Vol. 11, No. 18, Dec. 17, 2007

LCHS MATH WHIZ
2007 Australian Mathematics Competition Awardees

Last Call

This is our last call for Spectrum readers to subscribe to our new PDF format.  This is our last issue in HTML format.  The Spectrum will shift to PDF tabloid format starting with our next issue in January 2008. Those who have not subscribed to the PDF format shall be considered to have terminated their subscription and shall cease to receive their copy of the Spectrum starting January 2008.

To start receiving regularly your free PDF copy of the Spectrum, simply send an email to: lchsspectrum@yahoo.com.  It's not necessary to put in any message; simply indicate the following statement on the subject line of your email: "Subscribe to PDF edition."

Fire hits Mahayahay

A fire of still undetermined origin razed about five houses and a commercial building at the back of the Iligan City National High School in Barangay Mahayahay, Iligan City, last Dec. 10.  Allan Cabot, city fire marshal, said a baby was saved from harm when alert residents retrieved him from a burning hammock in one of the affected houses. The fire also caused panic among students of the nearby Iligan City National High School. No one was injured in the fire, which damaged about P1 million in property. It was also the third fire incident in Iligan during the first two weeks of December.

Iligan joins ICT hubs

Iligan has joined other key cities outside Metro Manila in forming the Philippine Federation of ICT organizations.  The group counts among its organizers information & communication technology (ICT) organizations from the cities of Iligan, Bacolod & Negros Occidental, Iloilo, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, and Cebu.

These organizations include the Bacolod-Negros Occidental Federation for ICT and IT Schools Network of Negros Occidental Incorporated, the Iloilo Federation for Information Technology, the Davao ICT, Incorporated and the Iligan Information and Communication Technology and E-Commerce Council. The group aims to collectively work for ICT-readiness and competitiveness and promote their respective areas in the Philippine Cyberservices Corridor. The members agreed to invite ICT councils and organizations of other cities, provinces and regions like General Santos City and Urdaneta City. Aside from making the necessary preparation in the establishment of the body, the members shall soon be preparing for the e-Services Conference in 2008 and to allocate for a bigger regional space in the expo and better promotional activities for the regional ICT hubs.

Long live Spectrum!
Sun, 2 Dec 2007 00:33:44 EST

Many thanks for all the wonderful articles through the years. Long live the LCHS Spectrum!
--Ritky C. Dy, M.D. (Batch '76). Clanton, Alabama, U.S.A.; email: ritkydy@aol.com

Congratulations on the Spectrum's new format. The new format in PDF is a big improvement on your layout which gives it a more professional look. The placement of articles is also very pleasant to read.  The design is both creative and attractive. This new format makes printing the copy a lot easier unlike the HTML format where sometimes an article or a picture is cut off half way when printing reaches the bottom of a page. The change is a step in the right direction.  kudos, fellas!
--Alvin Lee, Quezon, Philippines; email: alv913@hotmail.com

Outstanding LCHS alumnni
Tue, 4 Dec 2007 04:04:34 +0800 (PHT)

Richard Lim, a classmate of mine from Class 1969, has achieved so much in his lifetime. As such, I feel that he should be one of the Outstanding LCHS Alumni in the field of business & entrepreneurship to be awarded during our 3rd GAH this May. I understand that to make this official, I have to fill up and submit a nomination form. So please do me the favor of sending such and other requirements so I can fill it up and officially make him as a nominee. Thank you and more power to all of us.
--Henry L. Yu, M.D. (Batch '69), Cebu, Philippines; email: hvty@skyinet.net

Second the motion
Tue, 04 Dec 2007 19:02:14 +1100
I wish  to second this nomination of Dr. Henry Yu. I want to point out another angle aside from the successful business and entrepreneurship of Mr. Richard Lim. That of being able to give new job opportunities to many of the LCHS alumni. I think this is a more relevant aspect in the grand homecoming award. I hope I am not disqualified to second this nomination being a cousin.
--Leonardo "Loloy" Tan (Batch '66), Sydney, Australia; email: edtan@iinet.net.au

Discovering LCHS website
Thu, 13 Dec 2007 02:20:58 PM

After more than 20 years since we left Iligan City, I just recently discovered that LCHS has its own website now. I had fun browsing it for the entire night and found it very informative. It's now easier to find our long lost friends and classmates. Also, I would like to request you to include me and my brother on the Batch Directory of our website. I belong to Batch 1985. I attended school in LCHS (formerly Lanao Community School) from kindergarten until 1st Year high school. My brother's name is Lee Harvey Chua of Batch 1984. He studied in LCHS from kindergarten until 2nd Year high school. He is currently working with Coca-Cola CdeO Plant and lives in Caugman, Cagayan de Oro. Thanks and more power to LCHS Spectrum.
--Randy Chua (Batch '85), Dongguan, Guangdong, People's Republic of China; email: chua.rl@gmail.com
 
 

Alex Handumon Sy (Batch '68), in photo, was in Iligan City last Dec. 3.  He was spotted enjoying his fried chicken dinner at the Sunburst Restaurant together with Henry James Go (Batch '68) and Santi Ong (Batch '70).  Shortly after Alex breezed into town, he sailed to Cebu City to attend the 50th anniversary celebration of Cebu Institute of Medicine where he obtained his doctor's degree. Alex is based in Chicago, Ill., U.S.A. Also visibly busy during the CIM anniversary was Henry Yu (Batch '69) who was very much in the thick of the preparations for the week-long festivities of CIM.  Also sighted in Cebu City was Bienvenido Lim (Batch '66).  He was seen attending a dinner party at the Casino Español last Dec. 7.  Accompanying him was his younger brother, Felipe "Boy" Lim, who is a well-known accupuncture practitioner in Cebu.  Boy runs an accupuncture clinic in Happy Valley, Banawa, Cebu City.

