Vol. 12, No. 15, January 19, 2009
The
plan was unveiled by Robert Co, President of the Lanao Filipino Chinese
Chamber of Commerce, Inc. (LFCCCI), at the annual alumni Christmas party
last Dec. 30. A Powerpoint presentation of the proposed project prepared
by Peter Dy was shown at the party.
The plan was hatched during a dinner get-together of three alumni belonging to Batch '66, namely, Robert Co, Suniel Lim, and Peter Dy (in photos) in September 2008. Subsequently, an informal project committee was formed, composed of Robert Co, Suniel Lim, Vy Beng Hong, James Yu, and James Booc; along with a design committee composed of Peter Dy, Leonardo Tan, and Charles Sy.
Suniel Lim formally presented the plan at the meeting of the School Board held at the LCHS library on Oct. 29, 2008. Present at the meeting were Robert Co (LFCCCI), Vy Beng Hong (LCHS Board of Trustees), Suniel Lim (LCHS-AA), James Yu (LCHS-PTA), James Booc (LCHS-AA), Glenda Sy-Cabilan (LCHS), and Christine Veronica Uy (LCHS).
A lengthy discussion ensued thereafter among those present. Among the matters discussed were the requirements for the proposed sports center. It was the consensus that the project should have the following facilities: (a) Theater stage with amenities, such as dressing room, small kitchen, control & sound room, storage room, and provisions for lighting, equipment/accessories, and acoustics; (b) Multi-purpose court that can accommodate games, such as basketball & badminton (4 inner courts), with amenities, like shower room with toilets and lockers, a 1,000 seating capacity with ringside accommodation, and small business office.
Due to its budgetary requirements, construction of the project will be undertaken on a phase-by-phase basis. Phase 1, consisting of the building and basic structure with a floor area of approximately 1,114.85 sq. m., is estimated to cost around P11 million. Funding for the project, it was agreed, will have to be tapped from various resources. Spearheading the proposed project will be the LFCCCI headed by President Robert Co.
The drawings and layout plan of the proposed project, tentatively called Chi-Fil Sport Center, designed by Peter Dy, were recently submitted for study and approval to Robert Co. The following is a detailed drawing of the general floor layout.
Floor
Plan
General Floor Layout of the proposed Chi-Fil
Sport Center designed by Peter Dy.
Siao
Cheng Tin, 98
Siao Cheng Tin passed away last Dec. 26 at the Chong Hua Hospital, Cebu City. He was 98 years old. He was laid to rest on Jan. 2, 2009 at the St. Michael Memorial Park, Iligan.
His is survived by his children, Henry Siao (Batch '56); Elson Siao,(Batch '56), USA; Newton Siao (Batch '56), USA; Rosie "Bian Bian" Siao (Batch '60), Sergio Siao (Batch '66); and Teresita "Mei-Mei" Siao (Batch '66), USA. The late Siao Cheng Tin was one of the owners of Kim San Company, one of the longest running rice milling companies in Iligan.
We request our pious readers to pray for the eternal repose of his soul.
Condolences
From Henry Yu, M.D. (Batch '69), Cebu, Philippines, email: [email protected]
Sat, 27 Dec 2008 12:22:57 -0800 (PST)
Our heartfelt condolences to the family of the late Mr. Siao Cheng Tin (Henry, Elson, Newton, Bian Bian, Sergio and Mei-Mei). Our prayers for the eternal repose of his soul. -- Henry Yu & family.
From Peter Dy (Batch '66), Edmonton, Canada, email: [email protected]
Sat, 27 Dec 2008 12:29:26 -0800 (PST)
Bro Henry, Antong, Meimei and family: We are sorry for your loss. Our prayers are with you at this time of sorrow. -- Peter, Tita & family.
From Mike Lee (Batch '66), Edmonton, Canada; email: [email protected]
Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:46:06 -0700
To: Bro. Henry, Sergio, Mei-Mei: Our Greatest Sympathy for your great loss. The Iligan Chinese community has lost another pioneer. --Mike and Nancy.
