Babytalk

Here’s how a baby has grown into a robust thirty-something.

Ma. Teresa Alba has always had a penchant for shopping. It was something that did not escape the attention of her late husband Pec who was compelled to think of ways to change his wife’s habit into something else.

Starting a business that would involve shopping for the merchandise was a logical choice and thus, husband and wife started a small business at the Casman Building along Quezon Boulevard in Quezon City.

Thirty five years later, that enterprise has grown into what is now known as Babyland, a store that carries everything from baby cribs, strollers, car seats, feeding bottles, meal time accessories, baby clothes, toys, play gyms, mobiles, rubber mats, gift sets, photo albums, soap and bath accessories to just about anything a baby would need.

"It was quite funny really. My late husband was so threatened with my being a shopaholic that he had to think of something else for me to do," Tess recalls.

Tess, who is now married to former Ambassador to the Vatican Frank Alba and mother to 26-year-old PJ, personally runs the business and is, of course, the one directly involved with the purchasing. This is a job that requires her to travel abroad to keep abreast of the latest trends in baby products, safety features and the like.

"So you see, shopping is still there," Tess comments with amusement.

Sustaining a business for 35 years and maintaining a high standard of quality is no easy job. Some even call them snooty for being so strict with the choice of merchandise they sell.

"Quality and safety are things we never compromise on. Some suppliers would try and sway us to go with the ‘crowd mentality’ of offering what is uso but not really up to par with our standards."

Snooty or not, Babyland has been able to maintain an exclusive niche in the baby merchandise as the store that offers only the best for children up to three years of age.

"Parents give us the most valuable suggestions on what babies need."

Babyland does not stop at selling baby products. They have also been active in promoting issues that involve children.

"Once we started doing projects for the well being of parents and children, we can never seem to stop. Personally, it has become an obsession," says Tess.

"Remember the show Uncle Bob in the ’70s? Babyland was an active participant in that show. Lately, we have been promoting breastfeeding, good parenting, child nutrition and the Lamaze method of childbirth."

On Nov. 17 to 19, Babyland sponsors Nurturing Your Child – Our Hope For Tomorrow at the Glorietta II Atrium, Ayala Center, Makati.

The event will feature speakers on breastfeeding, child nutrition, parenting and Lamaze. TV personality and brand new mom Christine Bersola-Babao will serve as moderator.

Speakers include former celebrity Chiqui Brosas-Hahn, who unknown to most, is a leading authority on the Lamaze method. Elvira Henares-Esguerra is a doctor who is one of only three Filipinas who have so far passed the International Board for Certified Lactation Consultants. Nona Andaya-Castillo is another board passer and health counselor. Iza Bungubung was a Bb. Pilipinas 2002 finalist who is now the mother to 17-month-old son Joaquin. She is an active breastfeeding and Lamaze method advocate and holds support group meetings for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers every month.

PBA coach Eric Altamirano and Paolo Punzalan will discuss parenting. Paolo is a father of three and a guidance counselor at Victory Christian School and a faculty member of Every Nation Leadership Institute.

How did Tess’ "baby" grow up to be big and stable?

"We had to know the pulse of the public. The buying habits of people have changed. Malls are now the major destinations. Through the years, we had to close and open stores in various locations."

"Most of all, we thrive because of purpose. We only live once. We should leave a legacy. We help parents provide the best for their babies. If a child knows that he has been valued and loved, he will grow into a productive adult one day."

Has her passion for shopping been replaced with a passion for babies?

Shopping for babies is Tess’ quick reply.

This year, Dulaang Sibol, founded by Onofre "Pagsi" Pagsanjan, celebrates its 50th anniversary, making it one of the oldest extant drama groups in the Philippines.

An old theater program dated Feb. 25, 1955 marked its birth as the Ateneo High School Dramatics Society. Soon, it was drawing crowds with its steady stream of Shakespearean plays from Macbeth to Hamlet. Then from Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano De Bergerac to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None.

In 1996, with its first production of Filipino plays, the group gave itself a new name – Dulaang Sibol.

With the new name came new ventures. First translations, then "transplantations." Thus, Thornton Wilder’s Our Town emerged as Doon Po Sa Amin, J.M. Barrie’s Dear Brtus morphed as Wala Sa Ating Mga Bituin.

The year 1967 spawned their Paligsahang Pandulaan. They dared their high school students to write and produce their own plays. The challenge spurred the 16-year-old Paul Dumol to soar with his Ang Puting Timamanukin and to sear with his Ang Paglilitis ni Mang Serapio. Days after the first "paligsahan," newspaper critics were hailing the winning plays as "a major breakthrough in the development of our national language."

If the young can write plays that can move critics to sit up and take notice, perhaps they can write songs that a nation will sing. Thus was born Timpalak Awit in 1975. Four years later, a first year high school student wrote a song that would later be hailed as the best original Filipino composition of that year. The 14-year-old composer then is now the seasoned songwriter Fr. Manoling Francisco, S.J. for Hindi Kita Malilimutan.

In 1976, after 20 years of staging plays in converted classrooms and borrowed halls, in slum clearings and convent parlors, the Ateneo gifted them with a theater home, small and intimate with 156 precious seats.

And this year, after an unbroken series of productions for 50 years, they celebrate their golden anniversary with Ani, a harvest of some six productions crowned by a Sibol-grown musical, Adarna.

Fifty years old and still, Dulaang Sibol is, in the words of Fr. Miguel Bernad, S.J., "a theater forever young." And in many aspects, the description is apt. Sibolistas are high school students, as young as twelve and no older than eighteen.

Still Dulaang Sibol is high school theater with a difference. National Artist Leonor Orosa-Goquinco described it as "high school theater with a professional polish." Critic Bien Lumbera labels it as "a seminal force in the development of Philippine playwriting."

Dulaang Sibol is theater of the young, for the young and the young at heart.

(Adarna will be staged on Nov. 18, 19, 25 and 26, and also on Dec. 2, 3, 9 and 10. All shows start at 6:30 p.m. at Dulaang Sibol, Ateneo de Manila High School, Quezon City.)

(For more information, call 920-1817.)