[Photo above is that of my KUMPADRENG RAMON “MON” MARONILLA, the handsomest UPSILONIAN without QUESTION. MON is the incumbent President of the UP Alumni Association, Inc. whose term would end next year, 2018 – the CENTENNIAL of the UPSILON SIGMA PHI Fraternity. HAPPY BIRTHDAY KUMPADRENG MON!!!!]
Been seeing him since the 70s at the BASEMENT1 Cafeteria, sometimes at NOON;
It’s a snack house at the PALMA Hall, the hang-out of the UPSILON2 —
UPSILONIANS indeed are HANDSOMER
than my brods at PI OMICRON3,
And Kumpadreng MON seems to top them all, the HANDSOMEST without QUESTION!
His sister MARY4 was my faithful client
since 19985,
And all the while there were instances
when MARY’s OBDURATE;
And meetings with her brother MON
would at times, be simply CALLED;
Well, MON’s wise counsel would be the coup, and all will then be SOLVED!
He has been HONED by Dakila Castro6,
That’s actually R.P.’s Clarence Darrow7;
But his NEGOTIATION skills seem too INNATE,
As it looks as though NEGOTIATING to him, is just some piece of CAKE!
The badminton court we’ve had in 20028,
Has brought us friends and at times some FOE;
But when I invited MON to PLAY,
He seems to have LOVED the game as though some REPLAY9!
And now with his second leash on LIFE,
For having grown his PROSTATE so RIFE10;
MON has been so THANKFUL and PERCEIVING,
Thanking even the OXYGEN that he’s been INHALING!
He’s been reckless — MON said during his TEENS,
But now MON feels that all those CHARIVARI11 and DINS;
Must now yield to MEDITATION and PRAYER,
…He talks straight to GOD in constant thanks with self-effacing FLAIR…
But as has always been told and SAID,
The SUCCESS of a man is due to some kind of EVE;
Indeed, the EVE in Kumpadreng MON’s LIFE,
Is BECKY FONG12 — unmistakably MON’s GUIDE and LIGHT!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KUMPADRENG MON!
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[Legend: 1 – The BASEMENT during my college years is the cafeteria situated at the BASEMENT FLOOR of the PALMA Hall. It was then the hang-out of the members of the UPSILON SIGMA PHI, the oldest fraternity in the University of the Philippines having been founded in 1918.
2 – UPSILON is the UPSILON SIGMA PHI Fraternity.
3 – PI OMICRON is the PI OMICRON FRATERNITY where I am a member. It is relatively a young fraternity having been Far-flung – Though we were then residing in K-Ville, in compliance with the wishes of my father-in-law, Antonio S. Evangelista, TON, being his namesake too—the baptismal rites and the reception were both held in Bulacan, Bulacan. 4 – MARY is MARY MARONILLA CLARAVALL. MARY is the youngest sister of Kumpadreng MON and she is the wife of Louie Claravall who is a close friend of my late law partner, Atty. Jaime G. Nagrampa (“Jim”). It was Jim originally who acted as MARY’s lawyer but eventually I partnered with Jim and since then, MARY became our law office client.
5 – In April 1998 I resigned as Legal Officer of the Legal & Collection Department of ALLIED BANK, now merged with PNB. Thus in May 1998, I organized with Atty. Jaime G. Nagrampa the NAGRAMPA YOUNG Law Office.
6 – Atty. Dakila Castro was for a time then was considered as the topnotch criminal lawyer of the country.
7 – Clarence S. Darrow was an American lawyer, leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union, and prominent advocate for Georgist economic reform. He defended teenage thrill killers Leopold and Loeb in their trial for murdering 14-year-old Robert “Bobby” Franks (1924). Some of his other cases included defending Ossian Sweet, and John T. Scopes in the Scopes “Monkey” Trial (1925), in which he opposed William Jennings Bryan (statesman, orator, and three-time presidential candidate). Called a “sophisticated country lawyer”, his wit made him one of the most famous American lawyers and civil libertarians.
8 – In 2002, my brother WILSON put up a twin-courts badminton hall at No. 6 20th Avenue, Cubao, Quezon City, Metro-Manila.
9- It seemed that BADMINTON was a REPLAY for Kumpadreng Mon as he was for some time been much engrossed in the game. However, perhaps due to the pressures of work, Mon for a time was sort of weaned away from the game.
10 – Early this year, Kumpadreng MON was diagnosed with PROSTATE CANCER. It was good that he underwent a medical procedure which is known in the medical parlance as ROBOTICS SURGERY. With the ROBOTICS SURGERY done, it would seem that Mon is now CANCER-free.
11- CHARIVARI is some kind of custom which originated in the West in which the community gives a noisy, discordant mock serenade, frequently with pounding on pots and pans, also known as rough music. The loud, public ritual evolved to a form of social coercion, for instance, to force an as-yet-unmarried couple to wed. This type of social custom arose independently in many rural village societies, for instance in France, England, Italy, Wales and Germany, where it was part of the web of social practices by which the small communities enforced their standards.
12 – BECKY FUNG is Kumpadreng Mon’s better half, a SIGMA DELTA PHI sorority member and whose full name is REBECCA FONG.]
