Alumni Homecoming of Feb 5, 2011 at La Salle Green Hills

The February 5 Reunion got started as early as 4pm. Old boys were streaming in, by the hundreds, as the speakers blared: from Tears for Fears, "Everybody ...wants to ...RULE the world..."

Present at the Homecoming  were:
EL Presidente, Henry Atayde.
Benjie Manzano: very concerned with whom to vote for, and whom NOT to vote for, for LSGH alumni association board of directors. (I saw him at the entrance, paying for his ticket with Ludie of the Alumni Association.)
Brian Masigan: happily reminiscing over beer, on the top music Bands of the 1980s. Looking very fit.
More names staring with Letter "B"
Barry Orenciana: our karate expert.
Bobby San Buenaventura
Butch (Noel) Toledo: enjoying the food.
Benny Herbosa: very sociable, as ever.
Bonny Dimayuga: Mr. Cool
Bobby Inumerable
Butch Syyap: the first to get ice cream
Rigoberto "Bobby" Medalla: short, dark & handsome.
Bimbo _______________.
Buenaventura (Jojo) and several flashbulbs the size of volleyballs. The deeper he gets into this hobby, the larger his "equipment"  .....let's just put it that way..
Baraoidan (Lyle): working on his social networking software.

* Mr. Valdez was also present.  Big-time lawyer...

List of "J"
Jauregui (Chito)
Joel Tuano ... A photo was taken of Joel & his son, Joma, together with Jay Bote & his son, Simon. You will see it in  Flaminiano's online photo album.
Jay Bautista and his son Simon, who has recovered well from surgery last year. (Jay thanks LSGH 1978 for help provided during Simon's hospitalization.)
Jason Lim
Joey Flaminiano: taking photos with a camera that shoots out a strong spotlight. He was wearing a T-shirt that said, "ANiMo" ... from a reunion of an earlier year.
Jaime P. Nunez, very young looking despite his white hair. I suspect that he just dyes his hair white just to look "venerable," because he gives pep talks to religious communities.
Joey Calderon, an I.T. expert
Jauregui (Chito)
JI REYES, our engineering professor at UP Diliman.
JUN REYES
 .... ang daming Reyes, including
Rudy Reyes
Gil Reyes

Then there was
Ferdie Atendido: looking healthier now, and recovered from the tiredness of the previous week.
Lito Suzara (headed for a  Palawan vacation Feb 6. Leaving the Phils Feb 15, headed back to Coquitlam in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he lives and works.) He just came from Boracay, where he enjoyed an 8oz cup of taho for only twenty-five pesos. He considered it cheap, until Stevie Liao said, it should only go for ten pesos.
Mario Garcia, our boat builder

DODIE TORRES: long time no see. His full name is "Audrie Raymund Torres." He brought along his son Angelo (also LSGH alumnus, now working with Citibank) and a younger son in Grade Three named MARC. It is so sad that his wife, Jean, died last month. She succumbed to a stage 4 cancer of the lungs. Her son Angelo painted a tattoo of a fighting tiger on his shoulder to remind him how proud he is of his Mom's fighting spirit.
Miguel Montenegro: arrived early, left last of all.
Horatio B. Yalung: a man of many talents.
Mike Aquino: who had a tearful, poignant reunion with a batchmate, (might have been Cesar C.) who scanned his face for ten seconds, thinking, "Sino kaya ito?" before finally shouting, "Ikaw nga yan, Mike. Puta'ng Ina. Wow. Ikaw nga yan! Mike!" followed by more happy cuss words and backslapping.

Greg Formoso
Gerry Laygo
Alex Figueroa: very talkative, ah.
ADRIAN ALTURA, in town for a few weeks. He bought about five "Feb 5 Reunion" shirts.
Au Abad Santos

and then
Minggoy Padua
Stevie Liao. *His brother Johnny was at the 'LSGH 1976' table near the stage.
RD Najar
Atty Anton Peralta
IKE YULO, wearing the LSGH 1978 V-neck T-shirt of a previous year.
Cesar Cabrera, our MR. Bureau of Internal Revenue.
Bobby Navarette works in Quezon City Hall, approver of business permits.
Danny Almirez, who stays often in Quezon Province.
Dino Laurena
Gao Pronove: happy to meet the batchmates.. he was also happy to meet his two brothers, who are from LSGH class of 1974 & 1976, in nearby tables.
Robbie Mathay, agribusiness entrepreneur.
Willie Cabangon. I shook hands with him amicably, altho the kanchawan was intense.

