Newsletter of Torres High School Class 1959 Vol. 1, No. 2 * Manila, Philippines * Decenber 2007

Debate on Jubilation Book Called to a Halt

The Jubilation Yearbook Committee, composed of Rolly Lampa. Romi Mananquil, Myrna Rodriguez Co and Orlando Cuasay, has asked, in a series of email messages, to keep on hold the ongoing debate on the format the Jubilation yearbook will take until information on comparative costs for various versions of it are available.

The Jubilation Year book may take the form of an upscale, hardcover coffeetable volume, an "ordinary" soft-bound version, or a computer-generated, photo-copied, ring-bound volume.

Jorge Gonzales, batting for consensual decision making on the issue, has urged jubilarians to make their choices known.

The trickles of opinions that have come in indicate a bias for the coffeetable format. Others have expressed willingness to go with the decision of the majority. Other views favor the modest version that will allow the larger portion of funds raised to be donated to facility-improvement in THS for for some other humanitarian cause.

The Jubilation Yearbook committee has assured jubilarians that the decision on the format can be made as late as the second half of 2008, pending formal quotations from printers. For the committee, the more important concern is the gathering of the materials for the yearbook.

Some Philippine-based alumni, mostly successful businessmen, who have asked to be unnamed have pledged to shoulder costs of the book. This, however, has yet to be confirmed.

Rolly Lampa requested the 59ers not to look at humanitarian projects and the jubilation book project as an "either-or" choice but rather as two distinct activities.

Each jubilarian will be alloted one or two pages of the book tthat will be filled with his or her profile and old and new pictures.

To-date seven jubilarian profiles with photos have been received by the committee, including those of Manolo Sy, THSAA '59-Philippines president, Romeo Mananquil, Orlando Cuasay, Enoch Guzman, Rolando Lampa, Myrna Rodriguez Co, and Corazon Miranda Yuson.

The Committee urges the rest of the 59ers to submit materials for their own page as soon as possible. The recommended format is: a brief description of the jubilarian in 1959 (as a high school student/graduate), in 2009 present), and the years in between. The profile maybe in narrative or bullet form. Pictures should include high school and present personal and family pictures.

A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE
from Rolly (and Lynn) Lampa

Christmastime is always a season of hope …. and a time for wishful thinking. These are the things I hope for and wish for you.

I wish you holidays of remarkable evenness and ordinariness. Not rollercoaster days of emotional peaks and troughs. No ecstasies or tragedies. Just days of quiet. Days you can curl up on a sofa and read a pocketbook or watch an old movie. Days of peace.

I wish you days of long forgotten pleasures – an extra half-hour in bed in the mornings; light traffic all the way to office or to the mall; short queues at the check-out counter; steaming hot coffee or frosty cold beer at the appropriate times of the day; the light of your life wearing a silly old thing that reminds you of a moment in your courtship when you both were young and the world was young with you.

I wish you days of small splendid joys - the car pulling out from the parking bay just as you happen to turn into the parking lot; the shop assistant/office receptionist actually smiling up at you as you come in; an unexpected email from an old friend; a favorite song you haven’t heard in years now playing on the car radio; the keys or your eyeglasses just where you thought they would be; your kids (or grandkids) rushing in with a garbled greeting and a tight hug and a warm look around the eyes that says they’re actually glad you’re home.

I wish you little nuggets of happiness … the peace-be-with-you moment at midnight mass when you turn around to your loved ones and embrace and kiss each other; the count-down craziness on New Year’s eve; the warm sand on your bare feet at the beach; the tiredness at dusk on an outing that was just perfect. At such times, you get the feeling that all is right with the world and with the heavens.

Drive safely. Enjoy the year-end break. Be happy. God bless.




PANGULONG TUDLING

Ang Mukha ng Torresian
ni Roberto B. Catli

Sa Quiapo, 5th avenue, NY o Merdeka Park, Indonesia, makilala mo kaya sa mukha ang iyong kasalubong kung sya ay Torresian?

Hindi? Ibig sabihin ang Torresian ay makikilala lamang sa pag-amin na sya'y anak ng Torres High School at ng Tondo?

