Alumni Update June 17 – 23, 2024

SAAI – Davao hosts Sadya Mindanao

All roads converged at Sadya Mindanaw in Davao City last June 14-16, 2024 as the Silliman Alumni Association, Inc. (SAAI) Davao Chapter, led by its president Susan B. Palad, hosted the Silliman alumni gathering held every three years.

The 3-day alumni gathering was attended by contingents of different SAAI chapters including Cagayan de Oro Chapter, Bukidnon Chapter – Musuan, Cebu Chapter, Dumaguete Chapter, Iligan Chapter, Oroquieta Chapter, Pintados Chapter (Eastern Visayas), South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and General Santos City Alumni Chapter (SOCKSARGEN), Silliman University Alumni of Metro Manila Chapter, Inc. (SUAMMCI), and host Davao Chapter.

Other alumni groups that joined the alumni gathering were the Silliman University High School (SUHS) Class of 1979, Edith Carson Hallers, and alumni from Bacolod, Iloilo, Butuan and California, USA. Also present at the Sadya festivities were Trustee Eduardo A. Bangayan and Outstanding Sillimanian Awardee (OSA) Gabriel B. Atega, OSA Dr. Rosita V. Fundador, and OSA Dr. Evelyn Tan-Requiza.

Among the highlights of the gathering were the lunch at the Mangaoil’s residence, a guided tour and welcome dinner at the Crocodile Park and Zoo, and a farm tour with lunch at the Gran Verde Family Farm.  An ethnic themed Silliman Night was also held at the Malagos Homegrown Café with a special performance of the Kalumon Performing Ensemble which brought the attendees to their feet with the beat of the Kalumon drums and kulintang. The 3-day festivities culminated with the Sunday church service at Davao UCCP Crossroads Congregational Church.

Linda Bañas-Alvarez, a former president of SOCKSARGEN Chapter and a former SAAI director, shares a historical account of the birth pangs of Sadya Mindanaw.

On April 29 to 30, 2011, roughly 13 years ago, the first Sadya Mindanaw was launched in Sarangani province and Gensan by the SOCSKSARGEN Chapter— the alumni chapter composed of the South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani provinces, and the city of General Santos.

The germ of this undertaking stemmed from the successful SILLIMAN TIPON — where for years, alumni from all over the United States would converge in a chosen state, hosted by the alumni chapter of that particular host city. This was then under the umbrella of the SUACONA, otherwise known as the Silliman University Alumni Council of North America. The Silliman Tipon has been a convergence of Sillimanians in the US every two years. Their host states and cities have spanned from Hawaii to Alaska. And next week, on June 20 – 23, this year’s Tipon hosts are the Sillimanians in Atlanta, Georgia.

The creation of a gathering similar to TIPON USA was driven by several factors. These included the perceived need for existing alumni chapters to interact with fellow Mindanaoan alumni, the desire to establish better representation of Mindanao chapters and their concerns to the National SAAI Board and the University, and the opportunity to explore possible network or partnership possibilities for future endeavors involving both the University and the respective chapters.

Thus, in April of 2011, the Sadya Mindanaw was born. And since this was the launch, only the top officers and representatives from the various existing chapters in Mindanao were invited. The success of this pagtitipon in Mindanao in the succeeding years would be dependent on the strong abilities of the leaders of each chapter to pull in their own respective chapter members to attend the succeeding Sadya Mindanao events in the years to come.

From the Davao chapter, sharing in this launching activity was the delegation led by our dearly departed Ma’am Fele Magdamo, with Ma’am Helen Guillergan, Ma’am Nene Mangaoil, and Dr. Rose Fundador.

Thus, our very own version of the Silliman Tipon was launched. It was then agreed that Sadya Mindanaw would be held every two years, with the Cagayan de Oro chapter quickly volunteering to host the next, or rather the “first” which would now include all the members of the chapters in the Mindanao region.

It should be noted that while the main goal of this convergence was to make all the chapters in Mindanao more cohesive, these fun events were actually open to all alumni from here and abroad, so in both hosting, we had alumni joining all the way from Canada and Australia, not to mention many others from other parts of the country.

The following year, 2012, the Cagayan de Oro chapter was scheduled to host the convergence, but Mother Nature had other plans with the arrival of the deadly typhoon Sendong that left many dead or missing in its wake, making it impossible for the Cagayanons to host.

But by 2013, led by its able president Lingling Guarin, the resilient CDO alumni chapter was able to host a successful Sadya Mindanaw convergence with a bang, which included white water river rafting and much fun and laughter!

Two years later, the Davao Chapter took up the hosting cudgels —also with a bang — a literal bang by having an exciting fireworks display held across the bay for all to see, and with then Mayor of Davao Rodrigo Duterte gracing the closing event as guest of honor.

The success of the two chapters (Cagayan and Davao) in making the SADYA really sadya encouraged some members of the SAAI Board to jokingly challenge Caesar Pacalioga, then prexy of the Bacolod chapter and faithful attendee of both Sadya events— into creating its own version of Sadya Min; thus, Hugyaw Visayas was born, with the Bacolod chapter hosting it in April 2016.

Subsequently in 2017, the Butuan Chapter hosted Sadya Mindanaw, and soon after, attendees from Luzon were then challenged to come up with their own version — hence Galak Luzon was born, with their first salvo hosted by SINTA, the chapter representing the Southern Tagalog region, holding their event in Tagaytay in 2018.

And just before the pandemic struck in 2019, Hugyaw Visayas happened, hosted by the Tacloban chapter now known as Pintados. The pandemic kept us and everyone else in the world inside our homes for around four years, and it is only now that things are normalizing, and we needed to get things back on track.

With that being said, I would like to commend the Davao Chapter for taking the task of reviving the Sadya Mindanaw tradition this year. Congratulations for stepping up and doing such a great job at this challenging endeavor. The name you gave yourselves, as Susan has repeatedly proclaimed — as the “Hambog Chapter” — gave you the extra push to make this revival work.

The SAAI chapters in many parts of the country have been struggling to get back on their feet and reorganize after the Covid 19 crisis, and this can be a daunting task. But this gathering here, all of you who have come to make Sadya Mindanaw happen again proves that old saying, “You can’t put a good man down” — rephrased to — you can’t put us Sillimanians down — as a tried and tested truth!