Dendi

Dendi Abdon is presently confined at the Makati Med hospital. He is undergoing a series of radiation treatment to fight the big C (rectal cancer). The present treatment will be over soon and he may be able to go home in a week's time. Batch63 wishes Dendi improved health in the coming weeks.

At the hospital, Dendi is being fully supported by his family. On Friday afternoon, Oni Mayo went to visit Dendi in Room 762. When Oni arrived, Dendi was still in the radiation room undergoing his session and so he took the opportunity to chat first with Tina (Dendi's eldest daughter) and Tito (younger brother of Dendi). Apparently, this is Dendi's second hospital confinement in a month's time. Dendi suffered an infection some days ago that required his being confined again.

Dendi was finally wheeled from the treatment room even as his wife Helen arrived from her work. Dendi is visibly in high spirits and spiritedly conversed with Oni. The topic of conversation? Batch63 shenanigans off course. Dendi loves Batch63 and he remembers all his good times with the Batch. His open diatribe with Oni was spirited and which became an amusement for Dendi's family there. Dendi promises to get well in the next few weeks so that he can join the next Batch63 Grand Kapihan in December.

For Dendi, this arduous episode in his life has been going on for 5 years. When he was first diagnosed with the disease, Dendi first tried out alternative medicine for a few years. Today, he has accepted that he needs chemotherapy treatment and mainstream medicine. We all now that this is a very expensive process and is a hardship for most any family. Dendi is touched with the advise of some Batch63 friends (Joey Estagle was first to know), who greatly raised his spirits due to their offer of support. (Bert Saenz and Mari Duarte are today rallying La Salle friends to the cause of Dendi).

Dendi is frail today - a far cry from his high school days when he played varsity track and field (discuss throw and shot put) for good old DLS. True to his Batangueno heritage, it is not easy to put down this strong man. Even with his diminished frame, you can see the fire in his eyes when he talks about his passions. We know that Dendi is also a musician being the drummer for the erstwhile Royal Lancers combo. While Dendi has constrained movements specially when his system acts up, his spirit continues to rock and roll. Way to go, Dendi. See you at the Grand Kapihan next month.

For those who wish to communicate with Dendi, his address is 126 Caliraya Drive, Marian Lake View Park, Paranaque. His mobile is 0917 536 2375.

Batch63 Green Hat

In recent months, Batch63 came to hear about the plight of two embattled classmates One was in need of an emergency eye operation and another had lost everything during the onslaught of Typhoon Pedring last September. In support of its own, Batch63 came through for the two cases.

Case No. 1
Joey Alonso did not have many friends in Grade School. He was the quintessential school bully. He was actually kicked out in the fourth grade for fighting. True to form he lived the wild life all his life and is lucky he survived unscathed through all his escapades. He emerged a few years ago and reconnected with the Batch. He is now a Senior citizen who is affiliated with a Christian group. He calls everyone Brother and it was amazing how he could remember Batch63 guys - full names and all - even after 50 years.

Some months ago, he came requesting for help for his impending eye operation. He had managed to find sponsors in Makati Medical Center but it was not a totally free offer. He finally settled for another hospital (East Avenue Hospital) that was more affordable. One Kapihan day, the group passed the hat and came out with part of his financial requirement. Mari Duarte - ironically Joey's grade school foe - was tasked by the group to ensure the proper disposition of the funds. Mari attended to the matter with dispatch and coordinated with the social worker on the case. Mari finally handed the fund (P12K) last week to the social worker who guaranteed that the fund will be exclusively used for Joey's medical requirement.


Case No. 2
In the 50s, Boy Tungpalan's family owned the famous Roadside Cafe restaurant near the corner of Vito Cruz and Taft Avenue. With it's arresting neon signage, the Cafe was a landmark then. It had both famous and notorious people as its regular patrons. In those times, many of Boy's classmates would go to his house after school and where they partook of delicious hamburger sandwich from the Cafe. That was the equivalent of the McDonald treat at that time.

Today, Boy has fallen onto hard times. He lives in a small house in Navotas that was totally demolished by Typhoon Pedring. While Boy ekes out a living doing minor construction jobs (he took up architecture) and managing a little eatery with his wife, he lost everything in the storm. Led by Lito Quiogue, friends of Boy rallied to his cause and the hat was passed around during the Grand Kapihan today. The large attendance at the Kapihan was timely and who contributed an amount of more than P24K for Boy. Special mention is warranted for the long distance donation of Manolo Relova (who is an American resident). Boy was a picture of gratefulness as he received the token and said that the gift would go a long way. He was teary eyed as he thanked each and everyone in the Batch.

November Grand Kapihan

Roll Call

I believe that the Grand Kapihan feting the birthday boys of November is one of the largest assembled this year. Organizer Vince Misa was not there this time but the joint birthday event’s administrative chore (at Cameron Forbes room in Polo Club) was aptly handled by instant substitute Lito Quiogue. The November birthday celebrants are: Gabby Valdez, Steve Hontiveros, Douglas Marcaida, Jimmy Estrella and Bambi Goco. As usual, Batch63 sincerely wish the celebrants Un felix compleanos and muchas gracias for the hearty breakfast fare!

