Hey cackler, just love reading your comments. You are right about the commercialization of DLRT hahah, alot like mcdo, jolibee---maybe we can call DLRT Hamburger university or something.

Maybe in 5 years or something---I would start seeing little red Indians on the court. They do have one of the best traditional cheers...next to ours.

If San beda transfers to the UAAP---what color of shirt do you think MVP will be wearing??? hehehe.

DLSU with STI and AMA...hahaha---these schools do belong together.

Goodluck to San beda---for their quest to be in the uaap.

Simulation Green---The board loves you... go ahead and leave the uaap...hahaha--Inferiority complex always brings out "the-me-against-the-world-attitude" tsk tsk.

I wonder if they still do that dance? I really enjoyed it.

I was in High School when Ateneo made the jump to the UAAP. We missed the NCAA so much that once my friends and I watched the NC games at the Loyola Center just to hear the Beda fight song and Arriba Letran. Who can forget Letran's
version of "...win or lose, its the school we choose..." -- "manalo, matalo, bugbog kayo."

They still do. There are usually 5 or 3 kids or sometimes just 1 fat little indian joining the cheerleaders on the court and performing the hand motions of the indian yell.

Interesting comment on Letran's version of an Ateneo cheer.

napaghahalata yung mga 70s people dito hahaha!

Maybe your family has Beda roots (an uncle or cousin, or kababata or some other relative na Bedista). Or probably you just have some Bedan friends who've been telling you stories about Bedan school spirit.

a70, thanks! You're right, it will probably take 5 years before San Beda can actually join the UAAP.

And when that happens, MVP will most likely wear a red shirt and a blue jacket.

I dunno if they still sing that "bugbog cheer" but they sure make "bugbog." hehehe Among the NC schools, Letran's the one that creeps us the most. Talk about Edsa 3 in miniature. But we sure love to annoy them.

A few years ago, a Bedan Pep cheerleader was clobbered by some Letranites. So watching an NC game can be perilous indeed.

animo red,

i can give you the lyrics for the indian yell. mortal sin yan! hehehee....

no need for the survey. we want to transfer to the uaap. hindrance lang talaga yun university status. i think may plan magkaron ng ateneo-beda dream match this november. jrs. seniors, and then the 1978 players nung chamionsip game ng beda-ateneo. they are selling the idea to studio 23 atah, i dont know if it will push thru. ok ba sa inyo yun?

^acutally narinig ko na yan eh, nung after msimo ng ateneo-la salle legends but it will definitely please me. pero sana less fights lang. hehe.

This is the first time I heard of such. Sana Studio23 will cover it and sana sa Araneta ganapin.

Kahit natalo Ateneo sa Lyceum nung Saturday (BOOOO!!!! BEAT LYCEUM!), the idea of a reunion match would be something.

Parang FilOil Flying V. Pero sana naman many would watch. I hope the crowd will be marami din kasi syang naman ang pagorganize kung ang crowd kokonti lang. I do hope talaga na matuloy ito and I hope Bedans and Ateneans would really support this. I expect many alumni in this match.

I have the lyrics it's just I don't really watch NC games that often. hehehe

Against Ateneo? Heck a lot of Bedans would definitely watch this. Count me in.

wala ng fights yan. matagal na yun. iba na ngyun! hehehehe...where did you hear that?

Either Sports TV or yung 10 minute Sports Update, basta Studio 23 siya.

Take note that it is not a rematch of the 1978 game. It is just like the Ateneo-La Salle Legends. All players from 1960s-1980s tapos the second game is quite different nga lang kasi it is the HAIL MARY TEAM 2005 vs. TEAM ANIMO 2005. So bale the 2nd game is our current players against theirs.

If ever mangyari, I would prefer seeing the juniors match first, then the seniors match, then the alumni match.

Back to the original topic. Aside from the dream of San Beda joining the UAAP, there is an even important thing the Benedictine community must do, which is still in the works, but are in the minds of the people concerned.

We were hoping the day will come that the three Benedictine schools (Mendiola, Alabang, and Taytay) be under one Board of Directors thus we can say by then that we are all united before we face the bigger world of the UAAP.

