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March 17, 2004
Dear Classmate,
The HS 64 organizing committee met Thursday, March 11 at the Manila Polo Club to do a postmortem of our Ruby celebration week, tie up some loose ends, to talk about future reunions and begin discussions on the forthcoming La Salle sports coffee table book that Class 64 is producing as our major donation to our alma mater on the occasion of our Ruby anniversary from high school.
First, it was the unanimous sentiment that our Ruby celebration week was an overwhelming success and will be a tough act to follow.
We showed our solidarity and unity as a class and proved that we deserve the label "one of the best classes La Salle has ever produced" especially when it comes to our support and presence during the annual La Salle homecomings. We had the best uniform during the March 6 homecoming and with 66 classmates in attendance noisily cheering our classmate’s induction into this year’s Sports Hall of Fame, Raffy Esteva, we certainly made everyone take notice of us. To add to this, we had the best AVP (audio-visual presentation) during the program of the alumni homecoming.
For the benefit of those who could not attend last week (March 3 to 7), following is an account of our official activities for the Ruby celebration week:
- Wednesday, March 3, dinner in honor of HS 64 out- of- towners and wives at Tower Club, Philamlife Bldg, the top exclusive membership club in Manila. This was attended by
61 HS’64 members and 44 guests inclusive of band members of Vic Sumulong who provided music of the 60’s till past midnight. Also singing and jamming with the band were Toto Revilla, Joey Syjuco, Mon Faustmann, Charlie Oglou, Jon Achaval, Titong Tanjuatco, Adrian Chincuanco and Oscar Guevara.
A whole lot of fun is how we can describe the evening and a great start to the Ruby week celebrations. The venue was undoubtedly classy, food was great and the company even better.
- Golf Tournament Report by George Juico
As a feature of our Ruby anniversary celebration, the organizing / working committee authorized the holding of a golf tournament to be participated in by our class members both local residents & foreign based classmates.
The tournament was held on 04 March 2004, Thursday at the Palmer Course of ORCHARD GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB.
There were 19 participants plus an Orchard Golf and Country Club member who was a guest of Adrian Chincuanco.
The participants were:
1. Dave Dichupa
2. Mike Prieto
3. Tony Olbes
4. Toto Revilla
5. Raffy Yupangco
6. Boy de los Santos
7. Ike Unson
8. Ray Guzman
9. Nory Reyes Lao
11. George Juico
12. Caloy Valles
13. Ting Vallejo
14. Sandy Bril
15. Jimmy Eusebio
16. Joe Tan
17. Charlie de Oglou
18. Johnny Yang
19. Eric Hernandez
20. Fred de Vera – guest of Adrian Chincuanco
The winners were:
A. LOW GROSS : Mike Prieto - Champion
: Tony Olbes - First Runner up
: Caloy Valles - Second Runner up
B. CLASS A (Gross scores of 95 to 105) Blind Callaway System
Low Net : Ting Vallejo - First Place
: Toto Revilla - First Runner up
C. CLASS B (Gross scores of 105 & up) Blind Callaway System
Low Net : Raffy Yupangco - First Place
: Sandy Bril - First Runner up
Cocktails & awarding of prizes to the winners took place at the Club immediately after the tournament. Beer mugs with DLSU HS 64 Logo were given to all participants. Totie Rementilla who arrived that day from Toronto joined the golfers during the cocktails / awarding ceremonies.
The Golf committee has a cash in hand of PHP 3,500.00 which was donated by Mike Prieto / Judes Echauz / Andy Santos / Raffy Yupangco during our class reunion at MERK’s Bar sometime on Jan. 21.
- March 5, Friday at Tektite (Grand Class Reunion)
Registration began at 5 PM. Mass was officiated by Fr. Pat Lim, one of our spiritual advisers.
George Vergel de Dios came all the way from Bulacan to deliver a beautiful invocation; Bro. Raffy Suarez, on the other hand, came from Nueva Ecija and managed to get a rare leave of absence from their religious order to lead us in prayer before dinner was served.
A heart-rending "In Memoriam" video of departed classmates also preceded dinner and brought tears to a handful of classmates and touched everybody present including our guests that included the following former teachers:
- Ms. Josefina Alburo who is now in her mid-seventies but still looking as pretty as ever and not a day older than 55;
- Mr. Manuel Fabella still very lucid at 93 years old but who had to beg leave immediately after dinner and before the program started (because he felt indisposed probably due to the lechon he ate);
- Mr. Raul Mirasol (brother of our classmate Joey and a former Christian brother; and
- Roberto "Robbie" Sandejas.
Very ably emceeing the program were Caloy Valles, Ricky Ysmael and Sonny
Alvarez who during dinner introduced each person present that evening with both serious and humorous descriptions of classmates. This roll call set the tone of the evening.
