Today we remember our beloved dead but I would like to bring to life what a few people close to me did before they passed away. Generally they were young and passionate with what they did. Contrary to what Shakespeare said through Mark Anthony in the funeral scene of Julius Caesar – “The evil that men do lives after them, …the good is oft interred with their bones” – the good that these people did lives after them.
My late brother Eugene was in the limelight of the volleyball scene in Cebu City from the 1970s up to 2009. He coached the men’s and women’s volleyball teams of the University of San Carlos while teaching part time at USC Boys’ High School. His teaching and coaching stints were on top of his main job at the Philippine Airlines in Mactan from 1970 to 1998. He would leave for work at 4:30 a.m. till 12 noon and report for classes from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and coach and practice volleyball from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Weekends were spent on intensive practice, competitions and tournaments. The USC Women’s and Men’s Volleyball teams gained popularity with their numerous championships in the local, regional and national competitions which produced many valuable players. Volleyball which was once unattractive to students became popular. The rigid schedule he followed and the passion he had for volleyball took a heavy toll on his health. He suffered kidney failure leading to his passing away. Those he had trained continued his legacy of promoting volleyball not only in the city but in the whole province. Some have become teachers and coaches of volleyball. He earned the title “Volleyball Legend” and was honored by the Sports Writers Association of Cebu which installed him in the Sports Hall of Fame of Cebu in 2010.
In UP Cebu, many of the people I worked with passed away very young. In the 1970s, the newly opened Psychology Program had an excellent teacher in the person of Miss Marilyn “Eyen” Nuevo. She was also well liked. Students always made her their first choice as adviser of the student council or other organizations. She was very sweet, looked fragile but was firm when it came to issues being deliberated. She was in her twenties when she passed away after a heart attack triggered by a serious asthmatic attack. I still remember the wake held at the campus where we (the UP Cebu College Mixed Chorus) sang at the necrological service at the Multipurpose Hall. Though Eyen taught for a very short time in UP Cebu, she influenced a lot of people especially the young on how to deal with different kinds of people.
In 2012, the Psychology Program of UP Cebu lost another young and excellent professor in the person of Prof. Michael Mark Mende. Michael taught Filipino Psychology since the late 1990s and was popular for his very animated classes in psychology. He was a big brother and best friend of his students outside the classroom. He was also involved in children’s rights, issues, and concerns through his community and extension services like sitting as chairman of the board of trustees in the Children’s Legal Bureau. Michael was 34 when he succumbed to a heart attack. Since then the Psychology classes at the Arts and Sciences building were never the same. Michael’s students continue his advocacy for Pinoy culture and children’s issues. Michael left a young wife, Rowena, who chairs the Social Science Cluster and a 4-year-old son, Joaquin who strongly resembles his father.
UP Cebu High School students of the 1970s to the 1980s will never forget Prof. Teofilo Lutao and their Math classes. Lutz as we fondly called him was an unusual Math teacher who encouraged students to have individual consultations with him for difficult lessons. He never allowed the use of calculators in his class. He encouraged the use of pencils in class so that if the students made a mistake they just had to erase it and didn’t pass messy work. He made students learn and love Math. One former student recalled that “being in Lutao’s class was like being with Einstein.” On Fridays, we would have our unwinding sessions in any of the faculty’s places available. He loved to dance the salsa which was the dance craze at that time. Every Christmas season he initiated the manito/manita game and always won the best speculator prize using his mathematical skills. All those years Lutz was always in the company of coffee and cigarettes even during classes. This habit took a heavy toll on his health after his early retirement 1989. He passed away at the age of 54 in 2004 after battling with lung cancer.
UP Cebu High School Class ’78 will always remember Miss Iris Lua, their Filipino teacher in first and second year (she was also teaching at St. Theresa’s College). She was such a good teacher. She did not just teach the language in the most proper way but she also broadened the range of values of the students. I remember her teaching “Little Prince” in Pilipino and how students appreciated her as a soft spoken but firm person and a creative teacher. After two years in UP Cebu High, she left for the US to join her sisters. Her family was one of those displaced by hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Early this year, Iris passed away at the age of 66 after suffering from a lingering cancer of the lungs.
Another person I remember today is the late Salvador Malto, UP High Class ’86. He was a forward-looking fashion designer and one of the movers of Clothes for Life, an advocacy for the marginalized. He suffered an aneurism a few weeks after their batch celebrated a silver jubilee. It was so sudden. He was 42 when he passed away. At their silver jubilee celebration his parting words for me were “Ayaw gyud kauwaw” to ask help regarding my health condition. He was right.