Memories of faded jeans, rallies & UP campus life
MANILA, Philippines - When we were in our late teens, we could not even begin to imagine what being 50, the age of our parents, would be like. At that time, George Orwell’s take on the future in 1984 already seemed off the mark. We had grown up witnessing the Apollo 11 moon landing on television and the launching of various spacecraft. Popular culture provided us with futuristic impressions — Star Wars, Soylent Green and The Jetsons. Computers as large as houses punched holes in our indispensable UP class cards. Cell phones? Why, those were not even in the recesses of our imagination; the closest prototype would be images of spies in movies speaking to their wristwatches.
The thread that wove us together was being students at the University of the Philippines (to this day we still know our student numbers by heart). We were in that period of feigned peace — the restless interval between the unraveling of martial law and the assassination of Ninoy Aquino. It was a time when being “radical” was assumed simply because you were a UP student. But not being radical did not necessarily translate to apathy. You could not be a UP student from the ‘70s to the mid-‘80s without being at least aware of the repressive society. You could not have known that you had classmates or friends being picked up, jailed or tortured; that you could be subjected to tear gas and truncheon blows if you joined a rally; and that it was only a matter of time before everything would come to a head.
However, we were also just kids who wanted a semblance of normalcy, of a campus life despite the political strife. We savored being carefree. We embraced the freedom of being in UP where the Philippine Collegian continued to publish stories what were deemed unprintable in the government-controlled broadsheets; where we didn’t have to stand up to recite in class and could wear faded jeans every day. Was normal really possible? Were we all expected to be radical? What were to become of us after college?
As we approach the half-century mark, we pause and reflect on these questions and what has transpired in the last three decades. That our current president is of our generation makes the retrospection even timelier. Looking back, it would seem that as UP students then (and this still applies to UP students now), we were at the very least expected to be responsible enough to graduate and one day give back to the university, to our community, or to the country. Our duty then was to be good students who did not waste taxpayers’ money. We were expected to be responsible Filipinos.
It has been 30 years since we trod the halls of the College of Arts and Sciences (now split into three separate colleges) and we are together again. Thanks to cell phones, e-mail and Facebook, the old group has been reconnecting for the past two years and has organized mini reunions on various occasions and for any viable reason. What had become of each of us in between the years that went as quick as a blink?
Of course, there were careers, weddings and children along the way but did we become useful citizens of the world?
Isaac Belmonte (Philippine STAR editor in chief) used to drive his VW Brasilia all over campus and sported much shorter hair. We remember him best for inviting us to the fire-jumping ritual in his grandparents’ home on Chinese New Year. He was my first boss in 1981 when his mother and one of my role models, the late Betty Go-Belmonte, revived STAR Magazine with Isaac as publisher. We were both journalism students then.
Dina de Jesus-Campos and Jenny Litton-Navasero were Pre-Dentistry students and spent only their first two years in UP Diliman. They graduated from the UP College of Dentistry in Manila and proceeded to take further studies abroad. Dina went to Northwestern University in Chicago then did her residency in advanced general dentistry at the University of California in San Francisco. She has been practicing for the past 20 years at the Makati Medical Center. Jenny took up her master’s in endodontics at Boston University. She practiced for 11 years in San Francisco, California as an endodontist (a dentist specializing in root canal) and now works at the National University Hospital in Singapore where her family is based.
Les Lesaca earned a degree in architecture and placed ninth in the board exam. He has always been strong in design and worked for several firms until he started his own design-build-and-sell practice in Manila for about 10 years and also in the US for five years. He became a licensed real estate broker in 2008 and now designs eco-friendly residences.
Binoy Padilla was a political science major who, we all knew, was going to be the lawyer in the group. He graduated from the UP College of Law and would later earn his master’s degree from the Harvard Law School. He is a partner of the Padilla Law Office and treasurer of the board of the Harvard Law School Alumni Association of the Philippines. Among all of us, Binoy was the last to marry but has the most children at half a dozen.
Mike Sarabia graduated with a degree in psychology from UP and then pursued medicine at the University of the East. He took up residency at the Makati Medical Center and trained in ophthalmology at the Air Force Medical Center in Clark Air Base. Mike was also a resident in training under a USAF program in the University of Texas in San Antonio and Houston. He established his practice in Bacolod City some 20 years ago.
The Valdes brothers (Robin, Dennis and Dave) entered UP consecutively in 1978, 1979 and 1980. Their family had relocated back to Manila from Bacolod and their house along Dr. Lazcano Street became our regular lunch destination. All three were students of the College of Business Administration and later would earn their MBAs from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. They were also all into water sports like swimming and scuba diving. To this day, they have retained their athleticism. Robin, a CPA, is now connected with Rainmaker Asia as vice president for finance. Dennis, also a CPA, is the president of Philweb Corporation. He was also a photographer for STAR Magazine back in college. Dave migrated last year to Australia and now lives contentedly in a city called Wagga Wagga.
Stephen Yap, who spent his first two years in UP, completed his undergraduate degree in computer science at the University of San Francisco. He lived in San Francisco for some 20 years until returning in 2005. Stephen is the treasurer of the board of the University of San Francisco Alumni Association of the Philippines. He is now vice president for IT of SM Retail Inc.
Stephen recently helped set up the IT system for Forever 21 at SM Megamall. On Facebook he posted a photo of the Forever 21 store and tagged his women friends. This triggered a kaleidoscope of replies — most of which were erroneous comments about his being the store designer. We traced this trail of comments to Robin whose initial reply spurred the reaction. For this we ribbed Stephen about his latest career as a stylist and this went on all night during our recent reunion.
That evening was in celebration of another friend’s visit. She was not with us in UP but she was connected to all of us in one way or another. Annette Palaypay-Lewallen actually studied at the De La Salle University as a marketing management major but she hung out with us so often that Dennis, with a quizzical look on his face, asked her during the reunion, “Annette, you mean you did not go to UP?” Annette is now based in New Jersey where she is a regional business manager for AT&T.
Dennis’ realization, though 30 years late, was not a solitary revelation. We also realized that evening that we are now actually in the future that was so incomprehensible to us then. It is not the George Lucas future of intergalactic wars and certainly not the future of Orwellian or utopian societies. The future is about carving out lives that make use of the talent and opportunities given to us and for which we should be very grateful. Most of all, we have confirmed that neither time nor space can be barriers to true friendship — now or in the future.
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Author Marlu Villanueva-Balmaceda is a journalism graduate of the College of Mass Communication and earned her master’s in communication from Purdue University in Indiana, USA. She has been with SGV & Co. for the past 15 years as head of the marketing and communications group.
