PHILIPPINE ODYSSEY VI
By Jay de Leon

PART 2

Ateneo de Manila Sesquicentennial Celebration
Manila and Quezon City, Nov. - Dec., 2009
At the Bingo Launch

Jointly sponsored by Ateneo’s Luxid and PAGCOR, this event
raised serious monies which went to various charitable causes
sponsored by the Ateneo de Manila, such as Gawad Kalinga
and others.  Incidentally, the founder of Couples for Christ/
Gawad Kalinga is an Ateneo Luxid, Brother Frank Padilla.

Some organizers and supporters of the event, Ateneo de Manila
alumni all, the cream of the crop after 150 years of existence
of the Ateneo de Manila, alma mater of Dr. Jose Rizal and
other countless heroes, patriots, industrialists and intellectuals,
as well as assorted scalawags.

More crop… 

At the Manila Cathedral

Lux in domino…ad majorem dei gloriam…

From left to right, Pol Asuncion, Babes Oreta, Jimmy Borromeo,
Boy Favis, Wiggy Villarama, Topper Coronel, Harry Alabanza,
and Boy Adao. 

Wiggy Villarama, Baby Boy Poblador, Babes Oreta,
Harry Alabanza, Boy Adao and Jun Orobia. 

At the Ateneo de Manila High School Campus, Loyola Heights, Quezon City

From left to right, Joey Moreno, Tino Galang, Patrick Pineda, Boy Favis,
Jay de Leon and Baby Boy Poblador.  All are batchmates of Ateneo de Manila
Grade School ’59, High School ’63, and College ’67, collectively called Luxids
(from Lux in Domino).  Yes, they are that old.

Jay de Leon (right) and Tino Galang strike a rare prayerful pose during Mass
at the Church of the Gesu just before the pagan festivities.  You can see three
other Luxids at the next row, namely Danny Francia, Jake Campomanes (a
balikbayan from Douglasville, near Atlanta, Georgia, USA), and
Freddie Puno. Danny and Freddie still had to get their official blue
Luxid t-shirts.  Danny Francia is a retired Philippine Air Force
General and is currently the general manager of the Cebu Airport;
 is he actually smiling for the camera? 

From left to right, Jay de Leon, Ricky Roceles,  “Marvelous”Marvene Ozaeta
(another balikbayan from Plano, Texas, USA), and Harry Alabanza.  The
 inside joke is that we just shook hands to bury the hatchet after the Luxid
forum wars hotly debating basketball.  Marvene and Harry were
basketball varsity players in high school and college.  I have no idea what
Ricky’s sport was, or what he is doing in this picture, or even who invited
him to the reunion.

Speaking of basketball, here are some pretty cheerleaders of the
famed Ateneo Blue Babble Batallion.  Why did we not have these
earthly manifestations of heavenly pulchritude during my time?
And I was a cheerleader then, no kidding.  I only had Dodo
Cu-Unjieng, Jing Hernandez and Agong Gutierrez (now deceased)
to look at.  Ughh.

Jay de Leon (left) and Manito de Leon (no relation).  Behind us, you
can see the stage and a band performing at the covered courts.  Manito
 and I were classmates all the way back to grade school, along with a
third de Leon, Gabriel “Ger” de Leon, also no relation.  Not only were
we classmates, but whenever the seating arrangement was alphabetical,
 the three of us sat one after the other, allowing the two other de Leons
to copy answers from me during tests. 

My thanks to Luxid Baby Boy Poblador who provided all the “Sesqui” pictures above. 

In addition to being photographer, he is also the foremost leader of the group, and host of many Luxid dinners and events, especially now that the official Beadle of Luxid, our beloved “Beadle Bert” Gaskell, passed away last year.

Luxid Dinner for Jay de Leon
Panciteria China at the Metrowalk, Pasig, Jan. 8, 2010

From left to right, Leo Roa, Ricky Roceles, Manito de Leon,
Baby Boy Poblador, Johnny Nanagas, BoyChuck Chua-Chiaco,
Jay de Leon, Harry Alabanza.

Johnny Nanagas, BoyChuck Chua-Chiaco, Jay de Leon, Harry Alabanza

Dr. Juan Pablo Nanagas and Dr. Manuel Chua-Chiaco, Jr.   Dr. Nanagas is
a former Undersecretary of the Dept. of Health, while Dr. Chua-Chiaco is
one of the foremost heart surgeons of the Philippines.

Basketball commentator Jay de Leon and basketball star Harry Alabanza

Manuel de Leon and Honorio Poblador III—former high school jocks.

Leo Roa and Enrico Roceles—still crazy after all these years.

Boy Chua-Chiaco and Boy de Leon.  Who still has a boyish head of hair? 

Luxid Mini-Reunions
RJ Bar, Bel-Air, Makati, Jan. 19, 2010 et. al.

