Vol. 13, No. 3, June 1, 2009

LCHS now has a new speech laboratory.  It is equipped with modern speech gadgets and facilities donated by the family of the late Siao Cheng Tin.   The equipment includes microphones, earphone sets, master control system, and computer systems, among other items. Cubicles are in place inside the speech lab that can accommodate no less than 30 students per session. The lab is located in a refurbished room formerly occupied by the administrative department right beside the renovated audio-visual room.

All the classrooms including the ceilings, from grade school to high school department, now sport a fresh coat of paint. The paints were donated by Edwin Co (Batch '68).  New tiles have likewise been installed on the flooring of the faculty office.  The comfort rooms have also been renovated.  The renovation project was initiated by the LCHS Parents-Teachers Association headed by president James Yu, with the support of the Lanao Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Inc., headed by president Robert Co.

Three new air-conditioning units were recently donated by Stephen Gaisano through the efforts of Vice Mayor Henry Dy. The air-conditioning units (2 with 3HP capacity and 1 with 2.5HP capacity) are installed in the audio-visual room and the school library.

Meanwhile, work is in progress by LCHS Alumni Association president James Booc, in coordination with LCHS School Board, to update the school's organizational structure. Part of the work in progress is the formulation of an updated vision and mission statement of the school.  Details of these shall be announced once they are finalized and approved.

Angel Chiu, 66
Angel "Angie" Chiu (Batch '62) passed away last May 6. He died of cardiac arrest in his home in Sta. Cruz, Maigo, Lanao del Norte.  He was 66.  He was laid to rest on May 14, 2009 at the Maigo cemetery.  He was the brother of Remedios Chiu (Batch '57), Fely Chiu, Flora Chiu-Macarambon (Batch '60), Vivina Chiu (Batch '61), Ernesto Chiu Jr. (Batch '66) [deceased], Dionesio Chiu (Batch '67), and Victoria Chiu.

An LCHS alumni delegation drove to Maigo to visit his wake. The delegation was composed of past LCHS-AA president & Vice Mayor Henry Dy & his wife Inday; past LCHS-AA president Arturo Samson; Benjohnson "Boy" Siao; LCHS-AA president James Booc; and past LCHS-AA secretary Roger Suminguit. We request our pious readers to pray for the eternal repose of his soul.

Fr. Peter Steen
Fr. Peter Steen passed away on May 12, 2009, in Ireland. We learned of this sad news from text message originating from Fr. Frank Carey, and subsequently forwarded by Gloricita Racines (Batch '66), Keno, Oregon, U.S.A. The text message reports that Fr. Steen's lungs "have been giving out for a few years and he was on oxygen for the last three months."  Fr. Carey can be reached on his email: [email protected]

Fr. Peter Steen is best remembered as the Irish priest of Iligan parish who held free catechism classes for LCHS students for several years in the 1960s. He was soft-spoken and his amiable and gentle ways endeared him to many students of LCHS. We request our pious readers to pray for the eternal repose of his soul.

This issue's Spotlight zooms in on an alumna who is baking her way to success. She is Marilou Lim-Bordalba (Batch '72), owner of a flourishing bakeshop in Talisay City, Cebu, called Mommy Lou's Bakeshop.  In photo: Marilou Lim-Bordalda (middle) together her daughter Dannah Mae Bordalba (left), and husband Nicolas Bordalba (right).

Ever since her high school days at LCHS, Marilou was already attending baking classes on Saturdays. In college, she continued to hone her baking skills until she finished her Medical Technology course at the Southwestern University in Cebu. She taught Chinese language for a while at LCHS when she was in her 20's. Her classes were held in the afternoon, so she used her spare time in the morning to work on her baking skills. The products she baked were sold to workers at a cement factory.

Today, her Mommy Lou's Bakeshop is a household name in Talisay City. And the success of her endeavor has not gone unnoticed. Her success story was the full-page feature in the Enterprise Section of the Cebu Daily News, May 7, 2009 issue.  The following are excerpts of the story:

Mommy Lou's Bakeshop started on December 8, 1989 with Marilou Bordalba and her sister-in-law as business partners. They converted an empty space in their family's lot on Rabaya St., Tabunok, Talisay City into a display area and baking room. They pooled their savings and invested P100,000 in buying equipment. Marilou handled the baking while her sister-in-law took care of the marketing. Marilou would give her friends free taste tests to experiment on the right mix of ingredients for her baked products.  "You'll never be a baker without patience," she said.  "You'll always experience failed attempts.  You have to constantly check the proportion of the ingredients to come up with the recipe that will please people."

Eventually, Marilou got the right mix and customers started noticing the bakeshop's products.  Her bestsellers include Francis bread, cassava cakes, American fudge, cheesecakes, and mini-rolls. Shortly before the bakeshop's first anniversary, Marilou and her sister-in-law were able to recover their investments.  Despite their early success, Marilou has not stopped researching new recipes and techniques to improve her business.

Now, after 20 years in the business, Marilou is the secretary of the Cebu Bakeries Association.  Her position gives her opportunities to participate in seminars and food expo exhibits.  Whenever an opportunity to learn something new from Manila comes along, she doesn't hesitate to travel. She also sees to it that she introduces at least three to four new products each year.  This way her customers always have fresh choices.

In her free time, she browses through cook books and the Internet to look for new techniques to improve her baked products.  "The principles I follow to make this business move forward, I owe it all to my dad," she said.  Marilou said that while starting out in the business she would make it a point to wake up early, since that's what she learned from her father.  She said that staying open to new ways to improve her business is a sure way to move forward.

