Friday, March 29, 2024

Tag: 2009

Is UST ready for its quadricentennary?

WITH a little more than a year to go, anticipation and excitement are building up for UST’s quadricentennial celebrations in 2011, and so are expectations for the once-in-a-lifetime event.

For the year-long event, officials have drawn up big plans consisting of a grand Christmas concert and “Paskuhan,” the unveiling of a new monument and a new University gym costing almost P800 million, an international conference and trade exposition, and even a song-writing contest.

The rationale behind the seemingly broad outlines for UST’s quadricentennial festivities is to show the University’s place in witnessing Philippine history, as well as in shaping it.

“The University wants to reaffirm its significant role in nation-building and service to the Church through its resemblance of moral integrity in four centuries,” Office for Public Affairs Director Giovanna Fontanilla said.

Bookkeeper of Asian dreams

IT WAS a case of “if you can’t join them, beat them.”

In 1946 when Filipinos were not allowed to partner with British accounting firms, Thomasian bookkeeper Washington “Wash” SyCip dared to go against these Goliaths and show them the consequences of their discrimination.

He sought to beat them in their own game, in their home court.

SyCip established his own auditing firm that would eventually become the country’s largest professional services powerhouse, the SyCip, Gorres and Velayo (SGV) Group (formerly W. SyCip & Co.).

“Those (British) firms were all Caucasians, and they had a fairly general policy that partners were Caucasians. From my viewpoint I was as good as anyone and should not be subjected to discrimination in my own country,” SyCip said in his biography titled Wash: Only a Bookkeeper (SGV Foundation and AIM Scientific Research Foundation Inc., 2009) written by Jose “Butch” Dalisay Jr.

Si Jose Rizal bilang isang Tomasino

“KINAMUMUHIAN ni Dr. Jose Rizal ang UST.”

Ito ang palasak na paniniwalang sinikap baguhin ni P. Fidel Villarroel, O,P., katuwang na archivist ng UST sa kanyang akdang "Rizal and the University of Santo Tomas" (UST Press, 1984).

Nag-ugat ang perspektibong ito sa isang kabanata ng "El Filibusterismo" ni Rizal kung saan ipinakita ang paglayas ni Placido Penitente, esudyante ng UST, sa isang klase sa Pisika matapos siyang pag-initan ng kanyang propesor na si Padre Millon.

Ayon kay Villarroel, bagaman malalim ang pinaghuhugutan ng El Filibusterismo sa kasaysayan, kailangang alalahanin na isinulat ni Rizal ang nobela sa panahon kung kailan ang mga paring Dominikano ay pilit na kinukuha ang kanilang lupa sa Calamba, Laguna.

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