Questions for our alma mater

Almost monthly, I get to meet with a score or so of guys I’ve known for well over half a century. Yes, we’re all septuagenarians, but that doesn’t stop us from heartily sharing

lechon, deep-fried adobong kambing, crispy pata and the like, and washing all that down with whisky, beer and wine at every Bedan

barkadahan to toast the month’s birthday celebrants at the Greenside hall at Villamor Golf Club.

We’ve been doing this since we started prepping for the Jubilee Year of our High School Class 1960. That was about a decade ago. We haven’t let up since, with attendance spiking to over 30 guys on occasion. A rock band sometimes provides singalong or dance music whenever some of the guys feel like tripping the light fantastic with gorgeous D.I.’s.

Most of us actually share even earlier memories as members of the SBC Elementary Class of 1956. Balikbayans from the US, Canada, Australia and Spain come and go, while tardy recruits are found and finally convinced to join in and make up for lost time — the better to compete for the LMS Prize.

That’s for Last Man Standing, when the final survivor gets the burgeoning class fund for himself. It gets reduced only when we have to help out with someone’s medical expenses, or donate part of it to a cause involving our old alma mater.

I recently proposed an amendment regarding the LMS windfall, that it be divided between the last two men standing, or sitting on wheelchairs, to allow both a chance to toast to their longevity. Otherwise, our SBC 1956/60 slogan, “Hanggang Sa Huling

Patak,” might have to be celebrated by a lonesome heir, sans any witness but his caregiver.

Tomorrow, we assemble again for our August barkadahan, this time sponsored by Sydney-based visitors, the Gimenez twins. Chicho Gimenez made an appearance a few months back, but it’ll be the first time in ages that we’ll see Juancho.

We’ll probably laugh over how we just have to accept that SBC has become SBU, but other developments may have to be discussed seriously. There’s growing Bedan concern, for one, over questions involving Fr. Ranhilio Aquino, dean of the SBU Graduate College of Law.

Being a motley group of mostly retired businessmen, bankers, doctors, generals, ex-government officials, real estate moguls, priests, artists, travelers and erotic sushi aficionados, we don’t share one ideology or political persuasion. We’re probably just as divided between silent DDS supporters and so-called dilawan, although unevenly, and of late the silence of the lambs has become more deafening. Most of us read up on current events, which leads to fashionable curses. The more crackling these have become, from among those increasingly alarmed by ominous economic data.

While we’d rather sing Beatles tunes and praises to the variety of single malt bottles that grace our monthly feasting table, some of us have recently been sharing sorry feedback on that draft for a new Constitution — one intended to pave the way for what someone calls “Federalism with salted eggs.”

Why, even economic managers in government have raised alarums over the Cha-Cha process being pushed by a now-notorious Bedan law graduate. Credible columnists such as Calixto Chikiamco and John Nery have dissected the “badly-written” or “terrible” draft, which has also provoked dismay among notable business groups.

As a writer, I’m been asked if a badly-written draft still stands a chance of succor through inspired revision. Well, I say, no matter how kind panelists try to be at writers’ workshops, sometimes we agree that a particular draft submission is best thrown to oblivion.

Like most fans of inadvertent humor, we’ve had our fun with the “pepe-dede” follies. But now it’s come to our attention that our alma mater is being dragged down to disrepute owing to Fr. Aquino’s prideful involvement in drafting that bad prose.

It’s not so much the unnecessary pique he displayed when he asked his “bossing” to fire the Cabinet members who took issue with the draft he helped compose, but the revelation on his questionable academic credentials that disturbs us.

It turns out that Fr. Ranhilio Aquino sports a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from a Columbia Pacific University that churned out “degrees without requiring much effort,” and which was “ordered closed for failing to meet educational standards and for being, yes, a diploma mill.”

Atty. Wilfredo Garrido writes further: “San Beda owes its graduate students an explanation — why are they being directed by a dean (College of Law) who did not undergo the same academic rigor as they, never took the bar except that he had a funny degree from a bankrupt school?”

Now, this should bother any self-respecting stalwart of Mendiola. So concerned was I that consulted a Bedan idol, Atty. Rene A.V. Saguisag, on this contretemps involving Law Dean Aquino. His response on email was priceless:

“Condescending petulance does not help promote Cha-Cha, and I wish Digong would keep him, along with Mo-Cha Cha.

“Di po problema ang sistema ng pamahalaan, gaya ng Pederalismo, Ginoong Pangulo at mga alipores, kundi po… Kayo Mismo!”

Now, that should kick off a roaring discussion tomorrow when we reminisce over our early Catholic mentorship. Yes, over lechon and Lagavulin. Umpah-umpah!