Email of Boy, Oct. 11, 2011

During the frat's necro rites, it was apparent that Ben Dia the writer was largely unknown to his brods. The brod speakers resorted to reading excerpts from Ben's writings to show his writing style. Alex ad-libbed more info about his writings after having interviewed Ben's youngest brother Erving.

Ben's daughters also showed a powerpoint which included Ben's political cartoons in the Philippine Free Press (TFP). His brother Erving also mentioned to Alex that Ben had written 20 to 30 short stories for TFP.

Ben's 3 daughters are Bam, Bea (who works with Oishi and came from Shangai), and Yanyan. His son Benjie, Jr. was New York on a master's music scholarship and could not attend.
 

Boy

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Email of Ojie, Oct. 11, 2011

Alumni in attendance during the necro rites for Ben Dia:

1.Ben Aquino 52
2.Joe Caparas 56
3.Lito Manahan 58
4.Rey Bautista 58
5.Ben Viloria 58
6.Roly Reventar 58
7.Boy de Leon 59
8.Alex Santos 59
9.Rod Salazar 59
10.Bobby Tinio 60
11.Egbert Abiad 62
12.Mon Ramirez 63
13. Cezar Yniguez 65
14. Leony Liongson 67
15. Sonny Laigo 72
16. Ojie Alzona 74
17. Roger Buendia 81

plus the residents led by MEB Baste Julian, and EB Boss Liwanag, who conducted the rites.

Ojie

 

Tribute to Ben Dia
 

There were several Batch 58 brods living in Diliman campus. Hernan Gonzales, DoniDumlao and I were at the Kanlaondorm, Rod and RollyReventar were boarders up the road in Area 2. Ben shared a quonset hut “suite” with Norman Madrid and Ernie Caburian and the three of them were a rather eclectic bunch. Norman, Cabu and I would play chess in their room when the weather wasn’t too hot. Ben was the quietest water-runs-deep guy who was an excellent writer. When I was MEB and Norman was EB, we felt there were some resident brods who were just as adept with their slide rules as with their literary pens,in the mold of Prof. Ilio,so we resurrected the Purple Tower. Those issues were probably the first to come out from a printing press – not just mimeographed (is that known today?) as were the older issues. This was exactly 50 years ago, long before computers and desktop printing were invented. Proof of Ben’s powerful writing is evident in Mon Ramirez’ discovery of a 1961 Purple Tower issue in Prof’s baul. In the aftermath of a bitterly divisive confrontation on the issue of initiations, editor Norman encouraged me to write my opinion and approached Ben to represent the opposite view. Ben was never one of the outspoken brods but I respected his honest and analytical piece in opposition to mine and our differences never diminished our friendship.
 

Expatriate old-timers like me reckon the years by brods we see and those we don’t. Norman and I are still in touch although he has lost communication with most of ’58 batchmates. I did not see Ben since he graduated in 1961 until the BE 80th Grand Kapihan in 2009. It was great to compare notes on each other’s lives after all those 48 years in between. He had pursued writing as an avocation beside his engineering career. Later I received with great pleasure a book edited by Dr. Gemino Abad, a luminary in Philippine literature, titled “Upon Our Own Ground,” an anthology of the best Filipino short stories written in English in the period 1956 to 1972, which included Ben as one of the acclaimed authors.It has this inscriptionfrom Ben, which I do not deserve: “Hi Dennis, Thanks for being my brod and friend. Your brilliance is more inspiring than any story.”
 

On this occasion of remembrance I would like to return my mutual admiration and respect for Ben, this quiet brod with a keen intellect and a brilliant pen. In Ben’s selected short story titled “IndayLupeng”, a jaded young Filipino,Cresencio, has an chance encounter with an American Peace Corps volunteer, Harvey. Cresencio is enamored by his expectation to go to the US soon,butfails to see the innate beauty of the country he was to leave behind. After a long, tiring trip by interisland vessel and dusty jeep ride, they arrive at Cresencio’s hometown.Let Ben describe the closing scene:
 

Up above the sky was blue, untouched, and the sun, floating brightly above the plaza, had a bar of shining silver on the sea visible in the space between the low nipa houses towards the shore. From somewhere came a distant yell of children, mingling with the rustle of acacia leaves in the breeze. A bucolic stillness lay over the town. Harvey stepped out from the shade into the sunshine in the middle of the road and stretching himself there, his face upturned and his hands outspread in the manner of an oblation, gave a deep and abandoned sigh, and then slowly straightened himself up, turning now to Cresencio. There was a smile of secret pleasure under his moustache.
 

