On the Good Side of History (Alpha Phi Beta Story 1939-2009) PREVIEW

ON THE GOOD SIDE OF HISTORY

T H E A L P H A P H I BE T A S T O R Y, 19 3 9 -2 0 0 9

P R E M I U M E D I T I O N

Published by Alphan Publishers, Inc. Cover and Book Design by Jerry Manalili

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ON THE GOOD SIDE OF HISTORYT H E A L P H A P H I BE T A S T O R Y, 19 3 9 -2 0 0 9

On the Good Side of HistoryThe Alpha Phi Beta Story, 1939-2009by Nelson A. Navarro

© Copyright by Nelson A. Navarro

Published by Alphan Publishers, Inc. April 19, 2010Manila, Philippines

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in educational or critical purposes.

ISBN 978-971-94763-0-6

Cover and Book Design by Jerry Manalili

Printed by Primex Printers, Inc.Mandaluyong City, Philippines

FOREWORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

BEGINNINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1939-41

WAR AND SURVIVAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1941-49

THE TURBULENT FIFTIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1950-59

THE GOLDEN AGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1960-66

FALL FROM GR ACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1967-85

REBIRTH AND CRISIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1986-98

REDEDICATION AND HOPE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1999-2009 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BIBLIOGR APHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . INTERVIEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ALPHAN HONOR ROLL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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T A BL E OF C O N T E N T S

30 ON T HE G OOD SIDE OF HISTORY

family in Bigaa (now Balagtas) who came to Manila as a working student and finished law at the University of Sto. Tomas. He sold all his inherited land and opened a law office on the Escolta, Manila’s premier business district, enabling his family of three children to be raised in relative com-fort. The Constantino home, a respect-able two-storey house in the Spanish style, was located on O’Donnell and Zurbaran Streets in the old middle-class district of Sta. Cruz.

The young Renato’s upbring-ing was nationalistic and anti-sec-tarian. His father idolized the 1896 revolutionaries, felt that Aguinaldo betrayed the movement and sold out to the Americans, and he was critical

of the Catholic church’s alliance with landlords and reactionary elements. Of Quezon he had few kind words, believing that El Mestizo compromised independence in exchange for power under the Americans. Tato’s maternal grandmother was a staunch Tagalista who deeply resented American oc-cupation of the Philippines and had nothing good to say about the Roman Catholic hierarchy.

Music was a pleasant common denominator in the family, with the young Renato and his sister Elsa becoming accomplished pianists and their brother Jesus becoming a violinist who would later play with the Manila Symphony Orchestra. Together, the family would play music at home and attend concerts, the opera and vaudeville, often at the Manila Grand Opera House, which was a few short blocks from their home.

A proud product of the public school system from elementary to college, Tato was the star of Arellano High School, the largest and most prestigious of Manila’s original four high schools established by the Americans, where he was the best debater and a consistent scholar. The school along Doroteo Jose Street was just a 10-minute walk from home. Two other notable Al-phans would come from Arellano: Ambassador Adriano Garcia, Tato’s class-mate and lifelong friend, and Reynato Puno, Alphan Batch 1959, who would become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

The young Renato R. Constantino

BEGINNINGS 31

Entering UP at its original Padre Faura campus in the second semes-ter of 1936 (he was sick of typhoid fever at the start of the school year), Tato quickly got into the swing of student politics.

By this time, the UP campus located in the heart of Ermita district on the south bank of the Pasig River had become a glittering academic assem-blage at par with many state universities in the United States.

Under the leadership of Rafael Palma, the UP’s magnificent buildings, all lined up along tree-shaded Padre Faura Street, had risen in the neo-classical style, with Greek columns and pediments, and were set off by lush gardens and classical statuary. What was once swampy ground at the back had been drained and turned into a parade ground that stretched across to Isaac Peral Street (later United Nations Avenue). This would become the setting for full-dress military parades every Wednesday.