We do not want to suffer the same fate of La Salle Zobel and La Salle Greenhills, for the latter can't participate in the UAAP thinking they're the older school.

The Benedictines value the sense of community. I think this should be the priority first, then the UAAP comes later.

I think this is very prudent to get your internal affairs in order first before looking outward. Good luck!

i agree with you animo red and 5foot carrot. i think the sense of community life is always there. that is the greatest strength of san beda. it is just that we are used to having mendiola before. booster club is doing its small contribution on this matter. taytay, alabang, and mendiola as one community. Good thing about it....the monks are cooperating.

the idea of crerating one board would be difficult. handling one school alone is multilaborious. maybe, what we can do is to integrate the mission and vision of all schools as one. The system we are implementing in mendiola must be standardize to all locations..

next year, you will see a different san beda. the roar of the red lions will resonate from the corners of taytay, alabang, and mendiola.

I LOVE SAN BEDA!

The very first solid attempt of this "unification" was officially naming Benedictine Abbey aka St. Benedict College (pathetic name indeed), San Beda Alabang. Of course you know very well for 30 years the sister school in Alabang has been "floating"- lacking a Bedan identity. I think a lot of outsiders don't even know that there is a Benedictine school in the south.

I think unification and cleaning out our backyard should be the top on our wish list and not the UAAP.

OT but I had to react - so are you saying that "St. Scholastica's College" is also a pathetic name for a school? Aba'y isusumbong kita sa mga madre roon...!

Back to the topic - I will admit, though, that even though the school you mention in your post had the word "Benedictine" or "Benedict" in its name, I didn't really view it as a Benedictine school like San Beda or SSC.

I also hope that, besides all these cosmetic and administrative changes that your school is planning, efforts will also be made to lead the students to identify themselves as Bedans. I think that would be important if you want to have 1) home-grown athletes at the college level; and 2) a wider fan base among the students and alumni.

Just sayin'.

OT Yan ang Benedictine child.Go 5foot.

You misunderstood me, Benedictine Abbey was the original name of the sister school in Alabang. San Beda Alabang being it's secondary name. When they opened the college department it was renamed "St. Benedict College" much to the disgust of the students, including myself for I came from there as well.

True Alabang, or Bene as we nicknamed it never really had a culture to begin with. For 30 years we were "floating." The people who ran the school didn't see the need for culture only academics. But school culture is still important in a student's development. I pressume Ateneans are very aware of this. There was even a time a few years back that the old admin of Alabang wanted to seperate themselves from Mendiola.

Good thing the new administrators was able to stop the schism and saw the need to change all of this and Mendiola has welcomed San Beda Alabang under its wing- much like the story of the prodigal son.

Yes they are definitely working in making the Alabang students identify themselves as Bedans. Though it's not going to happen overnight and we need all the help we can get.

Sorry, I still don't know what's wrong with the name "St. Benedict College." Did you want the college level to be called "San Beda Alabang" too, or whatever the grade/high school departments are being called so that it's all unified? Anyhoo, apparently that issue has been laid to rest already. I'm just wondering

For us Benedictine Abbey was a better name, for it was more known at the time. When people ask where we studied they kept on asking where is "St. Benedict College"- so we had to say the three names hehehe That's the only time they knew it.

What's in a name? A lot. The name "St. Benedict College" wasn't as well known compared to San Beda. St. Scholastica is already an institution, I know there are many branches of St. Scho even in the provinces. So with the name St. Benedict College, it will take decades to built the name. Why start from scratch, when you have an established name like San Beda?

Honestly, animo_red, from a "branding" perspective, I'd say screw the name "St. Benedict College." I'd rename and market Bene as "San Beda Alabang," with "Bene" as its nickname.

pasalamat kayo at hindi the royal and pontifical san beda of st. benedict college ang pangalan ng pamantasan nyo

kung st. benedict college, then so be it. of course it will take time before people get the hang of your new name, but you see, having a new name signifies a fresh start, a new beginning of something big. people of a certain vintage will recall where dewey boulevard is, but by and large, we all just know it as roxas boulevard. pahinugin nyo na lang, ganyan talaga pag nagpapalit ng pangalan. besides, hindi yan magiging sagabal sa university accreditation nyo. talagang ganyan pag magkakahiwalay ang campuses--each will have a distinct identity, like in the UP system.

