To celebrate its 90th anniversary, the UP College of Medicine revived the traditional Medicine Ball on February 15, 1997 - a well-attended affair in which students, residents, faculty, alumni and non-academic personnel mingled with each other in a non-academic setting. As part of the program, a "Lakambini ng Medisina" was chosen, an honor reserved for a woman worthy of being the College's resident beauty queen. The male members of each class selected a Lakambini for this affair - and class '99's choice was Ma. Kristin P. Mercado. Kristin was chosen first runner-up by a distinguished board of judges. She was escorted by Michael Edward A. Navalta, class '99's own Lakan. It is interesting to note that he was chosen by the female members of the class, unlike the Lakans of other year levels, who were handpicked by their respective Lakambinis.

Twenty year old Kristin's winning smile and charming manner endear her to both classmates and patients alike. She not only has the beauty, but the brains as well - she is from the INTARMED program, in which students enter the MD course after only 2 years of pre-med. This multi-talented lady can dance and play the drums, but ask about her favorite hobby and you get a ready answer: ice skating.

Class '99's "luscious Lakan" is hardly ever called Michael, much less Edward. Most people know him as Macky, the class band's bass guitarist. This 25-year old B.S. Biology graduate from UP Diliman also enjoys tinkering around with his computer and surfing the 'Net.

The piece that you heard while browsing the main page was a compilation of the songs sung by Class 1999 during the annual "Tao Rin Pala" Choral Competition. We would like to acknowledge the talents of our batchmates Leonard Pascual and Cheche Aquino.