40th Year Homecoming
Schedule of Activities
23 July Sunday.
- Lunch at Breakthrough Restaurant at Villa Beach hosted by Iloilo classmates
My plane was delayed so I arrived at Iloilo airport later than expected. I was on the plane with Romola and Dot. Bopeep met me at the airport - we dropped my luggage off at her house and proceeded straightaway to Breakthrough. When I arrived everyone was there - they had been waiting for me at Hotel del Rio but since I had not read Etic's email before I left the US, I did not know about the meeting venue. Well, it all got straightened out in the end. The only one I did not recognize immediately was Rodel, whom I had not seen since the day we graduated, I think. Or was he also with us in college? It's been so long I've already forgotten. Everyone looked about the same, give or take a few pounds, wrinkles and graying hair. Lunch was superb! We had inasal nga manok, fish, etc etc (my days have sort of blended into one another, I can't remember what I ate where, so those of you who were not there, please bear with me). We had a great time reminiscing, and of course talking about those who could not make it.
- Coffee Break at Villareal Residence, Villa
1:30pm - 3:30pm
Right after lunch at Breakthrough we trooped to Etic's house in Villa. We had coffee and drinks under the trees in the garden, and later looked at all the artwork in their living room. If Etic had sold some of his artwork he would have made enough money for all of us to fly from the US and back, and paid for the entire reunion as well!
- Visit to Noel Anam's Resting Place at Christ the King Memorial Park
3:30pm - 4:30pm
This was a bittersweet event. It was the first time I had seen Noel's final resting place, and truly felt his absence. IThis was a bittersweet event. It was the first time I had seen Noel's final resting place, and truly felt his absence. I'm sure he would have enjoyed this reunion immensely. We lit a couple of candles for him, and also said some prayers. We ended with taking some pictures, all the while laughing at our own silly jokes.
- Thanksgiving Mass at Sta. Maria Parish
5:00pm - 6:00pm
Before the mass, it was announced that the mass was offered by UPIC HS class'66 for the intentions of Noel, Carlos Carbonell and Cynthia Tinio. The only downside was that the mass was interminably long (at least to poor jetlagged me!) - the priest's homily lasted a full thirty minutes! Good thing after the mass we headed straight for the next event, which was:
- Dinner and Socials at NUMTAH Bar & Resto hosted by Etic Villareal
6:00 pm onwards
Again hosted by the indefatigable Etic. In fact, Numtah is owned by him, and managed by his son Vince, who also has an art gallery adjacent to the restaurant. Again, more sumptuous food. After dinner we looked at the first draft of our video presentation for the alumni homecoming to be held on Saturday 29 July. Most of the pictures to be used had already been downloaded by Vince (Etic's son) and Punky (Etic's niece, the daughter of Quirico, Jr.). What a tremendous job this two did for us! The remaining work to be done was the essay to accompany the pictures, and this was written once again by Meyen. We also decided to use the music of the '60s for the background.
24 July Monday
- UPIC Campus Tour and get together with our teachers
10:00am - 11:30am
Feeling the results of jet lag and overeating - I had to skip this part of the reunion. I just caught up with the group later on, for:
- Lunch at Hotel del Rio with our teachers hosted by Philippine based classmates living outside of Iloilo
11:30am - 2:00pm
What a real treat it was to see some of our teachers from forty years ago! There was Mrs. Jesena, frail from the ravages of arthritis and the emotional toll of having had to bury two of her daughters a few years ago, but gamely carrying on at age 82; Mrs. Dichupa, with weakening eyesight, but as beautiful as ever; Mr. Ravena, also bothered by hip and leg pains; Miss Buenvenida, looking very youthful but incongruously white-haired; Mrs. Formacion (our adviser Ms. Prudente), exactly as I remember her from Physics class, although with more gray at the temples; Mrs. Estela Soriano, still inspiring some feelings of anxiety over missed home ec projects; Miss Aplasca, who taught us girls for maybe one semester - I remember with much disgust having to learn how to cook fried calf brains; and of course Mrs. Dea Doromal, who promised to wear a short skirt and high heels at our next reunion! Did I forget anyone?
- Trip to UP Visayas Miagao Campus hosted by Vice Chancellor Meloy Mabunay
2:00pm - 5:00pm
This was an hour drive to Miag-ao in three cars plus the van (for official use only!) provided by Vice-Chancy Meloy, who met us as we pulled up in front of the admin building. What a nice looking campus they have, too bad it is so far away frm the city. The first part of the program was a presentation by their public relations officer, who "subjected" us to a video about UPV and how it came to being. I could not pay much attention since I kept thinking of the merienda that was to follow. At last my prayers were answered and we filed into the Chancellor's office for drinks and some native kakanin. The Chancellor unfortunately could not meet us because he was suffering from chicken pox! He truly is still a young man.We then proceeded to Miag-ao Church, an internationally recognized place of historical interest. Anyone of you who hasn't seen it yet must do so at your earliest opportunity. The pictures do not do it justice. From here it was on to:
- Dinner, Bonfire and Sleepover at Nes & Tat's beach resort, Oton Iloilo hosted by classmates from overseas
6:00pm onwards
One of the most fun events in our agenda! Not only did we have yummy food - complete with lechon ordered especially for our friends who have been pork-deprived, having lived in Muslim areas for the last 18 or so years! - we also got a chance to sing almost-forgotten folk songs from Peter Paul & Mary, Joan Baez etc., and catch up on one another's lives, and indulge in "character asassination". We called Gerry Gustilo who unfortunately could not join us because he was in Manila making one of his multi-million (dollars or pesos, it was not clear which) deals. The girls continued talking in their assigned bungalow until 4am, while the boys went to sleep and woke up just as we were about to sleep. At 6am (!) one of the ladies from Nes and Tats knocked on our door to say coffee and tea were ready. So we stumbled out, groggy from lack of sleep but determined not to waste any minute of the day.
