading your articles especially about the old history of LCHS on the Spectrum web site.  The LCHS Spectrum helps all of the alumni to communicate and interact with each other even though they're far away. --Elbert Louie Eslao, Vice President - Internal, LCHS Student Government, Iligan City, Philippines, e-mail: punky_ign@yahoo.com

Roger Suminguit, Batch '73

Alumni whereabouts

"Tracers" learned from our man in Florida, U.S.A., Alex Rodriguez (Batch '65), that his batch mate, Antonio "Dodo" Chan, is doing fine and staying with his sister Nene Chan in L.A., California.  Bonifacio Te (Batch '62) is currently in Chicago, U.S.A. where he is visiting Alex Handumon (Batch '68) and Larry Handumon (Batch '72).  Meanwhile, in Canada, Fe Quimbo flew from Vancouver to Edmonton, Alberta last week to visit brothers Jesus Dy (Batch '63) and Peter Dy (Batch '66) and their families.  Closer to home, Jacque Lynn Samson (Batch '97) is currently taking her apprenticeship in Hotel and Restaurant Management in a trendy Thai restaurant called Krua Thai, located at the Crossroads in Banilad, Cebu City. Jacque Lynn is the daughter of LCHS-AA past president Toto Samson (Batch '59) whose classmate, Sinforosa Tan (Batch ’59), aka Sinforosa Lim, has been going around the Southeast Asian circuit in connection with the distance study program of Suny/Westchester Community College, Valhalla, New York, U.S.A. where she is a full-fledged professor of mathematics. After obtaining her bachelor’s degree at the University of San Carlos, Rose (or Lechu, as her classmates fondly call here) proceeded to take her post-graduate studies at Cornell University where she earned her M.S.T. degree and at the Syracuse University where she earned her Ph.D.degree. We hope she could join us during our Grand Alumni Homecoming in 2005.  Many of her friends and classmates truly miss her. Rose, who is now an ardent practitioner of the ancient form of Tai-Chi, has not been to our old hometown for a long, long while. Farley Sy (Batch '74), the much-sought-after bachelor-at-large, has opened new branches of Crown Paper Stationer in Ozamis and Cagayan de Oro cities. His showrooms display the most modern and elegant office and school furnitures including computer tables, chairs and cabinets.

"Tracers" was invited to the dinner cum reunion of Batch '74 at Cafe Hermoso in the evening of July 17, 2002. This impromptu class reunion was occasioned by the arrival of their long-lost batchmate Jovencio Samson together with his beloved wife, Annie Po-Samson, of Cebu City and only son Bryan. Vencio had been on a vacation leave before his mother, the late Conchita Gan Samson, died last July 9.  He is the brother of past president Arturo "Toto" G. Samson. Vencio, an electrical engineer, worked with the National Power Corporation from 1983 to 1993. He was assigned in Iligan, General Santos City, Tacurong, Sultan Kudarat and Davao City as Technical Personnel. Afterwards, he emigrated to the United States. For almost ten years, Vencio and his family have been residing in Florida where he works. He is now connected with the Bell South, a telephone company.  Present in that enchanted evening were Farley Sy, Edilino "Linlin" Dagondon, Edgar Lim, Stephen Ang, Kelly Dy, Nida Te-Tejada, Anita Te-Dagondon, Miguela Sy-Taroza and Eleonor Rodriguez-Rocha. Linlin Dagondon kept teasing Vencio, Farley, Stephen, Edgar and Kelly for their visible signs of graying hair. Although Linlin Dagondon had jet-black hair, he exhibited early signs of HIV (Hair Is Vanishing). When their female classmates went home, the class reunion turned into an all-male drinking party with plenty of beer and red wines. Anderson "Antik" Dy and Prudencio "Wahoy" Tan were invited to join the group. The group dispersed at 2:00 a.m. (mga balbal pud diay).  Seen on that night also at Cafe Hermoso having late dinner were Geraldine Tan (Batch '87), Joy Ang, the wife of Jimmy Ang (Batch '83), Jorlyn Sy(Batch '83) and Alicia Cu-Go. Could they be talking about the 2nd grand alumni homecoming?  In the afternoon of July 18, 2002, I passed by a group of alumni celebrating the birthday of Samuel Padayhag (Batch '83).  Drinking beer with him and sharing their secrets were his classmates: Vinson Ngo, Jimmy Ang, Steward Co and Yugene Taongan.  Happy birthday, Samuel!

