March Birthdays and the Homecoming

It was another successful Grand Kapihan! Contributing to this success is the participation of balikbayans who attended the DLS Homecoming last March 3 and who are still in town. The participant count is a whopping 28. Excluding the celebrants, the guys who came were: Joey Ingles; Bert Saenz; Ed Oleta; Tony Estonina; Joey Angeles; Joey Estagle; Gabby Valdes; Oni Mayo; Vic Romero; Polding Arnaiz; Boy Lumba; Eboy Cosme; Steve Hontiveros; Jacki Arellano; Raffy Villarreal; Tonichi Grey; Lito Quiogue; Quito Moras; Boy Carlos; Boy Palanca; Francis Horn; and Vince Misa.

The birthday boys were Boy Nazareno, Alex Ledesma, Joe Assad, Ed Lim, Jaime Ortigas, Joey Zamora and Arthur Antonino. The heartwarming thing about the Grand Kapihan is that everybody considers it a privilege (rather than an obligation) to join it. For instance, Jaime and Arthur are really February celebrants but they have no qualms in joining the March party. (The Feb party was scrapped due to few participants). Meanwhile, Arthur sent his participation to the fund since he couldn’t make it that day. Balikbayan Joey’s birthday is still in August, but he wanted to contribute in advance since he won’t be around in August.

It was good to see the celebrants all in good health and mood. Alex L (with his real estate development business) and Joe A and Arthur A (in the stock market industry) appear as prosperous as ever. Despite his quad bypass, Boy N remains a respected consultant for national concerns. Ed Lim retired from the premier BPI bank years ago but he has not being allowed to retire by Isla Bank, another bank which hired him to be its President. The same is true for Jaime O who retired from his family stock brokerage firm. But how do you retire from family affairs? Today Jaime remains as director and consultant of the firm even as he tries to inculcate Christian values from time to time (as a lay minister) to his wild Batch63 friends. Joey is likewise retired from his travel business in the West Coast and today mainly hones up on his golf. Physically, the energy remains high so Joey and his wife are known to be involved in network marketing business still.

The Kapihan became a especially jovial scene when Joey Estagle stood up to remind the Batch that it will be celebrating its 50th Jubilee in 2013 next year. Hence, it should already start preparing for the next DLS Homecoming event. Oni Mayo agreed and said that it better be a good one since it will be our last Hurrah. The next Jubilee milestone is 75 years and everyone will surely be incapacitated if not gone by then. For this statement, Oni got hoots and catcalls of "speak for yourself!" from Batch63 who seem to believe in immortality. After that, it was getting close to lunchtime and people started to go. Celebrant Joe Assad however must have anticipated what was in Tonichi's mind and whipped out a Johnny Black from his bag. This made a hardy dozen of the guys stay behind enjoying the company and talking about even more nonsense.


Call for Volunteers to Join the 2013

Batch 63 Homecoming Committee

In 2013, DLSHS63 fellows will become Golden Boys and will be expected to have a grand presentation during the March Homecoming event. The Kapihan thus became an opportunity to call on Batch63 guys willing to join a 2013 Homecoming Committee to be formed. The members of the committee will primarily be the core group that will lead the preparation for the stage presentation in 2013. The secondary task of this committee will be the initiation of group activities for the Batch through the months leading to March 2013.

Oni Mayo is seeing to the task of forming the organizational committee. Immediately, those who have signified their support to be part of the committee / core group are: Bambi Goco; Vince Misa; Joey Estagle; Lito Quiogue; Francis Horn and Bert Saenz. The idea is tomeet monthly to practice the theme music of choice, brainstorm project plans, organize events and have fun in the process. The first meeting will be called soon where others who would like to join the committee are welcome. Batch63 US boys are included in this call. It must be understood that the 70s migration to the US are really symbolic of the Philippine diaspora. Thus, there is a suggestion to give the immigrants special mention during the 2013 homecoming. Because of this, the US boys are enjoined to be active in this project and make suggestions on how their contingent can contribute to the show. Abangan.


See slide show for more photos.

DLS Homecoming 2012

The DLSU Homecoming event is traditionally held in the DLS Taft campus. For the 2012 Homecoming however, the event was held in the gymnasium of of DLS Greenhills. The reason for the shift in location is because the DLS Taft campus is undergoing redevelopment. A new campus master plan had been prepared for the Taft campus and today, the master plan that features a major new building (the Centennial Building) for the campus is under implementation and construction.

The Homecoming organizers outdid themselves in making the 2012 event successful. The raffle prizes were big time prizes (cameras, laptops, etc. and many cash prizes ranging from P500k to a million pesos!). The band of choice was the Blumfields, a young band specializing in Beatle tunes. The Blumfields also did their version of Chuck Berry tunes (a little strange to the old band players in the audience but OK na rin). Ultimately, this young band had the audience rocking and a-twistin’ on the dance floor after a while.

The various batches celebrating their milestone years came in force. The batches gave spirited formal presentations on stage to the amusement of the audience. Batch HS62 who is celebrating their golden moment came up with an extravaganza where the batch rendered old La Salle fighting songs backed-lit by a video that highlighted the best among their graduates. As we know, Batch62 is probably the DLS batch with some of the most successful professionals / businessmen who have made their mark both in the public and private sector.

Batch63 had always supported the DLS homecoming events and this year was no different even if the batch had no special role in the event shows. The Batch63 guys who came were: Bro. Ray Suplido, Baby Angeles, Joey Zamora, Lito Quiogue, Boy Carlos, Quito Moras, Tonichi Grey, Raffy Villarreal, Joey Estagle, Bambi Goco, Vince Misa and Oni Mayo. Boy Lumba, Vic Romero and Jack Arellano are technically Batch63 guys who were at the Homecoming but for complicated reasons, were seen in the company of the celebrating Batch62 instead of Batch63 (mga balimbing!). Their numbers were however not missed as the Batch63 HS gang annexed Batch67 college diehards in the next table (Ramon Mojica, Ben Umali, Sonny Jacinto, etc.). As we know, Batch67 college guys are effectively Batch63 guys as well.

If 2012 is Batch62’s year, then this means that next year, 2013, is Batch63’s milestone year! Watching the entertaining proceedings, many Batch63 were fired up. They are now bent on coming together soon to have an early start and see how next year they can top the various presentations they witnessed that night. Animo La Salle!

See silde show for more photos.