Examples:
- Rey Rodriguez - Gentle giant and self proclaimed whistle bomb maniac;
- Ray Rillo - Valentino of HS Class 64 and HS 64’s gift to women;
- Vic Sumulong - Class enforcer and protector of the guys always being bullied;
- Joey Syjuco - Class valedictorian and now aspiring singer.
Plaques of appreciation were given out to:
- Fr. Pat Lim
- Miss Alburo
- Raul Mirasol
- Robbie Sandejas
- Vic Sumulong for lending his band on March 3 & 5 gratis et amore.
"Sons of St. La Salle" awards with corresponding plaques were also given to the ff:
- Ting Vallejo
- Tony Tibajia
- Jess Gallegos
- Jimmy del Rosario
Ting, Tony and Jess were recognized for going full time into teaching while Jimmy was given his award for establishing New Beginnings, a foundation which combats drug addiction and is considered one of the foremost rehab centers here in the Philippines.
We have so many achievers in HS Class 64. Certainly Philip Lhuillier our Ambassador to Italy stands out and deserves special mention. But the
ExCom of the organizing committee opted to give out awards to our classmates who have followed the example of St. La Salle. If we missed out on anyone, please tell us immediately so we can rectify the oversight.
Finally after the cheering and singing of the La Salle victory song and the alma mater anthem led by former cheerleaders of HS Class 64, the band of Vic Sumulong took over and entertained the group until 2AM. The dance floor was busy until the
4 dance instructors who earlier acted as cage dancers in the early part of the program left Tektite at 1AM.
By the way, the food catered by La Tasca drew raves from everyone. Kudos to Eddie Gaspar & Sonny Alvarez who took charge of the food for the evening. Total attendance of classmates in this event was 85, a record breaking number.
- Saturday March 6 - DLSAA Homecoming at La Salle Taft
As earlier mentioned, we had 63 classmates who attended. Easily, as in previous homecomings, next to the Col 79 Silver Jubilarians who were this year’s hosts, HS Class 64 was second overall in attendance.
The program ended a little after 9:00 PM but not everyone went straight home. Some continued the festivities elsewhere. I heard unverified reports that some classmates sowed their wild oats around Metro Manila. The important thing is that in the end everyone managed to go home safe and sound. Enough said.
- Sunday, March 7 - Outing to Ponderosa (as reported by Cookie Perez Rubio)
To cap a weeklong flurry of events celebrating our 40 years reunion, some members of the class went out of town to visit Ponderosa Leisure Farms. This project is a joint venture entered into by two of our classmates Freddie Burgos and Cookie Perez-Rubio. They hosted a lunch for those willing to make the trek to Silang Cavite.
Ponderosa Leisure Farms is a new concept in lifestyle and leisure. Residential garden homes in Mexican-Spanish surroundings, just an hour away from Manila. Raffy Yupangco was the first to arrive with his friend Guilly Rufino. Shortly thereafter, others slowly started arriving. Bobong Velez came with Maricor, Titong Tanjuatco brought his wife Cora. Some early solos were Toto Revilla, Ike Unson, and Ting Vallejo. Between the sharing of the past week’s activities, farm tours were offered to those that wanted to see the development.
George Juico, Ed Tirona, Francis Choy and Adrian Chincuanco joined the group followed by Boy Avecilla with Juliet and Ricky Kahn with Marilen. Rounding out the group were Ramon Faustmann and Caloy Valles, Nori Lao and So Labayen. Jayjay Frondoso also came with wife Marcel.
The wives were entertained by Freddie’s wife Tina. Lunch was served by "La Paella" and the food was sumptuous, as were all the meals of the previous events.
As promised we are now in the process of putting together in DVD format a compilation of all of our activities during our Ruby celebration week. They will be available for distribution by end of April at the latest at a nominal cost of
PHP 750.00. Please indicate if you are interested in purchasing a copy
ASAP.
Our class artist, Ray Guzman who designed the HS64 class insignia for our Green White year book in 1964 is presently compiling a photo album of all photos of all the events held March 3 to 7. Ray will compile these photos and place captions on them and put into a CD; he intends to give this CD’s as gifts to classmates upon request. By the way, our class insignia which is unique to our class was also used in the cover of our souvenir program during our silver anniversary celebration in 1989 and again in our t-shirts this March.
This will also be available around mid May.
A financial report is forthcoming from Ricky Ysmael and Toto Revilla next week.
In the meanwhile, the organizing committee has decided that the next milestone we should celebrate in a big way is 2010, our golden anniversary out of grade school. Since 2011 is La Salle’s centennial in the Philippines, we could celebrate two consecutive years. There is however a proposal to do another major reunion in 2009, our 45th year out of high school. That’s five years away. Let’s see about that.
Until the next big celebration, we have decided to meet twice a year, once during the La Salle homecoming in March and once in November / December outside La Salle.
Therefore in behalf of the HS 64 organizing committee who has done a tremendous job in keeping our class together, allow me again to thank you for your cooperation and support through the years.
Till we see each other again,
ANIMO LA SALLE!
BOBONG VELEZ
Overall Chairman
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