Charles O. Sy, Batch '67

Gregorio Yu says he's amused reading Sy-llables.  Wel1, thank Yu very much. -- ooo -- Roderick Ngo says he doesn't know much about football but he still watched the World Cup games just for kicks. -- ooo -- James Yared Gaite is doing very well as a dermatologist in Cebu.  He's making a fortune from scratch. -- ooo -- A coed complained to me that the bathroom in her dormitory has a peephole.  I assured her that I would look into it. -- ooo -- Victor Chiu wants more women writers in the Spectrum.  He doesn't want people to think he is a male Chiu-vinist. -- ooo -- Jonas Sy chickened out of his appointment with his dentist for root canal treatment.  He lost his nerve. -- ooo -- A Japanese friend invited me for a ride on his yacht which is equipped with high-tech gizmos.  That's what we call state-of-the-ark technology. -- ooo -- Vy Beng Hong wants everyone in alumni board meetings to take part in deliberations because he doesn't want the members of the board to become bored members. -- ooo -- David Warren Lim has opened a new law office in Iligan. He is one lawyer you can run to in case you're served a Warren of Arrest. -- ooo -- When Evelyn Yu Go returned to the U.S.A. after a vacation in Cebu, I bade her good-bye by saying: We're all gonna miss you, if Yu Go away. -- ooo -- Plans are afoot to combine the web site of the LCHS alumni with the web site of the Spectrum.  Once they are merged, we can pronounce them newly-webs.

Here is the complete list of the 50 singers of our time, and their songs, brought to you the spoon feeding way, very much like how we were taught back in grade school during the 50’s and 60’s, period to period, comma by comma, etc., when the world was more peaceful, less polluted, and very simple in many ways than one. Remember those days? I’m giving you the outright match between the singers and their songs with the hope that as you read along, you will easily remember the people you’ve been with, the places you’ve gone to, and the things you did. So join me once again as we take another sentimental journey into our past, of the singers and their songs of our time, in a world all our own…

1. Simon and Garfunkel (The Sounds of Silence/Homeward Bound)
2. Monkees (I’ll Be True To You/It’s Nice To Be With You)
3. Bee Gees (To Love Somebody/I Started A Joke/First Of May)
4. Peter, Paul, and Mary (If I Had A Hammer/500 Miles/Leaving On A Jet Plane)
5. Rolling Stones (Satisfaction/As Tears Go By)
6. Associations (Cherish/Never My Love)
7. Beach Boys (Graduation Day/Don’t Worry Baby)
8. Mamas and Papas (California Dreamin’/Dedicated To The One I Love)
9. Gary Lewis and the Playboys (This Diamond Ring/Save Your Heart For Me)
10. Classics IV (Traces)
11. Platters (The Great Pretender/Only You/Smoke Gets In Your Eyes)
12. Lennon Sisters (Sad Movies/I Went To Your Wedding/Autumn Leaves)
13. Peter and Gordon (True Love Ways/A World Without Love)
14. Tony Bennet (I Left My Heart In San Francisco/Boulevard Of Broken Dreams)
15. Brothers Four (Yellowbird)
16. Lulu (To Sir With Love)
17. Dave Clark Five (Everybody Knows/Because/I’ll Be Yours My Love)
18. Frank Sinatra (Softly As I Leave You/Strangers In The Night)
19. Chicago (Color My World)
20. Timi Yuro (Crazy/I Apologize)
21. Diana Ross and the Supremes (Stop in the Name of Love)
22. Frankie Avalon (Venus)
23. Joni James (Fools Rush In/There Goes My Heart/I’m In The Mood For Love)
24. Engelbert Humperdinck (Release Me/The Last Waltz)
25. Dusty Springfield (You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me)
26. Connie Francis (Three Coins In The Fountain/Tammy/Where The Boys Are)
27. Doris Day (Day By Day)
28. Pat Boone (April Love/Love Letters In The Sand)
29. Paul Anka (Puppy Love/ Put Your Head On My Shoulder/Lonely Boy)
30. Neil Sedaka (Oh Carol/ The Diary/You Mean Everything To Me)
31. Petula Clark (Don’t Sleep In The Subway/Lover’s Concerto)
32. Perry Como (Fly Me To The Moon)
33. Matt Monro (Walk Away, Before You Go/Born Free/From Russia With Love)
34. Elvis Presley (It’s Now Or Never, Love Me Tender/Wooden Heart)
35. Cliff Richard (Constantly/The Young Ones/Summer Holiday)
36. Sue Thompson (I Can’t Stop Loving You/If the Boy Only Knew)
37. Bobby Vinton (Mr. Lonely)
38. Johnny Mathis (The Twelfth Of Never/A Certain Smile/Misty)
39. Roy Hamilton (Unchained Melody)
40. Everly Brothers (Devoted To You/Let It Be Me/Crying In The Rain)
41. Sonny and Cher (Just You)
42. Carpenters (We’ve Only Just Begun/Top Of The World/Close To You)
43. B. J. Thomas (Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head)
44. Brian Hyland (Sealed With A Kiss)
45. Jackson 5 (I’ll Be There)
46. Hollies (Bus Stop)
47. Beatles (A Hard Day’s Night/No Reply)
48. Lettermen (She Cried/The Way You Look Tonight/Shangrila)
49. Herman’s Hermit (There’s A Kind Of Hush/I Understand)
50. Cascades (Rhythm Of The Rain/Lucky Guy/Shy Girl/The Last Leaf)

