WELCOME TO THE HOMEPAGE OF        MALATE CATHOLIC SCHOOL CLASS OF 1984!

Through sheer guts, hard work, recklessness or luck, depending on how you see it, Class of 1984 has made its mark and more as among the outstanding batches produced by Malate Catholic School in Manila.  We have not given up on modesty but rather share with pride what we believe we earned more on the basis of what we’ve accomplished rather than on what we are.

In the academics arena, Malate held its head high when the batch produced not one but two National Finalists for the annual Philippine National Quiz Bee. The competition, a rigorous grassroots "battle of the brains" spanning the whole archipelago, saw Nonie as National Champion for Literature in 1984 and Norberto as National Runner up in Mathematics in 1980.  This has been both a source of pride and a challenge for all of us to keep up with the standards they set being among the best in the country.

Not to be outdone in the social arena, Class 84 took on what was once a sacred cow, change the Junior and Seniors Prom tradition.  Instead of customary outings and what-have-you, we held a proper Junior-Seniors Prom Night, complete with Dinner, Dancing and something not exactly encouraged in our dear Catholic school, Dates.  This was the culmination of surveys among juniors and seniors and many appeals to the school administrators.  The first ever staging – dubbed “One Neon Night Jive” - was a success, and was a model for future stagings of the Prom.

Taking the cue from administration, Batch 84 revived, after more than a decade, the school newspapers – The Malate Echo and The Clarionette. Setting up a newspaper from scratch was a challenge that fortunately, the batch had some preparation almost by accident, having had staffers from external publications like those in scouting and home parishes. Editorial teams were set up to address everything from where to find a typewriter to getting quotations from printers. The resulting maiden publications saw the reawakening (after a decade and a half) of Malate’s homegrown campus journalists. It was interesting that while their predecessors were silenced by Martial Law, the first publication came in the aftermath of the Aquino assassination in 1983.

With posterity in mind, the batch now trained its eyes on reviving Malate’s annual: The Clarion. To bring back to life the once proud tradition of the school’s annual publication was daunting to say the least. Getting the school Directress' approval was just the first of the challenges, one that we gained with a condition that we will not raise funds beyond a meager amount that was set by the school as a publication budget. After managing to find the right printer (the company of the parent of the former classmate of our batchmate - go figure), the rest is history. Both The Clarion and The Speculum were released less than three months after graduation.

Lest one may think that the batch does not know how to play, it was in 1984 that Malate has reached the Division Finals in High School Basketball and first runner up in Manila for High School Volleyball, making its teams among the best in Manila.

Malate Catholic School was never the same after March 27, 1984, when our class graduated and was deemed ready to face the world. It was a school that stood tall as among the country’s academically accomplished, a school with a restored student organ, a proper prom and an annual publication for graduates. Although the batch cannot claim singular credit for these, much of the footwork and leadership were nonetheless due to its ranks. Even just one of these milestones would have sealed the batch’s legacy, together they speak of a crop of among the school’s finest; a batch outstanding by any measure.

/rob