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).

Strictly Davao

I’m from Davao City. This place is well known for the Durian fruit, the Philippine Eagle and the Waling-waling orchid. It is well reputed for its cleanliness. It is also known for its notorious mayor, Hon. Rodrigo Duterte. He is no longer the mayor after the last election, he is now the vice mayor while his daughter is the mayor. I guess it is safe to say that nothing really changed.

 I really don’t know how “notorious” Mayor Duterte is and I will not bother to find out. My interest revolves around some city ordinances he introduced which I find… amusing.

The first one is the ordinance that banned the use of pyrotechnics during Christmas and New Year’s eve. At first my family reacted against it. We later realized that we actually benefited from it. My sister, who is a doctor, is now able to join us during these holiday celebrations, and we don’t have problems anymore about cleaning up the mess caused by pyrotechnics the following day.

The other ordinance is the no-smoking policy. I learned about it just before deplaning when the stewardess announced that the Davao is a no-smoking city, which means you can only smoke in private places and some designated public spaces.

Lately, my nephew, who formed a band, told me that there is an ordinance that banned minors from being part of a band. My friend who owns a restaurant also told me that there is a liquor ban at 2am. One time, after midnight, the mayor visited a place which is a popular place for people to hang around for some beer. When he noticed that there were minors around he ordered all the establishments closed, even those establishments that close at 11pm. 

I listen to all of these with a lot of amusement but nothing compares to how the mayor reacted to our parish priest who campaigned against him and his daughter. In some strategic place in our parish he put up billboards that has these words “PIKAT NIMO PETE” (I really don’t know how to translate it in English) and a drawing of an eye. (see photo)

The whole thing reminds me of a book I enjoyed reading: Don Camillo and His Flock. Don Camillo is a parish priest of a small town in Italy, and he is always at odds with the mayor, Peppone, who is a communist. I’m not saying that Duterte is a communist. The story is comical and the conflict between the two characters is very, very amusing.

I think all of these laws are doing the people of Davao a lot of good. The fact that the Dutertes were elected to the mayor and vice mayor position is a sign of the people’s agreement to their policy. I hope everything else goes well.

Remembering Quincy

Unexpected... How else can we describe it? When the text messages came, it was too sudden to react. Quincy Jay Mestio died early this morning. Those words finally sank in when I stood in front of the coffin a few hours ago.

I never knew Quincy until their third year in college. He was the batch president then, and I was involved in organizing activities for the students. My first reaction was to marvel at his name. It took me some time to believe that it was his real name.

What really impressed me about this guy is how he was able to lead the group. He was not the commanding type, in fact he was soft spoken. You also don't get to see him run around the building looking extremely busy. With his simplicity he managed to move his batch mates to fulfill the tasks assigned to them.

It was because of Quincy that I also started noticing everyone else in his batch. We no longer exchange casual greetings, we've started hanging out. Last year, he invited me along with his other batch mates to drink beer in Cheaverz to celebrate his birthday. In the last semester, he consulted me about his thesis once in a while. I know we're not as close as he is with his batch mates but the little time I shared with him and his friends is enough for me to feel the loss that everyone else is feeling right now.

It is my first time to go to the wake of my student. In the past it was always the wake of a student's relative. I must admit it was rather strange for me. I confess that I was saddened by his departure, but after looking around me during the wake I couldn't help but be proud of Quincy as well. He has so many good friends. Their presence in the wake is a testimony of Quincy's good character.

I am thankful to Quincy for leaving me good memories to remember him by. May we do the same to others, may we follow the example he has left us.

Say Modern

I teach History of Architecture. Doing so makes me tackle subjects in Theories of Architecture, although I do not teach this subject.  This is why I got interested on the topic of Modern Architecture when I keep hearing my friends mention Tropical Modern, Bali Modern, Asian Modern, and all other words with "Modern" attached to it.

What exactly are these? How do they differ from one another? Are these just loose titles without any significant content, are is there something that we should learn from all of these? These are some of the questions I was mulling over at times when I have the luxury of exploring concepts and ideas.

Unfortunately that "luxury" is very limited.So I shall try to share my thoughts about the subject in the shortest way I can.... with drawings and captions....

The "Awesome" Phenomena

I have another bout of insomnia tonight. I am staying in my friend's house for the night because the electricity in my apartment was disconnected. I thought I had paid the bills, but I remembered missing out this one because I forgot to bring the bill and I don't have the account number. Anyway, the Christmas season sort of distorted my memory. I settled my bills yesterday afternoon and was told that my lights will be up the following day.

My friend has a habit of putting on a video while he is working or studying. When I arrived, he already had the collection of the series "How I Met Your Mother" on the playlist and running. I was distracted, of course. I was not able to work on what I planned to do, and I ended up watching the series until it started to repeat... by then it was already 4am.

That show features five friends (Ted, Barney, Marshall, Lily and Robin) and, although I think of them most of the time as stupid, their relationship actually fascinated me. I have a lot of friends I hang out with, most of them students. Normally, these students form different groups, so I find myself hanging out with one group now and another group the next. One group in particular likes this TV show a lot. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, I think they identify themselves with the show and are actually trying to get tips on how to get girls... or how to act cool... or awesome...

Aside from them being half my age, I can understand now why they don't act their age. It looks like the show has a lot of influence to them. But while this show made me think of this group of friends, it also made me realized that this group had actually been very good friends for me.  For some reason I don't have the hang ups I had with other friends in the past. There are many good things I want to say about them... but even with the insomnia my head is a bit reeling... so I will describe it in one word which I'm sure they will like very much.. I find these guys simply... awesome! =)

It's not easy having friends who are way younger than you are. The fact that I'm doing fine dealing with them right now must mean I have matured on this point. I have finally learned to understand and adjust to their ways. Watching this show helps a lot.

When you become friends with people younger than you some rules had to be observed. For me, it's ok to have some beer and chit chat with friends and just let loose among ourselves. When the guys want to go out to meet girls and hang out with them, that's the time I back out and do something else. Among these guys, they also try to follow a set of rules of conduct which they got from the show. It's called the "Bro Code". They do it for fun, although they sometimes end up using it for serious situations. Anyway... just to cite an example of the "influences" of the show.

I'm not trying to exclude the other group of students who became my friends. They are awesome as well. It's just that this particular group is more associated with the show. Having said that I should end this blog and hope that sleep can finally take over. =)

A Day of Promises

The first of January. This is the day when nearly everyone in the world make a promise to themselves in what we normally call a "new year's resolution." I wondered whether I should join the fray. I ended up making a plan for the whole year. First I make my goals, then I map out how I intend to fulfill those goals.

It's interesting to listen to these resolutions, but what I also found more amusing are the predictions made by the so called feng shui experts or what have you. They sound so funny in the radio and television. Everything they say are so general that it doesn't matter at all. I just wish they feature the "predictions" made last year and check out those that went true. Now THAT would be more interesting.

Nowadays it is easier to make promises. People have gotten used to making promises in order to break them. Gone is the honor that goes when one makes a promise. Perhaps people have very little regard of human dignity that they don't mind if other people don't trust them or believe them anymore.

Anyway, let me just take this opportunity to wish everyone good luck in keeping their new year's resolutions. As for me, I have a plan to map out.