In the aerial photographs taken of Manila in this period, what comes across is a university and a city yearning for imperial grandeur as designed earlier in the century by Daniel Burnham, the famous American architect and urban planner who helped transform Chicago and Washington D.C into world-class cities. It was Burnham who said that Manila, an ancient Malay settlement built up by the Spaniards into a walled medieval city over three

The seafront Dewey (now Roxas) Boulevard as it winds south towards Cavite. The UP campus on Padre Faura is farther to the left, foreground, 1930s.


THREE LIONS: From left, center, Augusto Caesar Espiritu, Leonardo Perez and Abraham Sarmiento at a banquet, late 1940s.

WA R A N D SU RV I VA L 77

Batch 1948 included Ladislao L. Reyes of Tacloban, Leyte, Generoso Jacinto of Malabon, Rizal, Benjamin A. Bongolan of Urdaneta, Pangasinan, Romeo R. Bringas of Vigan, Ilocos Sur, Bonifacio Cacdac, Jr. of Manila, and Cipriano Primicias, Jr of Lingayen, Pangasinan.

Ladislao Reyes and Generoso Jacinto, Sr., both 1949 bar topnotchers (7th and 8th respectively), would have distinguished careers, the first in the insurance industry, and the second as UP Law professor and practitioner. Ladislao Reyes’ sister, Marina Reyes, a UP Education graduate, would mar-ry Leonie Perez. Leonie and Nena’s son, Leonardo Byron Perez, Jr., would become an Alphan and a posthumous governor of Nueva Vizcaya because of a successful election protest that was overtaken by his early death in 2007.

Two of Jack Jacinto’s sons (Gerry and Gene) would become Alphans and two of his daughters (Jenny and Grace) Phi Delta Alphans (sister sorori-ty of the Alphans, founded in 1958) and marry Alphans Orly Mirabueno and Sanchez Ali, both Lord Chan-cellors, in the 1970s, launching a short-lived Jacinto dynasty in the Alpha Phi Beta.

The last batch of the de-cade, 1949, would be a little bigger, perhaps about 15, and it included Jaime M. Cortes and Cesar Pangalangan of Ur-daneta, Pangasinan, Eduardo Tutaan of Manila, Felix Bello, Jr. of Aparri, Cagayan, Felipe T. Cuison of Dagupan, Pangasi-nan, Perpetuo Nafarrete Jr of Bolinao, Pangasinan, Carlos R. Buenviaje of Albay, Mario F.V. Borromeo of Cebu City, Wilhelmo C. Fortun of Agusan, and Agripino R. de Guzman of Indang, Cavite. Jimmy Cortes would become UP Chief of Po-lice in the 1960s, at the height of Alphan power, and move on to an international career in en-treprenurial development with

BEFORE THE STORM: Just back from New York, Tato Constantino is lionized in the press for sartorial elegance and intellectual sophistication.

An aerial view of Diliman in mid-1960s, at the height of glamour and power of the Romulo years.

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THE GOLDEN

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Glory Days: Alphans in front of Bocobo Hall, 1968

T HE G OL DE N AGE 149

FA L L F ROM GR ACE 183

rile, but he was repeatedly ignored or turned down.After seven months, Ditto was temporarily released because of his fail-

ing health. He quietly resumed his studies at UP but spent more and more of his time in isolation, reading in his room. One year and 100 days later, on November 11, 1977, he succumbed to heart attack.

After Ditto’s death, the succeeding Collegian staff, with Alex Poblador as editor-in-chief and Joey Lina as managing editor, both Alphans, dedicat-ed the November 23, 1977 issue to Ditto’s memory, with the accompanying words: “Para Sa Iyo, Ditto Sarmiento, Sa Iyong Paglilingkod sa Mag-aaral

at Sambayanan.” (Dedicated to you, Ditto Sarmiento, For your services to the students and the people).