Four guys were dressed comfortably in bermuda shorts: Flaminiano, Martelino, Buenaventura, Gilles. Others were wishing they did, too.


Other people present at the reunion who i knew from other places:
Lester Castolo, CFA of LSGH  1980s
Joseph Pangilinan
Atty Tim Abejo
Newscaster MIKE Enriquez
Hans Smit: belongs to ?? LSGH 1972 and/or ?  LSGH 1974 and/or  LSGH 1976.
Roy Emata of LSGH 1986

Roy EMATA mentioned to me that, out of his Year 1986 batch of 400 graduates, 15 have died so far = 3 because of car accidents, and 12 due to heart disease, stress-related disorders, the pressures of work & raising a family. Not an average distribution of "causes."
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Ferdie Atendido pointed out to me RAMON BROBIO, probably the greatest golfer that La Salle has produced. Several times the Junior World Champion, more often  than Tiger Woods.



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The PROGRAM
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Music playing on stage: 7pm to midnight.
"The Dawn" rock band with a lead singer named "Jett .........."
Some girl dancers with some parlor games.
A band with girl singers, the "P-Y-T."
"The Authority" band with Juan Miguel Salvador. playing, "With or Without You,"
HIGHWAY STAR by Deep Purple,
Bohemian Rhapsody, music by the Tears for Fears.
John Pangilinan & Gretchen Fullido (newscaster. studied at ICA school near Xavier)
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8 pm. A video on the big screen, compiled by LSGH 1986, recalled the People Power revolution, "EDSA 1," and the Namfrel Quick Count at Saint Benilde's Gym.

Photos also flashed on screen, of Spoof student newspapers with the Banner Headlines:

"Brother Dizon Convicted of Pushing Dope!"
and
"Brother Dizon Dines with Nora Aunor!"

There were Video clips with Interviews of Brother Gus Boquer, Brother Rolly Dizon, and of one other ... a La Salle high school principal of that era.
....................................................
830pm. While the Go Girls were dancing on stage,  some of their members also stood on the tables amid the crowd and danced there.

Acting on a dare, a pot-bellied Mr. "Pepper" Nakpil from LSGH 1976 also got on top of a table, and pulled up his shirt to expose his nude belly.... Then he danced to the rhythm of the beat, drawing the laughter of crowds and unbelieving stares. I asked Johnny Liao why the hell he did that. Answer was: he did it to win a bet. Because he won the bet, he won money from many of his classmates. He then donated the money to pay for the hospitalization of their sick classmate. One of their classmates had had a nervous breakdown. So Pepper willingly did the humiliating stunt to raise funds.

9pm. Speech of Henry A. about the 100 year- anniversary activities. (Cheers from the Audience but Heckling from the area of "1978". No prophet is without honor except with his own batchmates.)

There followed song numbers, ballads, by Gary Valenciano.
and audio-visual presentations about deceased classmates of the celebrating batches.

....................................................
Around 10pm, i saw one fellow, about 25-years-old ....swaying, deep drunk, and being helped by his classmates to sit down on a chair. He could not even stay seated. His head was spinning. He kept falling to the ground, raising clouds of dust.

I turned away from the sight. I asked JI REYES, "How about you, Ji. Aren't you tipsy?" Ji Reyes looked at me, as if to say, "Do you have to ask?" His verbal answer was, "I've been drinking beer and "hard," since 4pm. Go figure." But to his credit, he was completely in control and able to walk straight. (Ang tibay natin, ah.) Not so the younger generation.
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Dinner & Drinks
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The dinner buffet was generous. Free-flowing ice-cold draft beer. Shots of gin, whiskey. Glasses of wine. Coke & sprite, vodka with coffee at the "Mixology bar." Lechon piggy (porky pops) & lechon baka.

Pasta, beef, roast pork. java rice & barbecue sticks. "Goodah" flavorful lugaw with crunchy chicharon. All the Selecta ice cream you can eat.

At the LSGH table, there was Johnny Walker Black, Red Wine, and special sauce for bread. Even some young ones from LSGH 2004 & 2006 were apparently invited to partake of it. They were obediently standing in line, bun of bread in the hand, ready to dip into some olive oil with mysterious attractive properties. Someone was pouring out the oil, while furtively looking left or right. I wonder why. There were sliced oranges, too, functioning like a Glade Air-Freshener.

One of the younger batches was trying to sell us Green rubber-bracelet watches for P250. Mura lang daw, only two hundred fifty pesos. Stevie Liao spoke up and claimed that he got his watch for only P230. On hearing that, the guy selling the watch  could not find the words to say, what he was thinking. I could hear what he was thinking: "Stevie, Konti na lang nga ang tubo namin dito, tapos ibabara mo ako." The guy did not seem to be good at sales talk. Even though the guy was six foot- six tall, Stevie 'shut him up.' He could not even talk for some minutes.

