About UPCAAFI

Ties that Bind:
The UP College of Architecture Alumni Foundation Inc. (UP CAAFI), 1995 – 2019
Armin B. Sarthou Jr.
Past President

1995-1998
The UP College of Architecture Alumni Foundation, Inc (UPCAAFI) was born on Jan 5, 1995, when then Dean of the College Dr. Geronimo V. Manahan decided to incorporate a foundation that will “provide for organized alumni assistance to the College, its alumni, and the studentry”.

Moreover, the organization “will assist the College in raising funds as may be required for its efficient operation … in addition to such funds as already provided by the University and/or any other funds from any other source; it shall establish applicable scholarships/grants and appropriate professorial chairs, spearhead a continuing education program or its equivalent for any or all of its alumni, upgrade essential facilities of the College, and support academic research and extension services; either through available/appropriated Foundation funds or by obtaining donations, assistance, and/or such grants from other sources, either locally or otherwise, as its Executive Committee may deem to be proper and advantageous to the College.”

Also, the Foundation will seek to “assist in the efforts to provide for more effective participation by the College in the process of development of true Filipino Architecture”, and to “establish an efficient work information net with the view of assisting graduates of the College to obtain placement in any open position in the government and/or private sector.”

The Foundation was started with meager funds, and its Board was composed of faculty and alumni who were at the time actively involved in the activities of the College.

1999-2004

FIRST BOARD (1999-2002)

Rod Bernardo President,
Tina Turalba/Dinky Laperal, Vice President
Boy Alli, Secretary.
Shane Ruz, Treasurer
Tina Bonoan
Dean Ronnie Manahan, Ex-Officio

Photo RB-1: First Board of Trustees, UP Caafi. In Photo: Shane Ruz, Tina Bonoan, Geronimo Manahan, Dinky Laperal, Rod Bernardo, Boy Alli

SECOND BOARD: (2002-2004) 

Rod Bernardo, President
Dinky Laperal, Vice President
Ala Tan, Treasurer
Boy Alli, Secretary
Armin Sarthou
Dean Prosperidad Luis, Ex-Officio

In 1999, Rod Bernardo took over the reins as President of the Foundation for almost two terms until 2004. His first Board of Trustees was made up of Tina Turalba (who had to beg off early in the term for health reasons)/Dinky Laperal as Vice President, Armando (Boy) Alli as Secretary, Shane Ruz as Treasurer and Tina Bonoan as Trustee. His second term had Dinky Laperal as Vice-President, Boy Alli as Secretary, Ala Tan as Treasurer and Armin Sarthou as Trustee. The new Board began by revitalizing the operations of the Foundation, and among the more important goals of his administration was to involve majority of the alumni membership and respond to its constitutional mandate to address the needs of the school, the students and the alumni. 

Photo RB-2: Pres. Rod Bernardo speaks during the Recognition Night for Board Topnotchers

The first Board of Trustees prioritized the generation of funds* which was direly needed to provide furniture, computers and equipment for the college which had then just transferred to its new site: the rebuilt Campus Maintenance building and the then unfinished new second building. Funds were sourced internally from other members of the alumni and externally solicited from friends from the industry. It was agreed that the system of lifetime membership dues should be reinstituted, the idea being that for an initial P7,500 lump sum payment, such members would be free to attend succeeding alumni homecomings as well as receive other benefits.  At this, several members of the Board paid their lifetime membership dues, and fund-raising efforts were effectively jumpstarted. A “room-naming” drive also substantially added to the fund-raising efforts with some alumni members or batches donating hefty sums for nominated fellow alumni or their mentors.

These initiatives yielded more than PhP 2.8 million, including donations from Beta Epsilon and DMCI (through the efforts of Dinky Laperal) and XUDA (ex-Urban Designers Associates staffers) which together produced almost half of the total. A Library fund was also put together in partnership with Tom Adarme, a close colleague of Rod and fellow XUDAn, who raised an initial amount of PhP 500,000.00 to support “ArkiLibe” requirements such as an RFID security system, tables, and computers. Classroom ceiling fans, projector screens, tables and chairs were also purchased or donated. 

