The Silver Jubilee Homecoming

It was a day to treasure! It was a night to remember!

Everybody started going to school before 10:00 o’clock in the morning on Saturday, the 29th of December 2007. Each new arrival was hailed like the long lost friends we were. Bambi Jamiana De La Torre was in-charge of the reception and registration of alumni. We had a really small turnout at this time but what was important was that there were more of our batchmates joining the celebration.

There was Anthony Inocencio who came all the way from Canada together with Monet Sobrepeña. And from Australia, Dennis Hedriana made good on his promise to come home for the Homecoming. No one can discount Raymund Perez either, for taking a break from his work in Saudi Arabia, to be here as well. You gotta hand it to these guys for making an extreme effort to come home.

Come lunchtime, we started ribbing Anthony Inocencio to give money to buy food. After some good-natured teasing, he opened up his wallet and Totong Derayunan simply snatched two 500 peso bills to add to the 1000 pesos already contributed by two other batchmates. (wala kapalag si Anthony eh) He later said nga indi na siya kuno ma-into liwat. Ayhan? (rolling on the floor laughing) Bitoy Apuhin then called up McDonald’s so we had Chicken McDo delivered to school.

During lunch, Gigi Seva Tordesillas arrived. She told us that her son drove her to school since Emmanuel already has a license to drive. So it was a reversal of roles for them since Gigi was the one who drove him to school when he was younger. When he arrived home, she called him up and thanked him for bringing her to school. (laugh out loud!!!)

Kiting Jiminea Montelibano and Monet Sobrepeña had a moment. Turns out Kiting had a major crush on Monet way back in high school so when he arrived, everybody started teasing them. Kiting finally got her wish to kiss Monet (on the cheek lang ha) and also have their picture taken together.

At 1:30 in the afternoon, the motorcade started. The drumbeaters were so cooool!!! We just had to hand it to them for doing such a great job in setting the truly festive mood of the affair. The Haguard (don’t know if I spelled this right) as Totong called them (after he corrected me when I called them Hagad instead) also were commendable for bringing order to the whole motorcade. I’m sure a lot of busy motorists in Bacolod were cursing us for holding them up in traffic but it sure was fun!!! There were stragglers at the tail-end of the caravan, which can’t be helped, of course. Lina Alejandro Aloquina was driving the SUV that I was on. Sorry, no balloons or ribbons adorned the vehicle but the tarpaulin sure was an eye-catcher, nonetheless.

After the motorcade, I think they set off the first round of fireworks.

At 3:00 o’clock, Father Jude Severino, who was a member of the Class of 1985, celebrated the Holy Mass. His litany dwelt on all of us being the light shining in the darkness. In light of our aim to support kids to finish high school at St. Joseph’s, it pretty much sums up our roles here.

After the mass, the second round of fireworks were set off while everyone had snacks.

Then at 4:30 in the afternoon, everyone in the batch went backstage for the Grand Entrance.

First came the CAT officers carrying the Philippine Flag and School Colors from the back of the Civic Center onstage. For some reason, I remembered Rofel Flores (may he rest in peace) when I saw these kids.

They were followed by members of Batch of 1967 who were celebrating their Ruby Anniversary. Then the former and current mentors came in.

Then to the tune of “Celebration”, the Class of 1982 came out onstage and danced to the choreography of Greg Yoyong Jordan. We sang along with Kool & the Gang and danced like high school kids, our arms clapping in the air, our hips swaying, our feet stamping.

Yahoo! This is your celebration
Yahoo! This is your celebration
Celebrate good times, come on! (Let's celebrate)
Celebrate good times, come on! (Let's celebrate)
There's a party goin' on right here
A celebration to last throughout the years
So bring your good times, and your laughter too
We gonna celebrate your party with you
Come on now
Celebration
Let's all celebrate and have a good time
Celebration
We gonna celebrate and have a good time
It's time to come together
It's up to you, what's your pleasure
Everyone around the world
Come on!
Yahoo! It's a celebration
Yahoo!
Celebrate good times, come on!
It's a celebration
Celebrate good times, come on!
Let's celebrate
We're gonna have a good time tonight
Let's celebrate, it's all right
We're gonna have a good time tonight
Let's celebrate, it's all right
Baby...
We're gonna have a good time tonight (Ce-le-bra-tion)
Let's celebrate, it's all right
We're gonna have a good time tonight (Ce-le-bra-tion)
Let's celebrate, it's all right
Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Celebrate good times, come on! (Let's celebrate)
Celebrate good times, come on!
It's a celebration!
Celebrate good times, come on! (Let's celebrate)
Come on and celebrate, good times, tonight (Celebrate good times, come on!)
'Cause everything's gonna be all right
Let's celebrate (Celebrate good times, come on)
(Let's celebrate)...

