On Feb. 27, the De La Salle University’s Department of Communication will celebrate its 40th year at the DLSU Yuchengco Auditorium. In 1974-’75, Clodualdo “Doy” del Mundo Jr. offered communication arts subjects. Among his early students were Joey Reyes, Manny Castañeda, the late Don Escudero and Charo Santos-Concio.
Doy recalls: “Joey, Don, Manny and Evelyn ‘Benggot’ Pe Benito took the same class when we first offered Communication courses—they all worked in television eventually. In that batch, we had cross-enrollees from St. Paul College, Manila—who included Charo, who sat in the front row with other Paulinians. She was prim and proper, wore glasses, was quiet but intelligent. She got an ‘A’.
DEL MUNDO. Taught and mentored the school’s exceptional alumni.
“At the end of the term, she handed me a note, thanking me for the class. Sabi ni Joey in jest, ‘If we knew she’d one day become the president of ABS-CBN, we would have befriended her (laughs)!’”
Mature thinker
Top cinematographer Lee Briones also attended Doy and his brother Herky del Mundo’s classes. Doy muses, “She’s a mature thinker—and a very good person.” He recalls, “In every batch, there would always be the fun and funny students, like Manny, Benggot, comedian Dodo Gonzalez, Randy Santiago—but, Jeffrey Quizon was relatively quiet.
Direk Joey started teaching at DLSU in 1977. Among his students was Star Cinema producer-director Trina Dayrit, who was very diligent. Urian critic Mike Rapatan’s students included Ryan Agoncillo, Lyn Ching and Shayne Sarte.
Back in 1994, I was with broadcast journalist Chi Datu, together with actress Mylene Dizon and future Cinemalaya directors, Coreen Jimenez, Joel Ruiz and Mario Cornejo, in Doy’s scriptwriting class.
According to Communication department chair Gary Mariano, “The alumni are ‘coming home’ for the first DLSU Communication Conference on Feb. 27. They will share what they’ve learned with students.”
Speakers include TV directors Jerome Pobocan and Dominic Zapata, theater actor/director Audie Gemora, photographer Raymund Isaac, BBC World News anchor Rico Hizon and GMA 7’s Mike Enriquez. For details, e-mail gochiquigo@gmail.com, or call 524-4611 loc. 322.