The political prisoner Satur Ocampo, later Bayan Muna partylist con-gressman, who was once Ditto’s cellmate at Camp Crame, wrote: “Ditto’s loss to the family was as well a great loss to his gen-eration…Ditto knew me but little; we had shared such a small part of our lives, but I know he too looked at the short period of sharing woes as well as unrepressed opti-mism over the first victory of our people with a certain poi-gnancy as I do.”

Former Presi-dent Macapagal ex-tolled Ditto for having “joined the premier roll of young martyrs who gave their lives in the fight for deliv-erance from an inter-nal despotism.” The Collegian’s stirring tribute to Ditto Sarmiento


of Marcos that were banned in the Philippines. He also allowed the staff, dominated by leftists like Fides Lim and Roland Simbulan, to write collec-tive editorials, which never failed to criticize martial law and America’s im-perialist role in the Philippines. As Domini Torevillas put it, Dittto always had to navigate between conservatives who said the paper was too leftist and the activists who believe he was not radical enough.

The Collegian would soon earn the sobriquet of “mosquito press,” a term coined by Imelda Marcos to demonstrate that it was powerless. But the staff and the paper’s admirers thought the little stings of this insect of a paper cannot help but take its toll on the dictator and his cohorts. In no time at all, the paper took on the stature of a national paper, largely because the rest of the media had been cowed to silence or flattery. It was called the “one saving grace of Philippine journalism” during the Marcos years.

In December 26, 1975, Ditto Sarmiento had already been “summoned” by national security agents and made to explain his position to the Secretary of Defense, Juan Ponce Enrile. Instead of caving in, the paper came out with a special issue on January 12, 1976, just two weeks later, which was said to have been Ditto’s Waterloo. It had a collective editorial entitled “Uphold Cam-pus Freedom,” which exposed attempts to suppress the paper as well as the abuses of the martial law regime. It’s banner headline screamed across the top of its front page: “Kung Hindi Tayo Kikibo, Sinong Kikibo? Kung di Tayo

Kikilos, Sinong Kikilos? Kung Hindi Ngayon, Kailan Pa?” (If we don’t speak out, who will speak out? If we don’t move, who will move? If not now, when?)

This coincided with the UP College of Law’s 65th anniversary and there was a grand celebration at the college attended by President Marcos and the First Lady. The copies of the paper were circulated during the affair, and it caused a lot of consternation. It was supposed to have caught the eye of Marcos himself, who was visibly upset.

Ten days later, Ditto was arrested in the middle of the night at his New Manila home. The arresting officers were the most notorious members of the Military Intelligence Group (MIG), Maj. Rolando Abadilla and 1st Lt. Panfilo Lacson, perhaps the two military men most cited as torturers or human rights violators of the dictatorship. Ditto would spend seven months in detention, the first five in Fort Bonifacio and the last two under isolation in Camp Crame. He was lumped together with assorted political prisoners and common criminals. Afflicted since childhood by asthma, for which an oxygen tank had been put on stand by in his bedroom in New Manila, his health rapidly deteriorated without medical attention. Abe kept on protest-ing against this inhuman condition, appealing directly to Marcos and En-


“We dressed in barong and behaved properly,” says Caesar Agnir of the convent-like atmosphere in the college in the Fifties, which persisted practi-cally undisturbed until the First Quarter Storm of 1970. “We were a world unto ourselves. (Law) Dean Sinco would brook no dissent or disrespect.”

Neither would Dean Vicente Abad Santos in the years leading up to martial law and his eventual move up to the Marcos cabinet and the Supreme Court. Breeches of discipline would be few and far between. Disturbances like the 1966 rumble would be dealt harshly with a flood of suspensions and even expulsions. The martial law period would also see fraternity clashes, but this would largely be fought outside the college. But the fraternity heads who happened to be law students would have to pay the price.

