Vol. 13, No. 7, September 21, 2009

TE's BUILDING
House in shambles

Reports indicate that at the time of the incident an excavation activity was ongoing for the construction of a new building belonging to the MSU-IIT Cooperative right beside the ill-fated house.  The construction site was formerly occupied by Tan Lam Glass Palace. The incident left two construction workers dead and scores injured.

[In photo at left: Household materials, fixtures and furniture are in shambles after a portion of the Te's building collapsed.  Right photo: Rescuers race against time to save construction workers buried under a pile of rubble from the collapsed building on Quezon Ave. Ext. Photos by Roger Suminguit, Batch '73.]

Attention: Spectrum web page readers

The Spectrum web site at GeoCities.com will soon cease operation. This is because of the decision of GeoCities, our host server, to end its web hosting services by October this year. Until our web page succeeds in migrating to a new host server, the Spectrum will cease to be available for public viewing on the Internet. We are, therefore, inviting our readers to subscribe to the Spectrum now so that they can receive free copies of the Spectrum in PDF format directly in their email once our web site fades away from cyberspace. Subscription is free. To subscribe, send the following message to this email: [email protected]

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Henry Ang, 82

Henry Ang passed away on July 31, 2009. He was 82 years old. He is survived by his wife Rita Sy-Ang, and children Evangeline Ang ('71), Richard Ang ('76), Stephen Ang ('74), Ellen Ang ('76), and Edwin Ang. The late Henry Ang was the brother of Siok Kuan Ang, Siok An "Andy" Ang ('56), Lilian "Siok Hun" Ang ('57), Gregoria Ang ('59), Linda Ang ('59), Elsa Ang ('63), Joselyn Ang ('67), and Charles Ang ('70).

Members of the Resurrection of the Lord held a solemn mass at the wake in the evening of Aug. 1. After the mass, members of the Maranaw Lodge No. 111 and Iligan Lodge No. 207 held an 18th Degree funeral rites in honor of the late Henry Ang. Likewise, leaders of the Iligan Kinmen Association, Lanao Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Inc., LCHS School Board, Iligan Amity Association, LCHS-PTA, and LCHS Alumni Association gathered at the wake on Aug. 2 for their respective ceremonial floral offerings. After the wake his remains were brought to Cebu for cremation on Aug. 7.

The late Henry Ang was a Worshipful Master of Maranaw Lodge No. 111, a dual member of the Iligan Lodge No. 207, past District Deputy Grand Master, Venerable Master, and Inspector General Honorary 33rd Degree. We request our pious readers to pray for the eternal repose of his soul.

NEW NURSES.  The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) officially released the result of the June 2009 Philippine Nursing Board Exam last July 25. Among the 77,901 examinees, a total of 32,617 passed the said exam. It has a 41.87 percent passing rate. Two of the 32,617 who passed the said exam were Hazel Valerie T. Yu (in photo, at left), daughter of Dr. Henry Yu (Batch '69) and John Steven K. Siao (in photo, at right), son of Sergio Siao (Batch '66). Hazel Valerie and John Steven were both classmates at Velez College of Nursing. They graduated last March and took the Nursing Board Exam last June 6 & 7. They are now taking up medicine at the Cebu Institute of Medicine (CIM).

GOING ABROAD. Iligan City Vice Mayor Henry Dy (Batch '64) will leave for Singapore for a study tour of the Vice Mayors League of the Philippines (VMLP) this coming Aug. 26 to 29.  The tour will give the visiting vice mayors from different cities in the Philippines the opportunity to observe first hand the operations of various institutions of the government of Singapore. Mayor Lawrence Cruz signed an executive order allowing the vice mayor to participate in the study tour that will serve to benefit the city through his new insights. Henry Dy is the incumbent National Executive Vice President of the VMLP. Also going abroad is Santi Ong (Batch '70). He is leaving for a month-long vacation starting on Aug. 27 to visit friends and relatives in the U.S.A. and Canada.

NORTHWEST AWARDEE.  Cebu Fortune Travel, Inc., owned and operated by Aida Lim-Uy (Batch '61), in photo, was a recipient of this year's Top Ten Travel Agents in Cebu City given by the Northwest/Delta Airlines recently. The awarding was held at the chic Mediterranean-inspired Anzani's Restaurant at Nivel Hills, Lahug.  No less than Northwest/Delta country manager Steve Crowdey jetted in from Manila to grace the occasion.
 