The second board continued to assist the college through material donations, but it was also deemed important that an updated master list of graduates be generated, so as to make communications with alumni easier. The focus also shifted in support for the students through partial scholarships for qualified students nominated by the faculty. Recognition Nights for board passers and topnotchers were held in 2002 and 2003 where awards were handed out to deserving students.

*Note: A new logo for the foundation was also designed to support the solicitation effort.

Photo RB-9: Pres Rod Bernardo and Dean Hedy Luis congratulate Board Topnotchers

2005-2008
Dinky Consunji Laperal took over the reins of the Foundation in 2005, after the UP Arki Alumni Homecoming in 2004. Because of the difficulty in getting the alumni together for regular college reunions at the time, the Board of Trustees decided that reunions would only be held once every three years, with the affected silver jubilarians, spanning three batches, taking charge of the arrangements. As it happened, even this three-year cycle was not strictly followed, as operational difficulties at times forced postponements of the College homecoming to succeeding years. 

Dinky’s Team included her Secretary Boy Alli and Treasurer Ala Tan. Among the Trustees were Armin Sarthou and Tina Bonoan, with Rod Bernardo sitting in as Immediate Past President. 

During her term, the Board made a strong push towards increasing the Foundation’s funds, to the effect that during her four years in office, the coffers of the Foundation increased by a factor of three. It was in her time that the Board of Trustees started to conceptualize its major activities and fundraising drives, starting with the staging of the first UP Arki Alumni Golf Tournament. A major activity during her term was the Art Auction, during which several named painters and sculptors were approached to use the Foundation’s platform to sell their art pieces, with the Foundation negotiating the price of the pieces and incurring a good margin to make sure the Foundation’s coffers were adequately supplied with much needed cash. The Art Auction was highly successful, and featured pieces by both named and upcoming artists. 

Another major project involved an initiative to supply some of the College’s classrooms with new room furniture, and among the donors tapped were Tina Turalba, Jack Ng, Philip Recto, Edwin Gumila, Liza Acedillo, and PIATCO. A total of P1 Million was targeted for the provision of such furniture and equipment. It was during Dinky’s term as UP CAAFI President (with Danny Silvestre as College Dean) that a donation was made of over twenty-four sets of desktop computers, to furnish the College CadLab with much needed equipment. Also during her term, an agreement was made for some patrons to come in and refurbish some of the classrooms in the College, with Beta Epsilon alumni taking the tab to refurbish one classroom located at the lower ground level, as well as other donors. Dinky held office until the Centennial Alumni Homecoming (which coincided with the 2008 University Centennial), which was now held for the first time at the new UPCA building (Building 1) designed by Prof Danny Silvestre, and commissioned for use only three years earlier, in 2005. The inauguration of this building marked a major transfer of the College from Melchor Hall to its new premises along E. Delos Santos St.  A sad occurrence during the 2005 transfer was the sudden demise of our former Dean Honrado Fernandez, and the new building sadly had to serve as a College wake venue for our beloved Dean Honny.

Pres. Dinky hosted fairly regular meetings of the Board of Trustees at the Celebrity Sports Club.   

2009-2012
The 2009 Homecoming marked the election of Cathy Saldana and her team into office. This included Edwin Gumila as Vice President, a complete Board of Trustees, and Dinky Consunji Laperal sitting as Immediate Past President. A hallmark of her term was a compassionate support for the College admin and staff.  While UP CAAFI would already intermittently support the College staff in the past during the Christmas holidays, it was during Cathy’s term that this support was institutionalized, with the now traditional giving of Christmas bags and other presents. Lantern parade support was also regularly solicited by students and always granted, and the alumni started to actively join College Christmas festivities. 

