The Birth of the MIT-CE-EnSE

Alumni Association, Inc.

By:
USEC Raul C. Asis
A look back on how it all started from a handful of determined alumni to a still growing
Association of the present.

It was a Sunday afternoon, on October 9, 1988 when a group of five (5) CE alumni- Al
Montecillo (73), Frisco San Juan, Jr. (73), Nilda Asis (74), Raul Asis (74) and Oscar Villanueva (74) met at the Asis
residence in United Paraaque to discuss the possibility of holding a reunion. There had been numerous clamors for a
grand reunion for CE alumni but somehow not anyone or any group was able to organize and draw substantial
attendance. A few gatherings were held but most of these were limited in participation by respective classes only. The
meeting at the Asis residence was set to plan the holding of a CE reunion of classes 1971-75 in December of that year.
Succeeding meetings were held at the office of MWSS office of Mrs. Macra Cruz on October 15 and at the LWUA office
of Engr. Tony de Vera on Oct. 21, 1990. As preparations for the reunion were being made, the group grew larger, with
alumni from classes 71, 72 and 75 joining the Reunion Committee.

On December 10, 1988, the reunion was successfully held at the Architectural Center Club in Makati, with
Secretary Juanito N. Ferrer as Guest of Honor and Speaker. The reunion drew 120 alumni, about 10% of whom
representing classes outside of 1971-75 circa. It was during that reunion that a decision was made to form an
association of MIT Civil and Sanitary Engineering graduates of all classes and so the group elected fifteen (15) alumni
who would be tasked to formally organize the association and would act as its interim officers and directors.

Chosen as advisers were Mrs. Macra A. Cruz and Engr. Bienvenido Leuterio, both MIT CE alumni and former
Hydraulics faculty members during the 1970s. Secretary Juanito N. Ferrer, a member of CE class 49 and past President
of NAMA, who in his speech challenge the organizers of the reunion not to allow all the enthusiasms turned into a
Ningas kugon attitude, was unanimously elected as Honorary Chairman of the Association.

Immediately after its election, the Interim Board transformed itself into a working committee that prepared
drafts, studied changes, conducted deliberations and finalized its Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws. The Association
was formally registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as a non-stock organization on August 21, 1990
carrying the name: MIT CE-EnSE Alumni Association, Inc.

The elected Directors also embarked on rigid membership campaign; distributing alumni information sheets to
as many MIT CE-EnSE alumni as possible in various government agencies such as DPWH, MWSS, LWUA, DOTC, NIA etc.
and in the offices of private contractors and consultants gathering data and the whereabouts of all MIT CE-EnSE
graduates from 1929 to 1990. The result is an Alumni Directory that is being distributed to interest CE-EnSE alumni.

On July 24, 1990 the officers of the Association met with NAMA President Celedonio Pile, himself a CE 63
alumnus during which the associations affiliation with NAMA was discussed. Subsequently, the Boards of NAMA and
MIT CE-EnSE Alumni Association during their respective board meetings held on July 26, 1990, approved the proposed
affiliation and that all members of our Association shall automatically be NAMA members.

By August 1990, the members of the Interim Board had finally accomplished all the tasks that had been
assigned to them. The MIT CE-EnSE Alumni Association has been organized and registered with the SEC with a set of
By-Laws already in effect. Its last task is the holding of a general reunion and homecoming of all MIT CE-EnSE alumni,
classes 1929-1990, a first time in the history of the School of Civil and Environmental Sanitary Engineering of Mapua
Institute of Technology.