The City of Seven Lakes, San Pablo City Association, East Coast Chapter USA
A registered non-profit & charity organization
We are very proud to announce the successful ratification of our Constitution & Bylaws! 100% of the participating members voted YES to ratify. These documents set the foundation we want for our organization– to promote fellowship and participation among our members and initiate charitable projects to support and assist our kababayans in need.
To serve you better…
We are honored and very pleased to present before the general membership the product of our collaborative effort to make our Constitution and Bylaws relevant to our ideals, goals, and consistent with our legal status as a legitimate non-profit 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt organization in the state of New Jersey. These documents set the foundation we want for our organization– to promote fellowship and participation among our members and initiate charitable projects to support and assist our kababayans in need.
Together let us make The City of Seven Lakes, San Pablo City Association, East Coast Chapter USA more responsive to the needs of our members, officers, local and international communities we hope to serve.
Respectfully yours,
Eugenio “Soc” Biscocho, Chairman of the Board & Valeriano Lugti, President
Click on the thumbnails below to view our documents in Acrobat Reader.
The Journal Fundraising Committee of 2018 – 2020 relentlessly worked hard with the homeless and orphans of San Pablo City in mind. Most of them are street children, starving and forced to live a life in the absence of basic amenities. They do not have food, clothes, and homes to live safely and healthily. We felt it is our primary responsibility, as San Pablenos, to help as much as we can.
A week ago, our current president, Jocelyn Danila-Santos, visited the San Pablo City Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Center I & Center II, and St. Martin de Porres Kid’s Home. She was given a list of things they needed the most and we learn more details about their living conditions. They are in desperate need of supplies.
Center I is a homeless shelter that has 13 females and 29 males with 5 mentally challenged individuals. Ages range from 9 month-old to 60 years old. They are mostly children and they are not in school. Most of the time, they just sleep because they don’t have anything to do. We bought books, writing materials, toys, badminton, basketball, soccer ball, board games, etc. We also provided washable banigs for mentally challenged individuals for they cannot be provided with mattresses for unsanitary reasons. We hope that one day we can do more for them like teaching them some trades so they can be self-sufficient.
Center II is an orphanage that has 28 children. The youngest is six-month-old. These children attend school and we provided some school supplies for them aside from other goods. We also bought them a washing machine.
St. Martin de Porres Kid’s Home is another orphanage for boys. We supplied the goods they requested. We also assisted financially with fixing their plumbing problem. Last year, we contributed to their ceiling repair.
We are very glad to be able to provide and make a big distribution to all these facilities! It truly gave us joy and happiness that in a way we gave these individuals some comfort.
We thank our president for always taking the time from her busy vacation schedule in accomplishing our charity missions in San Pablo. We appreciate all the effort. A big thanks to our past presidents and officers: Lenny & Luchie Rodriguez, Manny & Bessie Estrellado, Renfred Mercado, and Marisonia Perez for helping out. A special shoutout also to Laguna College’s Batch 81 for their assistance.
And most importantly, a heartfelt thank you to all our sponsors who made this possible for us to support our less fortunate kababayans. We look forward to your continued support.
It a busy day for our President Jocelyn Danila in San Pablo City. She visited Dr. Elma Orosa-Paraiso, PTA Fundraising President of Paaralang Pag-ibig at Pag-asa (School of Love & Hope), to deliver our contribution to the school. The school is for students with disabilities, mostly from low-income families, and one of our charity projects. Dr. Paraiso has dedicated her life to supporting the needs of the students and the school.
Our president Jocelyn Danila visited Sta. Filomena Integrated School, a public school in San Pablo City, with past president and officers, Lenny Rodriguez, her husband Luciano Rodriguez, and Cecilia ‘Bessie’ Estrellado.
We continue to support the school as their principal, Cristina Calingasan Ph.D., and her educators empower their students with knowledge for a promising future.
They prepared a wonderful “Thank You” video that touched our hearts. Dedicated educators like them who make a difference to young minds inspire us to help. We are more than willing to support committed educators as they are the instrument for these less fortunate young students to be who they want to be through education and good virtues. As we are appreciated for the contributions we had done to the school, we appreciate them as educators and game-changers!
Click and see how our 2021 Fiesta in San Pablo City is celebrated despite the pandemic. Let’s bring ourselves home with this video.
