Vol. 6, No. 15, October 28, 2002

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Iligan City Mayor Franklin Quijano has been chosen as one of the country's two best city mayors. He tied with Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña in winning the award during the 86th anniversary of the Senate in Manila last Oct. 17.  Both were picked among 115 city mayors all over the country and were judged on governance, transparency and continuity and sustainability of programs, among others.

The award is a joint project of the Department of Interior and Local Government, the Senate, the University of the Philippines, De La Salle University and two other leading academic institutions.  Both chief executives received a cash prize of P100,000 each.  Mayor Quijano said he would donate his P100,000 cash prize to the proposed Museo Pambata project here in Iligan to be situated near the ancestral house of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in Timoga.  Bulacan Gov. Josefina de la Cruz won as outstanding governor while Concepcion, Iloilo Mayor Raul Banias was recognized as best municipal mayor.  Senate president Franklin Drilon sweetned the award by announcing that the awardees would have added benefits via Priority Area Development Fund of senators.  As directed by Drilon, Mayor Quijano will get P1 million in projects for Iligan City.

Quijano, 46, the son of a mechanic and a public school teacher, was a consistent honor student during his school days. A cum laude graduate, he had been an economics professor at the University of San Carlos in Cebu City before he studied law and passed the bar in 1983.  Quijano entered politics in 1988 at age of 33 when he ran for councilor as an independent candidate and placed first. As Iligan city mayor, he transformed the city with his numerous projects, including the integrated bus terminal, road widening, overpass and drainage improvement and urban poor housing.  Under his term, marginalized sectors were organized and federated, and livelihood and agriculture were given added attention.  Accompanying photo shows, from left to right:  Sen. Pimentel, Mayor Osmeña, Sen. Drilon (partly hidden), Mayor Quijano, and Sec. Lina.

New staff members of Campus Keeper chosen
By Farley Ong, LCHS High School Senior

The senior class elected a new set of staff members of Campus Keeper.  Elected were:  Cromwell Jansen Co, editor-in-chief; Elbert Louie Eslao, managing editor; Farley Ong, features editor; Maria Shahana Cabili, news editor; Peter Chan, graphics editor; Ben Nahshon Sy and Bryan Kristoffer Quing, cartoonists and Ma’am Silmarie Emperio, adviser.

The staff has lately been busy with the coming deadline of the first issue of the newly revived Campus Keeper which is set to be published at the end of October.

LCHS-AA grants seed capital to Campus Keeper

The LCHS Alumni Association has taken full cognizance of the revival of Campus Keeper, a student publication of LCHS in 1968.   The alumni association unanimously approved the proposal of Suniel Lim to grant the amount of 1,000 pesos as seed capital of Campus Keeper.  In support of this worthwhile undertaking, alumni president Vy Beng Hong, himself a staff member of the 1968 publication, enjoined all alumni to donate to the Campus Keeper fund.

My trip last summer (March 23-May 28) to Xiamen, China, made me a little nervous. It was the first time that I traveled without my Mom, Dad, and Kuya.  From Iligan, we were only nine, my 3 classmates and 5 schoolmates.  However, when we arrived in Manila for our orientation, I saw that there were almost 300 young people like me who will be leaving for the educational tour. This made me excited and I told myself: Wow! I like to be a friend to them.  My roommate, Eugene Gerald Ty (Xavier School, Manila) became my first acquaintance. With him, my little vocabulary of Tagalog came in handy and expanded. Eugene is tall and bigger than me but boyish.

Then I met my classmates, who easily became my friends -- Wilson Tan, Aldrich Syling, Allen Chen, Addison Lim, Jon Dy, Kerwin Lu, Brian Tiu, Cid Alberto, Sarah Sy, Genevieve Cañete, Kathryn Go, Aimee Chiong. Included in this group are my fellow Iliganons -- Cromwell, Bryann, Heidi, Katrina, and Claire. We were always together in all of our summer classes.

Now comes another group of friends with whom I have so much fun. This group is together in one table during meals, in our tours and doing presentations. Aside from the 3 Iliganon boys -- these are the funny nice boys -- Joseph Ang, Derrick Austin Ong, Justine Lu, Abiel Joshua Sy, Eugene Gerald Ty, Raymund Siegfried Li, Sean Lemuel Su, and Carlsberg Howard Tsang.