Ang katangian ng Torresian ay dapat kakaiba. Sa ngayon mahirap syang mapagsino. Kailangan pang magbalik-tanaw sa putol-putol na larawn ng mga klasrums at himayin ang mga istorya ng kabataan sa larangan ng Tundo upang makarating sa kasalukuyan.

Sa isang organizational meeting para sa 50th Reunion ng Class '50, madalas marinig: "Sino ka ba?" Sa haba ng panahon na di pagkikita ang mukha ng Torresian ay napalitan ng ibang maskara. Maging ang tamis-ngiti ng isang dating kaibigan ay tuyot. Ilag at atabuli. Wala pati pagtitiwala. Ito ang bayad sa matagal na pagkakalayo.

Sa New York, isang Torresian at Pinoy na amboy ang nagtagpo. Parang si Marlon Brando kung magsalita itong huli. Propesyonal at maganda ang buhay sa isang ekslusibong lugar. Hangang-hanga ang Torresian sa kababayang Brown American. Subalit damang-dama ang layo ng kalooban nito sa kanya. Babalik na sya sa Pinas nang marinig mula sa kababayan: "Sa Torres, sa Tundo, noong nag-aaral pa ako, diyes lang ang pamasahe." Dito nagsimula, kahit sa maikling sandali, ang bagong bigkis ng pagkakaibigan at pagtitiwala.

Sa mukha, pilit natin binabakas at binabanaag ang tapos na panahon. Para bang sa ganitong paraan lamang may halaga at kahulugan ang pagiging Torresian.

Sa araw ng 50th Grand Reunion ng Class '59, hindi mapipigil ang maraming tanong na "SINO KA BA?" Paulit-ulit, pabalik-balik na pag-uusapan at gigisingin: ang mga bulaklak sa puno ng narra sa tabi ng Home Economics building; ingay at kulit ng estudyanteng naglalako ng sitsirya at ang mga sweet-nothings sa loob ng library, linamnam ng bayabas na inukitan ng sikretong pangalan; romantikong short story sa Sulo; poetry ng kulay at talinhaga sa Torch, calisthenics at martsahan sa oval, ang praktis ng sayaw para sa valentine at graduation ball, rejection ng first love, love letters na isiningit sa pahina ng Philippine Government ni Tolentino. Ah, ang lahat ng di malilimutang high school memories.

At matapos ang mga usapan at hulaan kung sino ang sino, at kahit nasiyahan na sa mga balik-gunita, tititig muli sa mukha ng kausap at paulit na itatanong: "Sino ka ba?"

May tanging hiling sa ating 50th reunion: buuin ang isang mukha ng Torresian na hindi ipagtatanong. Torresian sapagkat ang kakayahan ay nakalagad sa kabutihan ng lahat. Taos-pusong magsisimula ng mga proyektong pangtao. Tahasang magbibigay ng tulong. Itatag ang pundasyon ng samahan na laang magdugtong ng buhay sa nangangailangan. Mamuno sa pagbabago. Torresian na na laang magdugtong ng buhay sa mga nangangailangan. Mamuno sa pagbabago. Torresian na ang salita ay may katumbas na gawa. Mula man siya sa maamoy na bilaran ng isda sa Bangkusay, o nakamasid sa nagyeyelong mga wawa ng Geneva o humahanga sa glass enclosure ng Louvre sa Paris, ang kanyang integridad ay hindi ipinagbibili. Sa kanyang dibdib mamamalagi ang apoy ng konsensya ng hustisya at ng katapatan. Sa sakit ng lipunan pilit niyang hahanapin ang tutuo, manindigan at kung kailangan makikipaglaban.

Hindi natin papayagan na ang 50th Grand Reunion ng Class 59 ay maging huling pagtatagpo, huling pagyakap, huling pagkupas ng ningning ng mata. Hindi natin ibabalik sa himbingan ang mga pangarap na gumising at natupad.

Ang mukha ng Torresian ay makikilala ito man ay isang matagumpay ng mangangalakal, ina o amang butihin sa mga anak, karaniwang kawani, mayamang propesyonal at maging iyong nalibing ng walang tanda sa parang ng pakikibaka.

Manatili tayong Torresian at Pinoy.

