Pictures

UP North Frat Ball, early 1990's

 [from Sis Aida Alapan-Banci]

l-r: Elmer & Aida Banci, Ruby & Eddie Agnir.

*Seated: Ruby and Eddie Agnir. *Standing: Elmer Banci and Ed Cornelia.

Web note, from Norman Bituin:

Some months ago Brod Vic Ramos informed us that Brod Eddie Agnir was ill and asked us to offer our prayers for him. At that time I called Sis Aida Alapan-Banci, the widow of our departed Brod Elmer Banci UPD'57, DVM ('In Memoriam') if she could provide me with their pictures. When Brod Eddie passed away on July 9, I requested Sis Aida for a eulogy for Brod Eddie. She immediately wrote the eulogy and sent it to me for this publication.

 I also purchased at Amazon Kindle Brod Eddie Agnir's well-reviewed autobiographical book. Below are some excerpts, specifically related to the frat, from "Chapter III: College at U.P.".

1) Going to other aspects of my life in U.P., I joined Beta Sigma Fraternity, one of four prominent campus fraternities. I joined a fraternity mainly for its snob value. It was commonly recognized that some of the most prominent campus figures were members of a fraternity or sorority. New frat members took delight in wearing their fraternity pin in public and, as in the case of their stateside counterparts, looked forward to the day when they could “pin” their girlfriend. As an indication of their elitism, frat men came up with a pejorative title for those who were not members of a Greek society, calling them “barbarians.”

2) The two-year campus-wide election blackout affected me personally. School year 1959-60 was going to be my year. The summer before the opening of classes, some of my Beta Sigma brothers approached me for my permission to be nominated as the fraternity’s representative to the Junior Student Council should student government be restored. In the years before the UPSCA ascendancy, the Junior Student Council had been a Beta Sigma bailiwick with a number of Beta Sigmans ascending to that council’s presidency. Most of them were students at the College of Veterinary Medicine where there was always a large percentage of Beta Sigmans. I was told that the reason I was being groomed for candidacy was that they regarded me as the fraternity’s “golden boy,” which was their term for the one whom they considered the most popular Beta Sigman on campus at the time.

Indeed, I was quite visible on campus. I was in my senior year at the College of Liberal Arts and due to graduate that following November. I had just been elected president of the UPCYM. The previous semester, I represented Beta Sigma in the inter-fraternity oratorical contest and ran the first-ever inter-fraternity chess team tournament, which attracted press coverage including weekly reports of the tournament’s progress in the Philippine Collegian’s sports page. I was a charter member and active participant of the U.P. Speech Association, a new organization whose flagship project was the annual Speech Festival, a week-long celebration that featured theater presentations and competitions in impromptu speaking, oratory, debate and other forensic events. I was also the head of the Jose Abad Santos chapter of the Order of DeMolay and although DeMolay was not a U.P. organization, more than 90% of the chapter’s members were U.P. students.

3) Beta Sigma put forward my candidacy for the presidency of the Kanlaon Residence Hall Association. My rivals were a couple of students from the College of Law both of whom were frat men. Joe de la Cruz was a Sigma Rhoan and Noel Laman was an Alpha Phi Betan. The situation became somewhat reminiscent of the competition between fraternities that featured student elections of the past.

The campaign that followed was one of a kind. It was totally one-sided and almost embarrassingly so. My fraternity brothers and friends at the dormitory got so enthusiastic that one by one, they came up with all kinds of ideas to advertise my candidacy. In contrast, my opponents offered little or no answer. I had very little hand in either planning or directing my friends’ campaigning activity; most of it just happened spontaneously. Quirico Monje, a Beta Sigma brod, and co-alumnus of Ilocos Norte High School, started a media blitz. An Engineering student, he used ordinary everyday materials like a 45 RPM turntable, electrical wire and light bulbs to jerry-rig a neon flashing sign that read “AGNIR FOR PRESIDENT.” Mounted on three window panes from the second floor and facing the street in front of the dormitory, the sight of the three words flashing in succession was quite something to behold at night by bus passengers and by pedestrians on their way to the nearby local shopping place called “Little Quiapo.” Not to be outdone, Ellie Santiago, a Fine Arts student a DeMolay brod and fellow UPCYMian put up a poster at the entrance of the dorm on the day of the election. On it was a cartoon depicting the finish of a foot race with me dressed like Superman, cape and all, hitting the tape ahead of my two opponents. The caption read: "Make Way for Super-Agnir."

I enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to the brods, especially to Brod Pastor Reyes, Brod Pastor Paul Chua and others in the ministry. It is interesting to note that Brod Eddie Agnir served as an associate minister at the Church of the Risen Lord in UP in 1967-68 before another Betan, Brod Bonifacio Mequi UPD'55. Brod Boni took over from Brod Eddie after getting his Master of Theology at Garrett Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois and serving as an associate pastor in a Methodist church in Iowa. Below are excerpts from "Chapter VI: Ministry at U.P.".

1) One reason I enjoyed my time at the place was that I hardly needed to get adjusted. I was back home. The place was where Ruby and I met, sang together in the choir, dated and married. Half the faces were familiar. Among the church’s senior adult leaders that were still there were The Riveras, the Ensiedels, the Lansangs and the Mangahases, to mention a few. Some of my fellow UPCYMians of the 1950’s were now young adults and had become leaders of the church.