Marie Janiefer Q. Lee, Batch '87

Every time I get an email from our alumni e-group with “obituary” as it’s subject, my initial reaction is always “my goodness who is it this time?” I always whisper some sort of plea that I hope it’s not somebody I know.  But sad to say knowing how small our community is, it’s usually somebody who had touched our lives in one way or the other. Or it is somebody who's dear to a friend or a classmate.

These past few weeks we’ve had several obituaries in the e-group.  I wonder when will all these end.  It also reminds me of the fragility of life. Which just reinforces my belief that whatever we want to say to a person, or whatever we want to do for a person, we have to do it while we still have the chance or while that person is still alive and well.  I’ve learned this the hard way when I lost my own father without even saying a single “thank you” for everything that he had done for me.  Without even uttering a single “I love you” for raising me the way he did.  It wasn’t because he was far away that I didn’t get the chance to tell him, since he comes home from our store every afternoon.  It was because I just never thought that death would come knocking on our door that early in my life which was a big mistake.

This taught me one lesson that the people around us today are just with us on loan.  They could be taken from us any time.  I don’t believe in postponing something that we could do now.  Or something we could do sooner.  On this note, I come to the next issue discussed in the e-group and that’s the next GAH in 2005.  As unrelated as this two issues may seem, for me, they are somehow connected.  Because both issues bring out the same feeling of fear, fear that the name of somebody close to us might appear first in the Obituary.  Fear that the next GAH may be too far away, that we might no longer see the people we wanted to see if we wait for 2005.  Can’t we have it sooner?  I know that some people may say that “it’s easy for me to say” because I’m not directly involved with the preparations.  But just like before I’m willing to help in whatever way I could.  And with the blueprints of the first GAH in place, I’m sure that the next one won’t be as difficult as the first one where everything had to start from scratch.

I’m sorry if I may “rock the boat” by raising this issue.  But I’m just afraid that it might be too late.  For some of us, what if tomorrow never comes.

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

Batman has Robin, Butsch Cassidy has The Sundance Kid, John has Marsha, Dolphy has Panchito, and similarly, my old country chapters are beyond the scope of my peripheral vision without the complement and opposite charges of the Iligan years. Of particular significance are the history dust bin stuffed with the pitch-perfect LCHS days in the sun and the crass, low-wattage wanderings in sporadic doom and gloom.

Basically, the plot thickens, like corn-starched soup left to simmer, when I replay in painstaking details and spin in pure honesty every vibrating chord (squeaky, resonant) of my diaper to long pants metamorphosis in Lanao del Norte. The fact stays firm: my delicious (Alaber brotherhood, loitering around St.Michael’s all-girls campus) and occasional gruesome encounter (high school math exams. Grrr!) add poignancy to the launch. Like anything else in life, I had both upbeat and beaten up times: cheery days even without the real steaming red-hot cherries, deep-seated comedic graces, and loads of spirit-dragging mornings to deadspan, “To hell with all the avalanche of irritating psychic flashes.

Then again, the mindless jolt-a-minute thrills wear thin fast. When everything is reshuffled, blended and filtered, I get snippets of good shakes that tip my inner equilibrium to the upside of uptown. As one crippled dinosaur of my era once gasped, “The moodily gorgeous songs throb and radiate in all directions. Eventually.” At its heart, the recycling of familiar old-fashioned songs, the likes of “If Tomorrow Never Comes” and “The Look of Love”, is a refrain to chug along and to glamorize the everydayness of life’s lyrical grinds.

That, dear, is brainwashing at its finest blow. The feel-good vibes and experience are liberating. I’m relatively at peace with this carbonated freshness. Offer me a choice, say,  2004 for next LCHS grand reunion and I’ll pack my meaty yesterdays for another long haul to the present.

