Alumni Board Meeting

Pigeon Lobien writes in MPHS-BCHS-BCHNS Facebook

MPHS-BCHS-BCNHS ready to receive hundreds for its 92nd grand alumni homecoming

Re: MPHS-BCHS-BCNHS ready to receive hundreds for its 92nd grand alumni homecoming

BAGUIO CITY (18 April) – Hundreds of graduates from the city’s biggest high school are trooping back to their alma mater this coming weekend (May 6-7) for the Mountain Province High School – Baguio City High School – Baguio City National High School grand alumni homecoming.

“We are ready,” declared MPHS-BCHS-BCNHS Alumni Association, Inc. president Dr. Tedler Depaynos yesterday as he said the BCHS Class of 1986 have done the groundworks in hosting this year’s festivities that will see hundreds from all parts of the world coming home to relieve their good old four years at the public high school.

“It will be a two-day event where we will relieve our youth,” said BCHS Class of 1986 president Rebecca Follosco.

Follosco’s class will lead close to 400 alumni of the school in the celebration as her group will follow a time bound tradition of bringing merriment to the different classes especially the golden jubilarian’s, the class of 1961.

Follosco said that festivity will start with the registration on the morning of April 6 at the BCNHS Campus along Gov. Pack Road. This will be followed with a medical mission headed by the class vice president, Dr. Tirso Oloan. Also, a sports festivity with basketball will be staged at the BCNHS auditorium.

By the evening, after the dinner, the class of 1986 will lead participants in honoring their teachers from the past, at the BCNHS auditorium, also called the Flavier building, after former Senator Juan Flavier who through his pork barrel helped build the building. Flavier is from class of 1952.

Day two on April 7, Saturday, will start with a parade at 8 AM at the Post Office Loop where participants will don their “most outrageous” costume as they tread their way to the BCNHS campus for the general assembly.

This will be followed with the president’s and treasurer’s reports and the general election where five new directors will be voted in. Graduating directors include Pio Caccam (Class of 1956), Bernard Balatian (Class 1960), Atty. Isidro Bautista (Class 1963), Retired police general Jose Andaya (Class 1961) and Braulio Giron (Class of 1972). The last two filled up the positions of Arthur Florendo (Class 1958) and former MTC judge Maria Theresa Guadana-Tano, who both resigned last year, the latter as she migrated with her family to Canada.

The remaining directors led by Depaynos (class 1966), vice president Lawrence Doogan (Class 1951), secretary Joan Tan (class 1975), vice president for Luzon and former Department of Education- Cordillera director Remedios Taguba (class 1957), treasurer Laurence Adube (class 1976), Nene Godoy (class 1964), Gertrude Ramos (class 1974), Willy Ramos (class 1958), Virgilio Fuerte (class 1959) and Pigeon Lobien (class 1985).

This will be followed with a lunch and in the evening will be the gala night at the Hotel Supreme where the five outstanding alumni will be honored and the turn over ceremony to next year’s host, the class of 1987.

This year, which has the theme: “From dreams we cast… to memories that last”, the outstanding alumni are: retired professor of University of Brazil in Rio de Janiero Mercedes Lopez – Pertsew (class 1950) for education, retired Philippine Navy commodore Justo Prado Manlongat (class 1963) for military service, Evelyn Domingo – Barker (class 1961) for international service, Col. Jacquiliano Lagiwid (class 1979) for military service and Luz Calvo Sianghio (class 1955) for community service.

Calvo Sinaghio of Habitat will also be the guest speaker for the homecoming. -30-

CLASS 1961 BOOTH

GUESSING GAME NO. 21: NAME TWO OF OUR CLASSMATES

As you can guess, ideas have run out for the Guessing Game series. But here is another attempt at one more, but your contributions/ concepts/ ideas on GG will be much appreciated!!

Our Baguio younger years were collectively colorful. The first half of high school was spent in making friends (Ed Buenaflor joined us in second year, that bright kid from Alaminos), picking favorite teachers, learning new and fascinating things, while the second half was getting more serious, trying to sort out what lay up ahead of us called The Future. Environmental Degradation, Biodiversity, Pollutants, Air Quality Index, Stressed Out, Hassle were absent from our daily vocabularies. We WALKED and WALKED, a 2 or 3 km distance was not unusual.

A few years ago I tried to prove something to myself: I arrived at the crack of dawn via the early Manila bus, it was a nice crisp nippy morning, so I decided to have a hearty breakfast at Camp John Hay’s Manor Hotel: walked all the way from Legarda Road where my sister rented an apartment, through the long route at Burnham Park, up that shortcut on the side of City High (and used as an outhouse by many), then on to the CJH gate, up to the breakfast room. This was the solitude and green vistas I recall from childhood days: the city was still not quite awake, there was little movement along the roads, and the few remaining pine trees along the way seemed to represent the “whispering pine” of poetry, exuding a natural pine scent while my shoes crunched on browned pine needles. Butterflies were the only other visible movement.

Enough for recollections. After all this is a GG. But the point being, we had reflection time, we had athletic meets to attend or participate in, school programs, and still had time left over for istambay purposes.