The name St. Benedict College has officially been scrapped and the Alabang campus is already San Beda Alabang. The former was never feasible to begin with, and the students hated the name.

Our Rector President saw the importance of unifying the three schools, Mendiola, Taytay and Alabang- for he runs the three campuses. The goal is making the schools under one system, under one name, in a way practicing the sense of community, which the Benedictine Order always value.

So from the way we see it, we want to fortify the bond of the three. As one alumnus calls it: The Three Pillar Approach. Life would seem much easier if you have a lot of hands helping out each other. It is only then we can see fit that we're ready for the UAAP.

Renaming the school San Beda Alabang is giving the students a fresh start. I'll just quote something from a wise Benedictine monk whom we look up to, "Academic excellence to me is merely the development of the mind. School culture is the total formation of the individual, it is the ultimate transmission of values. Not just the mind, but most of all, the heart." San Beda has this and we want Alabang to be part of it.

well, next year is a good start. admin from different schools( branches) wil unite as one in the NCAA. cheerleaders from alabang will participate in the ncaa. the kids in taytay will take care of the indians and band. See...we are moving.

in relation to branding, it is final. San Beda Alabang na. wala nang baguhan.

btw, we won in the FMC against lyceum!

Animo San Beda!

with the impending suspension of La Salle - voluntary or with the board imposed sanction, this is the perfect time for San Beda to apply. it may not happen in 2 or 3 years but the process must begin this school year. the La Salle situation is quite volatile and they could choose to eventually bolt the league as the present basketball program has brought shame and riducule to them all.

I don't think ABS/Studio 23 will allow La Salle to leave the UAAP. The school produces a lot of moola for the league along with Ateneo. Besides, it's La Salle whom we want to seek revenge for pirating a lot of stuff from us, not just our prized cubs.

here's a thought: do you think ABS-CBN will be consulted in what is largely considered a matter best decided by any university in question? the answer is no. besides, they know better than to overstep university jurisdictions. labas sila dyan.

Well, at any rate, it's been said on this thread quite a few times that San Beda would like to complete the unification of its school administration (or something like that) before tackling the UAAP. I'm not sure if this is just one guy's opinion , but I have to admit that this makes sense to me. (And I also have to admit that I hope that Sam Ekwe never makes it to the UAAP because he's scary! )

^^^^scary ba?! hahahaha.... mabait naman. magugulat ka sa sobrang bait. deceiving yung laki and kulay. unification is the direction of the school admin and not just an opinion.

next year, you will see the indians and bands of taytay, cheerleaders of alabang, and mendiola. nagusap na yung admin and may agreement. this was inititated by the booster club. even heard na yun costume nila yun authentic indian costume sa states pa kukunin. hindi yung galing SA PAKPAK NG MANOK. HEHEHEHEHEHE.....

i disagree na dapat studio 23 nagdedecide sa UAAP. promotion lang dapat yan. ang magandang scenario, ma-ban ang la salle ng 3 yrs. kasi may player na naman na hot water aside from benitez. pagnagkataon....hindi na mistake yan. negligence nayan. then ang san beda bigyan lang ng exposure for 1 year eh malaking boost samin yun.

after the FMC championship, the alumni treated the players to cabalen. they discussed the plan to apply to the uaap and the ateneo-beda dream match. i hope it will materialize. there was even a comment from alumni na magapply na ngyun para pagkaapprove ng university status eh pasok na kagad sa uaap. hehehehe...sana nga pde!

cnu ba pder kausap sa ateneo-san beda dream game? at least to start with something....maganda kasi nagstart na yung plan kesa puro salita. satap panuorin nun.

who knows. But you have to hand it to ABS-CBN, if not for them the UAAP won't reach it's popularity they're enjoying now.

