MW Bro Simeon Rene Lacson Drops Working Tools: 23 March 2009

MW Simeon Rene T. Lacson

(April 21, 1918 - March 23, 2009)

Masonic Funeral Rites: 6:30 PM March 25, 2009

MW Grand Lodge of Free & Accepted Masons of the Philippines

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MW Bro Simeon Rene Lacson, Past Grand Master 1981, dropped his working tools March 23, 2009.

Body lies in state at Loyola Sucat, Paranaque

KENNETH GO TIENG
Jose Rizal Lodge No. 22,
District NCR-C
Grand Lodge of the Philippines

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Brethren,

MW Bro Simeon Rene Lacson, PGM GLP, dropped his working tools around 2:15 PM today. His remains will be brought to Loyola Sucat tonight. No further info. (FROM BRO. JOJO ATIENZA)

BRO GERARD T GONZALES, PGLI, PM
Ernesto S. Salas Memorial Lodge #280 Bacolod City

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MW Bro Simeon Rene Lacson - 21 April 1918 - 23 March 2009

Biographical Excerpt - GLPhils


"Taking root in F. D. Roosevelt Memorial Lodge No. 81 as Master Mason on the 7th of March 1970, he took his membership to heart, so that, the year after, he was elected as Worshipful Master of his Lodge. Seeing that their Lodge was becoming a beehive of activities, the Brethren gave him another year to implement his program of direction. There was, from then on, no stopping Simeon Rene Lacson.

"By 1973, he was appointed by no less than Grand Master Ruperto Demonteverde, Sr. as the Grand Standard Bearer. Then in 1975 he was made the Grand Bible Bearer by Grand Master Teodoro Kalaw, Jr. Phenomenal! That was how his rise was described. He literally involved himself in all the allied and appendant Bodies of Masonry existing in Manila, seemingly to make up for "lost" time.

"Before he became a member of the Craft, he was President of Lacson Colleges and of the Philippine Law School. As such, he was active in the Lions Club, having joined the Pasay City Lions Club in 1951. In 1954, he became President of the club. Then years afterwards, he was elected District Governor of Lions District 301-A, Lions International. In 1968, he served the civic organization once more and went on to be rated as one-hundred-percent District Governor, one of only eleven one hundred percenters among the fifty-odd who have served as District Governor in Philippine Lionism.

"Civic-minded Rene has also served, for four decades, the Pasay City Chapter of the Philippine Red Cross. Also, he is past Chairman and President of the Pasay Chest Clinic for the Philippine Anti-Tuberculosis Society. He has also served as member of the Board of Directors of this Society for decades. The Philippine Cancer Society and Boy Scouts, Pasay City Chapter, are two other organisations he was an active member of. A member of the Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, he served as Post Commander of Post 37, American Legion, for three consecutive terms.

"After finishing his Law studies at the Philippine Law School, Lacson was called to active duty and inducted in the United States Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE). He was designated Executive Officer of "C" Company, 1st Battalion, 72nd Infantry Regiment - one of the three infantry regiments of the 71st division that were mobilised in Negros Occidental.

"Luckily, he survived the death march from the vanquished US Army bastion in Bataan to the internment camp in Capas, Tarlac.

"After fifty-nine thousand deaths later," continued Rene, I was made burial-officer-of-the-day. It was my misfortune to keep count of the dead we buried. I was released in November of 1942. Thank God, it was not much later!"

A year and a half after his release, he joined the East Central Luzon Guerrilla Area (ECLGA) operating within the Manila and suburbs. He recalled: "I served the Army, after liberation in 1945 and remained in the service doing routine duties until 1948."

"Mustered out of military service, he forthwith assumed the position of Registrar-Comptroller of the Philippine Law School and of Lacson College, both being wholly owned by his family. Later on, when his uncle passed away in 1960, he became President of both schools.

"Rene, recalling fond memories of Intramuros in Manila ante bellum, casually confessed:

"I consider myself ethnically a native of Silay City, where all my folks came from, although I was born at the old St. Paul Hospital in Intramuros, Manila, on April 21, 1918. This "accident" of birth was due to the fact that my family was in Manila at that time, where my father, Simeon C. Lacson, was a practicing lawyer. Unfortunately, he died in 1926. I was eight years old at the time of his death."

"In 1969, together with a group of friends and business associates, he incorporated the Carmen Mindanao Mining Co., Inc. Since then, he has served the company as Vice-President for International Affairs. Likewise, he was the President of the Gumban Copper Mines Inc., with mining claims in Basay, Negros Oriental. This farmer gentleman was actively engaged in sugar planting, with sugar plantations in Silay City, Saravia, Victorias and Cadiz, Negros Occidental.

"Rene certainly has had many a love in both the business and the civic world. But his dedication to Masonry is without parallel. In 1978, eight years after he had been raised as Master Mason, he was elected Junior Grand Warden. From then on he moved up until he became Grand Master. (SPF)"