One Yuletide Season, eight years ago, while I was seated inside our car waiting for the driver to pick up some grocery items, my attention was focused on this mother carrying her baby while quietly sitting in one corner outside a store. In her face I could see the loneliness, the emptiness, and the desolation of having nothing for the season. Yet she was still hopeful she could buy something for her family, something to offer to her little children at home this Christmas. I was really moved to tears looking at her and the baby so much so that I got down from the car and handed her a hundred peso bill.

When I got back home, I prayed for that mother. As I was praying, a vision of Baby Jesus suddenly flashed. That Christmas of 1999, a family friend of ours gave us a basket of groceries. The basket was so beautifully crafted that it gave me an idea: To use it as a cradle for Baby Jesus. So, the cradle was ready. But where's the Baby? So the thought of finally buying a replica of Baby Jesus came into my mind.

That particular day of December, 1999, while I was browsing over some books at the Daughters of St. Paul's bookstore, lo and behold! Guess what I saw? It's the replica of Baby Jesus being displayed. Instantly I said to myself, "This is the one! This is it!" I finally found the right one, the right kind, the exact replica of the Baby Jesus that I have wanted to have all these years. The Baby Jesus who has appeared in my dreams several times over.

It's been eight long years since I got this replica and each Yuletide Season that comes, it always occupies center stage in our home. Indeed, Jesus is the Reason for the Season.

Traveling in the Philippine countryside is not only an enriching experience, it can also be amusing as well.  In almost every little town across the country there are the ubiquitous sari-sari stores by the road side bearing names that titillate the imagination more than the idyllic scenery along the way.

These stores serve well not only as virtual site markers for the traveler in the absence of street signs, they also provide passing entertainment.  When approaching a particular town while traveling by car, I take note of the sign boards adorning the sari-sari stores.  All too often they also bear either the names of the town or its streets.  And with that I would know which towns I am passing or how near I am en route to my destination.

Yet what comes as a source of entertainment are the names of some stores that one invariably encounters on the road.  The choices of names are either corny or witty, outrageous or outstanding.  All of which unmistakably mirror the uncanny sense of humor of the Filipino character.  One guitar store I came across in Opon, Cebu bears the name "Lilang's Guitars."  This shop must be prosperous with several branches because at the next corner I saw another outlet bearing the sign, "Lilang's Guitars Two."  As if it were not enough, another one looms up ahead proclaiming, "Lilang's Guitars Too."  Farther away another shop sports this catchy pun, "Lilang Gihapon."

Speaking of clever puns, there's this bakery specializing in pan de sal in Buenavista, Bohol which is apparently owned by a fellow named Sal.  Its sign "Pan Ni Sal" says it all.  And here is one that takes the cake.  A tailoring shop somewhere along Cebu's Sanciangko Street names itself "Robert Tailor."  And who could beat this Chinese take-out food counter called "Mr. Lim's Take Eat Away"?  Way to go! If you don't like the food, you can take eat or leave eat. And somewhere nearby, how can one miss this flower shop apparently owned by a certain Susan called "Susan's Roses."

Elsewhere in the town of Talamban, Cebu, enterprising shop owners are surfing high on the crest of the computer age.  Amidst the cluster of Internet cafes surrounding the University of San Carlos Technological Center, a carenderia nearby beats them all with its name, "Micro-Soup."  Eat your heart out, Bill Gates, I bet this place also sells better soupware!  And amid the cluster of makeshift stores selling pirated DVDs and other music discs, here's one that raises your eyebrows with its name: "What's Disc?"  Not to be outdone, a sari-sari store offering buko juice a stone's throw away counters with this Frenchy hyperbole: "Mercy Buko."  Perdon moi, mademoiselle?

And how about this for a bit of homespun gimmickry? A barber shop in Asturias, Cebu, sports the monicker "Tinong's Barbeer Shop."  Not bad; maybe the barber here offers free beer for every haircut?  Still at a street corner in Cebu's uptown area stands this hair saloon called "Hairitage." And in the neighboring town of Compostela one finds this new hair shop that proclaims itself as "Scissors Palace."  One wonders if it also features can-can dancers.

None of these fanciful signs, however, comes close to this knock-out kicker I chanced upon on the way from Cagayan de Oro to Iligan.   A sari-sari store in the town of Alubijid has its name emblazoned across a worn-out streamer: "Alice-John Sari-Sari Store."  Sige, alis dyan kayong lahat!

Igdono U. Caracho, Batch '66