It would take a long time—some five years—for the students to start flexing their muscles; in fact, the huge AS complex was wrapped in wire fence which gave it the look of a concentration camp. Guards were posted at the entrances and IDs were rigorously checked. But there would later be “lightning” strikes or impromptu demonstrations.

“All the action was in the AS,” Willy Trinidad says, “and the rumbles would always start with the AS brods. There was only a handful of brods who were activists like Alex Lopez and Edwin de la Cruz. At law school we had to study hard and there was little time for monkey business.”

Except for the twin Alphan terms in the Collegian, the fraternity was locked out of campus politics during the Seventies. There was no student council from 1972 to 1978; after that, the left and its allies would be pretty much in command. This left the Alphans no room to flex their political mus-cles in the College of Law.

Except in 1975-76, when Dodo Sarmiento won over Sigma Rhoan Aveli-no Cruz as Law Student Government president, the Alphans did not fare very well in College of Law politics. Law students, compared to AS and other UP students, tended to be more conservative politically and not disposed to tangle with the authorities. This would pose a distinct disadvantage for Al-phans with their more militant tradition.

Even with Ditto Sarmiento’s sterling example as a committed student, the magic did no wonders for Joey Lina who lost the LSG presidency to an-other fraternity’s candidate in 1977-78. The next two Alphan candidates for 1978-79 and 1979-80, Ramon Esguerra and Bobby Lucila, would also lose to their more conservative opponents. In the latter fight, for instance, Bobby Lucila and Rufus Rodriguez, later a congressman from Misamis Oriental, effectively split the activist and independent vote and this led to the narrow win of the Sigma Rho candidate, Raoul Angangco.

FA L L F ROM GR ACE 187

AT THE TAMBAYAN: Alphans drive martial law blues away.

Ilocos Outing, Summer 1977. (above, from left) Dante Ramos, Jorge Sarmiento, Chito Moneda, Noriel Flores, Tata Fernando and Sonny Siazon


a congressional seat in the first elections of 1987. In two years, as a protégé of Speaker Ramon Mitra he had become one of the most celebrated figures in the political world. He was tall, dark and handsome in the Filipino sense. He radiated charm and confidence that was almost Kennedyish; this was considered an irresistible and winning combination in post-Marcos politics.

The November 1989 Gringo Honasan coup attempt shook the Cory re-gime to its very foundations, prompting desperate efforts to shore up the president’s sagging popularity, if only to assure that she would gracefully finish her six-year term in 1992.

Oca Orbos was one of those drafted into the Cory cabinet in January 4, 1990. He would quickly become the most popular man in an otherwise lacklustre cabinet. His programs to deregulate the PLDT telephone monopoly,

THE CORY YEARS: President Aquino with Dangal Elma, Oscar Orbos and Bobby Lucila in Malacañang grounds.

R EBIRT H A N D CR ISIS 231

controlled by the pres-ident’s relatives, won him public acclaim—and many enemies within Cory’s inner circle. Soon he was de-regulating the trans-portation industry, from airlines to ships to passenger buses, and his popularity soared to new heights.

By the end of the year, on December 21, 1990, the embattled Cory Aquino would pick him as exec-utive secretary, making him, as Little President, the second most powerful man in the land. He displaced the powerful Catalino Macaraig, an Upsilon mainstay, and provoked intense opposition from other sectors, notably Franklin Drilon, by then Secretary of Justice, who also coveted Taling Macaraig’s post.

“Oca never wanted the job,” says Bobby Lucila, who, along with Dodo Sarmiento, had been serving in the corridors of power along with deputy ex-ecutive secretary Magdangal Elma, and counted among Cory’s trusted legal advisers. “But Oca became Little President, much to the envy of the other power centers. From day one, these people worked to sabotage him. We were quite helpless, we Alphans in the backroom, because Oca was not distrustful of people and always looked the other way. His rivals were just waiting for him to stumble before they would go for the kill.”

