Notes on the 75th Founding Anniversary of LCHS, LCCHS & DHSBNHS: Ten Outstanding Alumni Awardees

On 17 December 2022, I was standing as one of the Ten Outstanding Alumni of La Carlota High School, La Carlota City High School and Doña Hortencia Salas Benedicto National high School. I was in awe with the accomplishments of my fellow awardees and as the youngest among them and the one acknowledged for my poetry and writing, I feel I have to sculpt in words my admiration for each of them.

This year's awardees are mere representatives of what a public school like Doña Hortencia Salas Benedicto National High School, often dubbed by other schools as having the "longest name" or the "San Juanico bridge" name, can nurture and send out to the various fields of endeavors. This batch of acknowledged men and women are filled with public servants, entrepreneurs, philanthropist, educators, artists and an engineer and a scientist.   

Teachers are always our first role models when it comes to careers and this year, it is only apt that two educators made it to the esteemed list. Fatima Bullos of Batch 1971 is an Educator and the past president of La Carlota City College. Meanwhile, Jocelyn May Flor Cadena, Batch 1990, is an outstanding educator in the field of Nursing.

Entrepreneurs came alive in the persons of two beautiful ladies, Elva Espino of Batch 1974 who is a medical supplies entrepreneur and a philanthropist and Quirina Garcia, Batch 1975, who is a Certified Public Accountant and an established entrepreneur and Rotarian.

Close to my heart because as a lady lawyer myself, I admire Cyclamen Fernandez of Batch 1990 who is the present Executive Judge of Regional Trial Court of La Carlota City. I was assigned as a public attorney in PAO La Carlota City for 17 years already and I can attest that Judge Fernandez stepped in to become an RTC Judge of La Carlota as her personal mission to serve her jurisdiction at the time when nobody dared to be assigned in the docket-clogged single court then.  Another inspiring awardee is Susan Dignadice who belongs to Batch 1975, as she is a Dangal Ng Bayan Awardee and an Outstanding Midwife of the Philippines.

I heard his name from my late father as I surmised they belonged in the same batch. He is Aurelio Valdez Jr. of Batch 1970, and he is popularly known by his name Leo Valdez. He is a singer best associated with his classic hit, Magsimula Ka and a stage actor. I would like to put my name after him as my poetry and writings are always overshadowed by my legal profession, but as an artist I dare claim myself here, I must admit that any calling for art can never be totally silenced. My book, Guilty, your Humor, is a sure merger of my profession as a lawyer and my calling as a creative writer.

I saved my biggest admiration for the two scientists in my personal list. The first goes to Sheryl Yap who belongs to Batch 1994, and now an entomologist and a multi-awarded researcher who placed "mangkas" in the scientific map by naming an insect P. mangkas Crispolon et Yap sp. nov. among others. I also belatedly realized that I was seated next to a fellow Centralian during the awarding. Crispino Cepida Jr. of Batch 1981 is an agricultural engineer and a farmer who is a 2019 National Seed Industry Council's Most Outstanding Palay Seed Grower. 

I believe there are a lot more that should go in the list, but as our 75th Alumni President Jeffrey Rumbines emphasized, there are still a lot of excellent alumni from LCHS/LCCHS/DHSBNHS who are all proof of the excellent seeds sown by our dear alma mater.