Sunday, December 09, 2007 Kids steal limelight from city officials
ELEVEN-year-old Reinaldo Bautista got two congratulatory handshakes from his namesake at City Hall last Monday morning.
Looking like a tiny version of Mayor Reinaldo Bautista, Jr. 27 years ago, the fifth grader from the University of Baguio was with about a hundred other kids who were honored by city officials and workers for their victories in recent regional and national academic, cultural, and athletic competitions.
The city has kept a tradition of honoring its winners during the Monday flag ceremony at City Hall. It was the city schools’ turn to host the program last Monday and Schools Superintendent Ellen Donato had asked them to come up with a list of recent achievers.
Assistant Schools Superintendent Monina Caingcoy realized when he read the names of medalists in both the elementary and high school divisions that the list was a long one.
Reinaldo Bautista III’s name was in the list seven times, representing the number of medals he had just won for Baguio: four golds and two silvers in swimming and another gold in science research.
At the recent Philippine Olympic Festival, he took the gold in the 100-meter backstroke. In the four-region Milo Little Olympics, he added three more golds in the individual 50-meter backstroke, the 4x50-meter backstroke and medley relays, aside from two silvers in the butterfly and freestyle.
Bautista's fifth gold came from the Regional Schools Science Fair in Ifugao. His entry was his individual study on "The Nutritional Importance of Musa paradisiaca Peeling". That’s the scientific name of "lacatan", the popular banana variety.
"The boy must have inherited his talents from his mother," someone quipped, referring to Joy, the mayor’s wife.
"That’s right," the mayor immediately agreed, smiling proudly at his eldest. The couple is blessed with two more kids: Anne Drew, 7, and Joelle, 6.
Mayor Bautista had about a hundred more talented Baguio kids he and other city officials recognized as their own last Monday. Among them were the winners in the national skills competition, Philippine Olympics festival, Regional Milo Olympics, ‘brigada eskewela’, the National Music Competition for Young Artists (NAMCYA) and Microtel Invitational Archery Circuit.
The oldest they honored was English teacher Warren Ambas of the Baguio City National High School, who won a crystal computer mouse from the Microsoft Worldwide Innovative Forum in Finland for his talent in information technology.
The kids provided the intermission number, with a traditional tribal ensemble by the San Vicente Elementary School, co-winner with Pinsao Elementary School in the NAMCYA competition at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. (Ramon Dacawi)
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