Twenty-eight years after I graduated from my alma mater Immaculate Conception Academy (ICA), I can say that I totally agree since my ICA high school days were the best years of my school life. ICA was founded by the MIC (Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, not Made in China). We may have been burdened at times by some of the teachers and nuns who ran the school, but I must admit that ICA gave me a great education – and great friends. What I am now is largely because of how ICA brought me up (if anyone finds me unlikeable, then I will find another person or institution to blame). Up to now I can say that my closest friends are still from ICA. Your classmates wouldn’t bother with who you were or who you were not – and the school wouldn’t bother either. Simply put, there is an unwitting sisterhood that binds ICAns together, just like a big fraternity without the hazing.
Who knows why.
Maybe because it is the only Chinoy exclusive girls’ school in Metro Manila, and the oldest Catholic Chinoy school in the Philippines. This year happens to mark the 70th anniversary of Immaculate Conception Academy.
At a dinner hosted by ICA alumnae Anita Ongaigui-Austria (Batch ’70) and Linda Lim Panutat (Batch ’65) for Sr. Dina Ang, ICA’s directress and Sr. Teresita Canivel, ICA’s finance director and directress for 19 years, the two good sisters told us the story of ICA.
The Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception is a congregation that was founded by Sr. Delia Tetreault in Montreal, Canada, in 1902. Its first mission was in Canton, China in 1909. Dr. Jose Tee Han Kee, grandfather of former Chief Justice Claudio Teehankee and a director then of the Chinese General Hospital, heard about the mission and requested that the congregation work in the hospital. Due to the request of the Binondo-based Chinoys to put up a school, the MIC put up the Immaculate Conception Anglo-Chinese School on the second floor of a hardware store along San Fernando St. in Binondo. At that time, it accepted both boys and girls.
This was in 1936, and ICA had its first set of 40 students. Today, the school graduates approximately 280 students per batch.
ICA moved seven times – from San Fernando St. to Benavidez St. to CM Recto Ave.(then Azcarraga) to Tayuman to Narra St. to Gen Luna St. in Intramuros in 1956 – until it found its final home in 1960 in Greenhills, San Juan. This was largely due to the invitation of the Jesuits who had decided that it could use a neighbor beside an all boys’ school that they were starting, Xavier School.
Before 1964, ICA taught Chinese subjects in the morning and their English equivalent in the afternoon. In fact, the diploma for passing the Chinese part of the curriculum was then given by the Taiwanese government. I don’t think that any ICAn now could imagine math, geography, history, civics and science being taught in Chinese. But now that China has become an economic powerhouse, maybe we should have just retained it this way. And maybe half of us, including me, would’ve flunked. Up to now, I still have nightmares about not passing my Chinese exams.
My brother Lance’s mother-in-law, Rosita Lim Leong, was one of the graduates of ICA Intramuros in, oops, 1956. She celebrates her 50th year as in ICAn this year.
"I went to two schools," says auntie Rosie. "For Chinese, I went to Philippine Cultural High School along Jose Abad Santos and for English I went to ICA in Narra and spent my last semester in Intramuros. I was studying all the time – 7:30 a.m. to 12 noon for Chinese, and then 1 to 5 p.m. for English. I would have to run from Jose Abad Santos to Narra and in-between eat my baon and change my uniform."
In 1960, ICA finally settled in San Juan and the MIC sisters decided that it become an all girls’ school.
Joked an alumna, "We became an all girls’ school because Xavier took all the boys from us."
Xavierians and ICAns are always known to dislike each other when still in school and even after. They accuse each other of being stiff and snooty, but eventually they end up marrying each other. But this is another story.
For the longest time, ICA was always known as the school beside Xavier. No one knew where ICA was, but everyone knew where Xavier was. It is different now, with ICA known as ICA, and it has churned out a lot of successful and/or famous graduates. Before I mention them, let me categorically state that as much as I don’t want to miss out anyone’s name, I cannot mention all of the graduates or my article will be longer than the published list of those who passed the CPA exams. I will also avoid mentioning any of my batchmates lest I be accused of tooting our own horn. I belong to the great and united batch of 1978. At this point of our lives, we face the challenging task of tackling the three dreaded M’s – mid-life crisis, memory loss and menopause – if they are not already with us.
Speaking of famous graduates, ICA graduated journalists Jullie Yap Daza and Veronica Veloso-Yap, novelist Arlene Chai, businesswomen Teresita Sy Coson, Josephine Gotianun-Yap and Bernadine Siy, educators Queena Lee and Lourdes Kho Samson and MIC sister Nancy VySo (perhaps the first ICAn to be an MIC sister), among a few.
Lourdes Kho-Samson is now chair of the Humanities Department of Miriam College. She was our stenography teacher in high school which she took as a part-time job. Stenography was very important during our time if you wanted to take down notes as fast as the person in front of you could talk, and Ms. Samson, I swear, could do stenography faster than any person could talk.
Ms. Samon’s legacy in ICA was writing the lyrics of our school song, The tune has changed through the years, but her beautiful lyrics remain the same:
Beloved school, your song we sing
Your banner we raise high
Immaculate Conception
We’ll bring your spirit ‘til we die...
In 1964, ICA became the first Anglo-Chinese school to become officially a Filipino school (that had Chinese as part of its curriculum) by the Bureau of Private Schools. Admittedly, ICA is the most cosmopolitan Chinoy school in the country today. ICA is to the Chinoys as what Poveda, Assumption or St. Scho is for the Pinoys. Who knows why. Some say it was because of our location as we had moved out of Chinatown. Others say that it was because the students were children of the wealthier side of the Chinese. Many people say that some of us come out of ICA speaking broken Mandarin, but it is still recognizable Mandarin, and we come out very flexible people, ready to face the world and adjust easily to any environment.
All through the years, ICA has been admitting more and more Filipino students and at times they do even better in Chinese than the Chinoys themselves.
Some of the Pinoy families who have sent their children and grandchildren to ICA are Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr., Former Sandigan Justice Francis Garchitorena (now departed), pulmonologist Dr. Eduardo Jamora, businessmen Alfredo Ramos and David Consunji, educator Lydia Echauz and lawyer Mario Ongkiko. Hopefully, if he has one, Manny Pacquiao’s daughter too.
Happy anniversary to my alma mater! To my fellow ICAns and parents of ICAns, how about considering our support to the girls’ schools and not just the boys’ schools because it is obvious by now that your daughters, wives and sisters are just as good as your sons, husbands and brothers, if not better!