 

Reliving the past
From Jing Uy, LCHS, Iligan, Philippines; email: [email protected]
Fri, 24 Jul 2009 1:29:58 PM

Forgive me but I could not help but shed tears (don't want to sound sentimental) when I read your article on LCHS-Roosevelt days (Spectrum, July 27, 2009 issue). It's like honing for home when it's no longer there. I'm planning to bring all the high school students next month for a re-visit to where Lanao Chung Hua School started. I want them to take a glimpse of the school's past so they can learn how to connect with what was bygone and what LCHS is now. Hopefully, with this noble intention, they would learn to understand and value their school. So that when they become alumni, they will continue to be reverent to the school, appreciate its contribution to their success and help in reliving the past to the next generation.  Please, more vintage articles on LCHS days! Thanks, Charles Sy, for sowing in many alumni's minds the realization that they have a role to play to help make this school survive.

Muchisimas gracias
From Alex Rodriguez (Batch '65), Miramar, Florida, U.S.A.; email: [email protected]

Mon, 3 Aug 2009 8:53:04 AM
To Sy Anlok: We can't thank you enough for being present during our home blessing along with Igdono Caracho and Sammy Go. Thank you too for the publicity and being instrumental for our reunion in Iligan. I just feel sad for those who were not able to make it and hopefully they are doing fine. And for Henry Yu who is in seclusion, thanks for his kind words in the Spectrum. I sincerely thank you all and all my classmates and professors who were able to attend the get-together. I wonder when I will see you again. Definitely, I will knock on your door when we come back. From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for everything. Hopefully we will see each other again in our side of the world too.

From Henry L. Yu (Batch '69), Cebu, Philippines; email: [email protected]
Fri, 31 Jul 2009 11:42:09 -0700 (PDT)

Our heartfelt condolences to Rita Sy-Ang, Evan, Richard, Stephen, Ellen, Edwin, Siok Kuan, Andy, Lilian, Gregoria, Linda, Elsa, Joselyn, and Charles, and the rest of the Sy and Ang families for the passing away of Henry Ang. Our prayers and sincere sympathy at this time of your bereavement. --Henry L. Yu & family

From Alex Handumon Sy (Batch '68), Aurora, Illinois, U.S.A.; email: [email protected]
Fri, 31 Jul 2009 21:44:48 -0400

Sending our sympathy to Sister Rita Sy-Ang and family. Our thoughts and prayers are with you during this time of loss. --Sister Alicia V. Sy (Handumon) and family<

From Antonio Leo Te (Batch '69), Taiwan; email: [email protected]
Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:54:47 -0700 (PDT)

Our heartfelt condolences to Sister Rita Sy-Ang, Evan, Richard, Stephen, Ellen, Edwin, Siok Kuan, Andy, Lilian, Gregoria, Linda, Elsa, Joselyn, and Bro. Charles, and the rest of the Sy and Ang families for the passing away of Henry Ang. Our prayers and sincere sympathy at this time of your bereavement. May you rest in peace my brother. --Bro. Antonio Leo Te, Sister Lorna D. Te, and family

My family's thoughts and prayers go to the family of Mr. Henry Ang. I remember my late father Mr. Dy Sun Kang and Mr. Henry Ang were very good friends dating back to their badminton days.

Sister Rita and family: We are very sorry to hear of that Bro Henry Ang dropped his working tools. Our prayers are with you at this time of sorrow. --Bro Peter, Sister Tita and family.

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

How often do we hear or see people change their ways of life once they have achieved their goals of being the rich and famous, forgetting the fact that as human beings, we are just passing by.

Lured by fame and fortune and all the material things in this world, we tend to put our popularity and abundance in our head to the point of dismissing the reality that we don't actually own anything in this world, the mortal beings that we are. We tend to forget the fact that the so-called possessions or personal belongings that we claim to be ours are just material things being loaned to us. We tend to forget the fact that as human beings, we are all but passing visitors on a limited tourist visa, who will one day go back to where we came from as in "from ashes to ashes, dust to dust."  Yes, we are just passing by ...