After everyone had settled down in their seats below stage, the SJS-LS School Choir rendered the Homage to God and Country.

Greg and Gigi truly did a great job!!! As the emcees, Greg was the comedy act and Gigi, the prim and proper host. They were a picture of contradictions but that’s what a good show needs, right?

They introduced the current school Principal, Ms. Regina Dumagat for her Welcome Address. The Opening Remarks were supposed to be given by Jun Parreño as Class Valedictorian but since he was otherwise indisposed, Peter Ploteña, as Class Salutatorian, took up the cudgels in his stead.

Then Bro. Dindo Maralit, FSC gave a short message, which he said is not really the inspirational message he was supposed to give. He had a different agenda that day, though, which was to introduce the One La Salle concept. (One La Salle is aiming to raise one billion pesos in five years and the alumni will be harnessed to help with this project.) Your thoughts?

This was followed supposedly by a dance number to be performed by the Class of 1985, who was the Freshmen class during our Senior year. There was some glitch there so no one appeared onstage.

Gigi and Greg then segued to one of the most important portions of the affair: the Recognition of the Mentors. All our former mentors, some already retired, resigned, or have passed on, were given their due credit. Gosh!!! There was Sir Baldomero who didn’t seem to change much, Sir Sales whose hair just turned gray all over, and the jolly Sir Sugon who had to be helped up and down the stage by two of our batchmates. Mrs. Diaz had to be wheeled in, though, as she was discharged from hospital two days before the event. Mrs. Mayo was diminished in size but her laughter still rang true. There was Sir Lariza and Sir Mahigne. (By the way, Totong, Raymund, Andy Makilan and I met Mike and Elna Mediodia Luz the day before at Café Bob’s where we had coffee and cookies after coming from the Visayan Daily Star to help edit the newspaper layout for our Homecoming announcement, and they expressed regret that they couldn’t make it to the Homecoming but at least we were still able to see them both. They looked great!) Many more mentors were there but my memory fails me now.

After we gave them the Christmas gifts from the Batch, Mrs. Lourdes Hiponia gave the response in behalf of the mentors.

Then I think somebody from Batch 1984 rendered a song number.

After the song, Frank Carbon from Batch 1967 gave his Inspirational Message.

The highlight of the affair was the dance number of Batch 1982. It was a dance medley of the songs of the 80’s. The most applauded part was when the song “Just Got Lucky” was played. Everyone had their fists in the air, even people in the audience. It was fun!!!

With that production number, these guys are pretty sure to get bookings after the homecoming. As Joselito Porras said, he will definitely sign them up at the next fiesta in Sagay, or was it Cadiz? Bitoy teased that he heard that Batch 2006 is planning to invite the dancers to grace their own homecoming. (laugh out loud!!!) Kidding aside, you can definitely see the effort and the time they all spent to make this production number one for the books. And to think these people are in their forties!!! They looked like teen-agers onstage, especially Lina Alejandro, who gave projection a new meaning. Cute, Nana, real cute!!!

This was followed by the recognition of the batches led by Gigi. Quite a huge turn-out after the sun went down. I guess people were not too happy about spending the humid afternoon at St. Joseph’s because most of them started to really pump up after the program. Of course, dinner was not too far away at this point.

During dinner, where I heard some of our batchmates were not able to eat (there was some breakdown in communication somewhere), the Election of Officers of the Alumni Association was held. Then this was followed by the thing that most of the people there were looking forward to: the Raffle Draw. The honors for drawing the winning ticket for the House and Lot prize was given to our very own, Sir Ariel Pabon.Totong told me the results were published in the Visayan Daily Star, Saturday, January 5th edition.

Finally, together with Batch 1983, we all went up onstage again for the Turn-over of the Key of Responsibility. This was led by Totong Derayunan from our Batch and May Mesticampo from Batch 1983. Amid showers of balloons and confetti, the turn-over ceremony proceeded without a hitch.

For the Closing Remarks, Totong again went up onstage and expressed our thanks and appreciation for all the hard work of all the batchmates as well as for the presence of the members of other Batches.

The dancing began.

Then the last round of fireworks.

And finally, the Alma Mater Song…

Hail, hail, Alma Mater
Hail to De la Salle
We’ll hold your banner high and bright
A shield of green and white
We’ll fight to keep your glory bright
And never shall we fail
Hail to thee, our Alma Mater
Hail, hail, hail!!!


A video accompanied us whilst we sang. You can find a version of the video on YouTube at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6fB-Q8mKJU

Gapalanindug balahibo namon.
I had tears in my eyes.

It was a fitting ending to the celebration of the best time of our lives!!!