Saturday, January 28, 2006

January 28 2006

January 28, 2006


I know…I am sorry but I have to skip the other parts of my January 2001 posts. There are 2 reasons…

1. My posts will be very long and need lots of editing and some research because I can’t remember everything.
2. I am busy with my school and my family

Anyway …

January 28 is the birthday of Krisel…my ex girlfriend. 2001 was also the year I had my 1st girlfriend and our relationship lasted for 4 years and 6 months. It was very memorable and most of the time we were very happy. I wish her luck and I hope she will be happy even though we are not together

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Jan 8 2001 The Four

Jan 8, 2001 The Fourth De La Paz Reunion


Part 1 of January 2001


Introduction

The De La Paz reunion is composed of 4 families who have links with Teresa de la Paz. These 4 clans are the Tuason, Valdes, Prieto and Legarda. The history on how the 4 came together can be traced back in the 19th century…Teresa’s 1st husband was Don Severro Tuason. Teresa married again to Benito Legarda….their daughters married a Prieto and a Valdes. These families became very close resulting to several intermarriages within the clans.

The 1st Reunion was held on the early 80’s at ADMU(not sure though)…the 2nd reunion was held on CSA then the 3rd was at DLSZ, the fourth(2001) on CSA again then last year was the fifth reunion which was held on ADMU. An average of 400+ attend the reunion every time it was held.


Among all of the De La Paz reunions, the fourth was the most memorable for me. Here are the reasons why….

  1. No one was absent

The 1st time in a reunion that we were complete from my grandfather’s side and it was only the 3rd time it happened during my lifetime. Though the other times, I was very young to remember or enjoy. All my uncle and aunts were there plus all of my 1st cousins. It was also great to see everyone since all of us were grown-ups (Tessa and I were the youngest). We had so much fun during the reunion. We even had dinner after the event at Greenbelt…funny thing was all of us were wearing the same shirt with Legarda name printed on our right sleeves. The next days after the reunion, we continued to have some gatherings before the 2nd envelope of the impeachment and even after EDSA II. My 1st cousins went to Boracay however Tessa and I didn’t go because of school but classes were suspended because of EDSAII so Tessa and I used to walk to the EDSA Shrine from our house to rally.

  1. 1st time to meet Valerie and Simone

On that day was the 1st time I met Valerie and Simone. During that time, none of my cousins were engaged but Andro and Miguel brought their girlfriends for the 1st time in the Philippines so that they can introduce them to us. Raymond Mohica, the husband of my sister, was also present. We knew it was only a matter of time till my cousins get married and soon enough during that year we heard wedding bells from Andro, Tricie and Denise then Mig and Manolet the next year.

  1. My 1st official football game

It was a game I almost scored even though I didn’t play well. Up to now I just can’t imagine how the hell the goalie saved my shot since he was on the ground at that time then he made a slide kicking the ball outward just in time before the ball cross the goal line.

  1. Nationalism and the week before Edsa II

Our reunion was on the eve of Edsa II so we were in a serious mood even though we were celebrating and having fun. I can see in the eyes of many of my relatives that they were patriotic and concerned about the future of our country. Personally I was very involved in the struggle during the Erap’s regime….having gone thru many rallies organized by La Salle and UST. It was something I had to keep a secret from my parents and to some of my relatives. My mum even suspected me to be a communist before hehehe. Then on the reunion, I saw many of my relatives who were involved in the Civil Society against Erap. One of them was the lady that Miriam sent out while watching the impeachment trial…something that made Miriam more infamous. During that day, everybody was comforting her and congratulating her for the bravery. Some of the heads of the opposition were also present.

One of the best moments of the reunion was when Kuh Ledesma sang “Bayan Ko”…it was very emotional and some were standing and raising their left hand, a symbol of protest. It really touched me that our family was concerned about our nation…you will never see that with the other reunions here in the Philippines.


  1. Miguel’s Performance with Manuel

Every family had to present during the reunion and for the Legarda’s it was Miguel Ayesa who is my 1st cousin and Manuel Legarda who is my 2nd cousin. Miguel was fresh from his Dubai performance for “Pokemon” as Ash???(I cant believe he was Ash but still better than Pikachu). Manuel was nominated for the best guitarist award in the Philippines a month ago before the event. Miguel used his Piano and sang 3 or 4 songs including a song he dedicated for Manila. Everybody enjoyed his presentation plus he was also very funny and charismatic, a trademark of Mig. He was the big celebrity in the reunion.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

RECAP 2005 2005 was the most colorful year for m...