Even the monks who are part of the new admins of the school expresses unification. That's why they named all the three campuses San Beda.

heard of the news? san beda-ateneo dual meet? home and away type of game. source came ffrom koy banal. initial talks...coach notman agreed best of 3 series. bago toh ah.

the beda-ateneo dream match before kasi is just a plan. .but this time, meon na tlaga. do you think we can fill up ultra for this game?

do you think we can fill up ultra for this game?
[/quote]

I'd say 70-80% full.

The most likely scenario for the game is one in which more redshirts show up than blue ones. The more rabid Ateneans of today are probably too young to remember the storied NCAA rivalry between Mendiola and Katipunan. On the other hand, since today's younger breed of Bedans are just itching to get into the UAAP and experience the altogether different type of competition it brings, expect those guys to come in droves.

In my experience, I notice that the typical Ateneo fan of today is blase' when it comes to non-DLSU, (not to mention non-UAAP) opponents. Bedan fans on the other hand get really worked up during the exhibition jousts between the Red Lions and Blue Eagles.

^ Kind of agree. Well I guess part of the reason why people are more hyped up with the La Salle-Ateneo rivalry was because of how aggressive these two schools are in marketing themselves, while San Beda was living in the "dark ages." It is only now that San Beda is following their footsteps. I did not even know San Beda and Ateneo were rivals til I enrolled in Mendiola, to think I came from the sister campus in Alabang.

It may seem a bit hard in the beginning but we will get there. Let's just say people are thinking that San Beda can be more than what she is now, but no one had the initiative to make things happen; only recently. So can't help it if we have these pent-up emotions waiting to be unleashed, because we have so many dreams for the school.

Animo Red,

This Ateneo-La Salle rivalry goes beyond marketing. This thing we have with La Salle has been going on long before anybody tried to make money off it and will still be going on even when non-Ateneans or non-La Sallites tire of it.

While it is true that the Ateneo-San Beda rivalry started earlier (in the late 20's and into the thirties), it wasn't a sustained one. I would say that it peaked in the fifties then was dormant until the mid-seventies during the championship clashes. Then, Ateneo bolted the NCAA and a period of dormancy ensued. The rivalry with La Salle, however, was more of a sustained one. It probably heated up in the thirties and remained hot ever since. If we were to take the San Beda example, when Ateneo bolted the NCAA, the La Salle rivalry should have become dormant too. But, that was not the case. Even when La Salle was in the wilderness in the early eighties, Ateneo would find ways to match up and beat La Salle.

A lot of factors could be pulled in to explain the ferocity of the rivalry: Ateneo and La Salle used to be neighbors in Manila (Padre Faura and Taft Avenue) whereas San Beda was in Mendiola (in a later era, Loyola Heights and Greenhills were also not too far apart as skrmishes in Virra Mall and Shoppesville will attest), Ateneo and La Salle were run by English speaking religious orders (American Jesuits and Irish Brothers) while San Beda had Spanish monks, Ateneans and La Sallites used to spar for the affections of Assumptionistas in Herran while Bedans had the girls from Holy Ghost, Centro Escolar and La Concordia all to themselves, and so on. Actually proof of the waning of the rivalry between Ateneo and San Beda was the fact that it was never transmitted to Benedictine Abbey where you studied. I would guess that even in the 80's students at La Salle South (what we called it before they seriously called themselves Zobel) knew that they could lose to any school except Ateneo.

Don't get me wrong. It would be great to have you guys in the same boat with us again. Most posters on these boards who remember being at an Ateneo-San Beda game that really mattered look foward to battling with your side again. It's been said a lot of times here: San Beda was always a worthy opponent. And with the way the boys from Taft have been running their program the past few years, your stock as worthy opponents and rivals just rose higher.

Cheers!

Actually Mav, we at Bene never had any problems with the Ateneo boys during my time. We usually compete with the AHS' unofficial Team C in the PRADA together with DLSZ and Southridge, whenever your school had a basketball team. I actually made a lot of acquaintances from that PRADA team who later became blockmates and good friends in college. We actually had a thing going with the Bengals having been two of the earliest big Catholic pirvate schools in the area. A lot of jeering and banter but nothing really serious. Well except during this one time when our volleyball teams had a free for all during senior year.