Around 9pm, Raul Barredo dozed off. By 11pm, he was about to fall down to his right side, so we placed chairs in strategic position to catch him if he keels over. Some of us were concerned that he might have trouble getting home if he has to drive in a sleepy condition. One guy volunteered to drive him home. The other guys, said, don't worry about Raul, he will be fine. He does that all the time: doze off on a chair, ever since high school. Ah, ganun ba. Sure enough, Raul woke up refreshed and rested by the time that the fireworks display exploded loud and strong.

At 1120, a whole lot of Fireworks went off, big chrysanthemum blooms of green and gold. Some that flickered like mirrors. Spectacular. Mostly, they were rockets of yellow flame that became big blooms. Some blooms separated into spiral patterns like "tails of foxes" with a noise like a whistle-bomb.

At this point, someone led the Alma Mater song: "We'll hold your banner high and bright ....!" and everyone sang it, with raised fist.


The Band played,
"We will Rock you"
"Stairway to Heaven."
"Always Something There to Remind Me."


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A Young "Representative" of the Grade School
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The son of Dodie Torres, Marc, is in Grade Three at LSGH.  WE may think we know what Grade Three is like, but did you know that they have ROBOTICS club now?  It's extra-curricular, for those gifted in Science & Technology... They not only play with remote-controlled devices, but they fabricate the controllers and the robots.

I was chatting with Marc Torres, because i sensed that he felt out of place with all the 50-year old men around him. So amidst the chaos, i sat with him, and asked him, how is school, what do you all do in the classroom, what are your field trips like?

I told him that, when i was in Grade 3, La Salle Green Hills made a field Trip to the Magnolia Ice Cream factory at Aurora Boulevard. We were transported by so many Varvi buses. We got to tour the ice cream factory. After that, we all got twin popsies or other frozen delights.

Marc was glad to have someone to chat with. He started to tell me some jokes. First he told several in English. Then he had one that was best related in Tagalog. So he asked me, "Would  you mind, if i switch to Tagalog." I said, "Go ahead, please do." And he cracked he joke about some  American tourists who imitated some Tagalog words and got into trouble, because of it.

I am impressed with Marc. It is pleasant to encounter a well-mannered schoolboy who knows how to say, "Please, ....Excuse me,... Would you mind if i....." We older guys tend to enjoy "kanchawan" and insulting one another to generate a heartwarming feeling. Just the same, I congratulate Mr. & Mrs.  Dodie Torres for bringing up their son very well, to speak politely. Very heartwarming to encounter that.


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Last Men Standing: still on campus by Midnight:
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Miguel Montenegro, Danny Almirez (waiting for his brother for the long drive home), DODiE  Torres & his two sons, Angelo & Marc.... Also: Dave Martelino, Chito Jauregui. Raul Barredo. Lito Suzara. Bobby San Pablo.  Iba na ang matitibay.

The advantage of being one of the last to leave is that, you can take home all the abandoned bottles of liquor on the table. I was about to lay claim to a bottle of scotch with one-third of the contents inside when i heard Danny Almirez telling me, "Get a glass...."

With his right hand, he pointed to a bottle of wine, "hiccup," that he was holding in his left hand, "hiccup."  I said, "Wine? No thanks...." To my horror, Danny lifted the bottle of wine and took a swig. ...   I then concluded that if Danny is capable of drinking the wine straight from the bottle, it is also very possible that twenty sets of lips might have sipped  the Johnny Walker Black Label, straight from the bottle. So i abandoned my original plan of bringing home the bottle of scotch --it might be Forty-Proof Alcohol and Twenty- percent Saliva.


Sandy G


* do you have a story to tell about "what happened after the good old boys left the reunion and pretended to be going home" ... i'm sure they were so full of beer that they went to a water store to order water. (Water therapy prevents & cures some hangovers....)




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Special Mention:
In a wheelchair, but enjoying the spectable, Coach Tatang Mendoza.
Lots of students crowded around him to have their group photos taken.


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WHO was absent:
....................................................

the people i was half-expecting to show up at the reunion were:


Buddy de Joya
and
Jerrick Gangoso (given that his brother IKE was hanging around LSGH 1978 a lot.)




...


We have 266 batchmates on the yahoogroups, but only 135 on Facebook. Got to bring that number up to 390.


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Sandy G