News

DUE TO difficulty in finding employment after graduation, the UST Graduate School Alumni Association (GSAA) is set this March to help graduate students find jobs by granting them memberships even before they graduate.

According to GSAA’s newly elected president Dr. Mercedes Leuterio, the association, which currently assists students through scholarship programs and subsidies for theses and dissertations, also aims to strengthen links with other organizations, and provide services to members, especially possible job placements and opportunities.

HUMAN Rights Commissioner Dominador Calamba III deplored the bloody dispersal of striking workers of the Cojuangco-owned Hacienda Luisita last Nov. 16.

“Hindi maganda ang handling ng case (Hacienda Luisita massacre), so much so that the rights of the laborers were violated,” Calamba said in the forum,”Hacienda Luisita Massacre: What is the Way to Peace?” last Feb. 4 at the Thomas Aquinas Research Complex seminar room.

Calamba encouraged the hacienda workers to be aware of their labor rights and to stand up for them.

TWO THOMASIANS topped the recent Architecture and Physical Therapy (PT) licensure examinations, while another landed at fourth place in the Occupational Therapy exams.

John Patrick Buensalido (85.70 per cent) ranked first in the Architecture board exams last month. Gerard Michael Dy (84.30 per cent), Andrew Benedict Sy (83 per cent), and Vergel Angelo Paule (82.70) placed third, sixth, and seventh, respectively.

Former Varsitarian Art Director Carlo Fundador Marudo was one of the 622 examinees who passed out of 1,282 examinees nationwide.

FORMER press undersecretary Alice Colet-Villadolid stressed the importance of accurate reporting and ethical conduct in relation to the Philippine Journalists’ Code of Ethics during the second Jose Villa Panganiban (JVP) Professorial Chair for Journalism lecture last Feb. 3 at the UST Central Library conference hall.

“Thomasians are especially involved (here) because we follow St. Thomas’ teaching in searching for the truth. (And if) you do not know the truth, then don’t work as a journalist,” Villadolid told the audience, mostly A.B. Journalism seniors.

DUBBED as “the country’s most advanced pharmaceutical research center,” the UST Center for Drug Research, Evaluation and Studies, Inc. (UST-Cedres) now aims for international recognition through improved drug testing and pharmaceutical standardization.

According to UST-Cedres operations manager Michael Lagdameo, the center, formerly the Bioavailability Unit that pioneered drug research in the country, hopes to ensure quality drugs for the country, allowing the Philippine pharmaceutical industry to compete internationally.

FORMER Interior and Local Government Sec. Joey Lina emphasized “Godly leadership” as the vital element the country needs now during the St. Thomas More lecture last Feb. 8 at the Albertus Magnus Auditorium.

According to Lina, the country is in “dire need of a critical mass of bold, creative, and Godly leaders” who can create fresh opportunities to shape and harness the creative potential of the people and the country’s resources.

No to mining TNCs: Nationalize the mining industry.

Thus read the slogan on the badges pinned on every chest of the 370 environmentalists, Catholics, and other Christians from all over the country who gathered last Feb. 8 at the Thomas Aquinas Research Center in a conference to protect the Philippines’ natural resources from being “exploited” by transnational mining companies (TNCs).

Frances Quimpo, executive director of the Center for the Environmental Concerns (CEC), said the mining industry in the Philippines “does not aid the economy”.

AFTER the theft of four liquid crystal display (LCD) projectors worth P95,000 each and 11 flat-screen computer monitors worth at least P15,000 a piece, Vice-Rector for Finance Fr. Melchor Saria, O.P. said the University will crack down on pilferage of UST properties on campus.

Three graduating students from the Faculty of Engineering and College of Science received the 2005 Bank of the Philippine Islands-Department of Science and Technology (BPI-DOST) Science Awards last Feb. 7 at the Thomas Aquinas Research Complex Auditorium.

Thomasians Allan Norman Baldonado, Christian Bendicio, and Sarah Camille Concepcion emerged as the top three students based on their scholastic achievements, leadership capabilities, and researches.

THE APPOINTMENT of the new Vigan and Nueva Ecija prelates last Feb.12 added to the roster of alumni-bishops of the UST Ecclesiastical Faculties.

Laoag Bishop Ernesto Salgado was named archbishop of the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia in Vigan City, replacing Archbishop Edmundo Abaya, who is also a Thomasian, while Msgr. Mylo Hubert Claudio Vergara was appointed the new bishop of the Diocese of San Jose, Nueva Ecija.