Isang manunulat ang minsa'y naggsabi -- "Sa Tundo Man May Langit Din."|

Ang Torresian, saan man naroroon, may mukha na makikilala at malinaw ang tinig na magsasabi: "Sa Bayan Ko, Naroon Ang Langit."

Romi M to Mount Show for UP Centennial

Romeo Mananquil, Canada-based visual artist and former Torres Torch chief artist, will mount a solo art exhibit in Manila next year as part of the University of the Philippines (UP) Centennial celebration.

Mananquil, who graduated and taught at the UP College of Fine arts, is scheduled to arrive in Manila by late March or early April in time for the opening of his show at the Corredor Gallery in UP on April 15.

Mananquil's Artist Group of Canada is also slated to put up a group show in late April at the Ayala Museum.


NEWSBRIEFS

• The Christmas party of the THSAA 59 will be held on December 29 at the residence of Francisco Co in Tondo, Manila. All who will attend are requested to bring an exchange gift. Co also celebrated his birthday earlier, on December 2, at Emerald Restaurant on Roxas Boulevard, with a group of 59ers in attendance.

• Last December 22, Manolo Sy celebrated his birthday with high school friends at his residence in Paranaque City. An honored guest at the event was balikbayan Juliet Aguilar-Santiano.
  

• Balikbayan alumni expected in the first quarter of 2007 include: Rodelia Ople Ong. Romeo Mananquil, and Dolores Santos
  

PHOTO ESSAY

Torres Naming Mahal
(Images of THS, past and present)

Text by Bayani P. Diaz

As time goes by, memories of our childhood flood our mind. It could be the day when we received our first communion, or the day we got married, or when our first child was born. Through the past decades, our memories keep straying back to those significant days. And what else could be more significant than our school days...not elementary or college or university days, but our high school days? Memories always take us back to our high school days, especially our fourth year in high school. What is so special about that last year of high school that makes us so nostalgic as to grapple with the memory of those elusive events, events that keep peeping into our minds, yet won’t show themselves to us?

The mention of Torres High School resonate the music and lyrics of our "There's No Other School Like Torres Grand" hymn which has lately been changed to “Torres Kong Mahal” (See above). Then images form as I close my eyes—the Oval, the wooden bleachers, the Home Economics Building, the Narra tree, the Cafeteria, the ice cream, and the library—while emotions cascade and pictures roll like circles in my mind.

The image of the Oval brings back the sounds of marching feet and the booming voice of Jaime Brum shouting: “Halt! Right face! Present arms! At ease!” The narra tree beside the Home Economics building keeps showing the shadow of a boy, humming a tune “You don’t know me...” or something like that. The image of a girl with a face I cannot recall pops up as I watch the wooden bleachers in the oval grounds in my mind; she is mumbling [as if memorizing] the words of Edgar Allan Poe's My beautiful, beautiful Annabel Lee” These, and more, always well up in my mind each time my memory strays to that year 1959 in Torres High School.

ALMA's MATTERS: Alma Cabrera's Notes
(from minutes of Executive Committee meetings, THSAA 59)

From the Meeting of September 29

1. Enoch de Guzman, chair of the Membership Committee, reported a total of 109 membrs listed as of September 26. Bayani Diaz, who was preparing a new and improved format of the list, with photos, would be asked to work with the Committee. He would be invited to attend the subsequent meetings and be an active member, given his enthusiasm and ICT-proficiency.

2. The February 7, 2009 jubilee activity at the THS oval would be exclusive to members of Class '59. Other activities might be open to other alumni interested to attend.

3. Each active member would try to recruit at least three more new members. New recruits would be reported at each regular monthly meeting.

4. All members were reminded to submit their profile and with accompanying photos for the Jubilation book project.

5. There was a suggestion to sell souvenir items during the event, e.g. caps and mugs.

6. It was confirmed, in yet another vote, that no posthumous Outstanding Alumni awards would be given out.

7. Treasurer Adoring Carlos reported that as of date, there were US $1000 in foreign contributions and P50,000 in locally-raised funds. A trio of Philippine-based members, succesfful businessmen all, had also informally pledged to shoulder the Jubilation book expenses. These pledges were, however, yet to be confirmed.