25 July Tuesday
- Breakfast at Nes & Tat's
7:00am - 8:00am
We ate our leftovers from the night before, wrapped up whatever was left, took some pictures in front of the swimming pool, walked on the beach, and then packed up for the trip back to the city.
- Free Time
9:00am - 6:00pm
Free time? What free time? Wilhelm Camarista invited us to have lunch at his house. Considering that this was a last minute invitation (not on the agenda), it was a surprise that awaited us when we got there. His wife Janet had covered the lunch tables with ruby red and white satin tablecloths in honor of our ruby jubilee (40 years since graduation). She repeated the same motif for the long buffet table. What a thoughtful gesture on her part! She also served a lot of what we were looking for - good native Iloilo dishes like tambo, apan-apan, calampay, etc. From here we proceeded to Jore's place for merienda. Since Wilhelm had just fed us to bursting, it's incredible that we could still eat anything. Jore's aunt, the famous Tita Cheling Montelibano, treated us to hamburgers, spaghetti, ensaymada, sans rival, muffins, etc etc. This is merienda???? I don't think my family and friends in the States will recognize me when I return. For sure I will have to go back to my fruit diet. We also bought some pastries to take back home to the US - food for the gods, orange squares, even chocolate cake!
- Dinner with the Chancellor at Siason Residence, Phil-Am Compound, Commision Civil St. , Jaro hosted by Tim Siason
6:00pm onwards
Regretfully, our last event together. This time we were graced by the presence of Tomas Dominado and Edmund Buensuceso! Tim and Ida (the former UPV chancellor) prepared a catered dinner for us - we felt so important, like royal guests! We tried to dress a little more formally than during the other events, in keeping with the occasion. It was also during this time that Etic handed out the souvenirs of our reunion - t-shirts printed with the names of the '66 graduates and a print of the oblation in the back, and a specially designed 40 year anniversary logo in front.
Romola had also donated some shirts, which Etic also had silkscreened with the oblation.We also decided to reimburse Etic for his expenses (Ronaldo you owe me your share!) - but Etic has generously donated the monies collected towards our scholarship fund!
At this event, we again screened the almost-completed video presentation for the homecoming. It needed a little more fine-tuning. We then decided that in order to make our reunion more meaningful, we would adopt a manifesto protesting the admissions policy for the high school, which denies children of higher-income parents entrance into the high school. This effectively has excluded all of our children, our our children's children, since their income cutoff level is I think barely above the poverty line. Our manifesto proposes that a 50-50 quota be adopted for all future incoming freshmen. All classmates present at the dinner signed the manifesto. The final edition of the manifesto was appended to the end of the video presentation. More on this later.
It was so difficult to say goodbye, but all good things must come to an end....we came with high expectations, and left with all expectations more than fulfilled. The memories we took from this experience will sustain us until we can all meet again. It was so wonderful to feel sixteen again, as if the world still lay at our feet, and the possibilities were limitless.
Epilogue
29 July - Alumni homecoming
By this time most of the out of towners had left - only Rachel and I were still in town. In fact, even some of the Iloilo natives were not present for the affair, which was held at the Grand Hotel - Tim (golf related injury), Edmund, Tomas, Andy (excuses unknown) were no-shows. A delightful surprise was the appearance of the great Esoy Descalsota! Looking as youthful as ever, despite 8 children, and I don't know how many grandchildren. Sinceno one knew how to contact him, he did not make it to our reunion. Ironically, he lives in Oton, just a ston'e throw from where we overnighted.
There were so many people the registration desk was like a zoo! We were assigned specific tables, and because there were many people in our class present (including spouses) we had to occupy two tables.It was a fun event except for the innumerable speeches (most of them long and bombastic, especially Bong Gustilo's speech, in which he attacked seemingly all UP organizations known to man) and a special guest named Joy Viado, who, I understnad is a comedienne/actress/singer of sorts. She said she did not go to UP because she had no brains, so she went to CPU instead. Which I'm sure did not sit well with the CPU president, who happened to be one of the honorees of the evening!
We were one of the jubilarian groups chosen to make a presentation. The first group (Pearl) confessed that they had not prepared a presentation so before we knew it, we were up! Vince and Punky had to scramble to set up - I said a few words of introduction, and then we proceeded with the video. What a professional production Vince and Punky created! I was so proud of them. The only glitch was that the music for the first part could not be heard. The audience really enjoyed the part where our yearbook pictures where shown, followed by how we look today.
For those of you who sent multiple pictures, sorry but because of time constraints we could show only one "present" picture for each person. So some pictures of your children could not be included. Hopefully, Etic will be able to burn some VCDs in time for me to bring some copies to the US for distribution. The manifesto was also very well received - in fact as we predicted, many people in the audience started applauding as they read it. Someone told me that we should have had a voiceover for the video because some people could not read the screen - but I'm sure for the most part it was ok. Immediately following our presentation was another video, presented by the Silver jubilarians. I have to say without prejudice that ours was the better produced one - even if theirs was professionally produced. Their pictures, althoughof more recent vintage.
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