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CAGAYANLifestyle TIMES Weekly DE ORO
Volume 8 | No. 31 | Cagayan de Oro City | March 8-14, 2021
Remembering Guana
Juan Y. Sia’s Legacy of Integrity in Life and Public Service
F
ebruary 9, 2021 was a sad day for most Kagay-anons when they found out one of the city’s most beloved civil servants had passed away peacefully in his sleep early that morning. However, though many know him personally, not many Kagay-anons know that the late Juan Yap Sia was born in Amoy, China (now known as Xiamen City) on July 7, 1934 to Sia Ponso and Leah Yap. He has six siblings: Jose, married to Cecila Ching; Esteban, married to Joy Angbetic of Cebu; Emelio, a doctor, married to Cherisa Cañete of Liloan, Cebu, (also a doctor) both retired in Seattle, USA; Richard, a dentist, married to a dentist from Ozamiz,
Norma Tan ; Alfonso Jr., married to Lilian Chan of Basilan; and the youngest and only girl, Ramona, who opted to remain single, and has since retired from banking. Guana, as he is fondly known to his family and friends, migrated with his family from China to Camiguin, where his uncle Sia Mayong had a store in Mambajao during the 1920s to the 1950s. According to his wife Adelfa, he had a near-death experience when he was bitten by a
snake commonly known as udto-udto (you will be dead by noontime if one bites you) in Camiguin Plaza and was unconscious for three days until he was treated by an arbolario with tobacco and oracion. Due to the severity of the bite, it might actually not have been an udto-udto (a.k.a. as paradise flying snake or paradise tree snake which are rear-fanged and mildly venomous, but their bite is generally not considered to pose a threat to humans) but the very similar-looking but far deadlier barred coral snakes (Hemibungarus calligaster, a genus of venomous elapid snakes). In 1946, Alfonso Sr. moved his family to Cagayan de Misamis
Silver Wedding Anniversaary of Alfonso Sr and Leah Sia 1957. Guana is to the right.
when he was hired by Proctor & Gamble to manage a copra buying station there. Guana studied at Nazareth Public School (now South City Central School) where he learned to speak Bisaya, and later to Ateneo de Cagayan (now Xavier University) where he polished his English language skills. “My brother belonged to this class. He was the youngest - was only 13 and turned 14 by the time he graduated. His classmates and batchmates were 2-3 years older than him,” recalls Gwendolyn Ramos-Garcia, whose late mother Pureza Neri Ramos, and late brother Honorio Boy Ramos, Jr. were colleagues of the late Guana in the city
council during his tenure as city councilor. At Kong Hua Senior High School Guana became one of its most outstanding students, winning an impromptu speech contest, awarded best in Chinese Calligraphy, and directed Chinese stage dramas. He graduated High School from XU (Filipino curriculum) and Kong Hua (Chinese curriculum) in 1956, and Bachelor of Science in Commerce (BSC) Major in Accountancy from Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan in 1962. He applied and was granted Filipino Citizenship and married Adelfa Lui, whom he met during their high school days at Kong Hua, and continued courting her when both were studying at Xavier University. The couple was blessed with five children: Renato, married to Pennapa Chantarasatit from Bangkok, Thailand, with two kids, Pete and Wena; David, married to Germyline Dizon, has two girls, Danica, a marketing graduate from XU, and Natasha,
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now a 3rd year Nursing student at Cebu Doctors; Catherine, married to Roland Teves from Davao, who migrated to the US and have 3 boys: Raymond, a professional nurse; and Ryan and Richard, who are still studying; Ben Hur, married Mary Lao from Tabaco, Albay, have two girls, Cara and Paige studying at Kong Hua school; and Marylou, married Patrick Tan, a Kagay-anon, and now lives in Manila with 3 kids: Kirk, Maegan, and Audrey. The family now has a total of twelve grandchildren. In between his high school and college, he first worked as a cigarette salesman for Golden Key. Then, after his college graduation, he worked for Ramona Unchuan Agustines as an Esso kerosene salesman. “For two consecutive years he won a black and white TV set as incentive,” recalls Adelfa. “At the time, Cagayan still had no TV station. The first one we gave to Ramona and the second we kept as a souvenir.” LEGACY/PAGE 4