A Sort of Homecoming
The Ateneo Sesquicentennial Kick-Off
words & pix by rick olivares
I have more pix in my facebook photo page
The Ateneo Sesquicentennial Kick-Off
words & pix by rick olivares
I have more pix in my facebook photo page
Around 2:30pm, my headache kicked into high gear. The lack of sleep and going in and out of cold and hot confines was causing havoc with my health and we still had two stops to go… the Ateneo Medical School and the Loyola Heights campus.
But there’s something about the soothing and uplifting melodies of Himig Heswita that serves like a shot of adrenaline when the body and the spirit are weak.
It seemed odd at first, an electric guitar that kicked into an uptempo beat and as the voices of the Ateneo Medical School’s Choir filled the corridors, there was that familiar song that I loved so much when I was in high school -- “Bumaba Ka Sa Bundok” -- that had people clapping and snapping their fingers along.
Isn’t that the crux of our Jesuit education?
There were three speeches (aside from the Jesuit music from the Manila Cathedral and the Ateneo Medical School) that provided more than points to ponder for the occasion but are messages that will resonate long after the festivities are over.
The first was the Homily of Reverend Fr. Jose Magadia, the Provincial Superior of the Society of Jesus who recounted the history of the school and the fateful decision by Fr. Jose Cuevas to take over the Escuela Municipal that eventually became the Ateneo.
The second was given by Mayor Alfredo Lim at the San Ignacio Church ruins. Lim, the former policeman, mentioned his uneasiness sitting beside distinguished alumni who were from a different strata unlike amongst the poor of the Hospicio de San Jose he grew up alongside. Perhaps the most compelling food for thought of the day was when he asked when the Ateneo would be back in Manila. The school when it left for Quezon City put up two schools in Makati and one in Pasig. But in the city of its origin there had yet to be a homecoming.
The third was by Justice Renato Corona, former President of the Ateneo Alumni Association, in the organization’s simple rites (it was also celebrating its 100th anniversary of its founding in the same year as the Sesquicentennial). But his message, filled with witticisms and humorous references to his boyhood days in school, are best left for something else.
As an ardent student of history, I have always glossed over our colonial past. I positively loved the period costumes from the Rayadillo military uniforms to the school attire of the early American years and the wear of Filipinas at the turn of the 20th century. Suddenly the reenactment of the times including the turnover of Governor General Fernando Norzagaray to Fr. Jose Fernandez Cuevas S.J. the keys to the school made more sense.
The vintage cars, the traditional Filipino music, (by PUP's wonderful wonderful Bandang Kawayan) the ruins… as I told Hector Guballa, “My feet still had not touched the ground.” For at the end of the day when I did, then it was to welcome sleep for I had not slept a wink.
I was unnaturally excited about the Sesquicentennial kick-off of the university. Why not? It’s not everyday that you get to partake in a school’s milestone date. Call time was before 5am at the lobby of Xavier Hall yet I was there at 4am.
We left around 6am.
I was in the Ateneo shuttle bus that is normally used by school officials and the varsity basketball team. Bus #1 had the school’s brain
trust and top officials. It was certainly an honor to be with them as the person designated to chronicle the day’s events. There were 10 of us assigned a Nokia NSeries phone that we were to use for live streaming. Not an easy task, bro.
I was honestly excited to wear a barong for the occasion but as underdressed as I initially felt, it certainly was a relief from the stifling Manila heat to be in somewhat more relaxing and comfortable attire.
The day was to replicate in one day the journey of the Ateneo from Intramuros to its present location in Loyola Heights. And it was certainly interesting to hear the school officials discuss it in a different light away from the usual business and school meetings.
Mr. Guballa started the levity by saying that if someone deigned to hijack the bus, it would cripple the school’s operation. Ateneo High School Principal Fr. RB Hizon S.J. quickly countered, “Actually, it will run faster.”
Everyone laughed.
