Ateneo golden jubilarians / A Glimpse of Grace concert

Ateneo’s H.S. golden jubilarian yearbook features the graduates now headed by Jojo Bunag as class president, and Jose Mario Bunag, class representative who wrote the book’s foreword. A message comes from Fr. Bienvenido Nebres, SJ, Ateneo U. president.

Space limitations allow mention of only a few outstanding alumni.

Francisco Licuanan III, brother of CHED chairman Patricia Licuanan, was founding president of Ayala Land Inc. “He steered its growth from a company focused on a narrow range of customers, products and geographic locations to the country’s most diversified real estate powerhouse.”

He widened ALI’s business beyond Makati and Alabang, strategically entering into major developments throughout MM and major cities outside it.

Under Ayala’s retirement policy, Licuanan was appointed Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority chair, and is concurrently adviser for the Subic Clark Area Development program.

On Alfonso Puyat, former bank and insurance executive, one reads: His real love to innovate and invent new processes and approaches that could improve food production, carried out through tedious and extensive scientific research, led him to develop a rice profit protocol which achieved the highest rice production in the Philippines in 2006.

Gary Teves, “decidedly the most famous personality in the batch”, won a congressional seat in 1987 in N. Oriental’s 3rd district, and during three terms until 1998 authored important legislation on trade, investments, fiscal and financial reforms, most notably liberalizing the entry of foreign banks, and the comprehensive tax reform law.

After his tenure, he established Think Tank Inc., a firm involved in political, economic and financial environment scanning, and policy advocacy.

Teves was appointed Finance Secretary in July 2005 by GMA, “his most challenging and stressful” job to date. Named Finance Minister of the Year/Asia by The Banker magazine in 2009, Teves helped put back the country’s fiscal house in order amid an extreme global financial crisis. Under his watch, the national government almost balanced the budget in 2007, significantly reduced its debt burden, and improved its sovereign credit rating. He will be a prime national asset for many more years.

The following comment on Anselmo Trinidad Jr., son of Anselmo Trinidad Sr., head of the premier stock brokerage house since 1950, says it all: “If there was one person who could be called the local counterpart of the fabled ‘Wizard of Wall Street’, that man would certainly have been Trinidad Jr.”

Brilliant career diplomat Jose “Toto” Abeto Zaide was chief of protocol, and the last Philippine ambassador to Bonn and the first to Berlin. His first mission as envoy was to Vienna and the UN organizations (concurrently to Slovenia and Croatia).

He was our man in Moscow after the coup attempt against Gorbachev and during dismemberment of the Soviet Union. A second generation career diplomat, he also served as foreign service officer in Hamburg, Bonn, New Delhi and the home office.

Froilan “Roy” Gonzales’ mother Josefina Paras Tayag Gonzales took him to Paris for courses in fashion design, and one year stretched to 40 years. Later, he was offered a job at Pierre Cardin, then Jean Patou and finally at Dorothee Bis. Back home, Roy takes over R. T. Paras Fashions established by his grandmother in 1905.

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Prize-winning pianist Elielle Grace Viaje will perform on Feb. 17, 6 p.m. at Philamlife Auditorium in the concert “A Glimpse of Grace”. Elielle garnered first prize in the Manila Piano Teachers’ Guild sonata competition and performed for Sydney’s 7th Suzuki International Conference.

She represented Austria in the international children’s festival “Joy of Europe” held in Belgrade, Serbia. She played with orchestra at the 3rd Asia Suzuki Conference in the CCP, and won the title “Young Filipino Achiever”.

Currently a freshman at the U. of Music in Vienna, she was one of only 15 out of 500 who auditioned for admission. After more than 25 years, Elielle is the second Filipino to make it after Aries Caces.