Michael John L. Siangco, Batch '96

Recently I rode a PUJ here in Iligan and was pissed off by the "traffic" in midmorning.  I wondered if there was an accident or perhaps there was a sudden influx of vehicles in that part of the city.  Or maybe there was a sudden suspension of classes, or even a parade of a multitude of people.  I saw many traffic enforcers along the street. They seemed to be busy informing all drivers of new rules. When we reached our turn, I was quite surprised at what the traffic enforcer was talking about:  It was about the enforcement of an ordinance that prohibits women, especially in revealing attires, from sitting beside the driver in the front seat (unless of course if she's the wife!).

What a funny city ordinance! What then if the ladies want to sit in front?  Could sitting beside a beautiful woman cause such hormonal outbursts that would distract normal and logical interpretations of the rules of the game in the streets?  Does Iligan City have adequate proofs to conclude that the situation may indeed result in accidents?

Truly this will draw outrage from all women who are seeking equal rights. The ordinance might have been sincere in its desire to prevent unnecessary accidents.  However, in our society today when even dogs and cats have basic rights, women will surely protest against discrimination.

After a couple of phone calls and news articles, I found out that this ordinance was rather an obsolete one. Authored by Councilor Alfredo Busico, it was passed as City Ordinance 15-09 in 1982 when Camilo P. Cabili was still the mayor.

Surprisingly, the people were never aware of such an ordinance.  Several mayors had taken oath, yet it was only now that this ordinance was "recovered" and "implemented."  Only now when there are other more significant and more urgent problems in the traffic division -- the smoking drivers inside a non-smoking PUJ's, the jetblack belch, the loading and unloading on no unloading signs, the illegal terminals and so on.

Have the authorities solved these problems yet?  Or have they even implemented the laws concerning these problems consistently?  It's just correct to implement the law.  But it's more correct to update it through the changing times. It is also more correct to implement it with consistency.  It is also more correct to prioritize the problem.

I see there are a lot of things to work on.  Let's not sweat over the small stuff.
.

Hi!  I’m Charmaine, a member of Class ’65. I was at the kitchen when Victor Chiu, my classmate, called me up and asked me to join the staff of the Spectrum for old time’s sake.  How could I refuse?  “For old time’s sake” were the magic words that mesmerized, transfixed and brought me back to the days when Alex, Alberto and Ernie were still in short pants and were known then as the Alaber Gang. That was a few years before they were feared as the “kilabot ng mga colegiala.” That was the time when we sang “Pahaloka ko ‘Day” under the baton of Ma’am Ramonita Siao; the time when we had to extract square roots and cube roots with pencil and paper because electronic calculators were not yet around; the time when we still used fountain pens for writing our letters and formal themes.

After giving me a bird’s-eye view of how the Spectrum was published and getting me acquainted with the Internet that he himself learned only this year, Victor told me to take charge of the social and special events.  For this assignment, he handed me two CD’s of the Spectrum archive and a compilation of photos taken during the last grand alumni homecoming.  In addition, he gave me some assorted lists of alumni names from the pre-war era to the present.  It was up for me to sort them out and see what I could do with them.

Wading through the lists of names was a revealing and refreshing experience. I realized that there are only a few of us -- 1,105 living alumni plus 48 who have passed away. Every year, our school population rarely exceeded 300.  When I graduated, there were only 16 of us. The present third year class has 17 students while the fourth year class has 28. Total school population is 285, a slight increase from last year’s 282. Nothing much has changed.

Since the lists of alumni names were compiled from different sources (oftentimes from memory), it naturally contained errors and double listings. While sorting the lists of alumni names, I came across of some interesting items. Let me share them with you.

Did you know that there are four persons with the name of Jesus Dy?  They are Jesus the copra dealer and father of Franklin and Corazon, Jesus the CPA, Jesus of Canada and the husband of Melania, and Jesus Jr. the basketball player known as Dy Siao Chuan. There are two William Dy’s -- William the son of Jesus Dy the copra dealer and William the proud father of Whitney Dy, the swimming champion. There are two Soledad Yu’s -- Soledad the daughter of Walah of the Oriental Restaurant fame and Soledad the sister of Yu Chi Li and Yu Chi Kian.

There are two Charles Sy’s -- Charles the founder of the Spectrum and Charles the son of Sy Chu Pin. There are two Jose Lim’s -- Jose the father of Atty. David Warren Lim and Jose the take-charge guy of Capitol and Apollo hardware. There are two Wilson Lim’s, both doctors -- Wilson the Internist and Wilson the Dentist. There are two Willy C. Dy’s -- Willy Dy of the BIR, brother of Lecon and Letty and Willy Dy of U.S.A., brother of Kelly.  There are two Nelson Dy’s -- Nelson the NPC engineer and Nelson the businessman from Manticao.

