Vol. 11, No. 22, Feb. 18, 2008
A fund-raising project of Batch '83 headed by Ronald U. Sy, the event was dubbed "A Laughin' Valentine Dinner." It was held at the Skyroom of the Maria Cristina Hotel, Iligan City, last Feb. 13. The venue, prominently located at the heart of the city, was packed to the brim. Prominent supporters of the event included Henry C. Dy, Iligan City Vice Mayor & LCHSAA adviser; Robert "Toto" Co, President of the Lanao Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Inc.; LCHSAA Past Presidents Vy Beng Hong and Arturo Samson, as well as alumni, friends and other guests. Albert Chiu donated a pack of pastries as the prize for the couple who showed up the earliest for the event.
The dinner-show featured a couple of singers accompanied by a keyboard artist interspersed in between numbers with funny antics by a local radio comedy talent. The event culminated around 11:00 p.m.
Calix
Tan chosen SPC outstanding alumnus
By Roger Suminguit (Batch '73)
Engr.
Calixto H. Tan (Batch '57), in photo, was chosen as one of the Outstanding
Alumni of St. Peter's College (SPC) on the occasion of the college's 56th
anniversary on Feb. 11, 2008. He was also elected President of the
St. Peter's College Alumni Association.
Calix is a noted civic leader and businessman in Iligan. He owns the Iligan Electrical Supply which his son Franklin Tan (Batch '89) is helping him manage. Calix was also one of the Outstanding Alumni Achievers honored by the LCHS Alumni Association in the 1st LCHS Grand Alumni Homecoming in 2000. He is a past president of the LCHS Alumni Association and a 4th Degree member of the Knights of Columbus.
Dy
Ching Hong, 90
Dy Ching Hong, aka Sim Lin Sing, passed away at the age of 90 in Iligan City on Jan. 30, 2008. He is survived by his wife Cecilia Velasco Sim, and their children, namely, Jim Sim (Batch '68), Helenita Sim-Tan ('68), Johnny Sim ('70), Nelly Sim ('71), Victor Sim ('73), Victoria Sim ('73), Roland Sim ('77), and Freddie Sim ('77).
The late Dy Ching Hong was one of the major owners of Lanao Milling Corporation. His family now owns and operates Sim Lin Sing General Merchandising in Tubod Highway, Iligan City. He was laid to rest on Feb. 2, 2008 in Iligan City. We request our pious readers to pray for the eternal repose of his soul.
Friendship
Thu, 7 Feb 2008 12:19:00
Friendship is not choosing the right person but creating the right relationship.
It's not how much you love your friend from the beginning but how much
love you build till the end.
--Susan Lim de la Cruz, Iloilo, Philippines; email: iko1031@hotmail.com
Hello
from Ontario
Wed, 06 Feb 2008 12:38:52 PM
From Pablito Tan (Batch '66), Mississauga, Ontario, Canada;
email: pablito.tan@yahoo.com
Hello, my fellow alumni, especially Batch '66. Kung Hei Fat Choi! Long time no hear. This is to update my address and telephone number, as follows: 3358 Columbine Crescent, Mississauga, Ontario, L5N 6A8, Canada; tel. no. 9058240152. Life here in Ontario is mabuti naman; I'm quite adjusted now.
Welcome back, Sy An Lok, as Spectrum editor! I'm be glad we have the Spectrum; that's the only way I can get more information from our hometown and our fellow alumni. The Spectrum brings us back together again, and most of all it brings back our old memories. You people should be given an Outstanding Alumni Award for doing a wonderful job. More power to all of you and Roger Suminguit, too. I miss you all, especially Batch '66. By the way, please let me know if there's any fee or cost for our Spectrum subscription. I'm willing to share.
[The Spectrum is distributed free by email
to all alumni and friends worldwide. It's been that way ever since.
Thanks for sharing your views with us. -- Editor]
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Rewind: Batch '87 in GAH 2000 |
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More whereabouts
BIRTHDAY BOY. LCHS-AA top honcho Suniel "Boy" Lim (Batch '66) celebrated his birthday last Feb. 12. His wife Corrie and children prepared a surprise dinner party for him at the Cafe Hermoso, where some 40 family members, close friends and allies were present. The lively birthday bash lasted until 10:30 p.m.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW. Our item "Where Are They Now" in this corner of our last issue drew a fairly good reception among our readers. Having been away from home for years, many alumni are interested in the whereabouts of their fellow alumni. So here we resume our tracking from where we left off.
Glenda Siao-Lim (Batch '59), a resident of Cebu City, is now enjoying her retirement. She recently retired from her employment with the Philippine Airlines in Cebu where she worked for many years as reservations & ticketing officer. Dy Phek Giok-Go ('57), also in Cebu, manages JF Distributors with her husband. They are distributors of the popular 3D Appliances. Also based in Cebu and pursuing her career as an educator is Kho Siok We ('57). As school administrator, she is the highest ranking official of the Cebu Eastern College. Aurora Tansiokhian (Batch '58), who used to write a column in the Spectrum, is a physician by profession in Vestal, N.Y., U.S.A. Marietta Kwan-Yip ('60) lives in Cagayan de Oro where she owns Yip Modern Bakery.
