The Class of 1973 My Personal Accounts

At the very successful grand reunion and homecoming of JASHS 73’ Golden Anniversary, which was held on February 4, 2023, at the Laus Event Center in the City of San Fernando Pampanga, many of the attendees were not expecting the opening remark of Amelia Canlas, our class valedictorian of Jose Abad Santos High School.

Amelia sincerely invited our batchmates to address her no more as “Amelia, our valedictorian,” and it was unexpected to many when she confessed, “I did not graduate in college,” and that she joined the underground revolutionary forces, she was arrested, and returned to the fold. Yes, she proudly claimed, “I am a surrenderee” not in the term that I surrendered to the government but to God Almighty. She ended her remark with verses in the Bible.

Amelia was my classmate from grade one at the San Fernando Elementary to our third-year engineering class at the University of the Philippines in Diliman. Not only that we have the same surnames but many of our batchmates thought that we have similar life paths. In elementary, she was number one and class valedictorian, and I was number three, first honorable mentioned. We were both Mayor Virgilio Sanchez scholars in high schools. For four years, she was awarded as model female student of the year, and I earned that award for male only on our first and second year.

As members of the Class of 1973, we are exposed and very much influenced to the social and political climate of our times, 1969 to 1973. The First Quarter Storms and youth activism in Manila also spread and immersed in the provinces. We were in our third year when the chapter of Samahang Demokratikong Kabataan (SDK) was established in JASHS. My essay “Mga Unang Sabado ng Martial Law” which was first printed in Tibak Rising: Activism in the Days of Martial Law, Ferdinand C. Llanes, Editor (Anvil Publishing, Inc, Manila, 2012). https://www.mccanlast.com/_files/ugd/a54b4c_67a81d996cb14e8ba764ac1716787d11.pdf

Our departed batchmate Joe Pagquil, we fondly called him Sengo, was the hardcore student activist; he led the student strike and protest the faculty adviser of our school paper, The Pampangan, on press censorship, and against a teacher who harassed female students with his foul-mouthed and filthy language.

Joe and a bunch of student activists were also involved in the Operasyong Tulong during the inundations of Central Luzon in 1972 and joined the local folks in rebuilding the devastated river and waterways. Then, Martial Law was declared, and the military raided our SDK headquarter, and a month later, my friend and classmate Pericles and I were detained at the PC Pampanga Command HQ for almost a week, while another batchmate Alan Lagman was transferred and detained in Camp Olivas for five months.

Until now, on our golden anniversary, nobody knows what happened to our batchmate Joe Pagquil. He was not reported arrested, joined the CPP-NPA, or killed in a military encounter. His disappearance is a puzzle and a continuing topic whenever his friends get together in our batch reunions.

During our grand reunion we paid tribute and remembered our departed batchmate, however, Joe was not listed among them, and he was not in the 1114 graduates of JASHS Class of 1973.

As I always write about the uniqueness of Class of 1973, our JASHS 73 has produced very successful entrepreneurs, the like of Alfredo Patawaran, Rosalie Naguit, and Carmelita Santos, and number of successful professionals, teachers and batchmates who migrated abroad, our Alma Mater has germinated the revolutionary spirit in us. The revolutionary spirit is expressed in various ways, but the common denominator is sincerely serving our people and God.

I am grateful and proud that I am a JASHSian 73.