Friday, May 18, 2012



"Thank You for helping us"-- PLM alumni

By Willie Jose




My   alumni-friends from the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila Alumni Association in Canada had a very successful tête-à-tête and luncheon with the members of the local media held at Mayetta Restaurant in Toronto last weekend.

Actually, this is the first ever alumni-newsmen affair hosted by us -- a small bunch of indefatigable PLMers. And our main aim is to show appreciation for the noble work these media people have been doing not only to keep updated our kababayans here on the going-ons back home but also to unify them by being   responsive to their needs.    

 But on a personal level, the event is our own way of telling them “thank Sir for accommodating our requests (lots of pakis) for the publication of press releases and write-ups”. Through the help of the community papers, we have been able to reconnect and touch base with the rest of the PLMers living in Toronto and its neighboring areas,

As a journalist myself, I know how journalists feel when people show appreciation for their work. And just a simple expression of   “thank you Sir” is enough to bring immense joys to us—mababaw lang ang kaligayahan naming mga journalists.

I would  like to think this media appreciation affair was not only a real  success  based on  the big  turnout of media men-- publishers, reporters, owners of media outfits and other writers--  attending   this event but most importantly, their presence was also an indication of their willingness to  be partners of other associations and groups  in community and to be of help to them  in disseminating information on  their  projects primarily  aimed at benefiting our  kababayans  back home.

Jojo Taduran, a veteran journalist, commented that “I have been amazed by the cohesiveness of this small group but despite their number they have shown their determination to help their alma mater in whatever best they can; they have not forgotten the poor but talented PLM students who need financial help for their schooling.

These alumni have been sending a stipend of P3, 500 per students/ semester and this amount is just enough to cover the students’ transportation fares and some snacks. Even if these students are scholars, most of them  don’t have enough money  for jeepney fares simply  because their parents are living on the edge being  jeepney or tricycle drivers, laborers, dressmakers and  a number  of them are living  on shanties  in some  squatters areas and cemeteries in Manila’

We PLMers who are fortunate enough to be given a chance to live in this part of the world can relate to the situations and circumstances of the students whom we are helping because just like them, they had parents who were also poor, we had experienced walking from the PLM in Intramuros to Quiapo or Sta Cruz and from there, get jeepneys going either to \Sampaloc, Tondo or Divisoria where most of us lived. The only thing we had before was our sole determination to finish studies which we firmly believed would liberate us from the clutches of poverty.

Romy Marquez, a newsman, who took a video and posted it on website, had been awed by the tenacity and the cohesiveness of the group, that Despite their small in number these alumni have been trying their best to help extend help to their former school\judging by the turnout of media men who attended the affair, and the enthusiasm shown