And as the laughter died down, we all got a kick out of getting a motorcycle police escort that whisked us inside the Walled city in no time.
It was a beautiful Sunday morning as the sun chose to shine instead of giving way to the spotty weather that prevailed in the metro area for weeks. The Manila Cathedral was sparsely decorated as there was a wedding scheduled not soon after the Sesqui Mass. The vintage cars were all parked in front of the church and the actors in period costumes walked around the park in front.
As I entered, the respectful tones and layers of Alleluya as conducted by Fr. Manoling Francisco S.J. drifted around the ancient church. The atmosphere had an air of nostalgia that was tempered with solemnity.
Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, an alumnus of the San Jose Seminary in Ateneo officiated the Mass that was concelebrated by over 30 Jesuits (Fr. Joaquin Bernas was conspicuously missing). The Cardinal thanked the Jesuits not
just for opening Ateneo its provincial schools but its huge impact in the Mindanao and Visayas regions. “Mabuhay ang mga Heswita,” he said as he ended the hour-long Mass.
I lost my streaming connection right before the start of the Mass but was able to reconnect midway through the celebration.
There were over two dozen school and regular media photographers and about 15 videographers documenting the entire proceedings. We may have been bumping into one another to get some good footage but it
was already friendly.
After the Mass, Cardinal Rosales and Fr. Magadia took the first kalesa to the site of the old Ateneo campus followed by another that bore Mayor Lim and Fr. Benvienido Nebres S.J.
During the Time Capsule rites at the San Ignacio ruins where various Ateneo items were lowered in the symbolic rites that was also overseen by Bambi Harper, Chairwoman of the Intramuros Restoration Commission and Cecile Alvarez, wife of Senator Heherson
Alvarez, the descendants of our National Hero, Dr. Jose Rizal were introduced (they too are Ateneans). After the 45-minute program, a breakfast menu that approximated the Spanish era was served in the ramparts of Intramuros.
I’m pretty sure the school tried its best to locate the heirs of Juan and Antonio Luna and Gregorio del Pilar but for some reason, they were unable to attend the rites.
Back in the Ateneo Grade School, I thought it was cool to have our Grade Six sections named after National Heroes while in Grade Seven we had classes named for Jesuit Saints (my class was named after Emilio Aguinaldo under Rodrigo Rolda who still teaches today and St. Peter Canisius under Alma Concepcion).
The ringing of a bell that once sounded the start and end of classes in the Ateneo was used as the signal for the Ateneo delegation to move to the next part of its journey… Padre Faura.
Would you believe the site of the old campus (including Assumption) is now Robinson’s Place in Ermita?
Try going here and thinking about that and you will truly appreciate the late Fr. William Masterson’s decision to relocate the Ateneo to Loyola Heights.
But as for the old alumni who once called this their school, it was fun to join them as they launched into “Hail, Ateneo. Hail.” And who better to lead the alums than former cheerleader Fr. Bert Ampil?
Fr. Nebres and Manuel V. Pangilinan, the Chairman of the Ateneo’s Board of Trustees unveiled the marker that appears on the Padre Faura entrance of the mall.
In case you all don’t know, Padre Faura Street is named after Fr. Federico Faura, one of the second batch of Jesuits who arrived after the Society's century long exile from the Philippines. Padre Faura not only helped put up the Manila Observatory but he was also Jose Rizal’s favorite professor in the old Ateneo.
From there we went to Salcedo and Rockwell where I had a long talk with former cheerleader Alex Hontiveros about his time as a guerilla fighter in Panay during World War II.
When we left Medical City, we linked up with an Ateneo motorcycle club (that counted an old classmate ka-barkada Ysmael Tamano – the son of the late Senator Mamintal Tamano – as a member). There were also these group of Volkswagen Beetle owners who joined the motorcade that went through Quezon Avenue, Eliptical Road, and out through Katipunan.
