20/08/2026
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It was 1973. We were young Triskelions from UST who dreamed of a Tau Gamma Phi which would be the most respected and well known fraternity in UST and then in the whole country. It was the time when we just started establishing our presence in the university which we have been trying hard to do since 1971 when TGP was first founded in UST. We were young and aggressive dreamers who thought that we should have our own territory in the campus where brods or sisters can meet each other anytime to talk about anything from our most serious concerns to the simplest of our young pleasures, or to simply hang-out. We badly needed a place like that so we claimed the “resto” behind the main building and in front of the commerce building as our own TGP kingdom. Youth is often a foolish, and even crazy phase of anyone’s life and we were the craziest bunch of Triskelions who considered ourselves the youngest and the coolest warriors The Tau Gamma Phi has ever produced and we lived that mindset with certainty that someday our fraternity would become the supreme fraternity in the land. We had a lot of wars against other fraternities then, oftentimes in defending our little campus territory and of course our identity as Triskelions. That may have been a silly, youthful part of our frat lives then. But we did it with pride and a sense of duty to our beloved fraternity. Looking back now, we may smile or frown or even get angry at some of our 70’s ways. We had internal conflicts too and its quite amusing to remember that a lot of our senior brods did disapprove of our ‘rockstar” looks, our music, and even our language. Admittedly, we were somehow abusive of our bodies with the mind bending and psychedelic substances which were simply a big part of the rock culture of the 70’s. We were young and simply didn’t care while our senior brods never stopped reprimanding us like older brothers scolding their younger siblings. For us, it was fun. But a lot of us suffered the consequences of our reckless and careless way of life.
That was a long time ago. The photo shows six of us, from left, Monchet Umali, Kuldip Singh, Romy Santiago, Louie Castillo, Eric Go, and myself, with our female friends. Monchet, Kuldip, and Romy have passed away and looking at the photo makes me wonder how successful or unsuccessful each one of us have become in our individual lives. Only god knows the answer to that. But one thing is sure. At 50 , Tau Gamma Phi has become indeed the supreme fraternity. Since that was our dream as we posed and smiled in the picture, then i can confidently say that , at the very least, we have seen one of our biggest dreams finally come true. Salute to all.