By this time, Oca would be ballyhooed, some say too prematurely, as a presidential candidate in 1992. This boomlet would turn serious when no less than Jaime Cardinal Sin, the powerful Archbishop of Manila and Mrs. Aquino’s closest adviser, openly called Oscar Orbos as Cory’s successor and the next president.

The President and the executive secretary at first made beautiful mu-sic together. Cory’s popularity improved or, rather, stopped falling in the charts. But Oca’s public standing continued to rise, well past Cory’s, and this started to become an irritant between them.

Few critical voices were raised against the new darling of the media. One notable exception would come from a most unlikely quarter, Tato Con-stantino, who was writing a column for the increasingly critical Philippine

Globe. In one blistering column, Tato described Oscar Orbos as all fluff, a

CORY WITH THE BACKROOM BOYS: Catalino Macaraig, Dangal Elma, Dodo Sarmiento and Bobby Lucila


the hapless Jude. This was a matter of grave concern because, before Jude, no Alphan LC had ever been physically assaulted by another fraternity. For a while, this incident strengthened the hands of the so-called war party within the fraternity. But the reform program had sank too deeply; more peaceful means of redress were sought and eventually found.

Distressed by declining membership, the Alphans undertook a massive recruitment campaign which bagged more than 30 new members in 2003. This was shortly recognized as a catastrophic mistake, after more than half or 15 were kicked out of school for poor academic standing. This was something unheard of in the fraternity because, in the past, much attention was paid to the academic promise and performance of members. Alphans could flunk as individuals, an insignificant few at a time, but never en masse as in 2003.

“We were so desperate,” says Malcolm, “that we got anyone who both-ered to apply. Never again would we recruit just for the sake of recruiting.” But those four years of darkness, 2000-2004, were not entirely wasted.

Despite the bad public image, the hit-and-run rumbles and stubborn efforts to bring back the old discredited practices, the fraternity somehow manage to recruit no less than seven new members who, by 2007, would make a difference in turning around the fraternity’s fortunes.

THREE LORD CHANCELLORS: (from left) Carlo Olivar, Melvin Banzon and Malcolm Madriaga

R EDEDICAT ION A N D HOPE 267

Despite Malcolm’s early reputation as a trouble-maker, including a frustrated homicide case that was dismissed, the Atenista son of a UP Law 1983 father and a computer-savvy daughter of an ambassador to Israel, had emerged, by 2004, as chief recruiter of new Alphan blood. In a surprising case of re-invention, Malcolm became a strong advocate of redirecting the fraternity along reformist lines outlined by the alumni-run chancery.

Among Malcolm’s recruits, drawn from former Lourdes School class-mates, some of whom had gone on to Ateneo de Manila or UST before turn-ing up at UP Law were Archimedes Gonzales and Arveen Agunday (2002-B) as well as Carlo Olivar and Melvin Banzon (2004).

Other newcomers in this period were Christian Señeres (2000), the American-educated son of an ambassador to the United Arab Emirates who, in 2004, would become one of the youngest party-list congressmen of the Philippines, Abraham Acosta (2003), a champion debater who would make it all the way to the Jessup Moot Court in Washington DC, Christian Cal-ibo (2002), a CPA-turned-lawyer who would run against Malcolm for LC

ACHIEVERS: (clockwise, from top left) Arveen Agunday, Danny Peckley, Ruben Acebedo, Jovette Cerbo, Christian Señeres and Robel Lomibao


OR DE R OF T H E L OR D C H A N C E L L OR

1955-56

1956-57

1957-58

1958-59

1959-60

1960-61

1961-62

1962-63

1963-64

1964-65

1965-66

1966-67

1967-68

1968-69

1969-70

1970-71

SANTIAGO F. DUMLAO (1st)

DONATO SOR SUYAT (2nd)

REMBERTO A. MACLANG (1st)

ROLANDO P. ARJONILLO (2nd)

GREGORIO C. MANIO, JR. (1st)

GAUDENCIO S. SADICON (2nd)

ROLANDO M. RIVERA (1st)

MANUEL D. ORTEGA (2nd)

HEHERSON T. ALVAREZ (1st)

ANTONIO R. TUPAZ (2nd)

HERMENEGILDO C. DUMLAO

CRISANTO T. SARUCA

HENRY M. LOPEZ

JOSE M. RAMOS

GEORGE L. HOWARD

SOTERO C. MENDOZA

JOSE V. BARCELONA, JR.