The rare birds observed at the event were: Eboy Cosme, Vic Corpuz, Ramon Arnaiz, Richard Tilman, Boy Tungpalan, Benny Ang and Lito Domantay. In addition (and apart from the celebrants), the others who came were: Babes Angeles, Jack Arellano, Ed Lim, Mari Duarte, Raffy Villareal, Gary Salcedo, Joey Ingles, George Cunanan, Polding Arnaiz, Joey Estagle, Boy Palanca, Bert Saenz, Boy Carlos, Oni Mayo, Francis Horn, Ed Oleta, Tony Estonina and of course, the facilitator today – Lito Quiogue. Thirty strong, the group was so big that the usual L-shaped table arrangement allocated for Grand Kapihans at Cameron Hall was not enough to accommodate everyone.

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The Celebrants

Steve Hontiveros is kept busy nowadays by his involvement in the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC). Steve is the Secretary General of the institution and he has to attend to its many functions all over the World. By this week, Steve - together with the 700-strong Philippine delegation - is slated to be in Indonesia for the Southeast Asian Games. If you guys can time your visit to POC affairs (and meet up with Steve at the venue), Steve promises to provide official passes for any visiting Batch63 guy.

Being connected with the Government in a way, Steve believes that the Government is on the right track with its institutional reform programs. He is however impatient with the improvement of the peace and order situation. Steve must be alluding to the many recent sensational crime incidents in the papers today.

Jimmy Estrella as we know conducts business in his bailiwick in Rosales, Pangasinan. Today, he is involved in commercial organic farming. This project is now operational and Jim is expecting initial harvests. Apart from cash-crop vegetables, another interesting product being developed by Jimmy is rice seeds. Jim informed that rice production tend to decline when the same type seed is planted every time. High quality seeds that Jimmy will supply can improve the harvest of rice growers.

Jimmy is a scion of the powerful Estrella political clan of Pangasinan. Bred in this environment, Jimmy has some interesting views on the plight of the country’s socio-economic situation today. While he acknowledges the sincere effort of the present administration to instill reform, he feels that to be effective, it should be more pro-active in approach. He feels that having been vested with a popular mandate to lead, the President should not be conservative for the sake of image. Too much caution (on government development spending) is not good when it stifles initiatives and the opportunity is lost. Not grabbing the bull by the horns when one can, was a mistake of the President’s mother - Cory Aquino.

Durable Doug Marcaida remains physically hale who continues to be effective in his job within the tough cargo handling industry. Doug’s experience with law-enforcement in America is really serving him in good stead today. Apart from his regular cargo handling interest, Doug is developing his property in Baras, Rizal as a resort place in the area. When he gets the zipline installed, I wonder how many Batch63 guys can still be nimble enough take the ride if only to prove they are still young.


Doug is optimistic about the future. He believes that the President is trying his best and the people’s hopes are at an all-time high. Admittedly, there’s still a lot to be done if the country is to progress but Doug remains practical and knows that it will take some time to do all that’s needed to be done. Looking around, Doug sees many first time improvements in the government system that he feels is a good sign.

Bambi Goco has always been identified with his brokerage business. Over the years, Bambi had done other works, but his bread-and-butter remains brokerage. Together with wife Kang, the couple attends to the facilitation of the release of imported cargo for dealers and distributors. With globalization, the Brokerage industry can only grow. We know that manufacturing of basic and luxury consumer goods (and raw material) are done in many foreign places which in turn ship out these produce to the Philippines. Clearly, Bambi and Kang seem far off from thinking about enjoying full retirement benefits.

Bambi is focused on the nuances of his trade that require timely personal service effort. Per Bambi, the industry situation and practices today remain the same. This is probably the reason why he believes that there really is not much difference between the Government we have now and before. The reforms are much too slow in coming where some feel that the changes may not be in place before the President’s term is over. If true, innovative people like Bambi will continue to be needed by his industry if only to meet the requirement of traders and investors who seek to validly contribute to the progress of Philippine commerce.

Today, Gabby Valdez is on second career mode. Having been involved early on with the family management accounting and auditing business (previously one of the largest in the country) Gabby is now retired from that. However, the businessman in Gabby remains. Today, he attends to family investments that may need upgrading and retooling to address new global conditions. Outside of business, Gabby indulges in mundane avocations such as: vintage auto collection; golf; vacation houses; travel (he just came from Singapore with wife Pam); and gourmet cuisine stuff.

Like Jimmy Estrella, Gabby agrees with the reform direction taken by the new Noynoy Government in general. He however senses that the people are eager for faster more meaningful development in the country. As a Filipino, Gabby would like to do his share in this regard. He hopes to soon establish with Batch63 friends some novel socio-economic project that will have a positive impact on the country. If any of you have some ideas on this, do call up Gabby.


See slide show for more photos.