“I say, Cresencio,” he said wistfully, “I could live here forever.”

I think Ben Dia has described, in beautiful prose, his own sunrise destination, his comfortable, final home. Rest in peace in your heaven, brod.
 

DTQ’58
Oct. 9, 2011

A TRIBUTE TO TEACHER BEN DIA of our VSS Family:

He has fought the good fight, he has finished the race, he has kept the faith. Now there is in store for him the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to him on the day of His appearing . . . (2 Timothy 4:7-8) The lamp is now put aside for the dawning of that perpetual morning has broken for him. We will miss his presence in our midst but his memory lingers on and has now become part of us. His legacy of showing us to be ever ready to answer God's call for service has truly blessed us all.

Thanks be to God for Teacher Ben.

Ilde & Jessie Rubrico

8Oct2011

REMEMBERING BEN DIA ‘58
by Boy de Leon '50

Ben was a quiet Betan and family man
 

My batch 59 followed Ben’s 58 but we did not interact much as residents or even as alumni - until in 2007 when Bing and I joined the bible study group of brod Ilde Rubrico and his wife Jessie. Ben was already a member of the 5-year old group and would also moderate from time to time. He was already a widower at that time and after the session would hurry home when it was his turn to cook for himself and his children.

Ben was a writer
 

In 2008, Ben gave us copies of an anthology of Filipino Short Stories, a UP Press Centennial Publication edited by Prof Gemino Abad. Ben’s story “Inday Lupeng” written in 1969 was included among 750 others.
 

Ilde further commented that Ben was also an Editor of the Philippine Collegian those days and that he only naturally followed in the footsteps of his mother, Matilde Abaya-Dia, whose book “A Time To Embrace (1989) was reprinted on the occasion of the wedding of Ben’s daughter, Beatrice, in October 2006.

To give you a sample of Ben’s writing style, I will quote part of what he wrote in the short story. The central character was Cresencio who was riding a minibus named “Inday Lupeng” to visit, once more and for the last time, his hometown before he emigrated to America. Cresencio’s accidental companion was Harvey, an American Peace Corps volunteer on his way to the same town as his assignment

Ben wrote:
 

“when the American embassy sanctioned his application for immigration, Cresencio had found himself progressively disdaining with impunity the temper and quality of life in his home country. With a burning exultant vision of America drawn from movies and magazines, Cresencio was proud to be in possession of a wagonful of convenient and implacable ideas about the meaning of progress and why his country remained backward. He was now an avid disciple of progress and efficiency, a clean, cultivated young man who, steeped in the modern techniques of the West in the full utilization of time and space and of men and machines, could no longer stomach the discomfort and inconvenience resulting from the apparently naïve and ignorant ways of his countrymen.”

Ben wrote 13 pages, 11 of which narrated Cresencio’s tribulations during 4 and a half hours of what was supposed to be only a two and a half hours trip, experiencing late departure, meandering pickup and discharge of passengers, fixing a flat tire, dusty unpaved road sections, passengers smoking cigars and bringing in baskets smelling of dried fish, filthy kids clutching pandesal with unwashed hands, and a driver and conductor with no sense of time. Ben contrasted Cresencio’s assailed concsciousness with the amused nonchalance of his American companion throughout the trip. Finally, Ben ended the story upon arrival of the minibus at his hometown with the wistful one-liner from Harvey, the American: “Why Cresencio, I could live here forever!”

Ben was a Bible study leader
 

When Ilde and Jessie moved on to a Malaysian university in 2010, Ben was voted to take over the study group. His sessions were well-researched and he admitted he was also using old notes from his mother. He shared with us that one of his favorite verses was a one-liner from Psalms 46:10 that he said would calm him even in a sea of trouble: ”Be still, and know that I am God.”

In January 2011, Ben’s health started to decline. When Dennis visited on 20 August 2011, Ben could communicate only by writing on a small whiteboard tablet and he wrote

“Tell him (Norman Madrid) the silent world is not so boring. I spend my time reading and DVD. Funny how time has changed us. Tell Norman to send me his pictures by email. He never appears in the pictures.”

A friend told me the other day that when Ben was in his sickbed, he was moved in particular by the song “His eye is on the sparrow”, which contains the lyrics:
 

“Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heaven and home,
when Jesus is my portion? My constant friend is He.
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.”

Ben, may the Lord bless you and watch over you in paradise.