Newsletter of Torres High School Class 1959 Vol. 1, No. 1 * Manila, Philippines * Oct. 2007

Torres High 59ers Plan Grand Homecoming in Feb. 09

Flocy Meneses, Alma Cabrera, Pining Cua, Germie Pangilinan, Ed Juan, Enoch Guzman, Francisco Co, Bert Catli, Renato Pahate, Ernesto Dionisio and Manolo Sy at a meeting held last Sept. 28 at UP ISSI.

Members of Torres High School Class of ‘59 have begun preparations for their Golden Jubilee celebration in 2009.

The main celebration will take place on February 7 at the Torres High School quadrangle.

Tentative activities lined up for the day include performance by a live band, a restrospective “the way we were” literary-musical program, an awarding ceremony of outstanding jubilarians, a raffle, and dancing.

According to Manolo Sy, attendance in this gathering will be free of charge, with the expected success of the fund-raising campaign being mounted by the Manila group.

There are also tentative plans to hold a reunion ball in a posh hotel and an overnight outing to an out-of-town resort. These activities will, however, be shouldered by each participant.

Already, 59ers who will attend the February 7 gathering are being asked to register. (See story below.)


Register Your Attendance Now!
Jubilarians who will attend the general gathering of 59ers on February 7, 2009 are requested to register now by email, by postal mail, or by telephone.

Registrants are asked to submit complete mailing addresses, landline and mobile phone numbers, and e-mail addresses. They are also requested to indicate the name(s) of person(s) they will attend the event with.

Registration can be emailed to Manolo Sy, at sy_manolo @yahoo.com or to the yahoo group at torres-59ers@yahoogroups. com. Otherwise, write or call : Manolo Sy (see THSAA headquarters address and contact numbers on the side bar).

All are requested to help in the recruitment of other 59ers who may yet be uninformed of reunion plans.


Membership Committee Escalates Recruitment
The Membership Committee has escalated efforts to "flush out" more jubilarians through extensive house-to-house recruitment campaigns.

According to Enoch Guzman, chair of the Membership Committee, his group has been exploring areas near Torres High School like Gagalangin, Tondo, Maypajo, Balut, Caloocan, and Binondo where many 59ers are likely to still reside.

To-date the campaign has succeeded in “flushing out” as many as 100 batchmates.

Other strategies being eyed to gather more 59ers into the loop and the Jubilee celebration include radio plugs and announcements, print advertising, and banners in strategic locations in the Tondo area.

Other members of the Membership Committee are Alma Cabrera and Rufino Abrazado.


Photo gallery (from gatherings, meetings, etc.)

Manolo Sy, Ernesto Dionisio,Bert Catli, Renato Pahate


Pining Cua, Renato Pahate, Sonia Villegas, Adoring Carlos, Myrna Rodriguez, Flocy Meneses

Rufino Abrazado, Germilina Pangilinan, Gloria Zabat, Adoring Carlos

Letters, feedback, suggestions

Hi!

Read Manolo’s letter on the Yahoo website and kept going back at various times today, hoping for more — is that all that was taken up in the meeting? It’s just an appeal by Manolo for unity among overseas 59ers.

Nanduon na kami. We’re actually waiting for answers ... to the questions posed by Jorge (Gonzales), then by Lolit (Zabala), and again almost immediately upon Manolo’s posting, by Cora (Renta) Hussain. I think it is best that Manolo be open with the thinking in Manila from our batchmates there, so that the 59ers abroad can move on and act appropriately.

Can you update me on what went on.

Rolly Lampa


Hi Manilo. May I ask if the celebration at the oval on Feb. 7, 2008 is exclusive for 59ers and their spouses only?

Thank you for your clarification.

Regards,

Cora Renta-Husain

Hi Rolly and Cora!

The February 7, 2009 event at the THS quadrangle will beexclusive for 59ers. That was the decision after a show of hands at the last meeting on Sept. 28. For the other activities — all tentative anyway — the options are still open. - Ed.


Search is on for Outstanding 59ers
The Awards Committee, headed by Rufina Cua Soriano, has announced the launch of the Search for Outstanding 59ers who will be recognized during the main celebration on February 7.

The tentative awards categories are as follows:
Public service
Literature and mass communication
Fine arts
Business and entrepreneurship
Science and Medicine
Education

Qualified for the awards are 59ers who have made extraordinary accomplishments and contributions in their field and manifested social responsibility.

The Committee has decided to recognize only living alumni. “There will be no posthumous awards,” according to Soriano.

Nominations should be accompanied by a one or two-paragraph explanation on why nominees are outstanding and nominees’ curriculum vitae.

A panel of judges has yet to be formed to make the final selection after the committee’s initial screening.