Aside from the above two groups, I also made friends with the other young men and women in the tour, who came from all over the Philippines. Until now, we still keep in touch through e-mails and text messages. Thru our modern technology, bridges were made from Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao -- which makes communication fast and easy..  Henry Thoreau said, "Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make latitudes and longitudes."

This trip gave me so many memorable and unforgettable memories. I learned so much about Chinese culture, tasted Chinese cuisine, seen beautiful places -- nature and temples.  But most of alll, the friends I have acquired made the trip worthwhile.

On this occasion of All Souls' Day, we say a prayer and pay tribute to our dearly beloved alumni who have gone to our Creator ahead of us: Maning (Dy) Acedo, Catalino Benolerao, Masing Tan Bernardo,  Manuel Bernardo, Philip Bernardo, Eduardo Cabayao, Carmen Chan, Jesus Chan, Nathalie Chan, Ernesto "Junior" Chiu,  Isabel Chiu, Raymundo Chiu Jr., Renato Chua,  Lucio Co, Johnny Delorino, Dy Sheik Hym "Ong Ching An", Silvestre "Ching Chung" Dy, Dy Sun Kang, Monica Jo, Noel Lai, Wilson Lao, Alexander Lee, Benita Lim, Carlos Ong Lim, Jimmy Wong Ling, Ngo Phek Sing, Alita "Chiao Hua" Ong, Benito "Junior" Ong, Emmanuel Ong, Susan Ong, Albert Pua, Lea Quilat, Johnson Dy Salvador, Charita (Po) Sia, Eduardo Sia, Godfrey Siao, Yolando Siao, George "Hong Kiau" Sy, Lucing Sy, Sy See Sa, Claro Tan, Cresencio Tan, Honorata Tan, Leopoldo Tan, Teodoro Tan, Victorio Tan, Felix Te, Teh Yu Siong, Flora Uy, Alberto Yu, and Geraldine Yu.

Travel Notes:  One of Iligan's most eligible bachelors, Santi Ong (Batch '70), took a well-deserved respite from his hectic business sked in Iligan and jetted off to Guam last Oct. 24.  He went there together with his fellow Rotarians from Iligan to attend the Rotary International convention. He plans to go sightseeing, too, in his spare time. Who knows, Santi may yet catch the apple of his eye in that tropical paradise.  He is due back in Iligan on Oct. 27.  Meanwhile, taking a semestral break in Iligan from her studies at the Ateneo de Manila University is Jane Dale Racines (Batch 2001).  While in Iligan, Jane Dale's family threw a debut party for her at the Alavar's Restaurant on Oct. 26.  She is a regular contributor of the Spectrum.

Impressed
Sunday, Oct. 13, 2002, 06:32 PM

Thank you for sending me the current issue. I have read the whole issue thoroughly and it's very good! My appreciation to your efforts, to all the contributors and to your entire staff.  I am amazed with the way you edited and organized my article. I am impressed!  Keep up the good work. --Josefina Guiritan (Batch '84), Makati, Philippines, e-mail:  datguiritan@yahoo.com

Please forgive me for asking, but I can't help wondering if Mr. Fuertes is sick?  I have been waiting for the continuation of his article on Kalantiaw.  He left us in suspense as to the identity of Jose Marco.  Although I'm an engineer, I am very much interested in history -- not the cut-and-dried, facts-and-figures variety, but the fascinating tales told by master historians like Mr. Fuertes.  If he is not sick, could we request him to write about the Moro rebellion?  With all the bombings and kidnappings, I think it's a hot topic -- that is, if I do not presume too much. --Robinson Salvador (Batch '89), Villaverde, Iligan City.

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

THE perks of being 50 or over.  Inspired by a forwarded mail that a friend of mine sent me, I have come up with my own perks. But first let me share with you his e-mail. Here are 7 out of the 19 he sent:

When you're 50 or over ...
1.  Kidnappers are not very interested in you.
2.  In a hostage situation you are likely to be released first.
3.  No one expect you to run into a burning building.
4.  You have a party and the neighbors don't even realize it.
5.  You no longer think of speed limit as a challenge.
6.  You sing along with the elevator music.
7.  You can't remember who sent you this.