There are duplications in the lists. Pablito Yu and Yu Chi Kian are one and the same person. So are Manuel Tan and Manuel “Kishi” Bernardo, Manuel Lim and Manuel “Aki” Tan, Carmen Lim and Carmen Chan, Marilyn Co and Bonifacia Co, Miwa Go and Adelaida Debalucos, Glory Dy and Gloricita Racines, Kim Huat Go and Nicomedes Debalucos, Sinforosa Lim and Sinforosa Tan, Artemio Ho and Artemio Lagrosas, James Ho and James Tiu Huan, Alim Lim and Alim Yap, Asim Lim and Asim Yap, Betty Ang and Elizabeth Co, Eddie Ang and Eddie Co, Eduardo Dy and Leonardo Tan.

There are patronymic surnames too.  They are Dy Pico, Dychutee, Kaw Hoc, Bagatan, Dy-Carlos and Dy-Henry.  Bagatan is derived from “Tan Baga,” the Chinese name of Mariano the patriarch. Patronymic surnames are great for tracing one's genealogy, but I wonder why Robert Dychutee discontinued the tradition?  He named his son Bryan Cynric Dy -- not Dychutee.

As I scanned over the lists, I noticed that until the eighties, alumni sported the standard Spanish and American names. Starting in the nineties, there emerged some double and triple names such as Duke Harvy, Karen Gay, Mark Stanley, Prince Dane, Minnie Noreen, Ryan Cliftonne, Jean Haydee, Mae Angela, Abigail Louise, Clive Jonathan and Farrah Vei Meriam. Then the names became more imaginative, artistic and unique. Nowhere but in our most recent alumni lists did I come across such names as Czarina Gebrelle, Mikhail Ingemar, Oileen Hettie, Heather Kizia, Emafet Charitt, Joy Honeylet, Jewel Joy, Stylus and Philchin.  Even my dear classmate, the late Carmen Chan, named her daughters Enjoy Faith and New Blossom.  Among the present-day students, one can read the hard-to-come-across names of Franzymyll, Pao-Ju, Gwyneth Nicole, Maleika Andrea, Jade Shahara, Krissa Hanika, Maxine Alexis, Zynth and Kento Fujimori.

Speaking of nicknames, there are two persons known as Boy Siao -- Benjohnson Siao and the late Goodfrey Siao.  There are two Boy Lim’s -- Suniel Lim of Lian Hong and Castor Ong Lim the business manager of the Spectrum. There are two Bandoy’s -- Manuel Sy of Initao and Manuel Te, our past alumni president. And there are three persons with the nickname of Siopao -- Manuel Gaite, Calix Tan and Victor Lim Yu while there are two persons whose childhood names were taken from the movies -- King Kong for Atty. Guardson Siao and Tarzan for Virgilio Yu.  Superman is reserved for Mr. Tung, a Chinese language teacher in the late fifties, who uncannily looked like Clark Kent.

Many foreigners confess of encountering for the first time "repeating names" such as Ping-Ping or Pong-Pong.  Incidentally, they are the nicknames given to the children of Ruben Lee.  I used to think that "repeating names" were commonplace.  Many of our alumni sport these names too.  They are:  Son-Son (Marcy Sy), Kwan-Kwan (Virna Sy), Din-Din (Linda Ang and James Siao), An-an (Victoria Kho and Charlene Yu), Bebe (Ramonita Siao and Bebencio Palang), Bobo (Franklin Siao), Lily (Lily Siao and Lily Lee), Cang-Cang (Joseph Siao), Lip-Lip (Philip Siao), Ek-Ek (Rex Siao), Dodo (Antonio Chan), Wek-Wek (Ernest Oliver Uy), Titi (Bienvenido Lim and Apolonia Chiu), Ben-Ben (Bienvenida Uy), Lao-Lao (Yolanda Chiu), E-E (Perla Yu), Toto (Arturo Samson), Yao-Yao (the late Honorata Tan), Hym-Hym (the late Ong Ching An), Bian-Bian (Rosie Siao) and Mei-Mei (Teresita Siao).  Usually, we write our "repeating names" with a square sign, such as: Ping2 or Pong2.

But for names that instantly bring us back to our childhood days, nothing can beat the childhood names of Tua-T’ao, Gung-Gung and Gong-Ti.  Who are they?  I won’t tell, I won’t tell!