Recollections of Times Past
by True Bedans at Heart

The Pioneers

In 1982, a group of Bedans, including Willy Grant, Louie Onrubia, Ferdie Bagsic, the Lota brothers, Frank and Art+, Mon Ocampo, Dan Perico, Pepe Patiño, Joe Lising, Nonoy Mendoza, Vic Magallanes+ and Vic Ledesma started the San Beda Alumni Association of Southern California. They answered an ad placed by Louie Onrubia in a local Filipino newspaper asking local Bedans to start an alumni association. The first person to actually respond, Remy Bernardo, was not a student alumni of San Beda but was a dedicated employee of San Beda and as such felt that she is a “true Bedan at heart.”

It has been 25 years since they gathered in a long-gone Filipino restaurant at Vermont and Fountain in Los Angeles but those years have been filled with wonderful memories. Most of the founders did not know each other but they bonded immediately because they shared a common heritage and, most importantly, a unique Bedan education. Many never foresaw that their pioneering courage will result in today's wonderful Silver Jubilee celebration.

In that meeting, Louie Onrubia was elected as the first president with Joe Lising as vice-president. They and other officers were inducted in the first dinner/dance on February 13, 1983, a Valentine's Ball at the Hilton Hotel at Figueroa and Sixth in Downtown LA. The first guest speaker was Mel Recana, the first Filipino Municipal Court judge. In no time, through networking and hard phone contacting work of Remy Bernardo, now an accepted member of the Bedan gang, SBCAASC gathered a list of no fewer than 80 Bedans in two years.