When a President Dies, a JS Prom is Not a Prom



That's a statement of fact: A JS Prom is not a prom when a president dies.

Let me take you back to Balete Academy in March of 1957. The plans were all set. The 4th year students were to play hosts as they were about to initiate the juniors of their pivotal roles as the incoming seniors comes SY 1957-1958. They had the schedule set on March 25, 1957 and all (that is, the juniors and the seniors) were excited. The ballroom was readied and sparkling. The program was already in place and committees were created and constituted. At home, my mother who was in her junior year then was busy sewing her dress for the event during weekends as my grandfather can't afford the services of a professional dressmaker.

Then came the grim news. Mt. Pinatubo exploded. No. Not the volcano. I mean the airplane that carried the most popular President of the Philippine Government, the late Ramon Magsaysay. Barely a few minutes taking off from Cebu Airport early that morning of March 17, 1957, the Cebu Douglas C-47 crashed into the slopes of Mt. Manunggal in Cebu, killing all 26 passengers but one.

With the sad news of the death of Pres. Magsaysay came the directives that any public gatherings had to have the permission from the proper authorities. Benefit dances and parties were banned for the moment, JS Proms included. Now, that was really sad. Especially for those who have long expected to witness that special night to happen. Postponing it, the organizers had to worry and contain the suppressed adrenalin and testosterones of those adolescents.

So the organizers settled for a compromise. The JS Prom pushed through as planned. Only that, it was no longer a prom or a ball but only a buffet dinner and some photo sessions for posterity's sake. And not in public places but hidden in the private abode of one of their teachers (at the residence of the late Pacifico Villaruel, as shown in the photo above). Had these students knew beforehand that such would be their last prom (Balete Academy closed shop before the opening of the SY 1957-1958 and was only reestablished in the late 60's), they would have summoned their creativity and innovative spirits to make such gathering truly a memorable one--even if the most popular president of the Republic of the Philippines had just died and that the whole nation was still mourning his demise.

But they were not seers. And they lived their lives without regrets. The good thing is, their hands turned out to be the ones that rocked our cradles.

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