Animo: What's your batch? My entire family, siblings and cousins, practically went to Bene. There's a big chance you were classmates with one of my relations.

Interesting perspectives. I'm too young to have lived in those years, but what reading I've done in the archives has given me quite an interesting take too.

I've actually talked about this rivalry in a separate thread (in the Alumni forum, under the Ateneo-La Salle rivalry thread). You may want to check it out.

97

^ In reaction to Mav, yeah the La Salle-Ateneo rivalry has been around since the days of our grand dads. Why the San Beda-Ateneo rivalry never lasted compared to the latter? I really dunno. Perhaps someone here could answer that question.

In terms why we in Bene never really knew about it? It was because we were never really "under" the Benedictines to begin with. The monks who were in Alabang back then gave the lay admin almost complete authority in running the school. So we were more "secular" than religious, that explains why we lack the Benedictine identity. But that's another story.

Bruiser,

Great observations. In our time (early to mid-80's), perhaps because the Alabang-based schools were too far away from the regular big schools elsewhere, there was no real choice but to start our own regional rivalries. Thus, you had this thing going with Zobel in basketball. On the other hand, as you correctly pointed out, Southridge was not a basketball school at all. The only time we had a basketball team was when some guys in the senior class decided that it was about time we had some sort of a team going. It was a football school and we looked forward to games against what were considered the southern football powers at that time -- San Agustin and Don Bosco (both Manila and Tondo). Zobel was not a football power at all. This was pre-Hans Smit and they were still in the process of getting their act together though they had very decent squads -- though I remember getting into off the field skirmishes with some of those Bengals/Zobelites.

I can totally understand Bene not having a rivalry with Ateneo. The geography was all wrong. Alabang was relatively isolated then and with enough schools around the area, you didn't need to have a cross town rival.

Pare, sorry for not replying yet to your PM. I'll get to that soon.


Animo Red,

Most religious schools in the country nowadays are run by seculars with a few monks/priests/brothers working in the background making sure that the Catholic values are intact. But, wasn't there a priory in Alabang? I remember that Fr. Maramba, OSB used to live there. Didn't the monks have a more active role in running the school?


Atenean blooded,

Thanks for the tip. I'll check it out. When Bluebruiser and I were in college, we spent some time researching for the 60th anniversary of the Guidon. The paper came out with an article on Ateneo's rivals and most of our material here is based on the clippings and articles we culled at that time.

Not really, Compared I guess to the Jesuits and the Benedictines in Mendiola who are very visible to the students. The monks in Alabang weren't that many. And the ones visible in running the school back then fully prioritized on academics and did not focus on (even for a bit) developing Benedictine/Bedan culture. These monks in question are now, you can say are "exciled."
And when I meant by full autonomy by the lay admin, they were free to do anything in running the school. And the monks did not have much control.

So in a way Benedictine Abbey was a "break away" republic from San Beda. So for a time, Alabang was indeed cut off from the rest of the Bedan community. People from the south were not aware that we were run by the Benedictines from San Beda, and I suppose people elsewhere (even for some here) did not even know San Beda has a sister school in the south. Just for the simple reason we called ourselves "taga-Bene" than Bedans was proof enough that there was something wrong.

Our rivalry with Zobel was just for the simple reason we are the two biggest schools in the south and people can't help compare the two.

I may have been from an earlier time (I'm 11 years ahead of Animo Red, HS '86), but as far as I can remember during my stay, the lay people ran the school against the backdrop of true Benedictine tradition. If I may add, I even believe that, at least in the formative years of Bene to the time I left, Bene wasn't only being run in the Benedictine spirit and tradition but also in the shadow of the main campus in Mendiola. And the impressions that the parents of my generation received was that the Alabang school was to be a worthy extension of San Beda in Manila. That's the reason I was deposited there instead of La Salle Greenhills. AHS was just too far. Alabang was like a province during the '70's.