I said earlier that I enjoyed the light and happy mood inside Bus #1 where everyone was cracking jokes. When we entered Katipunan Avenue, we all erupted into cheers.
An arrangement was made with the MMDA to temporarily open the concrete barriers fronting Gate 3 so the entire motorcade could turn left inside Ateneo.
I made jokes about the MMDA wearing blue that is why they allowed us through. And as we entered Ateneo, we all burst into cheers.
It took the Spanish Jesuits several months to arrive from the Iberian Peninsula to reach the Philippines. We remembered and tried to approximate a journey that saw the Ateneo move around the nation’s capital and its impact in the country as a whole in a few hours.
Personally, I thought that day gave clarity to the message of "Building A Nation" that can sometimes get lost with all the clever marketing themes and hoopla and hype of sports and other endeavors. At every stop, "going down from the hill" was reiterated and examples given of that lifelong pledge from the beautiful and healing balm that is Jesuit music to community programs we engage in to the graduates we produce.
In 1859, Fr. Jose Cuevas turned down a petition to run the Escuela Municipal as the Jesuits mission was in Mindanao. But the good Father was eventually persuaded and thus began the Society's second journey in the Philippines. Back then, it was just to provide excellent education for Manila's young men. Who would have thought that 150 years later, the school spread its wings to every corner of the archipelago and to the shores beyond?
It's a great thought to revisit and at the end of it all, I, we were just glad to be home.
Animo Ateneo!
Bus #1
Fr. Benvienido Nebres SJ
Fr. Bert Ampil SJ
Fr. Kit Bautista SJ
Fr. RB Hizon SJ
Edward Go
Dr. Leovino Garcia
Dr. Fabian Dayrit
Dr. Maria Luz Vilches
Romeo Dalandan Jr.
Hector Guballa
Sonia Araneta
Debbie & Michelle Tan
Alex Hontiveros
Mike Valencia
Rick Olivares
Thanks to Tita Sonia, Mr. H -- Sir Hec -- for being such a cool guide during the entire motorcade, Sir Jun for the updates, Fr. Ben for sharing his thoughts and jokes, Gia Dumo, and to Mimi Agbay.
The video streaming had 3,400-plus viewers.
But there’s something about the soothing and uplifting melodies of Himig Heswita that serves like a shot of adrenaline when the body and the spirit are weak.
It seemed odd at first, an electric guitar that kicked into an uptempo beat and as the voices of the Ateneo Medical School’s Choir filled the corridors, there was that familiar song that I loved so much when I was in high school -- “Bumaba Ka Sa Bundok” -- that had people clapping and snapping their fingers along.
Isn’t that the crux of our Jesuit education?
There were three speeches (aside from the Jesuit music from the Manila Cathedral and the Ateneo Medical School) that provided more than points to ponder for the occasion but are messages that will resonate long after the festivities are over.
The first was the Homily of Reverend Fr. Jose Magadia, the Provincial Superior of the Society of Jesus who recounted the history of the school and the fateful decision by Fr. Jose Cuevas to take over the Escuela Municipal that eventually became the Ateneo.
The second was given by Mayor Alfredo Lim at the San Ignacio Church ruins. Lim, the former policeman, mentioned his uneasiness sitting beside distinguished alumni who were from a different strata unlike amongst the poor of the Hospicio de San Jose he grew up alongside. Perhaps the most compelling food for thought of the day was when he asked when the Ateneo would be back in Manila. The school when it left for Quezon City put up two schools in Makati and one in Pasig. But in the city of its origin there had yet to be a homecoming.
The third was by Justice Renato Corona, former President of the Ateneo Alumni Association, in the organization’s simple rites (it was also celebrating its 100th anniversary of its founding in the same year as the Sesquicentennial). But his message, filled with witticisms and humorous references to his boyhood days in school, are best left for something else.
