[UPDATE AS OF AUG. 27, 2009: THERE IS INDEED A PLAN! Click here to get more information.]

My former classmates and schoolmates and other alumni are shocked by a Daily Tribune news report that Mayor Alfredo Lim is allegedly taking steps to rename the historic and pioneering Manila Science High School, or MaSci, to President Cory Aquino High School as tribute to the former president.

The news came after Lim inaugurated a new high school at Baseco in Tondo and named it after Aquino. He also reportedly plans to install a monument for Aquino somewhere along Roxas Blvd.

Like other MaSci alumni, I am too shocked to say much, except that Mayor Lim should seriously rethink his name-change plan, respect the long history and outstanding record of MaSci, and think of other truly meaningful ways to honor Aquino. (Elsewhere, a senator quickly withdrew his proposal to rename EDSA to Cory Aquino Avenue after correctly sensing that he was going overboard and that the proposal would in fact alter history.)

MaSci celebrates its 46th anniversary as the country’s first science high school in less than two months.

Expect the MaSci community to take a stand and to act on this issue very soon.

[I hope the Tribune reporter just got his facts wrong and merely misquoted Mayor Lim.]