Joel Lituan Dy ('65) now resides in Bacolod,
Lanao del Norte. Achiong Ly ('68), whose family used to run the
Hongkong Restaurant in Iligan, is now settled in Zamboanga City. Gloria
Tecson-Webb ('70), a former flight stewardess of Cathay Airways, is
a resident of Vancouver, Canada. Her batch mate Vy Sio Hua Tan is
in Cebu where she is a member of the Chinese faculty at the Cebu Eastern
College. Mary Grace Lee-Ybanez ('74) now lives in faraway
Rissa, Bahrain. She is the younger sister of Janet Lee-Tan. David
Dy ('74) is enjoying his new home in Forbes Park, Makati. He is an
oncologist-surgeon at the St. Luke's Medical Center in Quezon City. Kenton
Sua ('80) is in Manila where he is a practising lawyer. Luna Sy
('81),
lives in Ozark, Alabama, U.S.A. And
Jocelyn So ('89) is in Balanga,
Bataan, where she owns and manages JTS Commercial. Geronimo Sy ('87)
is in Manila where he is a lawyer and a columnist of the Manila Times.
And Jeremy Tan ('93) lives in Kings Langley, New South
Wales, Australia.
Charles O. Sy, Batch '67
Writers Wanted
Roger Suminguit likes to introduce himself to girls as Roger Moore. He thinks he looks like the former James Bond, Moore or less.
Remedios Wee was a recent recipient of the PAL awards for top-selling travel agents. Remy and her co-awardees celebrated their triumphs until the Wee hour of the morning.
Members of Batch '83 are ecstatic because their pre-Valentine bash last Feb. 13 was a blast. For them, it must be like a good foreplay to a great Valentine's celebration the next night.
Some readers sent in emails encouraging us to continue sharing our puns in this corner. They share our belief that the pun is mightier than the sword.
Some young alumni are asking if Marie Janiefer "Jen" Lee will be writing again for the Spectrum. They want somebody in this paper to carry the voice of their Jen-eration.
We likewise received feedbacks from some quarters who want to see more news or articles pertaining to LCHS. Without question, we share their concern. Unfortunately, the Spectrum has no more correspondents left on its staff. They stopped writing for one reason or another. We’re in no position to compel them to write as every endeavor in this paper is purely voluntary in nature. For now we just have to make do with what we have.
Nevertheless, we hope to bring in new recruits (preferably based in Iligan) as we take steps to form a new staff in the days ahead. For starters, LCHS-AA president James Booc will do well to assign an officer to regularly keep us abreast of alumni activities at the home front. Likewise, Jing Uy, LCHS English Department Head, can help us encourage LCHS students to contribute articles and reports on the goings-on at the LCHS campus. Certainly, there must be a good number of students at LCHS whose talents are just waiting to be tapped.
The Spectrum offers a boundless frontier as vast as the sky for our budding writers to spread their wings. Will they rise to the occasion?
Henry L. Yu, M.D., Batch '69
A Tribute
to a Great Aunt
(Susana Lim Ho -- 1930-2008)
As we go through life's many journeys, losing a loved one is one of the most painful experiences we could have in this lifetime, most especially if that somebody happened to have played a very important and significant part in our life. I have just gone through this recently when my Aunt Susana passed away. She was not just an aunt (being the younger sister of my mama), she was more than that. She was my guardian, my provider, my confidant, my best friend. I owe her a lot. I cannot be what I am today if not for her.
We used to be one big happy clan back in our original hometown that was Iligan City. But as the years passed by, little by little the clan members went their separate ways. Some have transferred to other places outside Iligan while others migrated to the U.S. Most of the older relatives have gone to the Great Beyond. At the moment, I have only a few surviving uncles and aunts, and my Aunt Susana was supposedly one of these few. Her passing away brought back many wonderful memories of the past somewhere in time of my very young life. Let me tell you her story:
Susana Lim Ho, my great aunt, was born on September 10, 1930 in Dansalan (now Marawi City). She was the youngest among three children of my angkong (her father) and my ama (her mother). She was 22 years old when I was born. She stayed with our family until she got married to my uncle on March 14, 1954 at the St. Michael's Cathedral in Iligan. She was 24 at the time of her marriage to my uncle who was then 32. They lived and settled in Dumaguete where my uncle was running a tailoring shop. They had their first child in 1957, the second and third in 1960 and 1962, respectively. I was there when my three cousins were born. I spent some of my summers in Dumaguete circa 1960s. She and my uncle would meet us at the pier whenever we went to Dumaguete. My older sister, my older brother and I stayed with them during our college years in Silliman.
