Anniversaries

MANILA, Philippines – If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus one day, so I never have to live without you.    

 Winnie the Pooh

The secret anniversaries of the heart.

 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Why do we like anniversaries so much whether it’s wedding anniversaries, corporate anniversaries, alumni graduation anniversaries, or, what young people now call “monthsary”.

This past week has been full of all kinds of anniversaries, from the Henry Sy family’s SM North EDSA 25th anniversary gala dinner and concert at SMX on Nov. 22, to the 100th anniversary or centennial musical of the Philippines’ own Insular Life last Nov. 25 at the Meralco Theater. Congratulations to these two iconic institutions of the Philippines!

One of the disturbing milestones was the first anniversary this Nov. 23 of the yet unresolved Maguindanao Massacre of 58 people, including 34 journalists. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it was the single deadliest event for journalists in history. Let us pray for and demand justice for the victims.

I strongly believe this case is a test of the political will of President Noynoy C. Aquino whose own father was a victim of another unresolved political killing 27 years ago already.

Last Nov. 27 was also the 70th birth anniversary of the world’s legendary martial arts icon, film actor and philosopher Bruce Lee. This California-born ethnic Chinese known also as Lee Xiao-Lung or “Little Dragon” died in 1973 at age 32 when I was still a boy, but I admire him as great for having popularized kung fu or wushu globally. Bruce Lee who, by the way is, unfortunately, not my relative also once said: “It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.”

Today is also the 100th anniversary of my late father, lumber entrepreneur Lee Tek Hong, and this writer and other relatives will go to his mausoleum this morning to offer flowers, incense, candles and later have a quiet family luncheon at a restaurant to remember him.

For those who are wondering why there’s a huge age gap between me and my late dad, my younger sister and I are kids from his second marriage after the death of his first wife with whom he has seven other children. Though my younger sister and I didn’t inherit his wealth, we fondly remember him as a good dad and are proud of his having been a talented entrepreneur. 

John Gokongwei, Jr., whose own dad died when he was only 12 years old, once asked me how dad was as a businessman. I replied that I was barely seven years old when our father died, but I heard he was a talented and hardworking entrepreneur who became boss of the family’s sawmills at only age 25 after the death of his own dad in 1935.

Years ago I had met businessman Johnny Tan who told me that his family’s lumberyard in Mandaluyong used to buy lumber from our late dad’s sawmill and he’d personally visit our dad’s sawmill. Tan also said that it was his firm CE Construction that built SM North EDSA 25 years ago and I will never forget him telling me an anecdote about Henry Sy, Sr.

Tan said: “While we were constructing Henry Sy’s biggest mall, SM North EDSA, the political and economic situation of the Philippines was in crisis; Senator Ninoy Aquino was assassinated on Aug. 21, 1983 and costs just went way up beyond our expectations. Henry Sy is a very good person and a fair businessman; when he heard me express our big problems with spiraling construction costs beyond what we had earlier agreed in our contract, he agreed to adjust the price and his payments so we wouldn’t lose money on that project.”

100th anniversary: Macapagal, Cuneta, Vinzons, Mother Teresa, Manansala

Apart from our late father, I remember other interesting people for whom 2010 marks their 100th birth anniversary:

Mother Teresa. Formerly known as the “Living Saint” and 1970 Nobel Peace Prize awardee due to her social work for the poor of her adopted country India, especially in Calcutta City, Mother Teresa was an Albanian of Europe born on Aug. 26, 1910. She founded the Missionaries of Charity of Calcutta in 1950. She died in 1997.

Wenceslao Vinzons. Nicknamed Bintao and born on Sept. 28, 1910, Vinzons was one of the bravest war heroes in Philippine history. He was University of the Philippines (UP) student leader as student council president and editor in chief of the UP paper Philippine Collegian. The Vinzons Hall in UP Diliman which houses the student government and The Collegian, was named in 1959 after him, and the bust of his image by multi-awarded sculptor Juan Sajid Imao was a 2009 donation of Vinzons’ admirer, UP graduate Senator Dick Gordon.

