Life begins at forty

I turned forty years old last Sept. 26.

Like in recent years, my birthdays didn’t really make me feel old. Not that I don’t have bouts with aching thighs and knees or something. Sure they happen, maybe a lot more than a decade ago. But all in all, I have been blessed a lot by God.

First of all, I got to spend my 40th birthday with my family in a vacation trip to Baguio. Only the second time we were able to go and stay as a whole family at the Camp John Hay Manor (the first time for Baby Faith!) the trip surely made a lot of good memories for us to cherish and to remember.

At forty, my family lives in a house we really can now call our home.

At forty, I have a loving wife who calls me husband and four wonderful kids who call me father. They are not perfect as I am not (are there perfect wives and children?). But they are my crowning glory.

I have a challenging job with the government. You get to work with all sorts of people including the most toxic ones. At forty, thank God, I’m still standing.

At forty, my blood sugar remains high but have good cholesterol, triglyceride, creatinine and uric acid levels. At an age when most of the people I know wear glasses, I thankfully have 20/20 vision.

At forty, I have the privilege and responsibility for the pastoral formation of many people in the renewal community to which my family belongs. I thank God for believing in me to serve Him through this important task.

At forty, I still have living parents and siblings (God bless them!) whom I all love very much.

At forty, I guess I have learned to be more appreciative of what God has given me…the time, the talents and the treasures, all my blessings in life.

Mid-life crisis? I don’t know if I will ever experience one. But at forty, I am trying to live life. As they say, “live and let live”.

At forty, I know I still have a lot to learn and a lot to do for God, my country, my family, myself.

By God’s grace, I pray he grants me and my family to have a long and meaningful life in this world.

At forty, I believe that the best is yet to come.

Mater Carmeli School bags the Elementary Basketball Championship!

2007 AAPS Dist II Basketball Elementary Level Champions

Their road to success was difficult.


The Mater Carmeli School Basketball Team for the elementary level may have a winning history on their side but this bunch of rowdy and yet talented young boys lacked chemistry and experience.

During the opening ceremonies

When my second son told us a year ago that he wanted to join the school’s varsity team for basketball, I was naturally excited. I played basketball too during my elementary years, a center player because of my height for my section’s team but never for the school itself.


I accompanied Sonny Boy during their weekend practices. When the inter-school competitions started, I was always there to support my son and his team except for a game against St. Patrick that was done on a weekday.

Practice shooting before the first game

MCS' first game tip off

Their first game against Holy Child Academy (HCA) was a massacre. It wasn’t so much their skills that gave them their first win but rather their opponents’ lack of it. This became evident with their only season loss to a much more competitive School of Saint Anthony (SSA).

MCS' second game against SSA was the team's only loss this season




The game against Divine Grace School was a hard fought win

The third game against Divine Grace School (DGS) was a hard fought game. MCS had to fight tooth and nail in order to win over those resilient elementary players.

MCS meets 'twice to beat' SSA at the finals

In the end, MCS had to face SSA in the finals. Because of their ranking, MCS had to beat them twice to win the championship.


Sonny Boy often played off the bench, his minutes not as much as the others. I suppose their coach then opted to use the more aggressive, offensive minded players compared to my son’s laid-back deliberative style of play. The problem was the aggressive players weren’t really any better. They had more points because they simply let off way, way more shots than my son. Many of his teammates would have the propensity to hog the ball much to the detriment of the team.


In the finals though against SSA, Sonny would shine and his team find glory and strength of character in the face of pressure and an atmosphere filled with intense emotions!


As expected, SSA had their guns a blazing during the first and second games of the finals. For example, the Carmelians were down by as much as 14 points by the end of the first half of the second game. However, they couldn’t sustain their onslaught and succumbed to the offense and effective trapping defense of the MCS group.


The opposition even resorted to hard fouls. During the first game, Sonny Boy received a hard foul that sent him crashing to the concrete floor. The sound of his impact to the hard floor was heard all over the whole gym followed by an unsettling silence. His injury while painful, thank God wasn’t debilitating. I believe it became a rallying point for the whole team to do its best. And it did.

MCS wins again over SSA in the finals!

The second win was a classic down the wire, come from behind victory. They clawed their way from a 14 point deficit at the start of the second half and even took the lead 50-49 at the last two minute mark. SSA was able to tie it at 51 all and then regain the lead with a free throw shot over a foul by MCS. With a few seconds left, both teams had one player being fouled and failing to connect their respective free throws. With 5 seconds left, a MCS player attempted a three point shot that did not go in. Another MCS player was able to rebound the ball and made a quick two point shot beside the basket before the final buzzer to lift the MCS team to its 7th consecutive championship title!

Sonny Boy receives his medal

The MCS Elementary Basketball Team celebrate their hard-earned victory

We are the champions!

Seven titles in seven years – not since the Boston Celtics of the 1960’s have I heard of such a winning tradition!


Some would say that this is the stuff that makes legends.


I thank God for giving Sonny the opportunity to be a part of this special achievement.

Congratulations to the team and to God be all the glory!

The Bloomfields’ youngest fan

Faith Mendoza at 2 years and 5 months is Bloomfields' youngest fan

August 5 – That was the day it all began…I mean that’s when all this ranting and raving started.

I bought the Bloomfields first CD album in the SM Fairview. They were scheduled to sing later that afternoon but my family had to go already so we didn’t get the chance to listen to them live.

But from the first time my youngest and only daughter Faith heard the band’s song tracks, nothing has really been the same at home.

Faith particularly adores track 8, Bloomfields’ carrier single “Wala Nang Iba”. It’s also my personal favorite. Faith however brings new sense to the words “favorite song” and what it means to be a fan to new heights!

Day in, day out, she just wants to listen and sing and dance to the tune of track 8! It’s no exaggeration, as soon as she wakes up in the morning to the time she falls asleep in the evening, as I arrive home from work she never fails to cry out, “Papa, eight, eight!” She grabs hold of my hand and directs me to our VCD player prompting me to play track 8 of the CD she dearly holds in her hands. Amazingly, she knows all the band members' names (and faces) by heart and utters them as easily as she recites the alphabet - "Lakan (Keyboards), Louie (Bass), Pepe (Guitars), Rocky (Drums)... JJ(Guitars)!!"

She dances and sings to the tune of her favoriter track -

No. 8 ("Wala Nang Iba")

“Papa, eight, eight!” I let her listen to the other tracks hoping she also appreciates the other well arranged songs revived by the Bloomfields many from the sixties, from Bacharach to the early rock and roll bands like the Beach Boys and my all time favorite pop rock band, the Beatles. Their versions of local songs “Ale” and “Iskul Bukol” are also noteworthy. She eventually likes all of them but somehow “Wala Nang Iba” has a special place in her heart.

Without a doubt, the Bloomfields had brought something fresh to the table. In a musical landscape where local mediocre rock bands are dime a dozen and wannabees flounder, the band decides to go against the grain of conventional wisdom and played songs their daddies sang and tunes their moms danced to. The result is a healthy mix of the old and the new. Not just a cheesy revival of songs but a novel introduction to timeless classics.

No wonder their fan base seems to be from ages 2 to 92.

Certified No.1 fan!

I’m sure Faith would get over her ‘obsession’ with the Bloomfields sooner or later. Just don’t ask what year.

For now, my 2 year old daughter is their youngest and most loyal fan!

Amen to that!