And here's my version:
1.  You dial a friend and when he answers you after 10 minutes or so, you ask "Who's this?"
2.  Your friend tells you "This is George". And you answer "Oh, George. What's it that I wanted to tell you?" or worst, "Why did you call?"
3.  You believe in "Early to bed, early to rise" so you sleep at 9:00 and wake up at 2:00 and can't remember what to do.
4.  You read the newspaper from a distance, with wrinkled forehead most of the time.
5.  You forgot where you place your eyeglasses and the whole house staff go crazy looking for it only to find it inside your cabinet.
6.  You find it hard to put on your socks sitting down.
7.  Climbing stairs would make your nose flare up and leave you panting.
8.  You scratch where the itch is, even in public places.
9.  You rest your head on your pillow and find out some saliva stains the morning after.
10. You talk to your friend using the cell, and people look at you. Why? Because you can’t hear him and you talk too loud.

Life at 50. Time and again, people would ask us the question: "What is life?" And oftentimes, we have to pause long and ponder hard because we could not come up with a candid answer. So what is life? Now that I’m 50, and having gone thru the many businesses of living along several winding roads of life, the ups and downs, I can truly say that...

Life is a journey. And it's great to be travelling along with somebody in these journeys and the many more that will have to come in our lives, especially when the sailing gets rough, when you’re down and troubled and you need a helping hand.

Life is all about relationships. Yes, life deals with all kinds of relationships - family, children, relatives, friends, business associates, household staff, etc. As we go thru life, we get to meet thousands of people, some of whom we get involved with, get attached to, be committed, get hurt, laugh with, cry with, have fun, have joy amidst several seasons in the sun, etc. In short, building memories that we could always look back with fondness in the sunset years of our lives.

Enjoy LIFE’S JOURNEY.

Marie Janiefer Q. Lee, Batch '87

This morning on our way to school I pointed to my kids how beautiful the sky is.  The sunlight was just right and the shapes of the clouds were just amazing.  I was looking at the sky with so much enthusiasm as if I haven’t been out for days.  Which made me look back as to what happened to me last week. Why do I feel as though I’ve just gotten out of a long tunnel.

Then I remembered what happened last week.  It was then that I muttered to myself that “when it rains it really pours”.  My gloomy days started when  a close friend suddenly left.  For me it felt like I was losing her forever.  The day she left it seems like all the colors and all the music in my world left with her.

Then it was also last week when I lost my wallet.  I can’t even tell whether it was snatched from my bag or I dropped it somewhere.  I know for sure that whoever has it now must be sorry too because I don’t carry that much money.  The cards and the other ID’s in there are replaceable what depresses me are those small things that I could never be able to replace.

Speaking of small things, it was also last week that my helper accidentally drops an angel that was given to me.  I always think of myself as somebody who isn’t materially- attached, but this time my fuse really exploded.  I know that that small glass thing isn’t worth millions, but the memories attached to it is worth so much more. Now that my green glass angel is gone I’m afraid that my memories of that part of my life will slowly fade away too.

The last blow came last Friday when I got a text message from my classmate Geraldine Tan.  She told me that our teacher Miss Epifania Maglaque passed away the day before. I’ve always planned to go visit her in Oslob, Cebu but never had the chance.  I can never forget how she taught us how to read and encouraged us to read. I’ll never forget how “big” and “important” I felt when she asked me to teach some of my classmates who were having a hard time reading.

Since she didn’t make it in the 2000 GAH, I was hoping I would see her in 2005.  I was hoping I could thank her in person  for getting me hooked on reading.  Now, I’ve lost all my chances of ever saying even a simple “thank you”. I just hope and pray that she’s happy and at peace wherever she is.

They say that behind every clouds is a silver lining, well, I hope I’m now way passed that “dark cloud” and will now be enjoying the “silver lining.”

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

Greetings, leathered skin and wrinkly prunes of my generation. For one flash in a moment, wouldn't it be something worth its weight in gold if, before our ultimate gasp of dear life, we get to exhume and resurrect the boxed happenings of the old LCHS campus at Roosevelt Extension? Not only be jammed with the privilege to thaw the frozen relics, but also have the magical tractions, as an option, to modify or delete the psychodramas that tweak our noses or degrade our spirit.

