News

KAHIT na siya ay may pharyngitis, nakamit pa rin ng isang Tomasino ang korona sa unang Ms. Association of Southeast Asian Nation (Asean) beauty contest noong Marso 19 sa Jakarta, Indonesia.

Itinuring ni Jhezarie Javier, 22, isang Hotel and Restaurant Management alumna, ang pagkapanalo bilang isang malaking biyaya na sumubok sa kanyang kakayahan.

“It was a blessing. I couldn’t even stand straight the day before the pageant and I only had enough strength to finish it,” ani Javier.

FIFTEEN new fellows, including five UST Journalism students, attended the Sixth UST National Writers’ Workshop held by the Center for Creative Writing and Studies (CCWS) from April 18 to April 23 in Tagaytay City.

The fellows for poetry in English were Glenn Atanacio, Varsitarian Literary writer Sharline Bareng, alumna and former Varsitarian News writer Abigail Austriaco, Benedict Parfan, Cherie del Rio, Herminia Gabutina, Emmanuel Rentoy, and Raymond de Borja.

FACULTY of Civil Law (Civil Law) professor Judge Philip Aguinaldo intends to focus on providing guidance to student advisers on legal matters in his second term as Philippine Association of Campus Student Advisers (Pacsa) president.

The Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court judge said he plans to create a handbook on parliamentary procedure for student advisers and establish links with the Commission on Higher Education (Ched), aside from reinforcing UST’s role as “big brother to smaller schools.”

UST Rector Fr. Tamerlane Lana, O.P., warned 5,675 Thomasian graduates this year against taking “shortcuts to success” that may compromise Christian values during the Baccalaureate Mass last March 18 at the UST Grandstand.

“Because of wanting to get things easily, there are disvalues that often bring us trouble: lagay, lakad, lusot,” Fr. Lana said. “When instant money, power and fame are sought in the pursuit of our ambitions, we forever change those ambitions.”

For the second consecutive year, a Faculty of Pharmacy student placed first in the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) online stock trading tournament last February.

Medical Technology senior Mark Lester Sy, who topped the tournament’s individual category, said the repeat victory surprised him.

“I didn’t expect to win again,” Sy said. “In fact, mababa pa nga yung score ko nung first month.”

Despite not having any alumnus in the top 10 of the 2004 bar exams, Faculty of Civil Law Dean Augusto Aligada, Jr. is happy about UST’s improved passing rate.

“I am more interested in a high passing rate for UST,” Aligada told the Varsitarian.

Based on the Faculty’s estimate, some 128 out of 178 Thomasian examinees who took the bar exams for the first time passed for a 71.91 per cent passing rate. In the 2003 bar exams, UST posted a 56.63 per cent passing rate.

UST ALUMNUS and newly elected Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) chairman Peter Favila said that the bourse’s shift to non-broker management reflects “maturity among stockbrokers” as it allows others to take over the operations and management of the PSE.

“The market’s impressive turnaround in recent months has reinforced the need for the brokers to seize the day, focus on their businesses and leave the management and governance of the PSE with career professionals,” Favila, PSE’s first non-broker chairman, told the Varsitarian.

FOR THE first time in nearly seven decades, a female corps commander will lead UST’s male-dominated military training service.

Cadet Major Ma. Therese Cecilia Altamirano was officially installed corps commander during formal rites at the UST Grandstand last March 6.

As corps commander, Altamirano will command the University’s Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) cadets, which never had a top female leader in its 69-year history.

Altamirano said she’s up for the challenge.

THE PHILIPPINE Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities (PAASCU) raised the accreditation of the six programs in the Faculty of Engineering (Engineering) to Level II after a survey of the Engineering faculty profile, laboratories, and other facilities last September.

According to Engineering dean Dr. Marilyn Mabini, the Administration is trying to make the necessary facilities available.

“Anybody now is conscious with the delivery of engineering education following the standards set by PAASCU,” she said.

THE CENTRAL Commission on Elections (Comelec) dismissed Lakas Tomasino Coalition’s (Lakas) protest that sought the nullification of election results from the College of Nursing last month following the misprinting of ballots.