SAMUEL T. RAMEL (1st)

NESTOR F. BORBON (2nd)

FRANKLIN S. FAROLAN

BERNARDO P. BRINGAS

OMAR D. VIGILIA

1939

1940

1941

1946

1947

1947-48

1948-49

1949-50

1950-51

1951-52

1952-53

1953-54

1954-55

BENEDICTO BALDERAMMA

ANTONIO L. AZORES (1st)

ADRIANO P. GARCIA (2nd)

BIENVENIDO C. EJERCITO

AGUEDO F. AGBAYANI (2nd)

EZEQUIEL M. ZABALLERO

CELSO E. UNSON (1st)

ANDRES T. VELARDE (2nd)

ABRAHAM F. SARMIENTO (1st)

BALDOMERO M. VILLAMOR (2nd)

CRISOSTOMO DE LOS REYES (1st)

NESTOR E. GONZALES (2nd)

ALEXANDER S. GONZALES (1st)

JOSE S. PASION (2nd)

FROILAN M. BACUNGAN (1st)

ZOILO A. ANDIN (2nd)

MAURO M. CASTRO (1st)

BENJAMIN S. SOMERA (2nd)

CAMILO P. CABILI (1st)

VICTORINO A. SAVELLANO (2nd)

EMMANUEL S. TIPON (1st)

SIME D. HIDALGO (2nd)

299

ORLANDO A. MIRABUENO

OSCAR M. ORBOS

MARIANO P. SARMIENTO II

TOMAS N. PRADO

JORGE V. SARMIENTO

ELEUTERIO P. SARMIENTO

REYNALDO B. DAWAY

SANCHEZ ALI

GERARDO R. JACINTO

GIL M. TABIOS

JOSE B. CASTIGADOR, JR.

DENNIS C. HABAWEL

ANDREW T. LAGMAY

BENJAMIN L. PALOMIQUE, JR.

ANTONIO A. VER, JR.

JOSE J. AURELIO

WILFREDO IKE P. ROSERO

JOSE VICENTE M. OPINION

ARNIE T. OCLARIT

RUFINO L. POLICARPIO III

DON JOMAR M. OLEGARIO

MANUEL OYSON III

NICASIO B. BAUTISTA III

AMER HUSSEIN MAMBUAY

ALEXANDER L. LACSON

THOR CAUSING

ALLAN ENRIQUEZ

ROMMEL CUISON

DENNIS ACORDA

MARIO ZINAMPAN

DOMINIC SOLIS

REY FEIZAL MILLAN

JUDE SUDARIO

ARMAND TALBO

RUBEN ACEBEDO

JOSEPH CRUZ

VER ANGELO SUMABAT

JESUS MALCOLM G. MADRIAGA

ARCHIMEDES GONZALES

CARLO U. OLIVAR

JEFFREY RODEN

DAVID BEN LINDO

RYAN P. OLIVA

MELVIN L. BANZON

1971-72

1972-73

1973-74

1974-75

1975-76

1976-77

1977-78

1978-79

1979-80

1980-81

1981-82

1982-93

1983-84

1984-85

1985-86

1986-87

1987-88

1988-89

1989-90

1990-91

1991-92

1992-93

1993-94

1994-95

1995-96

1996-97

1997-98

1998-99

1999-00

2000-01

2001-02

2002-03

2003-04

2004-05

2005-06

2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

2009-10

2010-11

On the Good Side of History (Alpha Phi Beta Story 1939-2009) PREVIEW

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