January 24, 2021
Our constitution & bylaws is 35 years old. The officers are diligently and carefully initiating the necessary revisions to the current practices and provisions of the law. And we are not even finished yet.
January 17, 2021
The officers and the board of directors conducted an in-person and virtual meeting for the amendment of the association’s constitution and bylaws. As our association evolves and changed to a legitimate certified organization, our constitution and bylaws needed to be amended to respond to the state’s nonprofit corporation law and provisions. A nonprofit is governed by the statute in the state in which it was incorporated.
(Note: Many versions have been written about the history of the Cocofest in San Pablo City. Below is the true version as told by Rolando Alino Inciong, Co-founder of the Cocofest.)
In July 1995, San Pablo City’s well-known couturier and former City Councilor Vergel Cosico were elected President of the San Pablo City Fiesta Committee, under the auspices of the Catholic Diocese of San Pablo. To serve as a working team of the Committee, Vergel invited his friends from the civic and business sectors to help him develop ideas for the 1996 fiesta.
Five private individuals responded to the invitation – Pablito Merin, Charter President of the Rotary Club of Pablo South; Willy Tan of the San Pablo Lions Host Club and his spouse Raquel, Past President of the Emerald Lions Club; Rolando Inciong, Past President of the Apex Club of San Pablo, Charter President of the Rotary Club of San Pablo City Central and the City Government’s first City Information Office Department Head, and his spouse Sylvia, Past President of the Apex Ladies Club of San Pablo and editor-in-chief of NewsWorld weekly newspaper. The group squeezed their creative juices during meetings which lasted till the wee hours of the morning.
Vergel desired to make the celebration an innovative event. Rolly suggested that since the fiesta is a public event, the Catholic Church may consider inviting the civic, professional, and non-government organizations to participate through sponsorship of activities. The church leaders agreed to the idea.
In October 1995, Rolly and Sylvia, together with members of the Apex Club of San Pablo, visited Bacolod City upon the invitation of the City Tourism Officer, Atty. Evelio “Bing” Leonardia, one of the co-organizers of the Masskara Festival, a street dancing event where participants wear colorful masks and costumes. (Atty. Leonardia later became Vice Mayor, Congressman, and now, Mayor). The Masskara Festival was conceived to show that despite the sufferings from economic depression with the fall of the sugar industry, the Ilongos remain to be proud and happy people.
Witnessing the grandeur of the Masskara Festival, Rolly and Sylvia took videos and photos of the event and returned to San Pablo with an idea – San Pablo’s own street dancing festival. The group agreed to have a street dancing festival with costumes made from coconut materials. Rolly suggested the name San Pablo City Coconut Festival (Cocofest) and laid out the objectives: to promote the City’s coconut industry, through cultural and tourism events, and eventually attract the attention of investors to invest in the coconut industry. The team presented the idea to the Diocese leadership who readily approved the event as an official activity of the Catholic Church-led fiesta celebration.
The next challenge was the budget. Vergel, Lito, Rolly, Sylvia, Willy, and Raquel contributed P5,000 each. With P30,000 as an initial fund, Rolly, who served as City Information Officer from 1992 to 1995, and a political strategist of Mayor Vicente “Biteng” Amante and Congressman Florante “Boy” Aquino, approached the city’s top political leaders for support. Mayor Biteng and Congressman Boy readily donated P20,000 each.
Publicity and sponsorships were added challenges. With an endorsement from senior journalist and City Project Development Officer Ruben Taningco, the team met with Robert Non, advocacy officer of the San Miguel Group of Companies in Laguna, and Mac Dormiendo. San Miguel Corporation agreed to be a major sponsor. Other companies, later on, agreed to sponsor the event.
It took two months before Vergel’s team was able to convince schools to join the street dancing, as they were not familiar with the concept. Five schools accepted the challenge.
To get the City Government’s involvement, Vergel’s brainstorming team approached the Sangguniang Panglunsod (SP), headed by Vice Mayor Danton Bueser, and proposed a resolution creating a cultural committee to support the Cocofest. Sponsored by Councilor Irineo Biglete, the SP adopted the resolution.