The thrust of course was anchored on the religious. I remember all our religion classes had the underlying theme of Ora et Labora and highlighted the lives of St. Benedict and other saints of the order. We had all the religious ceremonies and celebrations practiced at Mendiola, from the feast day of St. Benedict in July, the Feast of Our Lady of Montserrat, the October rosary and the Feast of the Sto. Nino every January. Up to this day I, my siblings, my cousins, and I'm sure countless alumni from dear old Bene still mark our calendars of the annual devotion to the child Jesus. It was our Bedan version of the Ateneo devotion to the Virgin Mary during and the October Medal tradition.

There's also an argument against Bene being a separate republic from San Beda. Sure, the distance from Manila to Alabang during the '70's to the mid'80 was already a stretch but there was also a lot of interaction with the big brothers of San Beda. From the religious, to sports and other co-curricular activities.

Our batch was the very first from Bene that undertook the Peace retreat program and it was only the boys who were initially required to go. Each class was paired with another class from San Beda. I was part of the first group that included student leaders and athletes and my batch mates included Benjie Paras, who slept during the election of officers and was unanimously elected as batch president. Our facilitators, from Father Andy to the kuya's, were all from San Beda and the speakers were the same usual suspects that the organizers culled from previous San Beda sponsored Peace retreats.

Our sports programs were also ran in the traditional San Beda way. Our basketball teams had the fingerprints of Ato Badolato all over it down to resident tisoy/espanol descent coach (Pepe Sanchez) and the manic full court press. Our football program was not only patterned after the San Beda model, it was straight out of the monasteries in Spain as our resident coach in the early years, Fr. Ole (how Spanish can you get than that), who was also the resident grade school chaplain, was a Basque Spaniard who played football in the Juventud Barcelona system (..rumor has it that he played Division I..). San Beda even sent their fabled cheerleading squad (yes..with the little indian boys in tow) when Bene was to participate for the first time in an inter-school athletic tournament. We were introduced to the traditional San Beda cheers and were even given a gift in the form of our own Bedan cheer (SBCA cheer..extra points if anyone can dig up the words to this cheer).

Then there's the regular trek of student reps from both schools for various co-curricular activities from fairs (Palaro's during my time) to scouting (San Beda having a rich Boy Scout tradition as well with the bulk of the ill-fated RP contingent to the 11th World Jamboree in Greece coming from the San Beda Troop. And explaining the statue of the drum bearing boy scout in the middle of the San Beda campus).

We knew that we were part of the Benedictine system and we knew that we were part of San Beda. And our brothers at Mendiola knew this too.

But of course we cannot expect Bene to have the same Benedictine/Bedan tradition to the last letter as taught and practiced in Manila. For one, Animo Red was correct that we do not have the same number of monks in Alabang as in Manila. The Bedan experience was therefore not similar from the very start. Also, Bene was coed and thus the whole dynamics of running the school was different. Animo Red was also right that the monks seemed to be detached from the actual running of the academic programs which was probably due to necessity as they didn't have enough of them to go around. But I'm sure they still had more than just the pro forma guiding hand of a once-a-year-meeting Board of trustees in determining the direction of the academic programs. Also, regardless of the lack of manpower, Fr. Ole in the GS and the resident Fr. Rector in the HS (Fr. Balcruz and FR. Bellarmine during my time) were at least active in the religious and spiritual formation side of the students through our regular masses and sacraments, recollections and Peace retreats. Dear old Fr. Ole just has this way of explaining the gospels to kids ages 4-12. Like an OSB version of Uncle Bob (Problem was he had the same style with everyone which tested the patience of one to many parishioners to the Bene church with his hour long homilies).

Although during my last year in HS, San Beda sent us more than our normal allocation of Fathers and brothers who were also earmarked to help run the academic side of the school. We had, for the first time, a Benedictine monk acting as HS principal and Doms (brothers) in various school administrative and academic roles. I just don't know how things have progressed (or regressed, depending on your perspective..) from my time to Animo's time but I have also heard the stories about the "exiled" monks view.