RECAP 2005

2005 was the most colorful year for me since I graduated. So many things happened and to my family as well. There were a lot of joyful moments and so many hardships and challenges. It was a memorable year so it deserves to be noted and remembered.


1. From classmates/group mates to Barkada

Actually it started on December 2004 but it really blossomed in 2005. In medical school at UST, we were divided by groups of 11-15 also called a subsection. In the past...my subsect wasn’t close because we treat ourselves as classmates or colleagues in our profession. Then our subsect started to become closer, we started going to the karaoke then movies, dinners and Punta Fuego. I started to become open to them and develop some intimacy outside my girlfriend. I became close with almost everyone. This year we went out several times and the whole summer I played badminton with some of them. My friends were also there during the times I had problems. Once we graduate from medicine...I will never forget my C1. I hope we will continue to be good friends and become great doctors someday. 2005 was a year where medicine was so much fun.

2. 60th Birthday of my dad.

It was a great celebration but what we will never forget is our surprised guest. Someone who was very close to my dad came, someone very special. I am sure my dad was happy in his Birthday, I know because I was as well. :)

3. Difficult Academic Year

2005 was horrible year for me in terms of academics. So many challenges and difficulties, most of them I succeeded but unfortunately sometimes I didn’t. Hopefully this year I will overcome all of them. Medicine is a very hard course and challenging but it can be fun. I get a lot of pressure since I came from a family of Doctors. Many think that I am smart but I am not. Huhuhu :(

4. Started playing Badminton and Soccer

I am a big sports fan unfortunately I stopped playing sports because of my post grad. Last summer, my friends in UST introduce me to badminton, a sport I didn’t have any interest especially when it became popular since I used to play tennis during my La Salle days and always thought that it was better then I soon found out that badminton was a fast pace and an enjoyable game. A game with a lot of smashes and had a great variety of shots. I soon fell in love with the sport and started to play every week. I then joined the medicine badminton team.

I am also a big soccer fan but never had a chance to play in an official tournament. This is the 1st time I joined the football team. I had a chance in college but did not join because of other extracurricular activities. I played in the Inter Medicine soccer tournament...and was representing UST. How I wish I joined much earlier...I could have been better and be more experienced.

5. Dad's Condition

My dad started to experienced a hemiphlegia on the right side...meaning he has weakness on his right arm and leg. It changed our lives and we had to adjust and change our lifestyle. Personally my lifestyle had changed a lot since I had to help and support my dad. The good thing now is all of us have adjusted and so have my dad.

6. Return to PCO

After 3 years...I returned to my High school. I became active again with my former organization and become involved with many of their activities. Trying to bring back the glory days hehehe...I invested so much time and effort to my High school that I am willing to come back just to see that our(me and my friends) work will have some continuity .

7. Completing my Spidey Collection

Finally I have completed my spidey collection after several years of searching and buying. I now have 80+ TPB/HC, hundreds of comics, tons of cds and dvds related to SM and a dozen books.

Why collect spider-man? Some of you might be asking....well Spidey has a lot of great stories which was evident in the movies. I am also a big fan since I was a kid. I like to collect so I can share...I love lending my books to my friends. I plan to make a library someday that hopefully many can read the books I enjoyed and finally there are so many similarities between my life and Peter Parker’s.

8. Medicine Student Council and Gawad Kalusugan

I was very active during my Med Tech days but I stopped in Med school but when one of my closest friends became the president of UST Med Council....I started to help him plus it was an opportunity to return back the favor that my friend gave me when we were in college. So you can consider me the sidekick of the president for school yr. 2005-06. :)

One long term project I have been involved last year was Gawad Kalusugan, a project which involves community medicine in Towerville, Bulacan. Gawad Kalusugan is in line with the housing project of GK. What we do is improve public health and prevention plus train health volunteers to take care of themselves. Last year we had an economic survey, medical profile for each family, nutritional status of all the children, nutrition and Feeding lectures, deworming and breastfeeding lectures.


