50 Golden Years 1965-2015 Im calling the attention of my Aquinian brothers that our beloved school,Aquinas School in San Juan by the Dominican Order will be celebrating its 50th year of its founding in 2015. Founded in 1965 by the Spanish Dominican Friars,from primary,elementary to high school level,its an exclusive school for boys administered by the Spanish friars where classical thoughts were its foundation. This is the school where I spent my grade 1 to 4th year from 1980-1991. During our generation,most of our teachers were college professors ,old-fashioned but great.Teachers and professors where some of them started teaching right after World War II and we were the last generation they reared up in the classical way of thought before they retired. Here we use to meet everyday left and right Spanish friars walking around as if you went back into a time capsule more than 100 years ago in Rizals time. All Aquinas grads from its first graduates in 1969 up to our time in the 80s can recite to you all the names of the Spanish Dominicans who chose this place to retire and pass away,many of them remnants of the Old World Philippines. I in fact buried one as an honor guard of the CAT when Rev.Gerardo Manzanedo,a Dominican Superior passed away in 1988.We buried him behind the big old church on this beautiful hilltop in San Juan where an ancient Spanish cemetery is located at the back,a church built in 1602 when the Dominicsns arrived in the Philippines 9 years before they built the University of Sto Tomas or UST then Letran. Fr.Eladio Neira,Fr.Cabezon,Fr.Jose Valdez,Fr.Bonifacio Solis,Fr.Jesus Prol,Fr.Juan Lera,Fr.Ramon Perez are some of the names I can remember and of course their faces and character. They were good people and we enjoyed having them around and taught us many things in contrast with the time of Rizal where the Dominicans became his adversaries. Our professors challenged us to think,analyze,read and express There was liberty in our campus in our generation. It is the generation where declamation contest was one of the main game from Lincolns Gettysburg Address (Four Score and Seven Years Ago),Walt Whitmans O Captain my Captain!! Friends,Romans and Countryman,I have come to bury Caesar,not to praise him by Brutus. A school where mathematical formulas are complicated college level engineering style that always give you heart-pounding nervousness during exams. A school where chemistry and biology requires you to go to laboratory as if you are a scientist. A school that requires you to read newspapers everyday from local and international events. From Martial Law,to Ninoys Assassination to Edsa Revolution to Coup De etats,to the Cold War and Fall of the Iron Curtain to the Operation Desert Storm,we have to know at an early age or else you Damn Squat Outside!!! A school where books that we carry are pounds heavy books of Ralph Waldo Emerson,Henry Wordsworth Longfellow etc. A school that teaches advance theology as if we were seminarians. A school that made us sing all day long religious Dominican anthems like Dominic O Dominic and the theme from King Arthurs If ever I would Leave You which became our elementary graduation song. A school that teaches technical drawing,painting and the arts where we bought our own technical pens,T-square and drawing board as if we are fine arts or architectural students. A school that trained us in sports technically from basketball football,volleyball and softball and a special class on martial arts. A school were military training in the tradition of the marines can start on your year high rigorously and Boy Scouts for adventure with campings and bivouacs. A school who taught us history not from Zaides books to memorize but to analyze. A school where orgs has the freedom to exist and launch activities. A school where student politics were so noisy as if its a real thing outside complete with rallies and miting De avance. A school that encourages Soirees and CAT balls in our time with school for girls like Dominican College,Scholastica,and Assumptinistas,the Aquinian favorites. A school where basketball championship was a tradition and became legendary for that. A school with a beautiful gym where our past time was to watch PBA teams practicing during lunch,recess,and uwian like the NCC of Ron Jacobs,Shell,Great Taste,Tanduay,Ginebra,Purefoods,San Miguel,ah those 80s players became a common sight to us where this new fella in 1988 named Alvin Patrimonio asked for my Yoyo,arbor na lang daw kasi di sya marunong. A school where traditional games were a common sight from Sila,Jolens or marble,Trumpo,Block 1,2,3 or Touching Rubber,and card games like Supertramps. A school that a boxing match is a gentlemans game as in Suntukan ng mga Siga,Tara sa Field tayo!!!!!! A school of principled people like Jun Lozada,the whistleblower against Gloria,batch 76. A school where many sons of well known families studied,especially old clans in old rich San Juan even Mandaluyong where all sons of a single family graduated here. The best and most of all,a school of good-looking dudes can only be accepted aside from your brains,which should be mutual where Rudy Fernandez ,Efren Reyes Jr,Gabby Concepción graduated and Aga Muhlach,Dennis Da Silva,Keempee De Leon,Mark Gil,Christopher De Leon studied too where during Gabbys time in 1981 and Aga Muhlachs Bagets in 1983,Aquinas accommodated huge crowds and traffic jams with all the shouting to see Aga!!! Bawal ang Pangit sa Aquinas!!! Roll on Aquinians to the next 50 years. Note- Im starting to do a research on the school history,culture,personalities,masterlist of all batches in my own way and see it from there.Standby!
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 08:28:05 +0000
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