And what did we think about during those spells? What did we talk about, with our classmates, over frozen Coke and Canada Dry Grape and hopia at Sunshine Bakery? Probably the career paths we would take or interests we would pursue. Probably the ways and means to make these dreams a reality. Probably overcoming the anxiety of choosing the right option. Anyway, this Guessing Game points to What Have We Become.

Try to guess which of Class 61 members belong to which type(s). At least two names per type. Thus , this Name Two game. One name can appear in many types. (Note: you can submit also additional types!)

Became educators

Joined the US Navy

Served with the Philippine military

Studied to become nurses

Appended Engineer to their names

Dedicated their lives to a holy cause

Own and operate their beauty salons

Livelihoods connected to architecture

Defenders of the nation’s security

Passed the bar

Served as politicians

German car appreciators

Performed music as a hobby

Focused on healing the sick

Chose to become businessmen

Became IT specialists

Professional istambays

Grandparenting

Frequent fliers

Certified Public A’s

Motorcycle enthusiasts

---------Can you add more to this list?

City High foundation baffles historical commission

City High foundation baffles historical commission
by Pigeon Lobien on Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 4:36pm
(In: Pigeon's Facebook page-premission granted to reproduce here)

As the city’s biggest high school is to celebrate its 92nd alumni homecoming, question is whether it was founded in 1919 or three years earlier.

Baguio City High School class of 1956 president Ed Tipton raised this question in a letter to Baguio City National High School principal Elma Donaal on the strength of a letter coming for the the National Historical Commission of the Phillipines which could not give an answer whether the school was founded in 1916 or its more popular date of 1919.

Tipton told Donaal that it be “for your information and guidance in preparation for the Diamond Jubilee of the Baguio City High School.”

“That is three years earlier than what we know,” said MPHS-BCHS-BCNHS Alumni Association president Dr. Tedler Depaynos during an alumni board meeting this week, where he also named a five man committee headed by former Department of Education - Cordillera director Remedios Taguba to look into the matter.

The Taguba commission will collate information as well as seek history experts to certify the date of the school’s foundation which has now more than 6,500 students at the main campus and close to 11,000 including the annexes, making it the biggest school in the country (Rizal National High School has more students than the BCNHS Main, but has no annexes).

In its conclusion, the NHCP said that that it “cannot certify October 24, 1919 as the founding date of the Baguio City National High School. Moreover, further research is required to obtain a definitve and more comprehensive history of said school, from its founding to present.”

The NHCP in its report said that two sources, Eugenio Plata and Laurnce Wilson, made mention that there was a Baguio Trade School founded in 1916 that eventually became the Mountain Province High School.

It said, that according to Wilson, “the first secondary school in Baguio was the normal school founded in 1916 later named as Mt. Province High School, whose normal subjects were later transferred to the Trinidad Agricultural High School in 1933.”

Other findings of the Commission state that a provincial high school was set up in Baguio in 1902; that a high school called Mountain and its principal was Richard Pattersonfrom 1924-1927, but this is different from the normal school, from the trade school and from the agricultural and farm schools; that the Baguio City Council in 1923passed a resolution for the establishment of a senior year for the MPHS; and, a 1926 Bureau of Education annual report “differentiates the general course high schools from the normal schools, whose list does not cite a normal school in Baguio.”

Tipton’s class was the first to be located at the 1.1 hectare campus which the school occupy now. It was segregated from the Burnham reservation in June 1953 under the term of mayor Gil Mallare after President Ramon Magsaysay approved Presidential Proclamation 401 leading to its segregation.

Construction started in September 1953 under mayor Benito Lopez and completed a year later under mayor Alfonso Tabora. The area was segregated at the request of then principal Gregorio Ariz at the behest of Parents Teachers Association president Rufino Bueno, father of the late mayor Ernesto wanting a permanent campus for the growing school.

Before that, the campus was located at several locations, first at the Teachers Camp, moved to the Government Center (Baguio Convention Center area), then beside the Casa Vallejo and back to Teachers Camp.

Expansion started in 1968 to cater to the growing number of students with the put up of annexes at the Baguio Central School (now the Pines City National High School), Aurora Hill, Bonifacio and Rizal Elementary Schools.

Pines will gain independence in 1980, while an annex of the said school, at Irisan will become the third national high school in the city in the 2000s.

Now BCNHS, provides special programs for the Sciences (started in 1984), the Arts as well as Sports, while also gaining recognition in academic and sports excellence in the national as well as international levels.

Meanwhile, the 92nd MPHS-BCHS-BCNHS grand alumni homecoming is set on May 6 and 7 at the BCNHS grounds and at the Hotel Supreme for the Gala Night. It will be hosted by class of 1986 with the class of 1961 as golden jubilarians. The alumni board is also set to award outstanding alumni, including a retired Philippine Navy commodore, among others. PML

(PHOTO, ABOVE) the city hi campus along gov. pack road which was segregated by president ramon magsaysay thru presidential proclamation 401 in 1953. mayor gil mallari sourced out P140,000 from the war fund, mayor benito lopez saw the start of construction and mayor alfonso tabora saw its completion in june 1954.

Hint...(Click on Photo to Enlarge)

The tall chap in the middle holding a folder in his left hand, is the younger brother of the entry below.

Guess.Game 20.Class61s Got Talent! Guess Right, Win RT HK Tkt

... provided you buy BCHS CLASS61 Raffle Tickets!