The Ruby Jubilee Celebration in the Philippines - Part 2
Cebu-Bohol trip
On December 10th, two busloads of us left our rendezvous point at Ritz Towers for the domestic terminal of the NAIA and took a Cebu Pacific Airways flight to Mactan – home of Lapulapu and the Mactan braves who vanquished Ferdinand Magellan and his forces. Upon arrival, we checked in as a group at Shangrila-Mactan and after a quick respite, had our first of two dinner-CME’s as organized by our indefatigable Tony Penilla. Romy Diaz gave a brilliant talk on his favorite topic (breast Ca), Dulce Estrella-Gust spoke on occupational health in the Philippines and Doris Nambayan-Abad gave a presentation on “Broken Heart Syndrome”. Then followed more dance practice till our old legs were about ready to buckle.
"Are we there yet?"
Upon arrival at the Mactan Airport
At Lapu-lapu's Shrine
Mactan-Cebu City Tour
Aboard two tour buses, the UST Medicine’67 class took Mactan and Cebu by a storm on December 11th – visiting many historical and interesting places while listening to many interesting tidbits of information and local lore furnished by our talented guides.
During the Sky Lantern light ceremony in memory of our departed classmates.
Memorial service and Sky Lantern lighting ceremony
That same night after resting from the tour, the whole group took another bus trip and a boat/barge ride – this time to the Maribago Plantation Resort where we celebrated the memory of our dearly departed classmates. Again, the ever-recurring rain shower came but this did not whither the spirits of everyone. Ever adaptable, two tents were hastily set up to wait the passing of the rain. Ferdie Ona and Alice Cuento initiated the reciting of the Novena in one tent and in the other tent, the more rambunctious section sang and made merry to the accompaniment of the hired guitar ensemble. We all partook of our dinner between raindrops and when the rain stopped, we proceeded to carry on with the sky lantern lighting ceremony. All first timers at this activity, we all hastily learned how to hold, light the lanterns and then slowly allow them to rise on heated air, while Nabal Giron sang the memorial songs that Zinnia composed for the occasion to the accompaniment of a violin ensemble followed by the recital by Vladi Santos and Alice Cuento of the Tagalog version of the lyrics of the song. This very touching moment was followed by the dance presentations of our Philippine contingent and for good measure, the introduction of a new dance routine by Zinnia. The celebration and fun-filled lasted through the wee hours of the night and then, back to the Shangrila-Mactan resort.
Romy dancing with a Sinulog dancer.
Bess M, Alice C and Vladi S during the Memorial Service
Ferry to Tagbilaran and on to Panglao Resort
After a sumptuous breakfast on December 12th, we all checked out of the Shangrila-Mactan resort and took a short bus ride to the Cebu City Pier. A super-ferry then took us to Tagbilaran and another short bus ride to Panglao Resort where we were warmly welcome by a quartette of guitar-playing singers. That evening, we had our second CME-dinner with presentations given by Nong Testa on Gawad Kalusugan followed by case presentation discussion by Danny Deano and Tony Penilla. Then, followed more dancing and singing in a fun-filled evening.
Loboc River cruise, Chocholate Hills, Tarsiers
Two busloads of us then went on the much awaited sortie to the many interesting places in Bohol – starting with a riotous (again rainy) Loboc river cruise followed by viewing of the Chocolate Hills (green chocolates at this time of year) and close encounter with the Bohol Tarsiers.
That evening, we were serenaded by the world-famous Loboc children’s choir who enthralled all of us with its magnificent rendition of a few of their favorite songs during dinner. This was made possible in large part through the efforts of Romy Diaz and his connections..