2013-2016
The next Arki homecoming was held in 2012, also in Building 1 of the new College of Architecture Complex. The elected board consisted of Edwin Gumila as President, Armin Sarthou as Vice President, Flori Sebastian as Secretary, with Ala Tan retained as Treasurer. The Directors were Val Consunji, Zeny Galingan, and Beth Espino. Cathy continued to sit in the Board as the Immediate Past President. Pres. Edwin’s term again geared towards fund raising through what had already become a mainstay event of the Foundation – the UP Arki Alumni Golf Tournament, which was held in East Ridge Golf Club in April of 2016, and spearheaded by the many avid golfers among the alumni, including Eymard Agbing, Julian Confesor, Mike Tomeldan, Alan Cruz and Joy Arcenas, among others. The Board also published a major magazine supplement for the UPCA. The golf event raised for the college a hefty amount of P1.5M, which was turned over to the Foundation during the homecoming event in November of 2016, organized by batches 1990, 1991 and 1992, which included Jack Ng, Dan Del Rosario, Manny Lozano and many other very active classmates. The event was held at the Bahay ng Alumni, which by then was already air-conditioned, and therefore believed to be a greater draw for returning alumni. True enough, the 2016 reunion netted around 200 returning alumni, and attendees were regaled with good food, live bands, supplier give-ways, and a free t-shirt that alumni continued to use with pride even after many years.

The 2016 Alumni Homecoming held at the Bahay ng Alumni was special for Pres. Edwin since it was his office that helped to renovate the building pro-bono, with Engr Tito Aliling and LR Punsalan doing the mechanical design. During his term, Edwin also supported projects which were unfortunately not realized, including the amphitheater ‘seat drive’, and the funding of the sprinkler system and trusses for the UPCA auditorium. Pres. Edwin also continued work on the alumni directory.

2017-2019
During the 2016 Homecoming, a new Board of Trustees was elected into office, and was slated to start its term in Jan 2017. It went through months of adjustment and reorganization, and finally settled with the following composition – Armin Sarthou as President, Malu Marquez as Vice President, Boots Bemonte-Caingat as Secretary, and Eymard Agbing as Treasurer. The Trustees included Ala Tan (designated Assistant Treasurer because of her institutional knowledge of Foundation finances), Amy Dela Paz, Chiqui Salaveria Tronco, with Tina Puno pitching in to help, starting in late 2017. Markel Luna, Ibay Sicam, and Dr. Gerard Lico also sat as Board members in 2017.   

The goal of Pres. Armin’s administration was to make UP CAAFI more visible and “top-of-mind” to graduates of the UP College of Architecture, to make everyone know such the organization exists, and can in fact become a venue for everyone to connect with their former classmates and colleagues. The new Board really got going only in the second half of 2017, and proceeded to put in place a regular schedule of meetings for the Board of Trustees, once a month without fail, to be held on the first Thursdays of the month. Hostings of these meetings were to be rotated among the members of the Board, in such places as Cello’s Daughnuts and Dips, Café Mediterranean in Estancia Mall in Capitol Commons, Max’s Restaurant in Ayala Mall the 30th, CPK in Shangri-la, Wildflour and Lola Café at the Podium, and many other great dining places. A number of meetings were also hosted by past presidents, when the Board met for dinner in the homes of Edwin Gumila, Cathy Saldana, and Dinky Consunli Laperal.

