After cross-checking chapter records against the APO Philippines ID database, it seems that some discrepancies can be reasonably corrected using some inference given that the national office, at that time, issued ID numbers according to the alphabetical order of names submitted. Thus, our founder has the number 718 because his name was probably 18th in the alphabetical list submitted.
So using some deduction, I was able to infer for instance that:
- Bro. Pedro O. ALBAYALDEC is rightfully batch 1956 (and not 1957 as the APO Philippines ID database suggests) simply because his ID number is 700 and, alphabetically, his name precedes Bro. Romulo P. Alcala, whose ID number is 701.
- Bro. Flor C. AQUINO is listed in the APO Philippines database as being batch 1958 but with ID number 704, which places him in the correct alphabetical order and ID number sequence between Bro. Benjamin S. ANDRADE (or ANDRADA in the APO Philippines database) with ID number 703 and Bro. Ariel ARIAS with ID number 707.
- Bro. Jacinto G. CABAMIBIAS (with ID number 716) is listed in the APO Philippines ID database as CABARUBBIAS, both of which are probably misspellings of COBARRUBIAS because then he would naturally fall in between Bro. Gonzalo O. CATAN (715) and Bro. Melchor R. CORBO (717).
There are many instances of such discrepancies when you cross-check between our present roster and what appears in the APO Philippines ID database. One glaring improbability is that batch 1956 supposedly is composed of members whose family names just go alphabetically from Alcala to Dacumos. Individuals whose family names started with letters between D and Z apparently did not bother joining in 1956.
It would appear to me that if ID numbers were being issued by the national office in sequential fashion and following an alphabetical list of members, it would be highly probable that those whose ID numbers are in sequence belong to the same batch. In later years of course this may no longer hold because of the lag between batch year and rituals (with some batches not belonging to the same rituals class).
I hope that by using such deductions I have been able to establish a higher order of accuracy in the membership records of the foregoing pioneers. There's still a lot of inconsistencies in the details for our pioneer batch and any suggestions or insights that you can provide to help clarify their details, please sound off below.
Originally posted by Bro. Mark Hamoy '86 in the APO Theta network on Ning.
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