In addition to school reunions on a grand scale, probably even more enjoyable are mini-reunions of classmates or batchmates who usually have a special reason for getting together.  They are usually much smaller in size, impromptu, and the activities are decided on the fly.

This evening was an example.  Manny Tiangha, my co-conspirator and lunch partner in southern California, had breezed into Manila via China, and I don’t mean downtown Chinatown.  I met him at his fashionable digs at Linden Suites in Pasig.  We called Gabriel “Ger” de Leon, who picked us up within the hour.  We had a good dinner at one of the restaurants at the nearby SM Mall.  We then rendezvoused and picked up Gary Makasiar from the Zhuang restaurant parking lot in Pasig, and from there, Ger drove to the RJ Bar in Bel-Air in Makati.

Even though it was a weekday, there was a live band named the “Backtracks” playing oldies but goodies (what else?).  The music was evocative, many of them had a beat you could dance to, the beer was cold, we had the bar pretty much to ourselves, and as you can see from the pictures, a good time was had by all.  Somewhere in between the beer and the oldies but goodies, we reminisced and laughed a lot, like high school kids many lifetimes ago. 

Manuel Tiangha, Gabriel de Leon, Gary Makasiar and I were classmates and friends since way back at the Ateneo de Manila Grade School, all the way through graduation in high school.  I transferred to another college, and they continued their close friendship through their college years, and that is why this group is tight.

From left to right, Ger de Leon, Gary Makasiar, Jay de Leon and
Manny Tiangha, at the RJ Bar on January 2010.  Photo
courtesy of Manny Tiangha.

They wanted me to pose in front of the stage while the band, the
Backtracks, was playing, so I gave them a little dance number.  And
I was  not even hammered then—just fueled by my normal grace,
poise, and exuberance. Photo courtesy of Manny Tiangha.

My other Luxid mini-reunions included one with Faustino “Tino” Galang, who was my college barkada.  Just the two of us spent almost a whole afternoon having lunch and just talking.  Another reunion over lunch included the widow and the son of  Francisco “Jun” Guzman, who was also college barkada with Tino and myself.  Jun was not only a Luxid batchmate.   We also worked together for MeadJohnson Philippines in Makati for about three years, almost right after college, about 40 years ago.  Sadly, he passed away in 2004.  Where have all the flowers gone?

Town Fiesta
Binmaley, Pangasinan, Feb. 1 and 2, 2010

As town fiestas go, the festivities actually lasted about a week, and there were actually two parades on different days.  The first was the procession honoring the town’s saint, the Blessed Virgin Mary.  The second featured the winners of the Binmaley beauty pageant, preceded by honor guards and numerous drum and bugle corps from various schools and institutions.

The parades started on McKinley street, the town’s main drag, with the church as the staging point, passing right in front of the de Leon residence.  In fact, I snapped all these pictures from the front porch of the house.  Okay, I had to stand up on a chair to shoot over the fence.

Here come the beauty queens.  No, no, I was referring to the pretty ladies
inside the carretelas, not the four-legged beauties. 

Binmaley Beach
Binmaley, Pangasinan

Pretty, timeless, fickle yet constant, unfathomable and untamed…
that is why I keep coming back to her.

Lingayen Beach
Lingayen, Pangasinan

General Douglas McArthur waded ashore here.  You will find a building
 with markers, pictures, and historical anecdotes about his historical landing
here at Lingayen Beach during World War II, right behind where this
picture was taken.

Yes, that is the same Japanese Zero that we posed alongside when we were kids.

The Filipino version of Rosie the Riveter…Christine, the Ack-Acker.

Baguio City
Benguet Province, Dec. 2009

Baguio Cathedral.  Note the Christmas belen at the
façade of the church.

Mines View Park

One of the many shops at Mines View Park.

One evening, we stopped at this roadside café for snacks and drinks.

Unlike the turtle, that is a live boa curled peacefully for now.
And no, he was not on the menu.

De Leon Residence
Christmas Day 2009, Binmaley, Pangasinan

On Christmas Day, several relatives came to visit.  There are actually three sets
of relatives pictured here.  From left to right, Margie de Leon’s daughter Maribel
with her three children, Malu Lopez and Rita Arenas.  Kneeling in front
is Marie Lopez.  Malu and Marie are sisters, and the daughters of the late
Eduardo Lopez.  Rita Arenas is the daughter of the sister of our beloved
Lola Paz Rovillos de Leon, mother of Adolfo R. de Leon.  Refer to family
tree compiled by Maria Lourdes de Leon Arneson of Canyon Country, CA.

The aging family patriarch joins the picture taking. 

Maribel with her three children.  Her parents are Margie and Ador.  Her younger
sister Sharon also came to visit about a week later, with her baby. 

Till the next Odyssey…