And God said no
From Ellen N. Lim, Manila, Philippines; email: [email protected]
Sun, 10 May 2009 1:06:51 PM

I asked God to take away my bad habit. God said: No, it's not for me to take away, but for you to give it up.
I asked God to grant me patience. God said: No, patience is a byproduct of tribulations; it isn't granted, it is learned.
I asked God to give me happiness. God said: No, I give you blessings; happiness is up to you.
I asked God to spare me pain. God said: No, suffering draws you apart from worldly cares and brings you closer to me.
I asked God to make my spirit grow. God said: No, you must grow on your own, but I will prune you to make you fruitful.
I asked God for all things so that I might enjoy life. God said: No, I will give you life, so that you may enjoy all things.
I asked God to help me love others as much as He loves me. God said: Ahhhh, finally you get the idea.

Remembering Fr. Steen
From Roger Suminguit (Batch '73), Iligan, Philippines; email: [email protected]

The death of Fr. Peter Steen is a sad news for many of us in the LCHS community who knew him as Father Steen, a tall and big person in the 1960's. Our class also held Saturday afternoon catechism under him, from which I learned to memorize "Our Father" and the prayer before and after meals. Fr. Steen was assisted then by sister or ma'am Rosarion as I remember her until the early seventies when Fr. Steen went back to Ireland. Let's pray for him.  We will all miss him.

Charles O. Sy, Batch '67

A zoo keeper in Bangkok was found dead inside a bird cage. Police investigators are trying to determine if there was fowl play involved, or if it was just a case of zoo-cide.

All this furor about the Hayden Kho-Kristina Halili video scandal can only be traced to one culprit: a Hayden camera.

Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry has launched her own signature fragrance. It's called "Halle" and it smells Berry good.

I'm now on a strict seafood diet.  Whenever I see food, I die for it.

Many sports writers consider golfer Michelle Wei overrated as an LPGA contender. But as far as Wei are concerned, she's still a sight to behold on the fairlanes.

We were recently notified by GeoCities, U.S.A. that it will terminate its web hosting services in the later part of the year.  This is bad news for us.  GeoCities has played host to the Spectrum web site for the last nine years. Its closure will render the Spectrum homeless once again.

The first time the Spectrum was left homeless was in 2001. Our web site was originally hosted by the IligaNet in Iligan City when the Spectrum was revived in 1997. But in 2001 the IligaNet management decided to restrict our access in the IligaNet's efforts to shield its server from threats of virus attack. The move put an abrupt end to the Spectrum's presence on the Internet.

Our web page was left orphaned for a while until we discovered GeoCities which offered free web hosting services.  We moved our web page to GeoCities in 2001 and from then on it has been our home where all the Spectrum issues from 1997 to 2009 are stored.  GeoCities enables our readers in all four corners of the world to browse any issue of the Spectrum published since 1997 up to the present.

Our problem now is not so much on finding another server to play host to the Spectrum. There are now plenty of free web service providers on the Internet.  The bigger problem that confronts us now is how we can transfer the huge stockpile of the entire Spectrum archive to a new server that offers substantial disk space.

In time we will find a host server that's suitable for us.  But loading our voluminous archives and sorting all the files by their years of issue on the new server may be easier said than done.

Be that as it may, we hope our readers will bear with us in the months ahead as the Spectrum ambles along in search of a new home.

Henry L. Yu, M.D., Batch '69

In our moments of solitude, when life seems to be on a standstill, memories of certain people, things, places, or events of our glorious past come back to life and bring us back to our yesteryears when we were young, innocent and carefree.

I remember my younger days back in Iligan in the '60s when we used to attend Catechism classes. Saturday afternoons would see us gather around the church to listen to Bible stories, praying "I Believe in God", "Our Father", "Hail Mary", "Glory Be", reciting the rosary, etc. We were taught how to be good children of God, to obey our parents and elders, to follow the Ten Commandments, to be God-fearing and prayerful. With a child-like faith, we grew up believing in the teachings of the church, of God's unconditional love, with Jesus as the ever merciful and forgiving God.

All these things were taught to us in our Catechism classes which were handled by Fr. Peter Steen. And through these many years, those lessons were carried on by us as we journeyed through life. The valuable lessons were stored within us all these years. They're carved so deep in our hearts and minds that whenever we go wrong, we are simply reminded of the things taught to us.

It's been several decades since then but up until today I still hold dear the things which were taught to us by Fr. Steen. Sometimes we tend to disregard or neglect the teachings of our youth. We slide back and falter. We pause and ponder and ask ourselves "Are these the things taught to us in our Catechism classes?" Then we reflect on life's lessons. We go to confession. We receive communion. We start anew, feeling happy and refreshed.

Indeed, we need God in our life no matter how old we have grown, or how much fame and fortune we have acquired. There is no better way than to live life according to His teachings. Although for now we are no longer the young boy in short pants and with runny nose who used to play around the neighborhood or the little girl squatting on the floor while playing jackstone, but we simply remain the God-fearing children of the same God we worshipped and adored yesterday when we were kids. And we will always remain a child of God with that child-like faith, much like God who remains the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Thank you, Fr. Steen for all the valuable lessons you taught us and more ...

How to be a millionaire
From Susan Lim de la Cruz, Iloilo, Philippines

A young man asked an old rich man how he made his money.  The old fellow fingered his worsted wool vest and said, "Well, son, it was 1932, the depth of the Great Depression.  I was down to my last nickel.  I invested that nickel in an apple.  I spent the entire day polishing the apple and at the end of the day I sold the apple for ten cents."

"The next morning," the old rich man continued, "I invested those ten cents in two apples.  I spent the entire day polishing them and sold them at 5:00 p.m. for 20 cents. I continued this system for a month, by the end of which I had accumulated a fortune of $1.37."

The old man paused briefly and continued, "Then my wife's father died and left us 50 million dollars."

Igdono U. Caracho, Batch '66