As an ardent student of history, I have always glossed over our colonial past. I positively loved the period costumes from the Rayadillo military uniforms to the school attire of the early American years and the wear of Filipinas at the turn of the 20th century. Suddenly the reenactment of the times including the turnover of Governor General Fernando Norzagaray to Fr. Jose Fernandez Cuevas S.J. the keys to the school made more sense.
The vintage cars, the traditional Filipino music, (by PUP's wonderful wonderful Bandang Kawayan) the ruins… as I told Hector Guballa, “My feet still had not touched the ground.” For at the end of the day when I did, then it was to welcome sleep for I had not slept a wink.
I was unnaturally excited about the Sesquicentennial kick-off of the university. Why not? It’s not everyday that you get to partake in a school’s milestone date. Call time was before 5am at the lobby of Xavier Hall yet I was there at 4am.
We left around 6am.
I was in the Ateneo shuttle bus that is normally used by school officials and the varsity basketball team. Bus #1 had the school’s brain
trust and top officials. It was certainly an honor to be with them as the person designated to chronicle the day’s events. There were 10 of us assigned a Nokia NSeries phone that we were to use for live streaming. Not an easy task, bro.I was honestly excited to wear a barong for the occasion but as underdressed as I initially felt, it certainly was a relief from the stifling Manila heat to be in somewhat more relaxing and comfortable attire.
The day was to replicate in one day the journey of the Ateneo from Intramuros to its present location in Loyola Heights. And it was certainly interesting to hear the school officials discuss it in a different light away from the usual business and school meetings.
Mr. Guballa started the levity by saying that if someone deigned to hijack the bus, it would cripple the school’s operation. Ateneo High School Principal Fr. RB Hizon S.J. quickly countered, “Actually, it will run faster.”
Everyone laughed.
And as the laughter died down, we all got a kick out of getting a motorcycle police escort that whisked us inside the Walled city in no time.
It was a beautiful Sunday morning as the sun chose to shine instead of giving way to the spotty weather that prevailed in the metro area for weeks. The Manila Cathedral was sparsely decorated as there was a wedding scheduled not soon after the Sesqui Mass. The vintage cars were all parked in front of the church and the actors in period costumes walked around the park in front.
As I entered, the respectful tones and layers of Alleluya as conducted by Fr. Manoling Francisco S.J. drifted around the ancient church. The atmosphere had an air of nostalgia that was tempered with solemnity.
Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, an alumnus of the San Jose Seminary in Ateneo officiated the Mass that was concelebrated by over 30 Jesuits (Fr. Joaquin Bernas was conspicuously missing). The Cardinal thanked the Jesuits not
just for opening Ateneo its provincial schools but its huge impact in the Mindanao and Visayas regions. “Mabuhay ang mga Heswita,” he said as he ended the hour-long Mass.I lost my streaming connection right before the start of the Mass but was able to reconnect midway through the celebration.
There were over two dozen school and regular media photographers and about 15 videographers documenting the entire proceedings. We may have been bumping into one another to get some good footage but it
was already friendly.After the Mass, Cardinal Rosales and Fr. Magadia took the first kalesa to the site of the old Ateneo campus followed by another that bore Mayor Lim and Fr. Benvienido Nebres S.J.
During the Time Capsule rites at the San Ignacio ruins where various Ateneo items were lowered in the symbolic rites that was also overseen by Bambi Harper, Chairwoman of the Intramuros Restoration Commission and Cecile Alvarez, wife of Senator Heherson
Alvarez, the descendants of our National Hero, Dr. Jose Rizal were introduced (they too are Ateneans). After the 45-minute program, a breakfast menu that approximated the Spanish era was served in the ramparts of Intramuros.I’m pretty sure the school tried its best to locate the heirs of Juan and Antonio Luna and Gregorio del Pilar but for some reason, they were unable to attend the rites.