Remembering
Siao Cheng Tin
From Charles O. Sy (Batch '67), Cebu, Philippines; email: [email protected]
Sun, 28 Dec 2008 13:15:04 +0800 (SGT)
To the family of the late Siao Cheng Tin: For and on behalf of our family, I convey our heartfelt condolences on the demise of your father. The late Siao Cheng Tin was a very close friend of my father. Back in the days when we were all still in Iligan, my father never missed an afternoon to visit Kim San Company to chat with Mr. Siao. I remember having attended several years back the 90th birthday party of Mr. Siao in Cebu. Though he was already confined to a wheelchair, his memory remained sharp as ever. I can't forget what he said to me when I approached him at the party to greet him. Thinking that he may not recognize me, I introduced myself. To which he responded, "Yes, you were the boy who used to run around in the yard at Kim San whenever your father brought you along to visit us."
What
matters in life
From Besalina Varga-Pansoy, Naga, Cebu, Philippines; SMS +639189174238
Sat, 03 Jan 2009 08:42:59
In life what matters is ... not what you bought but what you built; not what you got but what you shared; not your success but your significance; not what you learned but what you taught; not your competence but your character; not how long you will be remembered but by whom and for what. Live a life that matters, that cares, that loves. Make the most of it.
Missing
"Straight from the Heart"
From Josefina Rizalina Guiritan (Batch '84), Singapore; email:
[email protected]
Wednesday, January 7, 2009 7:48:16 PM
There is one thing I always miss when reading the LCHS Spectrum: my favorite column "Straight from the Heart" by Janiefer Lee. It's been five years since Jan said goodbye to her column. We respect your silence for a long while. Jan, I hope you will find a new meaning to write again straight from your soul. Looking forward to see more of your inspiring stories soon.
Visitors from Kinmen
Three representatives from the Kinmen Government arrived in Iligan on December 16, 2008 to conduct series of interviews with Chinese clans in the locality whose ancestry originated from Kinmen island. Whatever information they gathered will be documented and compiled into a book, which hopes to textually capture the migration of Kinmen families to the Philippines.
The same officials also travelled to Manila, Cebu and Cagayan de Oro accomplishing the same mission and, painstakingly, gathering as much data as possible. In their findings, they discovered that Iligan, among all these places, has the most number of descendants, namely, the Sy clan, Ang, Siao, Co (also belonging in the same lineage are the Kho, Khu, Cu families), Dy, Jo, Lao, Lim, Uy, and Yu. It is also heart-warming to learn that these families took effort to pay homage to their relatives in Kinmen when diplomatic ties between the Kinmen government and China had somehow become convivial.
Sy Chu Pin, who is the current president of the Iligan Kinmen Association, took the initiative to mobilize members of the clan to go to LCHS where the interview was being carried out.
Henry L. Yu, M.D., Batch '69
"Faded photographs, covered now with lines and creases,
tickets torn in half, memories in bits and pieces,
traces of love long ago, that didn’t work out right, traces of love
..."
1969. Forty years ago. Where were we? What were the IN things and happenings in that era? Do you remember that time in our life?
Join me as we recapture the splendor of the year gone by, down to where beautiful memories were built and created once upon a time by us who can only look back at it now with nostalgic undertones, with a smile and a song in our hearts ...
1969 ...
1969 - the year that was. But deep in our hearts and minds, the memories will always linger like no other, untarnished with the passage of time.
Yes, 1969. It was a very good year.
Charles O. Sy, Batch '67
More on the Renaming of LCHS
I recently had the pleasure of meeting with Henry Siao (Batch '56), who has been serving gratis as school director of LCHS for well over two decades now. He was gracious enough to share with us many interesting insights about our alma mater. Among the things we talked about was our article "How LCHS Got It Name" (Spectrum, Nov. 10, 2008). It was a narrative on the transition of the school name from "Lanao Chinese School (LCS)" to "Lanao Chinese High School (LCHS)"; "Lanao Community School (LCS)"; and finally to "Lanao Chung Hua School (LCHS)".
Henry Siao says what prompted the renaming of the alma mater to "Lanao Community School" in the 1970s was not a presidential decree, as we reported. It was an administrative order that in essence limited the number of Chinese subjects in the school curriculum. The order also disallowed the use of the word "Chinese" in school names. With that, the alma mater changed its name from "Lanao Chinese High School" to "Lanao Community School," which, in effect, retained the school's original acronym when it was founded in 1938.
