It has been several years since we lost brod Victor “Saxo” C. Navasero, Jr. ‘55. Brod Saxo was the acknowledged Upsilon Sigma Phi’s stag singer. During the years that I was a resident fellow, the frat stag party was Saxo. Saxo was a livewire, the center of attraction, the stand-up comedy artist and stag sing along master rolled into one. I must confess that one of the reasons why I always made it a point to attend the frat’s stag parties aside from the overflowing ice cold beer was brod Saxo. He was Mr. Entertainment. Raw attraction. The epitome of a hang loose Upsilonian. He was vulgar, but we loved him for being such!

When he died, for me, the frat stag parties were never the same again. Last July 5, the frat’s Los Banos Alumni Association had its Mid Year General Membership Meeting. As usual, after the meeting, we had beer and pulutan and the company of alumni and resident brods for another grand stag party. What is a stag party without the old stag songs?

Of course we had stag songs! Guess who was first to try his mettle to fit into the big shoes that brod Saxo left behind to be become the heir apparent, the new stag party singer? Brod Romy Escudero ‘69!

Brod Romy Escudero, according to the brods whom I shared table with, claims he was brod Saxo’s sidekick, the Dencio Padilla of Fernando Poe Jr. As such, I presume, he must have put unto himself as, well, the heir apparent, the new stag party singer! Brod Romy picked up the microphone and started belting that old stag party song about the “palaka”. Every time brod Romy ends a line of the song, the brods merrily provided the back up with the words, “pap, parap pap”!

After a few songs, brod Ding Navasero ’70 joined brod Romy Escudero. Brod Ding got another microphone and the duo had sang nay shouted “the big black bull came down from the mountain,” to which the brods shouted back “a long time ago oohh, a long time ago oohh”!

More stag songs were sang under the leadership of brods Romy and Ding which must have awaken the sleeping ghosts of the Local Government Academy (formerly the Community Development Center)!

If I were to give rating to the two stag singer wannabes, in the scale of 1 to 10 , with 10 being the most proximate copycat of brod Saxo, I will give both brods Romy and Ding same rating at 7. They both have a lot of areas to improve on. First, they have to memorize the lyrics of the stag songs by heart. In several instances both suffered some mental lapses on what the next words of the song would be! By the way, Brod Verden Dangilan ’51 has a compilation of the lyrics of a number of stag songs which he included in a new frat handbook which he brought to the US of A for sale to the brods.

Second, they have to do a lot of aerobic exercises probably jogging in order for them to have the required energy to sustain singing and shouting like Saxo the stag party singer! The duo got tired easily!

Third, they should stock pile and practice more jokes that they may dish out in between the singing of the stag songs in a typical Saxo way!

This early, we at the board of the Frat’s Los Banos Alumni Association has already lined up several fellowship activities for the coming UPLB Loyalty Day celebration (on October 10 if you have forgotten), the frat’s foundation day and the annual General Membership Meeting in November. In all these fellowships, there will surely be stag parties!

It would be best to start planning now to make it a point to be in UPLB and be able join the fellowships. After tackling the serious matters during the meetings, let us then relax and join brods Romy and Ding in singing the stag songs as we continue to desperately search for the new stag singer! Who knows you got what it takes to be another brod Saxo!

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