Just as we didn't bring anything with us when we came into this world except for our shrill cry that signaled life, we also won't be bringing with us anything when we go back home. Not any of the many trophies and plaques of recognition displayed in the corner of our house, not any of those favorite books, apparels or diamonds and all that glitter and shine.

As mortal human beings, let us remind ourselves to remain humble despite our being rich and famous, to be more considerate, patient, kind, understanding, and be thankful to God for all the blessings He has given us.

Let us pray and ask God to remind us about the real purpose of life and living, every time we tend to neglect and forget the simple facts of life.

Let us pray and ask God to help us become the better person that He has designed us to be. As one song would put it, "Day by day, oh Lord, three things I pray: To see thee clearly, love thee more dearly, follow thee more nearly, day by day."

Charles O. Sy, Batch '67

Pilipino was never my cup of tea.  It was as strange as Latin in my vocabulary.  Sulating pangwika was no different to me as a solitary pawikan.  In my book, pampaalarang balarila could well have been a biography of a Pinoy Barbarella.

As a student, I never really understood the lessons in Pilipino as they were conducted in Tagalog. The lectures bored me to sleep.  Once during my sleep in class I dreamed that I was listening to yet another lecture in Tagalog.  I woke up promptly out of sheer boredom.

Test period on the subject was always an ordeal.  While my classmates were trying to surpass each other in the test, I was struggling just to pass the test.  And I did so with a little luck plus a good measure of cheating on the side.  I was fortunate to have our class valedictorian as my ally.  He was my seat mate.  But he'd rather call me his cheat mate. Understandably so. He had no choice but to help me out during the tests because I would not stop pestering him. Somehow he must be grateful I initiated him to the art of sign language.  When the test involved simple answers as "wasto"or "mali," he simply had to point the lead of his pencil up for "wasto," and to turn the eraser up for "mali."

Our modus operandi worked.  But not all the time.  In tests involving long answers or complicated jargons I had to explore another exercise in ingenuity. I patiently etched tiny texts with a sharp needle on the flat trunk of Bic ball pens.  The miniaturized text was visible when positioned at a certain angle against the light.  There was no way the teacher could have caught me in the act. Come to think of it, the same technique might well have been the precursor of today's science of micro-etching and miniature art form. Funny, the teacher never suspected why I had to use half a dozen ball pens during exams.

The pressure became more intense when it came time for our periodical tests.  I could no longer depend on my usual seat mate as our seats were rearranged and scattered all over the auditorium along with students from other classes.  Neither could I use micro-etching on ball pens as the tests were lengthy. Desperate to pass the course, I conspired with a few similarly desperate classmates as accomplices in resorting to what was known in our campus underworld as the "stencil raid."

It was a common practice for teachers to prepare their questionnaire in stencils for mimeograph a day before the examination.  When done, the teacher would destroy the used stencils by burning them on an open space at the backyard of the faculty office.  Knowing this routine, we spent hours in a stake-out at the vicinity of the disposal area.  As soon as the teacher left the scene after setting the stencils on fire, we would rush over to douse the fire and retrieve whatever remained of the charred stencils.

While a good portion of the stencil had been burned beyond recognition, a few remaining parts of its content were often still legible. I only needed to prepare the correct answers to this little segment of the tests. They were enough to fetch me a passing mark of 75.

For somebody to whom Tagalog was a waterloo, that was no mean feat.
 

Intro to Chinese text messaging

Text messaging can be fun.  Since the system operates in abbreviations, text messages can be made even shorter and more practical when they are expressed in Fukienese lingo. Here are a few as samples cooked up by Spectrum editors:

Welcome  -- dlai
Are you coming?  -- dblai?
That's right  -- c
No -- m
It's not -- mc
Let's go  --  lai k
I will go  --  bk
Will not go   --  bo bk
I will certainly go  --  8ting bk
When?  --  tc?
Where to?   --  k2?
Going home  --  b2k
Thank you  --  2sha
Where are you?   --  dt2?
None of your business  --  bo d a tai
My gosh -- aya
Good grief  --  owa koa

1. The sermon this morning: "Jesus Walks on Water." The sermon tonight: "Searching for Jesus."

2. Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.

3. Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.

4. Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.

5. The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.

6. Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door.

7. Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance.

Igdono U. Caracho, Batch '66

Wow Balls at Mall of Asia