Photo ABS-1: UP CAAFI Board Meeting, Cello’s Doughnuts and Dips, 21 Feb 2019. In photo: Armin Sarthou, Ala Tan, Amy Dela Paz, Boots Belmonte, Malu Marquez

Photo ABS-2: UP CAAFI Board Meeting, Wildflour at the Podium, 14 March 2019. In Photo: Amy, Armin, Boots, Ala, Chiqui, Malu

Photo ABS-3: UP CAAFI Board Meeting, CPK Shangri-La, 4 April 2019. In Photo: Armin, Malu, Eymard, Dinky, Boots, Amy

Photo ABS-4: UP CAAFI Board Meeting, 6 June 2019, In Photo: Eymard Agbing, Boots Belmonte, Ala Tan, Tina Puno, Armin Sarthou

Photo ABS-5: UP CAAFI Board Meeting, Cathy’s Place in Bel-Air Village, August 2019. In Photo: Amy Dela Paz, Malu Gutierrez, Dinky Consunji, Tina Puno, Gigi Eala, Cathy Saldana, Chiqui Salaveria, Boots Belmonte, Armin Sarthou

Photo ABS-6: UP CAAFI Board Meeting and Christmas Party, Dinky Conjunji’s Place in Dasmarinas Village, 4 Dec 2018. In Photo: Tina Puno, Chiqui Salaveria, Armin Sarthou, Cathy Saldana, Dinky Consunji, Ala Tan, Boots Belmonte, Malu Marquez, Amy Dela Paz, Rod Bernardo, Julian Confesor. UP Fight!

Another important goal was to ensure that every Arki batch would be given the opportunity to host a reunion on its Silver Jubilee year, which meant that it would be ideal to hold the Homecoming every year, instead of every three years. As a result, UP CAAFI started holding what would become annual Alumni Homecomings starting in 2017. It was, however, necessary for UP CAAFI to co-organize the 2017 event with Batch ’92, since this was technically the first time that the Homecoming would be handled by only one batch. This first ever annual reunion was held at the roof deck of the DMCI Lumiere Residences in Pasig, with the venue provided gratis under the auspices of Past President Dinky Consunji. Attended by about 75 alumni, the event featured great food and a spectacular 360 deg view of the City. The attendees were regaled by Zaldy de los Reyes and his Band, as well as DJ Sancho Villasenor, both of these gentlemen themselves graduates of the UP College of Architecture.

An exciting activity in 2017 was the Arki Padyak, an event organized by our Sports Director Kleng Cacacho and Chiqui Salaveria Tronco. Around fifteen alumni from different batches, beginners and seasoned bikers alike, met at the UP College of Architecture in the early morning of Nov 2017, and went exploring around the UP Campus on their bikes. At a certain point, the bikers got tired and stopped in front of the Oblation at Quezon Hall, taking photos and buying some treats from Manang. Back in the College, however, there was breakfast with coffee and pandesal.

Photo ABS-7: Arki Padyak 2017, UP Diliman, 5 Nov 2018. Photo credits: Raffy Santos, leftmost.

In 2018, UP CAAFI set up a booth at the UPCA Building 3 Lobby, where the graduation was held for the first time, to distribute UP CAAFI ID cards to new graduates. All who pre-registered, as required, were given brand-new UP CAAFI IDs, designed and created with the help of Olivia Repotente (also a UPCA alumna) and her Graphic Arts outfit.  Incidentally, the College graduation ceremonies were held in three different venues in the three years of this term – first in its traditional venue at the second level of UPCA Building 1 in 2017, next at the lobby of UPCA Building 3 in 2018, and finally in the new College auditorium, in 2019.      

The 2018 Annual UPCA Homecoming was held in the Main Function Room at the ground level of UPCA Building 3. Attended by over 100 alumni, it followed the format of past reunions, starting with a mass by rocking priest Fr. Manny Leyran (BS Architecture Batch 1982), buffet dinner, and the customary business meeting, where proposed amendments to the Foundation’s Bylaws were presented and approved by the body. After this, the fun and fellowship commenced, with dancing to live band music and DJ Sancho’s retro mixes. This marked the first time that many of our alumni guests were able to come and see the facilities at the new UP College of Architecture Complex, and it was a pleasant surprise for many. Building 3, which had just finished Phase 1 construction at the time, was designed by Past Dean Mary Ann Espina.

