"Nature, Culture and History Through Stamps" Exhibit in Dumaguete City

The newly formed Dumaguete Stamp Collectors Club came out with a very beautiful stamp exhibit at the Robert Silliman and Metta Silliman Library Main Entrance Hall, Silliman University in Dumaguete City yesterday.

The club is composed of Dumaguete-based Cebu Stamp Club members Gary Rosales, Aidalyn Arabe, Allan Bennett Uy Matiao, Richard Rausher and Penn Larena who all took the initiative of coming out with a stamp club of their own.

I had to leave for Dumaguete City early Saturday morning to attend the 4:00 PM opening of the exhibit. The club invited me to be their guest speaker.

During the event, I got to meet again Arlene Uypitching, an avid stamp collector who is also a Silliman University Cultural Affairs committee member. I was also introduced to Lito Diago and Milfred Ong, who are members of the DSCC.

The last time I was in Silliman University was in August 28, 2008 when Cebu Stamp Club, Incorporated opened the Selyo at Kasaysayan stamp exhibit which featured Philippine heroes.

Gary, the club's president along with his members billeted me at a very cozy hotel and took me to a group dinner at Casablanca, a new restaurant in the city. There we get to talk about stamps and shared to them lots of tips.

To the members of the Dumaguete Stamp Collectors Club, I salute you all for a very successful philatelic event!

The first photo features Penn Larena, Gary Rosales and yours truly. Second shows the officers of the Dumaguete Stamp Collectors Club with me after dinner at Casablanca.

Cebu Stamp Club Members Form a Club in Dumaguete City

Cebu Stamp Club members based in Dumaguete City have banded together to form the Dumaguete Stamp Collectors Club.

A few years ago, during the stint of Ms. Fabiolita Ferraris as Regional Director of the Philippine Postal Corporation Region 7, she appointed me to be her Philatelic Adviser and one of our programs then was to form stamp clubs in different cities in the region. Thus, the Dumaguete Philatelic Society and Bohol Philatelic Society were formed. Different school stamp clubs were also created. Sad to say, after she left, the clubs disappeared for various reasons.

When Cebu Stamp Club, Incorporated (CSCI) decided to bring the "Selyo At Kasaysayan.. A Retrospective of Filipino Heroes Through Stamps" to Silliman University in Dumaguete City last August 23-26, 2008, I got to meet the former president of the defunct Dumaguete Philatelic Society, Mrs. Monserrat Magbanua. Aidalyn Arabe who was appointed as project chair introduced me to her.

Richard Rauscher who lives in Dumaguete was also there. He joined Cebu Stamp Club sometime in 1997. It was Richard who introduced me to Gary Rosales who signed up as a club member before we returned to Cebu. A few months later Allan Bennet Uymatiao joined CSCI too.

On December 1-12, 2009, the newly formed Dumaguete Stamp Collectors Club will hold its first non-competitive exhibit at the College of St. Catherine of Alexandria.

Thanks to Dumaguete-based Cebu Stamp Club members Gary Rosales, Aidalyn Arabe, Penn Villanueva, Allan Uymatiao, and Richard Rauscher for continuing the philatelic flame that we started through our exhibit last year.

Above pics feature Allan Uymatiao with the Cebu Stamp Club president and Aidalyn Arabe during the "Selyo At Kasaysayan 2009... A Tribute to Cory Aquino held last August 27-30, 2009 at the 2nd level of Ayala Center Cebu.

Good luck guys and more power to your exhibit!