9. Single Again

Its hard being single again...the adjustment, longing for intimacy and loneliness considering I was in a relationship for 4 1/2 years. Yes, it's time to move on and now is the time to grow and become more mature. There is a reason for everything and I believe it’s because there a lot of things I want to achieve and do in my life. I think this is the big reason that I am single once again


10. Miguel in Rockstar INXS and his Philippine Tour

Wow there is so much to say regarding my cousin Miguel...he really has changed our lives this year. He had a great impact to me and yes until now I can still feel it. This could be long and would take many blog posts but I will just enumerate the impact of RS:INXS to us for the year 2005

  1. Rockstar INXS Mania from June till September

When Miguel joined rockstar:inxs, we were very excited for Mig because this was his opportunity to shine in the international scene. When we heard he will be on cable TV live all the more we got excited. Imagine when we heard that we can vote every week to determine the bottom 3. The TV show ruined our daily routine…Mig was always the center of our discussion. Imagine the effort we did to find ways to support him thru media and calls to vote for him. I also had to watch the show 3x a day…then in the computer seen a hundred times each song video. I spent several hours looking and posting at the forums a day. Spent lots of time checking on the net of Mig news and updates and spent hours deleting emails…there were times it reached 500 a day but on a regularly day I get 50-200. I used to cut class just to watch Mig since the show was shown in the morning.


  1. Made our family closer


Like all Filipino families…ours is a very close bunch. We are clannish and proud of our roots however many of us started to have our own lives because of our chosen careers and the long distance between each family. We do get together once in a while but RS:INXS made us unite. We were a family in mission…to support MiG and help him go thru the finals. From my relatives in New York, Australia and of course here in the Philippines, we try to promote Miguel and inform them about the show. The great thing about Mig is we don’t need so much convincing to vote for him…he is really good and many were really impressed with his performance. Not to mention, Filipinos are very talented in singing so they were very critical.

Here in the Philippines, the 1st support we did was to tell Globe that Star World was posting the wrong text no. in their channel. It’s a good thing Billy knew the executives of Globe. We started to do some interviews for Star and Inquirer and we got a lot of help from the PR firm of Star World (Thanks Dana). The press release of Star W. spread to all the newspapers and also in TV. This was the time he was doing Lola…the performance where Filipinas began to fall for him and impressed so many. Lola was his big hit here and it was great for him to dedicate it to our grandmother (Tita Moning). Inquirer was our big supporter and followed RS every week…maybe it’s because our relatives were the owners. We started to meet almost every month and talk about how we can inform the public about RS. All of us in the family began to look at the forums and net for Mig even my titos and titas. Before the show, I was the only one who look at the forums regularly…to many in my family Rockstar was their 1st experience with the forums so they weren’t used to seeing the bashing and insults…I told them that forums are always like that no matter where you are, you have just to ignore and be mature. I was able to meet my relatives in NY in the forums too.

When the show ended….our family celebrated and began to communicate all the time. We started to help him post RS and his career. Every time we had an event or a show, a member of the family was always there to support him.

However despite all the celebrations, we mourn for our relative in NY who just passed away 3 months ago…May he rest and peace and all our prayers are for him.

  1. 15 seconds of fame

Thanks to Mig….I appeared in TV patrol and was quoted in MUB, Wassup and ANC. I was also interviewed in the press release of Star World which appeared in several small newspapers and the net. I had a chance to meet most of the popular bands and several celebrities including Constantine while being his bodyguard hehehe (


D. Making of Mig Ayesa Pinoy Fans YG…

I will post more regarding MAP soon hehehe!


Up next…

The long delayed MAP and Jan 8 Reunion

Friday, January 06, 2006

On Saturday I will be posting my 2005 RECAP...for our family 2005 was the year of MiG. I will be noting some of my experiences from the show Rockstar:INXS and his RP trip.


Sunday...MiG Ayesa PinoyFans(MAP) origin, the beginnings and future of the YG


This month's theme....Remembering January 2001
Jan 8 4th De La Paz Reunion
Jan 15-17 EDSA II Protest and Triumph
Jan 20-21 Remembering Mark Chua part 1 How he changed the system
Janurary 27 Remembering Mark Chua part 2 POS and post Major Tejares era
January 28 Birthday of Krisel


Watch out and check why January 2001 was one of my most memorable month ever. :)
Alex