Unknown to most people, the courageous Vinzons’ original Chinese surname is Xie in Mandarin and Sia in the Hokkien dialect. Vinzons’ paternal grandfather Chinese immigrant Sia Hui Tam, his father Sia Din Long (his Filipino name was Gavino Vinzons) and uncle Sia Hong Kam were all activist Philippine supporters of Dr. Sun Yat Sen’s nationalist revolution against the corrupt Qing Dynasty of the Manchu minority. His grandfather Sia Hui Tam was editor of the Manila-based revolutionary Chinese-language newspaper Kong Li Po, for which the father of the late Fookien Times publisher Jimmy Go Puan Seng was also once an editor.

Wenceslao Vinzons became a bar topnotcher (No. 3), was an advocate of Philippine independence from American rule and was 26 years old when he became the youngest delegate to the 1935 constitutional convention which drafted the country’s basic laws. He also won elections as legislator representing Camarines Norte province and had also won election before as governor.

When the Japanese military invaded the Philippines, he became a fearless guerrilla leader whose forces liberated Daet City and killed over 3,000 Japanese soldiers. When a guerrilla turncoat betrayed Vinzons, leading to his capture, Vinzons repeatedly refused to collaborate with the invaders unlike many in the Philippine political and social elite. Vinzons, his father, wife, sister and two children were all executed by the Japanese military in 1942.

Diosdado Macapagal. Coincidentally born on the same date and year (Sept. 28, 1910) as war hero Wenceslao Vinzons, Macapagal was well known as the “poor boy from Lubao” in Pampanga province who became bar topnotcher and President of the Philippines. He also introduced the country’s first land reform law.

I believe all his past accomplishments have since been superceded by his having raised daughter Gloria Macapagal Arroyo who became the second longest-serving president of the Philippines. Despite her political controversies, President GMA is noted for her successful economic stabilization and bold reform efforts which enabled the Philippines to still register strong economic growth during an era of global economic recession and tumult. 

This writer had the good fortune to once accompany then retired President Diosdado Macapagal Arroyo and his wife Dr. Eva Macapagal as guests of realty tycoon Tan Yu. And earlier, when I was an economics student of Professor Gloria Macapagal Arroyo at the Ateneo, she was able to assist me to have an interview of the former President at his North Forbes Park home in Makati and he gave me an autographed copy of his memoirs entitled A Stone for the Edifice. I have great respect for President Diosdado Macapagal and his wife, former First Lady Eva Macapagal, although I wasn’t born yet when they were in Malacañang Palace.

Pablo Cuneta. One of the Philippines’ longest-serving mayors ever half a century in public office under several Philippine Presidents Cuneta was born on Feb. 2, 1910 and was the strong leader of Pasay City. Similar to ex-President Diosdado Macapagal, he shall also be most remembered for having raised a remarkable daughter in Philippine entertainment’s “Megastar” Sharon Cuneta-Pangilinan.

Mayor Pablo Cuneta’s life was an authentic “rags-to-riches” saga, having been a former barber and rig driver who made himself a leader. This writer remembers meeting Mayor Cuneta at his family home at Dasmariñas Village in Makati City in the late 1994 when I interviewed Sharon for the first time for Lifestyle Asia magazine from 10:30 a.m. up to 8:30 p.m., and it was coincidentally also the opening day of a Sharon movie.

At night when I was about to go home at 8:30 p.m., Mayor Pablo Cuneta was just returning home and entered the house exclaiming that the new Sharon film was a mega-hit; he even excitedly announced the opening day box office sales. I admire him for having been a great father in raising Sharon as a positive role model not only for her legions of fans, but to the youth.

Vicente Manansala. Known also by the nickname “Mang Enteng,” Manansala was born on Jan. 6, 1910 and he died at only age 44 in 1954. Along with Fernando Amorsolo, I believe UP Fine Arts graduate Manansala was one of the great masters of 20th-century Philippine painting. His style of “transparent cubism” was very distinctive and impressive. He was a great painter and an authentic National Artist of the Philippines.

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I think we love anniversaries because we humans often have short or weak memories, so anniversaries are one way for us not to forget certain milestones that we consider important or meaningful. Another theory of mine is that, by nature, we love to celebrate, so anniversaries are wonderful excuses for us to toast the longevity of a marriage, a company or our lives too, since birthdays are birth anniversaries.

The bottom line is, I believe that no matter how fallible we mortals are, we’re different from other animals because we humans have the capacity and the heart to remember.

Whoever it was who said this, I heartily agree: “An anniversary is a time to celebrate the joys of today, the memories of yesterday and the hopes of tomorrow.” 

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