Early in 2019, the UP CAAFI board also launched the UPCA Wayfinding project, which aimed to improve signages in the College. The project was spearheaded by UPCAAFI Secretary Boots Belmonte. Noted graphic artist Anton Lopez was commissioned for this, and a presentation was prepared for the approval of the College faculty. The project would have moved forward, except for a series of unfortunate events that followed as the year unfolded.  In late June, Ala Tan (BS Architecture Batch ’69), Treasurer of the Board of Trustees, after diligently helping keep the books of the Foundation for almost two decades and under several administrations, suddenly passed away. Later, in early November of 2019, our beloved Secretary of our Board of Trustees Boots Belmonte-Caingat (BS Architecture Batch ’87), also unceremoniously left, after helping lay the foundations for a very active Alumni Board though her incessant efforts to schedule meetings and activities, do the minutes, and make sure our plans always happened according to schedule. I take my hats off to these two wonderful women, who tirelessly worked to institute and enshrine the Foundation’s protocols and processes.

Photo ABS-15: UP CAAFI Wayfinding Project, 2019

The 2019 Homecoming, held on November 23, was entitled “Street Life”, and was organized by Batch 1994 led by Donald Rivera, Minnie Rosel, and their core group of batchmates. It went without a hitch. This time attended by over 120 alumni, the Homecoming program also followed the standard homecoming format, starting with a mass also by Fr. Manny Leyran (UPCA Batch 1982), followed by dinner and some music (featuring the Arki Band). The Business Meeting followed, with a Presentation by President Armin (also concurrently Dean of the College), highlighting the donations made by the Foundation to the College over the three-year term. These included chairs, tables, and UPS for the College’s second CadLab, a new PA system, and supplementary equipment to augment the College’s Security system. UP CAAFI also donated 55” LED monitors and suspended LED projectors (with screens) for many of the classrooms, four sets of much-needed stand-alone lecterns, two DJI Spark drones, and a dedicated faculty development fund. 

Photo ABS-20: Fellowship and Dancing, UP Arki Homecoming 2019

Then there was more live music, batch presentations, and more fellowship. It was in this Homecoming that UP CAAFI realized its efforts had paid off, and that it was indeed possible to hold Annual Alumni Homecomings in UPCA.  Each batch can now celebrate its own Silver anniversary.

Aside from the three Annual Homecomings, the UP CAAFI 2017-2020 also saw two major Alumni Golf Tournaments. The Fourth Annual UP Arki Alumni Golf Tournament (major sponsors Teresa Marble, DDT Konstrakt, Skydragon Spurway, Kuysen, and Semirara), was organized by Edwin, Julian, and Amy. It was held on November 9, 2018, kicking off in the break of dawn at 6:00am, in Forest Hills Antipolo.

The Fifth UP Arki Alumni Golf Tournament, held one year after, was organized by Amerigo dela Paz, Eymard Agbing, Kleng Cacacho, Manny Lozano and Joji Demontano. It teed off on Oct 11 at the Eastridge Golf and Country Club, and featured a “Shotgun Start” at 11am. Among the major sponsors were Boysen, Coach, Famco, and Joy-Nostalg of Jack Ng (UPCA Alumnus, Batch ’92).

Photo ABS-23: 5th UP Arki Alumni Golf Tournament – Fellowship and Awards Night

2019 was also an election year for the UP CAAFI Board of Trustees. The elected Officers were as follows: Amerigo “Amy” De La Paz, President, Jun Benito (Vice President), Chiqui Salaveria Tronco (Secretary), Malu Marquez Guitierrez (Treasurer). Also elected trustees were Vic Duloog, Kleng Cacacho, and Donald Rivera, with Tina Puno being officially appointed Assistant Treasurer. Armin Sarthou stayed on as Immediate Past President.

January 2020 then rolled in with a new Board of Trustees, with the same resolve to keep the flames of the UP CAAFI alive, in its continuing service to the alumni, and to the alma mater.