Looking back, I thank God for giving me the chance to be with her last January 26-27 when I went to Dumaguete for my cousin's wedding. She was ok that time altho I knew she's not gonna stay long as she's been on dialysis for the past one year and four months and she had a pacemaker inserted four months ago. That Sunday morning of January 27, she was with us in the car when we made a short tour around Dumaguete. She ate lunch with us that day. She was on a wheelchair in church during the wedding ceremonies and the dinner reception. I really never thought that it would be our last meeting. I didn't expect her to go that soon.
My Aunt Susana passed away on February 2, just six days after my cousin's wedding. With a heavy heart, I left Cebu again for Dumaguete for her wake. From St. Peter's Funeral Parlor, we brought her casket to the Mary Immaculate Church where the Requiem Mass was held at 1:00 p.m. last February 5. Interment followed at the Gardens Memorial Park.
So, how do you say goodbye to a very dear person who has been very much a part of your life in making you what you are today? It is really beyond words. Not that we cannot accept death. What's hard to accept is the fact that from hereon we won't have that person around us anymore whenever we celebrate special occasions or times when we are down and out and feeling blue and would want a shoulder to cry on. All these and more are now gone with the passing away of one of the greatest women that I've known and been with once upon a time in this lifetime: My Aunt Susana.
Farewell, my dear beloved aunt ...
Four-letter
word
A man is recovering from surgery when a nurse asks him how he is feeling.
"I'm O.K. but I didn't like the four-letter word the doctor used in
surgery," he answered.
"What did he say," asked the nurse.
"OOPS!"
--Contributed by Peter Dy (Batch '66), Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Sometime
in mid-January, I was trying to finalize the 3GAH logo concept. Everyone
in the LCHSAA board agreed that the logo should include Chinese characters.
I had an old jpeg file of the characters, but I wasn't satisfied with the
resolution. So it was time to get "fresh" ones.
It was already Saturday, Jan 19. My self-imposed deadline was Monday. I went to LCHS at around 10 o'clock that morning to look for Sianse Honghong. But she wasn't around. Luckily, Sianse Conchita was right there and I asked for Sianse Honghong's cell number from her. I called up Sianse Honghong and told her about my problem. She told me that she would bring her computer from their house back to school that afternoon. Only her computer has the upgraded Bridgetext keyboard translator capability that uses pinyin to create Chinese characters.
At about 3:30 p.m. that same day I returned to LCHS. Sianse Honghong arrived together with her husband, Bert Cabilan, in their green multicab. They set up the computer system at the Administration Room. Sianse said that it was the only computer that has a wide selection of nice Chinese fonts. Although the CPU was relatively old, it ran relatively well under Win98. As soon as the system was up and running, I asked Sianse to type the characters I needed: Lan Nao Zhong Hua Xie Xiao Yue Hue. She did it using MS Word. My plan was to import the Chinese characters on a graphics program which I could manipulate readily later. Sianse and Bert left for a previous commitment. Ma'am Jing was also there but she also left thereafter.
I checked out the system which had Corel 10.0 and tried to "copy and paste" the text into it. But, alas, no go! I actually didn't have enough time to tinker with it so I gave up on it. I decided instead to use the venerable MSPaint which is installed on almost all Wintel systems. So slowly I chugged along "copying and pasting" the Chinese characters. I actually used MS Word to create a half-dozen font variations (in either Traditional or Simplified Chinese).
When all had been converted to graphic files (JPeg) accordingly, I started to look for the USB port where I could plug in my USB Flash drive. But I discovered that the computer doesn't have USB ports! This old system only has the old ports (parallel and serial)! Time to think. Ma'am Jing's computer is relatively new, it has those USB ports. But this Sianse Honghong's computer is not network connected, so still no go. But it still has a floppy drive. Now, time to look for a diskette. But not a single diskette was available. So I called Gigi Tan (who is only a few blocks away from LCHS) to ask if she could spare some. Luckily she still had them.
After I got two diskettes from Gigi, I tried to copy the four graphics files to the diskette. Again, no luck. The computer refused to read it; no diskette could be detected. So I tried formatting it. But before formatting was complete, it exited saying that the diskette was defective. So much for being high tech!
Running out of options, I just printed those files using the inkjet printer, which output is less than satisfactory. I was thinking I would just have to re-scan them when I get back to my shop. As I was about to shut down the computer, the prompt to restart in DOS mode came staring at me. Wow! I can try this, I said to myself. Which I did and the old "C:>_" was like smiling at me with all its blinking glory. So, I went on to format the diskette. I had to remember that DOS only has eight characters on its filenames and subdirectories. I proceeded to the directory with the four graphic files using the old "~1" at the end of a six-character directory names. And finally "COPY *.JPG A:". Voilà! Got 'em!
And that's how our four little Chinese characters went into the 3GAH
logo.
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