On Yearbooks

It's funny how certain things come to mind with the election of a new pope. When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI, it was inevitable that, along with the outpouring of joy from the faithful, there would be a number of groups who would have their axes to grind with him, what with his being openly conservative and all. One such demographic was the gay sector, and here in the Philippines, one spokesperson for a gay lobbyist group echoed the apprehensions of gay communities the world over.

What he said, however, didn't leave nearly as much of an impression on me as who he was. His name, prominently featured in the article, was Jonas Bagas. Upon seeing that name, I couldn't help but think to myself: doesn't this guy owe my batch a yearbook?

It's been seven years since I graduated from UP Diliman with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, and two years since I graduated from UP's College of Law, and yet strangely enough it is only of the latter batch that I have a yearbook.

I've spoken to some people, UP graduates all, in the seven years that have passed since my college graduation, of different batches and colleges. Apparently, the unpublished yearbook is a fairly common phenomenon that occurs year in and year out. It goes like this: a college will form a committee to put a yearbook together, the committee will bitch and moan about how the yearbook can't get done because not everyone from the batch has paid, the batch will graduate, get jobs, get married, and move on with their lives, and forget about the yearbook, which incidentally never gets done (whether or not everyone pays), or else will figure that it's not worth the grief of chasing down the bastards responsible for its release. Oh, yes, and the money never gets returned. One night, within the last two years, I was sitting at a dinner table with several longtime graduates from UP and heard something that confirmed a suspicion I had long harbored about what yearbook committees actually do with the money: one guy in charge of his batch's yearbook admitted, rather nonchalantly at that, to spending all of the money.

Personally, I would like to see my yearbook. I graduated cum laude from UP that year (a feat I was not able to duplicate when I finished law school) and would like a somewhat more aesthetically pleasing reminder other than my diploma and transcripts. It would also be nice to have a look at the people I graduated with (in case I run into them in the street years from now and am unable to remember their names, which has already happened an embarrassing number of times). But what bothers me most is that this annual yearbook scam has become so commonplace that most people are willing to just let it go. It strikes me how UP graduates like a lot of these yearbook committee people have the temerity to join or even stage rallies against corruption when they are blatant practitioners of it.

It's been seven years. No one I know from my Poli Sci batch (which is a considerable number of people given that, like me, many of them have gone on to become lawyers) has seen neither a yearbook nor a refund of his money. I heard one rumor that the money was no longer in Jonas' hands. The fact remains though, that the yearbook, and our funds, were, excuse me, ARE his responsibility.

One would think that the guy would at least have the decency to keep a low profile, but to make statements for the newspaper, where everyone can read his name? That kind of adds insult to injury as far as I'm concerned.

I know the members of my batch have gone their separate ways and are not likely to bring suit against this guy (although really, there's still time, people, because the period for estafa has not yet prescribed), but I would really like to take this opportunity to admonish future or newly graduating batches, don't let this happen to you. Stick up for your rights, and don't let some scam artist blow your money, whether it's on his boytoys or on anything other than the YEARBOOK he/she or they are supposed to be publishing!

This is an unfortunate dimension of our culture of corruption (yes, Raul Roco, it does exist) because it takes place in the academe, the supposed bastion of idealism, and so it must be stamped out as soon as possible.