The Class of 1973

In many ways, the Class of 1973, those young graduates for the school year 1972-1973, has the most unique experience among graduating batches in Philippines.

First, we were the first high school students to graduate under Martial Law. It also means that we were the high school seniors when Martial Law was declared and imposed in September of 1972 in the Philippines.

Second, President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos was the president when we had our commencement exercise on April 13, 1973, and after 50 years, and as we are celebrating our golden anniversary, we have Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos JR (BBM) as president of the Republic. In other words, our bookends are Marcos.

Third, we are just a year older to BBM (1957), but I am very sure we have a different experience dealing with our later teen years under Martial Law. To name a few, we invented the term and party protocol “stay-in.” We are a generation that grew up with the music of the Beatles, Motown, Rock and Roll, The Carpenters, Burt Bacharach, Simon and Garfunkel, Don Maclean, and many more awesome pop music, and yet to hold dance parties we must consider the curfew. It’s either you start late afternoon and have partygoers to leave the place an hour before the 10 o’clock curfew or have them stay safely at the party and just leave after the curfew, which was usually at 4 am. Hence, such terms as “stay-in party” and “pa-morningan” became our secret code in holding dancing parties.

Fourth, the 1972-73 school year was extended due to two “no school” or “school closed” episodes. The first was the suspension of classes for several weeks in July and August in Pampanga (most of Luzon and Metro Manila) was due to the massive floods, heavy rains and storms, and the second time when all schools were closed in conjunction with the Letter of Instruction from Department of Education following the order of the martial law administration.

Fifth, the Class of 1973 was the senior class who underwent the pilot test for the National College Entrance Examination (NCEE), which was abolished in 1994. The test conducted was called FAPE. FAPE stands for Fund for Assistance to Private Education, which also played a part in the development of the first National College Entrance Examination (NCEE). The Class of 1974 took the first NCEE.

Sixth, for boys in the Class of 1973, we had options to join boy scouts training (Explorer Scouts and Air Scouts), glee clubs, and PMT (Philippine Military Training). We did not have CAT (Citizens Army Training) while (Civac) Civic Action was only being developed.

Seventh, the Class of 1973 were the last class to arrange students by numerical sections. Every student is assigned a section, and the division of class by sections based on students’ grades, which unfairly labeled students in hierarchy as from “lower sections” to “section one.” Thank goodness, this system was stopped by the next classes.

I belong to the Class of 1973 of Jose Abad Santos High School (Also known as Pampanga High School) or JASHS 73. The profile of our graduating class (source the Pampangan):

Total Graduates: 1114

Number of Males: 562

Number of Females: 552

Number of Sections: 25

Number of Honor graduates: 22

There are many things to write about our Class of 1973. ATM, I am enjoying every minute of our reunion and get together.