The official name of PEQMNHS is San Juan National High School- Paete Extension. Our kababayans call our school PEQMNHS- Poten and Eliseo Quesada Memorial National High School and to other schools, it is Paete National High School.

But for us, the name doen't matter at all. The important is the quality eduation it brings to us and to our fellow Paetenian youths.

It started serving us in the year 2003 with just 6 teachers guiding more than 250 students. Now, it has grown into a school housing 1,215 students as of last June, 2006 while having just fourteen teachers to educate them. And yet this problems were never a hindrance for the school to shine in competitions. Instead, it has become one of the inspirations for the school to get to the next level. It consistently upped its level of excellence the last three years starting as perennial school champions in the San Juan National High School community to being national level winners last year.

It has weathered all the storms in had endured throughout its young history. It has faced enormous challenges and endured rough seas on its way to where it is now.
A year from now, the school with many names will now be a school with a proud name. It will be the end of the Pioneer Age of SJNHS-Paete Extension or should I say, Poten and Eliseo Quesada Memorial National High School. It will mark the changing of the guards, it will signal the start of a new era for PEQMNHS.

And after all of this, the school with many names will finally end its search for its own true name. A name it can hold dear, a name it can cherish, a name it can truly call its own.

(August 2006 - tHe cArVer OnLinE)

     Tribute to a long-lost father       
Dr. Menchee Quesada-Fulgado, (Jun 11, 2003)

HIS NAME was Eliseo, but when he went to The University in Manila, he became known as Alex. Nonetheless, in his hometown of Paete, Laguna he was Kang Seong. He was the second of six children, and the only son.

Alex was tall for the average Filipino, slender and handsome, always with an easy smile. His black wavy hair, round eyes with long curly lashes. Rather dark in complexion, he had, however, the sharp features of his Andalusian ancestry.

Alex graduated from The University and became a History teacher at Araullo High School. Here, he was smitten by the biology teacher from the province of Rizal known for her “peaches and cream complexion and almond eyes”. Together they created a symphony of whispers, rumors, and gossips despite the fact that they went out with a chaperone.

Alex was also musically gifted. He composed music although he did not take any formal music training and was the school’s bandleader. He organized the first award-winning banduria (guitar band) ensemble of the school. He was the toastmaster in band competitions, did the radio announcements of music he composed, and dedicated them to the Biology teacher.

A beautiful courtship ensued for a few years, culminating into a Cinderella-like wedding at the elegant and historical San Sebastian Church in Manila on April 22, 1939. In September of the following year a child was born, a daughter and they named her Carmencita, after their chaperone.

“Walang pakunwari, palabati, laging tumutulong sa kapwa ( unpretentious, friendly and always helpful ) was how Alex was known. He also made possible the pioneering success of Matang Lawawin, a fraternity of Paetenians and contributed to its newsletter. He was a researcher, a journalist-historian whose article on the outstanding Filipino carver named by the King of Spain,

Mariano Madrinan, his great-grandfather, remains in Philippine history books.
Alex left teaching and was a Civil Service examiner while he attended Law school when World War II broke out and there was the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. A plan to become a lawyer was put on hold, schools and businesses were closed, and they were expecting another baby. Alex, however, found a lucrative business, the bakya (wooden shoes) business.

Capitalizing on his “roots”, though not a carver, he had the wooden clogs carved from his hometown. In no time his authentic Paete product with embroidered elegant straps became the style of Manila society and talk of the town.

Business was definitely in boom and brought “sacks and sacks “ of Japanese money literally, as they said! The family of three, plus one on the way, was living in comfort when personal duty called. He, as an only son, felt it was his duty to return to his hometown and be with his mother and sisters during those days of terror and uncertainty. His father attended a “meeting” and disappeared, and he must find him! Furthermore, his wife was near delivery date of their second child. He was convinced that it would be safer to deliver in the province “ where food and care would be better than staying in Manila”. And so they left their bakya business in Manila to return to his hometown of Paete.

A second daughter was born with the help of a komadrona (midwife). Nonetheless, Alex continued his mission to look for his father. He went several times and searched the Sierra Madre mountains …only to finally disappear along with 13 others, he was the youngest. He was only 32!
Eliseo’s daughter hardly knew him. She was only four. But her love and fond memories continued the legacy he left.

As a child she would imagine seeing her father, whose body was never recovered, could be one of fellow jitney riders or walking on the street not recognizing her due to amnesia he probably developed after being brutally beaten in the mountains of Sierra Madre. She found in a box along with some pictures, personal items and a wedding album, a War journal which Eliseo kept and she read his plan for her was to begin a stamp collection as a hobby after the war.

Well, she had done more than stamp collecting. She has come a long way since. With a doctorate in counselor education, she has been helping, teaching people from nine to 90. And her sister, the infant Eliseo saw and held in his arms for barely two months, followed his business interests, worked herself from Wall Street to becoming a topnotch executive in a leading lending institution. Now both married, together they have seven children, five boys and two girls, and the younger of the two girls is preparing to become what Eliseo always wanted to be….a lawyer.

Long live Eliseo, the youngest martyr of the March 1945 massacre in Paete, Laguna my dearly beloved father, whose birthday is June 14th !

March 5, 2007 - Anilag 2007 Ethnic Street Dancing Competition

March 12 - 16, 2007 - Division Achievement Test

March 26, 2007 (Tentative) - 4th Recognition Day Exercises

MARCH 30, 2007 - PEQMNHS' 1st COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES