Last weekend, Jan. 18-19, I attended our high school annual reunion at the former Cadiz City High School in Negros Occidental, Batch 1980. It was our 45th anniversary. When we graduated in 1980, there were 12 sections and a total of over 500 graduates.
Last Saturday, nearly 100 came, a good turnout after 45 years.
I also attended the January 2020 reunion, our 40th anniversary. Since I was the class valedictorian, my classmates and batchmates were looking up to me to possibly give a substantial financial contribution. I approached two friends who are fellow alumni of the UP School of Economics, Ferdie Constantino of San Miguel Corp. and Robina Gokongwei-Pe of Robinsons Retail.
Ferdie sent more than 30 cases of various SMC beverages in cans. It was a huge and eye-popping event because we were giving away cases of beer in cans in various games and batch competitions as raffle prizes, giveaways to school faculty, plus our own batch consumption. Robina gave gift checks for Robinsons malls.
For this year’s reunion, I again approached Ferdie and Robina, and both sent donations once more. SMC sent many cases of beer in various flavors, which we shared with CCHS Batch 1975, who celebrated their 50th or golden anniversary. My older sister, Lilibeth Oplas, belongs to this batch, and their batch leader or organizer is Ms. Leah Granada-Gaan. Again, it was another eye-popping event as beer in cans was freely enjoyed by various batches. Robina gave several Robinsons gift checks again.
Ferdie will retire as SMC chief financial officer and treasurer at the end of this month, after 50 years as an SMC employee and official. But RSA will not let him go, so he will become an advisor to SMC and the SMC board. Congratulations, Ferdie.
I am 62 years old now, and a number of my friends have passed away. The most recent was Atty. Kristin Barbra “Ting” Bautista-Bello (1972-2025). She was my friend at the Concerned Doctors and Citizens of the Philippines (CDC PH), a group of doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs and other professionals who consistently campaigned against the prolonged lockdown of 2020 to early 2022, and against the mandatory vaccination of experimental vaccines; otherwise, people could not enter schools, offices, malls or ride planes or boats.
Atty. Ting was a soft-spoken, friendly, and highly principled lawyer who never backed down, never shook her belief that the previous administration, the global elites and UN bodies like the WHO had violated the country’s Constitution and our Bill of Rights – right to mobility, right to economic freedom, free expression and right to our body – in their dictatorial push for a prolonged lockdown unless people were injected with an experimental vaccine. My CDC PH colleagues and I miss her.
Another brave friend who passed away more than a year ago was Dr. Benigno “Iggy” Agbayani Jr., who served as the first president of CDC PH when it was formed in September 2020 with an explicit call to end the lockdown, guided by decades-old and proven treatments like Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin. He was a brave, principled and UP-trained physician who never wavered in asserting the people’s medical and economic freedom, to work freely without coercion into taking the experimental vaccine.
Last December, the father of my good friend Dr. Fidel Nemenzo of the UP Math Department, Dr. Francisco “Dodong” Nemenzo Jr. (1935-2024), passed away. He was a former UP president and, before that, chancellor of UP Visayas and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in Diliman. Fidel was a former chancellor of UP Diliman.
In the mid-80s, after graduating from UP Diliman, I enjoyed hopping between my friends’ houses. I would sleep at Fidel’s house inside the UP campus weekly or twice a month, then at my former best friend Mil Millora’s house in Fairview, also weekly, occasionally at my brother’s house in Pasig, or in a friend’s room in UP Narra dormitory. I was a No Permanent Address person at the time for two years, by choice.
Dodong Nemenzo did not find my weekly or twice-monthly intrusion in their house a nuisance, as I enjoyed free dinner and sleep for two years because I was a friend of his eldest son, Fidel. During my eulogy at Dodong’s wake, I narrated this kindness of Dodong and his family, and it is something I will never forget for the rest of my life.
Similarly, the father of my best friend, Mil Millora, Atty. Vicente “Vic” Millora (1933-2020), did not find my weekly or twice-monthly free dinner and lodging in their house for two years a nuisance. Mil and I were anti-Marcos activists in UP in the early 80s, while Atty. Vic was a pro-Marcos assemblyman (1978-1984) from Pangasinan. He simply loved and respected his son and extended that love to me.
This coming Feb. 7, the 3rd Ruperto P. Alonzo (RPA) annual memorial lecture will be held at the UP School of Economics. The theme is about energy security. It will be followed by the Program in Development Economics (PDE) alumni association homecoming.
Prof. Ruping (1947-2017) was a well-loved faculty member at the school. He was my teacher, my wedding godfather and my occasional drinking mate. PDE is a three-semester academic program of applied economics for junior-level government personnel and some private sector young graduate students.
It was a pet project of Prof./Ninong Ruping. The annual lecture was named after him so that people would always remember him.
At Dodong’s wake, three Beatles songs were sung after the eulogy that night.
The first song was “In My Life.” A quick flashback of my UP life rushed through my head while listening to the song.
“All these places had their moments
With lovers and friends, I still can recall Some are dead, and some are living
In my life, I’ve loved them all.”