Henry Siao also shared his comments on our account of how Leonardo "Loloy" Tan (Batch '66) came to suggest the name "Lanao Chung Hua School" in the mid-1980s. Henry says he doesn't seem to recall there having been a committee tasked to plan for the transfer of the school from Roosevelt Ext. to Pala-o. Neither could he remember any committee or body having raised Loloy's suggestion to the school board on the renaming of the school to "Lanao Chung Hua School." Henry remembers that it was he himself who signed the official application form to use the name "Chung Hua." The name was hatched or derived, following a Chinese school in Pasay City named "Philippine Pasay Chung Hua Academy."
Sought for his inputs, Loloy Tan at the outset emphasized that he had no wish to claim credit for the renaming of the school to "Lanao Chung Hua School." The name was just an idea that he shared at a caucus of a group of community leaders handpicked by then president of the LCHS Board of Trustees, Sy Chu An. Theirs indeed was not a committee but an unofficial group called upon to help in the plan to construct a new campus in Pala-o. That was in 1986 when Loloy was still in Iligan. He took part in the group's caucuses only during its early stage as he left Iligan to migrate to Australia in April 1987.
The group met informally on several occasions to brainstorm on how to proceed with the initial construction phase of the Pala-o project. Being an architect, Loloy Tan was asked to join the group to share his inputs. Loloy couldn't recall exactly who were in the group. But he remembers there were about five or six of them and that there were times when Sy Chu Pin and the late Lim Tek Hua would be present. They would gather for informal brainstorming sessions at the offices of Sen Tay Seng in Tibanga, and some other times at the Lian Hong Company in Pala-o.
Loloy clarifies that his role in the group was not in the design of the building nor the site development but how to proceed with the "design contest" within the ethical rules of the architectural profession. Among the matters they tackled were the requirements for the design of the new campus; who and how many architects would be invited to join the design contest, what documents or drawings would be submitted, and other pertinent matters. Among the architects or contractors who participated in the contest were Antonio Koppin, Cris Benitez, Nilo Ducao, and JO Construction.
It was during the early stage of the group's meetings at Sen Tay Seng when Loloy broached the idea of "Lanao Chung Hua School" as the school name. He thought of "Chung Hua" from the Chinese characters of the school name. He suggested the name casually as he was presenting the first sketch plan for the Pala-o project. The sketch plan was inspired by the U-shaped building of the Chiang Kai Shek College where Loloy studied when he was in Manila. It was just an initial sketch plan done on a sheet of Manila paper. And Loloy recalls that he wrote down the suggested name on a corner of the Manila paper on which the sketch was made. Other than this, there was no other record of his suggestion. Neither were there minutes of their deliberations as all their meetings were merely casual brainstorming sessions.
In retrospect, it seems plausible that Loloy's suggestion for the new name was not taken up again, least of all considered formally, as it was made during the very early stage of the group's brainstorming sessions. At which meetings, the concern of the group was the preparation of the design for the Pala-o project.
In fairness to Loloy Tan and Henry Siao, it bears noting here that neither of them is claiming credit for the name as his exclusive brainchild. Their inputs were solicited and are presented here to add a broader perspective to our earlier piece on how the alma mater came to be known as Lanao Chung Hua School.
Be that as it may, it's but fair that we, members of the LCHS community, acknowledge the initiatives of both Loloy and Henry for having conceived of, each independently of the other, a similar name for the alma mater. Having said that, we reiterate the gist of our piece in our earlier column: the name "Lanao Chung Hua School" was an appropriate and brilliant choice. It perpetuates the acronym "LCHS" to which generations of our alumni and students have endeared themselves all these years.
And we have both Loloy Tan and Henry Siao to thank for.
Postscript:
Shortly after our piece "More on the Renaming
of LCHS" was written, we received from Henry Siao more interesting data
about LCHS gathered from various reliable sources: Among them:
* The Proposed Site Development Plan on the
LCHS Pala-o campus indicated Jan. 1, 1986 on its date;
* In that same year, a major project was undertaken
by the LCHS Alumni Association involving the fencing of the campus;
* Transfer of school facilities from Roosevelt
Ext. to the new Pala-o campus began in December 1987 during the Christmas
break;
* Classes at the new Pala-o campus started
in January 1988.
–- COS
Igdono U. Caracho, Batch '66
Holy Cow!
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