HCDC Grand Alumni Homecoming 2011

After a long wait, the day for the Grand Alumni Homecoming of my high school alma mater, Holy Cross of Davao College, finally came. The activities organized by the school were very simple: a fun run at dawn and the main program in the morning that ended with a fellowship lunch. My batch mates, however, decided to hold our own batch reunion party in the evening.

The fun run was very successful. Those who registered gets a singlet. Only five of my batch mates attended: Nilo Luciano,Hector Barnes, Davis Lasat, Ronnel Saligumba and Alex Mandin. The experience must be very tiring because only Hector and Davis made it to the program later in the morning and he arrived around noon already.

The main program started with a Holy Mass followed by the honoring of the jubilarians, election of officers and finally the fellowship lunch. Batch 1961, the golden jubilarian, have decided to host the event. They were given medals and certificates during the honoring of the jubilarians while the silver jubilarians, my batch, were given pins and certificates. At the time the pins and certificates were given only the following batch mates were present: Radley Barrientos, Nilo Luciano, Rommel Jaron, Marvin Acuna, Wilbert Santos, Roel Malabute and myself. The others arriving afterwards, by the time for the Fellowship lunch the number has doubled. The following guys arrived Arnold Satorre, Alain Fornolles, Davis Lasat, Hector Barnes, Edward Ely Yap, Rene Gil Gallardo, and Chip Estampa.

The fellowship lunch ended late but the next activity for our batch is at 6:00pm. Davis and some guys decided to spend the time in Calda Pizza along Legaspi St. We had pizza and beer as more batch mates arrived. The group of Jorge Hong, Arciaga, Albert Clarito, Rogelio Dignos and Jonathan Sienes arrived. Fred Aguila, Ed Gloriani, Chito Miguel, Ronnel Saligumba, and Troy Rosal also arrived later.As we were leaving for BBQ Boss, Richard dela Torre arrived.

In BBQ Boss, Troy Rosal arranged for an acoustic band. Radley had to construct a stage in two days time to accommodate this. Aldrin Oliva donated a lechon although he failed to show up because he had to meet up with his brother who arrived that night. The following guys started arriving that night: Joel Aguilon, Efren Malimbag, Teddyboy Garcia, Robert Floyd Salise, Ronald Magayano, Anton Aguilar, Berwyn Lira, Arnulfo Alvar, Froilan Diampa, George Jumamoy, Edgar Canda, Baldwin Floresca, Glenn Trinidad, Nerio Penanueva, Meneleo Balolong, Dennis Flores, and Nicandro Martinez.

 While I was in Holy Cross that morning, I managed to talk to Mr. Cruzada and Ms. Separa (now married) and invited both of them. I also got the cellphone numbers of Ms. Mogote and Mr. Dingding. I also invited the school photographer Boy Ugay for the evening get-together. All of them arrived, including Mr. Rosete. Everyone was very happy to meet their mentors again.

 Although we were not able to cook up a program, the acoustic band entertained us a lot especially when Roel Malabute took control of the microphone. Joel Aguilon also sang a few songs after the crowd called out for him. Nilo Luciano celebrated his birthday the day after so by midnight he started the celebration by singing a few songs as well. Most of the group left around 2am.

After the Rain

FLOOD! That's what comes after every rain here in the Philippines! Never mind if the rain is heavy or not. The drainage system here is really disappointing.

In Cebu, the first storm for the year is about to hit come Wednesday. The heavy rain a couple of weeks ago has left our local government scrambling to clear the silted rivers. As a result, what would take years to remove squatters took only a day or two, without much ado. Also, public schools are being condemned since they trap students during floods. New classrooms are being promised for the next school year... Well, well... word has it that the rain will go on until May, wet summer for the sunny Philippines. So I guess these developments are acceptable to everyone. Even those whose houses were demolished.

I just wish that they would do something to keep those demolished houses from rising up again after the sun peeps out for a week or more. A river is supposed to have three meters of easements at both sides. This means that no one should build on that easement. To do so would be like building on the road. The problem with these squatters is that they think that if the land is owned the government, then it should be given to them for free.. that they have all the rights to it (all to themselves!). Anyway, the local government here made plans to develop that easement into a park or something, following models from Singapore. This is the best time to do it... unless they want to be assured of the best kickbacks...

The proposed schools for next semester also caught my attention. In my previous blog I referred to a competition to design the Millennium School. The winning design is supposed to be ideal for the current situation. Someone should tell the mayor to consider studying the prototype.

This is also the time to see how we can harvest the rain since there will be plenty of it. There are so many things we can do productively instead of complaining about the rain and calling for the sun (which will change to complaining about the sun and calling for the rain when it starts to get hot).