Nominations should be sent to Rufina Soriano-Cua at rufinasoriano@yahoo.com or post mailed at her address at 191 9th Avenue Extension, Caloocan City. The THSAA address (see page 4, top) may also be used.

Golden Jubilee Book Takes Shape
A “Jubilation” book, with a Mananquil cover and layout - “a yearbook like no other” - is taking shape in the hands of an internationally-based group of former Torch and Sulo editors and artists.

Each participating jubilarian will have his or her own personal page to be filled with a write-up of the “missing years” — that is. from 1959 up to the present — and “then and now” photos, including old high school pictures and present family pictures. The page shall also contain addresses and contact numbers.

In charge of the production of the book are Rolly Lampa and Romy Mananquil, co-chairs of the Jubilation book committee, Orlando Cuasay, and Myrna Rodriguez-Co, and Roberto Catli who will handle coordination and printing of the book, being Manila-based. Lampa, Rodriguez-Co and Cuasay were Torres Torch editor-in-chief, managing editor, and associate editor, respectively, while Mananquil was the Torch’s chief artist in 1959. Catli, on the other hand, was Ang Sulo’s editor-in-chief.

The “missing years” essay is expected to provide highlights of a jubilarian’s life after he or she graduated in 1959 until the time of the reunion in 2009. It will include glimpses of his or her training and education, career or profession, marriage and family life, and other aspects he or she might wish to write about.

The cover, to be executed by Romy Mananquil, now a celebrated Canada-based artist, promises to make the Jubilation book precious and worth keeping, according to Lampa.

All 59ers are requested to submit the materials for their respective pages using English, Pilipino or Taglish and guided by the following outline:

Name: (including maiden and married name for women)
Mailing address:
Contact numbers: (landline and mobile phone numbers, email)
Name of spouse:
Names of children:
The Missing Years: (including college education, career, marriage/family life, etc.)
Enclosures: pictures, old and new

These may be sent to Myrna Co at myrnaco@gmail.com or 124 Dama de Noche Street, Dona Juliana 1, Santa Lucia, Pasig City or to the THSAA headquarters.

Featured Jubilarian
Getting to know Manolo Sy

Told that Manolo Sy had taken over the presidency of the THS 59 Alumni Associiation, home chapter when Dick Estrella died late last year, I asked: “Manolo who?” My rusty memories of high school didn’t include him. But after having met and worked with him for several months , I now feel sure the Association is in very good hands.

I guess there are others like me who would like to know more about Manolo Sy who is investing a lot of his time and resources to the celebration. Here’s an interview with him.

Describe the young Torresian that you were in 1959. Nobody great. I didn’t achieve much; mostly drifted. I graduated without studying very hard. I was asthmatic as a boy and had limited baon, which restricted my activities. For me, it was mostly school and home. I had to work in our small family business. Mostly, I helped in packing kropeck. That was how I was oriented to business which eventually became my lifetime career.

Tell us about the man that you are now. I started in 2005 an engineering liaison office, MDT Philippines, with two partners. It is the latest of enterprises I put up, the others being MS Prime Cargo Movers, Inc., a forwarding/ brokerage firm and Manolo Sy and Associates, an accounting/auditing firm. Just now trying to pace out my involvement in business; now learning to relax and enjoy life after years of struggle. Am a grandfather to a two-year-old girl now. Active in the Rotary Club and, of course, the THS Alumni Association.

What about the “missing years?” Chose UE over UP to enrol in (as going to Diliman, Quezon City meant bigger baon which my family could ill afford). Finished BSC in accounting in 1963. Could have taken the CPA board that year, but wanted to prepare more. Self-studied for a year, took the review course for another. Took and passed the exam in 1964. Meanwhile began my 7-year stint in employment — PI Electricals, Filipinas Electric, Concepcion Industries –taking on consultancy engagements edgewise. In 1971, Air France offered me a job as Accountant for Asia Pacific. I stayed in this airline company for five years total — it was nice going. Working there, I had the chance to visit many countries and to develop a travel itch which afflicts me to this day. Between my job and business consultancy, I received an offer to be CEO of a tooling engineering firm which I managed for two years prior to putting up my own forwarding firm.

Meanwhile, in 1971, I met my future wife, Onie Zarate, at a car financing firm where I took a loan to buy my first car, a Beatle. Got my American green card a year into marriage. Visited the USA twice but found it wasn’t for me. Onie and I have two children — one an MBM graduate of the Asian Institute of Management, and the other a computer software specialist.

What do you still aspire for?: To mount a successful THS 59ers jubilee event — that’s a given. With the help of all 59ers here and abroad, it will definitely happen. Is there anything else to wish for? — well, maybe a toy for a golden boy — a yacht. Then I can indulge my hobby, fishing, whenever I want.— by MRC

____

Let the Torch burn on!