Visualize the following familiar scenes:  A) The concrete tennis court where the only balls that bounce off the ground in reverberating repeats are the stumping thunder of marching feet and out-of-sync harmony of trumpets and drums from fidgety band members rehearsing for the incoming city parade.  B) The flag ceremony that flies two country symbols, Taiwan and Philippines, along the operatic chorus of students who are mandated to pile in lines according to class and height (not IQ and smell!), unknowing of the danger lurking above - a merciless squadron of uncivilized birds joyriding around pine trees, eyeing for the perfect seconds to swoon in for the kill using freshly excreted bombs.  C) Amending the school policy that allows only one pupil at a time to sprint in the 100-meter dash to the comfort room. The new Bill of Right will let the first three to raise their pistols (no pun intended) to empty their full loads at thesame time, except during exams. This will better the statistical odds of no accidental  disorientation of bladder and bowel reflexes; thus, preserving a dry, stink-free atmosphere for the inquisitive minds.  D) Erasers and chalks should be a teacher's missiles reserved only for limpy heads that have degenerated into marshmallow and have completely detached from the supporting pads of the shoulders. Such stingers should be fired with the minimum of stunning jolts so that the hapless recipients can resurface smoothly from the self-induced coma, instead of exhibiting a mental capacity staggering in shock!  E) Jaw-dropping majorettes and other thieves-of-heart who spark an epidemic of crossed eyes should gather a sizeable stores of Spanish vocabularies. In this manner, when a "Yo te amo" text lands on their laps, they don't have to go for the easy way out by rephrasing the message with the mere insertion of the word "no" (Yo no te amo)as an abbreviated reply. That would be a no-brainer for angels with beauty and brain.  F) Spelling out Chinese characters in sign language should be disallowed. This is an outright move to trash in the dump truck those fake pretenders who love to motion into the air in calligraphy strokes when asked to scribble their surname. A drastic mockery and injustice to the blue-blooded among us.  G) Desperately romantic hits of the golden season should be digitalized, to perk up in compact disc form the original knockout grandeur. This should stretch to the hopelessly lonely the lyrical flavors of the once upon a time, and silence and massage away the sweet aches of the heart. Ballads as sugary as Elvis' and Julie London's should generate every trick  that love themes can play between radiance and darkness.  H) The dreadful giant of the mango tree adjacent to the high school building and the white lady with silky long hair in the science building should have the freedom to be visible during ghostly hours of twilight. This will shake off, once and for all, the nagging doubts we all implanted within us about the validity of this legend.  It is time to have our uneasiness about the idiotic myths to stop pounding like a second pulse.

Gosh, I miss home.

.

I had always wanted to be an artist in my student days at LCHS.  Not that I aspired to be a Henri Matisse or a Norman Rockwell someday.  But rather because I simply hated academics.  Art subject, I figured, was easier to pass than Math or History.  With art I didn't have to bother with equations or memorize weird jargons.  All one needed were a drawing book, an ample set of painting kit, and the creativity to apply them according to one's fertile imagination.  Or so they said.

Our art lessons in LCHS began as early as the elementary grades in the 60s.  Our first art guru, Tan Dih Hong, was a big influence in our art education.  From him we learned the basics in crayon, pastel and pencil drawing.  We also learned about perspectives and the interplay of light and shadow.  Himself an art virtuoso of no mean caliber, Tan Dih Hong would draw still-life models, such as fruits or pottery, on the blackboard for us to copy on our Marca Señorita Drawing Book.  Students who excelled were invariably rewarded with their creative works prominently put on display on the bulletin boards of our respective classes. That was the ultimate honor, our version of landing in the Hall of Fame.

I never had such luck.  My works never landed on our bulletin board.  As a result, I grew envious of those acknowledged campus artists whose works frequently made it to our school's hall of fame, the likes of Artemio Lagrosas, Leonardo Tan, and John Go. In my utter desperation, it dawned on me, rather whimsically, that Artemio was artistically good because he was born gifted with the word "art" enshrined in his name; and that Leonardo might have been a Da Vinci incarnate, and John Go a Chinese kinfolk of Van Gogh.

Failing to clinch any similar recognition for myself, my interest in art shifted to another genre.  I began to dabble in the art of lettering.  I soon earned a sizeable following for my new craft.  Requests from classmates started pouring in for me to inscribe Old English or Gothic lettering on their notebooks and folders.  Not because I was good at it but because I was among the first few in LCHS to own a set of Speedball Lettering & Drawing Kit.  On special occasions like Christmas and Valentine's, I would be called upon to do the lettering on the blackboard to mark the occasions in our classroom.

As the years passed, my interest reverted from lettering to drawing once more when we were introduced to charcoal painting by our new art teacher, Luis Yap. Using graphs as guides, we learned to do portraiture with stunning results.  The year saw an amazing body of work by students in which many succeeded in painting picture-perfect portraits of renowned personalities like Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, Winston Churchill, and many others.