Regardless of how my dear old Alma Matter has turned out, I would like to believe that we did develop the Benedictine spirit albeit with our own southern flavor even to the point that it may be viewed as being totally detached from the San Beda in Manila. And I guess there's nothing really wrong with that, being alike in the Benedictine spirit but still being distinctly different. In the same manner that all the other Ateneo schools embraced the Ignatian spirit but each having it's own separate identity from the Ateneo in Manila. We were different in character but bound together by a common thread. Maybe during my time it was just more pronounced since the school was just starting. Maybe during Animo's time, the administrators, both the Benedictine monks and the lay people felt that Bene was mature enough to trek its own path outside the shadow of its big brother explaining the autonomy of the school and the change of name (..for the record, I'm also against changing the name or losing the Bene tag altogether. It's part of our history already. I say, call it San Beda Alabang but retain the BAS name for the HS department. There's already a number of schools usurping the "Benedictine" and "Benedictine Abbey" name which leads to further confusion...).

Thanks Animo and Mav for this discussion, it brought back a lot of good memories.

^ Wow... 1986... I was like only, prep that time. hehehe Well alot of things has changed since you left. At least during your time there was constant interaction with the "mother school" as Fr. Ed would term it. So you guys were definitely Benedictine. During my days it was all different already, way way different. I guess through the years, Bene somewhat detached itself from Mendiola.

Alabang had a soul (well in this case during your time), it got lost along the way (my time) and now she's getting it back. I remember Fr. Balcruz because of my mom, my parents are close to the monks. I remember i even accompanied her during the wake of Fr. Balcruz when I was four. Fr. Bellarmine was also a HS chaplain of ours before he died. He even became my dad's prof in San Beda. Quite funny, my dad relayed what Fr. Bellarmine said, "San Beda will only become coed over my dead body." Fr. Ole, he wasn't that visible with us, we only knew him as the tall Spanish priest. Didn't knew he played soccer and such, heck we didn't even know his name. Fr. Pio was the one who was quite visible during my gradeschool days since he was our chaplain.

Back to Bene, yes we too were taught about St. Benedict and the beginnings of the Order in school. The processions, the Sto. Niño celebration, though we weren't familair with Our Lady of Montserrat during those times. But these events felt that they were purely academics, there wasn't much heart when we were practicing them, unlike our GS and HS counterparts in Mendiola.

I have nothing against Alabang having a culture to ourselves, in fact I got the best out of both worlds. The Alabang's sophistication mixed with Mendiola's streets smart-ness, it's a bit cool actually. But I couldn't help compare the two, my days in Alabang, there was much conflict between people, talk about "inggitan." While in Mendiola, people get along, the upper classmen won't treat freshies as if they were dirt or something. Total opposites really. It was like Bene was the prodigal son.

I guess with your stories, we can bring back the Bene of your days. It's quite comforting to hear actually.

I believe Alabang will play a major role in making San Beda achieve her greatness again...

just an excerpt of the cheer:

S....B....C....A....

S-B-C-A

San Beda.... Alabang!



The fair is still referred to as "Palaro" and the highlight of the week-long activity is the Sto Nino procession. In Mendiola, the fair is called "Frolics" and the procession in honor of the Sto Nino de Praga is the high point of the college-wide celebration/school fair.

Good one panero. Bene ka din ba? If you heard this cheer first hand, we were almost batchmates but I think you're a lot younger than me. It's great to know that somebody has archived this old cheer and still known to the younger batches. Is it being used again? During my time the cheer was done this way:

S S S S S S S S S,

B B B B B B B B B,

C C C C C C C C C,

A A A A A A A A A,

S-B-C-A

S-B-C-A

S-B-C-A

San Beda Alabang!


Each letter started soft and was modulated, then the SBCA part picked up tempo for each repetititon and culminating with the San Beda Alabang yell.

Congratulations also for passing the bar if you are the person with almost the same nick from the Red forum. My cousin was from your batch. 2nd cousin but I have'nt met him. He was a baby when we last saw his family but they deinitely still remember us as we have a not so common family name. Check out my nick and I'm sure you'll figure it out. I think he was in the top 5 of the batch but he didn't quite make it to the top ten in the bar placings.