Back in the Ateneo Grade School, I thought it was cool to have our Grade Six sections named after National Heroes while in Grade Seven we had classes named for Jesuit Saints (my class was named after Emilio Aguinaldo under Rodrigo Rolda who still teaches today and St. Peter Canisius under Alma Concepcion).
The ringing of a bell that once sounded the start and end of classes in the Ateneo was used as the signal for the Ateneo delegation to move to the next part of its journey… Padre Faura.
Would you believe the site of the old campus (including Assumption) is now Robinson’s Place in Ermita?
Try going here and thinking about that and you will truly appreciate the late Fr. William Masterson’s decision to relocate the Ateneo to Loyola Heights.
But as for the old alumni who once called this their school, it was fun to join them as they launched into “Hail, Ateneo. Hail.” And who better to lead the alums than former cheerleader Fr. Bert Ampil?
Fr. Nebres and Manuel V. Pangilinan, the Chairman of the Ateneo’s Board of Trustees unveiled the marker that appears on the Padre Faura entrance of the mall.
In case you all don’t know, Padre Faura Street is named after Fr. Federico Faura, one of the second batch of Jesuits who arrived after the Society's century long exile from the Philippines. Padre Faura not only helped put up the Manila Observatory but he was also Jose Rizal’s favorite professor in the old Ateneo.
From there we went to Salcedo and Rockwell where I had a long talk with former cheerleader Alex Hontiveros about his time as a guerilla fighter in Panay during World War II.
When we left Medical City, we linked up with an Ateneo motorcycle club (that counted an old classmate ka-barkada Ysmael Tamano – the son of the late Senator Mamintal Tamano – as a member). There were also these group of Volkswagen Beetle owners who joined the motorcade that went through Quezon Avenue, Eliptical Road, and out through Katipunan.
I said earlier that I enjoyed the light and happy mood inside Bus #1 where everyone was cracking jokes. When we entered Katipunan Avenue, we all erupted into cheers.
An arrangement was made with the MMDA to temporarily open the concrete barriers fronting Gate 3 so the entire motorcade could turn left inside Ateneo.
I made jokes about the MMDA wearing blue that is why they allowed us through. And as we entered Ateneo, we all burst into cheers.
It took the Spanish Jesuits several months to arrive from the Iberian Peninsula to reach the Philippines. We remembered and tried to approximate a journey that saw the Ateneo move around the nation’s capital and its impact in the country as a whole in a few hours.
Personally, I thought that day gave clarity to the message of "Building A Nation" that can sometimes get lost with all the clever marketing themes and hoopla and hype of sports and other endeavors. At every stop, "going down from the hill" was reiterated and examples given of that lifelong pledge from the beautiful and healing balm that is Jesuit music to community programs we engage in to the graduates we produce.
In 1859, Fr. Jose Cuevas turned down a petition to run the Escuela Municipal as the Jesuits mission was in Mindanao. But the good Father was eventually persuaded and thus began the Society's second journey in the Philippines. Back then, it was just to provide excellent education for Manila's young men. Who would have thought that 150 years later, the school spread its wings to every corner of the archipelago and to the shores beyond?
It's a great thought to revisit and at the end of it all, I, we were just glad to be home.
Animo Ateneo!
Bus #1
Fr. Benvienido Nebres SJ
Fr. Bert Ampil SJ
Fr. Kit Bautista SJ
Fr. RB Hizon SJ
Edward Go
Dr. Leovino Garcia
Dr. Fabian Dayrit
Dr. Maria Luz Vilches
Romeo Dalandan Jr.
Hector Guballa
Sonia Araneta
Debbie & Michelle Tan
Alex Hontiveros
Mike Valencia
Rick Olivares
Thanks to Tita Sonia, Mr. H -- Sir Hec -- for being such a cool guide during the entire motorcade, Sir Jun for the updates, Fr. Ben for sharing his thoughts and jokes, Gia Dumo, and to Mimi Agbay.The video streaming had 3,400-plus viewers.
No comments:
Post a Comment