As usual, the best works were chosen from the different art classes for exhibit on our bulletin boards.  I remember that among the select few that made it to the "hall of fame" were Leonardo Tan's portrait of John F. Kennedy and Peter Dy's Sun Yat Sen.  I did a portrait of sexy actress Kim Novak. It was my best bet. Yet, even with Novak I had no luck.  My masterpiece got nowhere near the bulletin board.  Disillusioned, I returned to pen and ink with my old reliable Speedball.  But instead of lettering, I started to dabble in anatomy.  I bought myself some illustrated handbooks on the fine art of nude painting.  After some practice, I became an overnight "connoisseur" of the female anatomy.  Needless to say, I became a hit among the boys.  Friends jostled cheek-by-jowl around me for my bootleg copies of nude drawings in exchange for a pad of ruled paper each.  By the end of the semester I still did not make it to the bulletin board but I had enough stockpile of ruled paper to last me another school year.

Much later, however, my popularity started to fade.  My prized possession of Speedball kit eventually lost its novelty as most students had by this time acquired their own Speedball set.  Our art lesson, too, had progressed from charcoal to watercolor painting with Felipe Oh as our art teacher.  I became fascinated with watercolor as a new medium.  Although my work still failed to land a spot on our bulletin board, I somehow made it to a small circle of students organized by Felipe Oh to paint stage props at the school auditorium during special occasions. The experience was a big boost to an otherwise sagging ego.

Thus, in 1966, armed with a resurrected sense of self-confidence, I took part in the watercolor painting competition in the school's annual literary and musical contests. The model was a poster of a harbor scene with a ship as centerpiece under an overcast sky.  Incredible as it seemed, I won first place.  And for the first time in my life at LCHS my work was exhibited among other winners at the school auditorium during the school's Double Ten celebration.  Many observers, including the contest judges, attributed the strengths of my piece to its exquisite strokes and fine contours.

What they did not know was that I did not faithfully restrict myself to using brushes in accomplishing my work.  Secretly, I cheated by using the fine pens from my old reliable Speedball kit to execute the delicate strokes of my winning piece.

Oh, what the heck, didn't they say that in art, all one needed were a drawing book, an ample set of painting kit, and the creativity to apply them according to one's fertile imagination?
 

BATCH 1986
Lorelie Ang, Pala-o, Iligan City; Allan Booc, Cagayan De Oro City; Benjamen Booc, Pala-o, Iligan City, tel. 221-4631; Oliver Booc, Cebu City; Edward Chun, Pala-o, Iligan City; Ruben Co, Kepte Commercial, 12 Aranet St., Iligan City, tel. 221-3106; Anita Cua, Manila; Joy Gotingco, Japan; Roger Jimenez, Cagayan De Oro City; Edward Ragas, Quezon Ave., Iligan City; Jocelyn Sia, Iloilo City; Carlito Tan (deceased); and Ian Chua Uy, Purok Pag-asa, Bara-as, Iligan City, tel. 221-8116.
 

EDITORIAL STAFF VICTOR L. CHIU, editor  Correspondents: Roger Suminguit,Teresita Racines, Charmaine Molo, Rodolfo Yu, Vinson Ngo, & Michael John Siangco (Iligan); Igdono Caracho (Cebu); Emma Yap Matiao (Dumaguete); Marie Janiefer Lee (Manila); Peter Dy (Canada); Leonardo Tan (Australia); Ernesto Yu & Aurora Tansiokhian (U.S.A.); Castor Ong Lim, business & circulation manager (Iligan) & Marie Joan Q. Quidlat, treasurer, (Iligan); and Charles O. Sy & Henry L. Yu, past editors. Founded Aug. 1, 1968.  Published fortnightly since its revival on April 15, 1997. Distributed free on the Internet to LCHS alumni & supporters worldwide. Postal address: LCHS Alumni Association, Lanao Chung Hua School, Pala-o, Iligan City, Philippines. Web site: www.geocities.com/lchsspectrum. Spectrum welcomes articles, news reports & comments from LCHS alumni, students and readers. For subscription, contact Roger Suminguit, tel. 221-2422. For contribution, e-mail manuscripts to the editor: perfidia6180@hotmail.com with cc to: spectrum@iligan.com