With the institutionalization of the City Government’s support through the SP resolution, Mayor Amante instructed City Administrator Hizon Arago and Secretary to Mayor Adolfo “Rudy” Vergara to take the lead in providing logistical assistance. The local PNP was tapped to secure the. Mr. Taningco spearheaded the publicity efforts while Melinda “Kambal” Bondad of the City Planning and Development Office, headed the documentation team, which submitted reports to the Office of the President, Department of Tourism, and the National Historical Institute.
Vergel’s team was supported by Edison Ticzon, Prime Torres, Seseng Oblena, Elmer Inciong, Luz Aguilar, Meng Lajara, and a number of unsung heroes behind the scene.
The team hatched another idea – the revival of the Mutya ng San Pablo which was personally chaired by Vergel. The Mutya ng San Pablo song was composed by artist Jake Merin, son of Lito Merin. (Jake later became President of the Rotary Club of San Pablo South). The song was sung by Raquel Tan and became the theme song for the beauty tilt. Notably, a young lady named Sol Aragones won the Miss Talent Award during the second staging of the Mutya pageant in 1997. Sol is now the congresswoman of the 3rd District of Laguna.
On January 12, 1996, the first San Pablo City Cocofest was staged as a main attraction of the City Fiesta. According to senior journalist Ruben Taningco, the event was timely with the commemoration of the 400th Anniversary of the founding of the Parish of Saint Paul, the First Hermit, which was organized by the Augustinian Fathers in 1596.
The first Cocofest was covered by Asahi Shimbun of Japan. The footage of the events was contributed to Reuters and other foreign news wires through the facilities of ABS-CBN Channel 2, GMA Channel 7, and People’s Television 4 through the efforts of Ruben Taningco and Rudy Vergara. The event was also featured in a special issue of the Philippines Free Press. A special report for television was prepared by Film Documentarist Corie Quirino which was released in January 1996. City Administrator Hizon Arago and Assistant City Planning and Development Officer Rolando Bombio provided the basic information materials.
Vergel, Lito, Rolly, Sylvia, Willy, and Raquel continued to manage the Cocofest in 1997 and 1998. Unfortunately, Vergel passed away in April 1998. Lito became Governor of Rotary International District 3820. Willy and Raquel migrated to the US. Rolly joined the Australian Embassy in Manila, and Sylvia moved to work with the United Nations Information Center for the Philippines, also in Manila.
With the original Cocofest team moving on to other endeavors, Rolly, on behalf of the group, officially turned over to the City Government the management of the Cocofest beginning January 1999.
From then on, Mayor Amante assigned City Administrator Hizon Arago as event chair, and the entire City Government managed the Cocofest and introduced improvements and innovations.
Mayor Biteng, and later Mayor Loreto “Amben” Amante, continued the legacy of the Cocofest. Subsequent political leaders – Congressman Danton Bueser, Congresswoman Ivy Arago, and now, Congresswoman Sol Aragones, supported the Cocofest.
The City Government successfully worked to have the event recognized and accredited by the Department of Tourism and the National Historical Institute. Today, the Cocofest is a multi-awarded tourism event. The new generation of coordinators took over – Paul Michael Cuadra, Maria Donnalyn Brinas, Leo Abril, Jr., and the present crop of City Government Department Heads – introducing lots of innovations.
While many versions about the origins and beginnings of the Cocofest have been reported, it is but fair and fitting that the real history of the festival is told. The rest is history. (Sylvia O. Inciong, Co-Founder).
Disclosure: Our very own Valeriano Lugti, Board of Director member, is the Vice President of Pepsi-Co at that time and spearheaded the involvement and sponsorship of the company for the first CocoFest.
Photos by Ralph Daryl C Manalastas, January 13, 2019, Dra. Vency Manalo, Pediatrician – CocoFest 2009 & Angela A. Calabia 2017 CocoFest.
January 15 in San Pablo City is celebrated with a week-long Fiesta festival consist of the famous and exciting CocoFest. Despite the pandemic, the celebration of the fiesta, in honor of St. Paul the Hermit, is consist of the pageantry of Mr. & Ms. CocoStar 2021, Lakan at Mutya ng San Pablo 2021, TikTok Contest, CocoArt Contest, Vlog Ibida Mo Contest, CocoPhotoFest Contest, and Paligsahan sa Pinakamasarap na Pinayte at Pinakamagandang Sisidlan.
Photos are courtesy of TourismOffice San Pablo.
