Tag: July 22, 2013

THE GOVERNMENT wants the University to serve as a catch basin to mitigate the perennial flooding problem in this part of the city.

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is proposing to dig out a “retarding tank” under the University’s open grounds to serve as storage for water during heavy rains, to be pumped out to waterways after a downpour.

“It will serve as a catchment basin,” said Reynaldo Tagudando, DPWH National Capital Region director. “The flood water will be retained in the tank instead of being in the surface.”

The proposed retarding tank will be similar to the one built at Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, he added.

Underground carpark

THE UNIVERSITY remains the biggest producer of registered nurses in the country, posting a 99.04-percent passing rate in the recent licensure examinations with 18 Thomasians in the top 10.

UST ranked fourth on the list of top-performing schools, with 411 passers out of 415 examinees, data from the Professional Regulation Commission showed. This was slightly lower than last year’s 99.33 percent, wherein UST ranked third.

Leading the new crop of Thomasian nurses is Jamila Jane Borlagdan who landed on second place with a score of 86.80 percent, together with Mylene Grace Gonzaga of the West Visayas State University-La Paz.

Beverly Anne Belagon of Velez College in Cebu City was in first place.

THE DEPARTMENT of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) plans to cut more than 100 trees in November for the construction of the España Underpass.

DPWH-Urban Road Projects Office Director Danilo Idos said cutting 105 trees along the sidewalks of España Boulevard was inevitable.

“Actually, kahit nung na-propose ‘yung project na flyover sa Lacson, may tatamaan na talagang puno. Dito naman sa underpass, kailangan din talaga kasi magkakaroon ng [road] widening,” Idos told the Varsitarian in an interview.

España Boulevard is an eight-lane road traversing two kilometers of Manila’s Sampaloc area. The proposed underpass will require two interior lanes on España.

THE GRADUATE School has started a program allowing faculty members to finish their master’s degree within the next two years.

Following strict enforcement of the “no master’s degree, no teaching load policy” for faculty who had failed to earn MA’s within a five-year grace period, the Special Reprieve (SR) Program was conceived to aid full-time faculty members who had begun graduate studies in 2005 or before and had completed coursework but had yet to finish their degrees.

Faculty members with approved thesis proposals are qualified to avail themselves of a study leave with pay equivalent to a full-time teaching load of 24 units.

THE GRANT by the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) of the Center of Development (COD) status to the Journalism and Literature programs of the Faculty of Arts and Letters (Artlets) has emboldened Dean Michael Vasco to seek higher declarations next time.

Dean Vasco and Journalism and Literature professors expressed optimism that the two programs would attain higher accreditations in the future.

Last March 22, Artlets' AB Journalism program, the country’s oldest Journalism--and communication--program was granted COD status mainly for its research and publications which accounted for 30 percent of the overall criteria.

THE MIGUEL de Benavides Library has doubled the penalty for students failing to return borrowed books on time.

The University’s central library imposed a P10 daily penalty to students beginning July 1, in a bid to discipline delinquent borrowers, said Estrella Majuelo, the chief librarian.

“Overdue books have become a very serious problem. Students and faculty members no longer give considerable thoughts to this predicament and so it has become severe over the years,” Majuelo said.

The library expects borrowers to be prompt in returning books.

THE OFFICE for Admissions (OFAD) has again asked applicants to submit their high school grades after “temporarily” removing the requirement in 2010.

Next academic year, the University will consider applicants based on their UST entrance test results (60 percent) and high school academic performance (40 percent), said Admissions Director Marie Ann Vargas.

“We will be requiring from the applicants [their] average in English, Math, and Science for [their] first, second, and third years, and then overall, we are giving the grades [a weight of] 40 percent,” she said in an interview with the Varsitarian.

WHEN the Aquino administration proposed to give access to the country's military bases to the American forces, stories regarding the revival of the old naval base at Subic Bay spread like wildfire.

The Department of National Defense, however, clarified that there wouln’t be new bases for the Americans. Of course there should not be—the constitution specifically banned foreign military bases in our country.

Instead, the government will just make our military facilities more accessible to them. There is no need for the old naval bases when they can have ours.

Americans abandoned the Subic Naval Base two decades ago. Yet their presence is still strongly felt with the Mutual Defense Treaty of 1951.

THE QUEZON City government denied leftist group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan’s (Bayan) request to hold a protest action near the Batasang Pambansa complex where President Aquino will deliver his mid-term State of the Nation (SONA), prompting them to file a case before the city trial court.

Leftist groups are known to rally every SONA. Part of their tradition since time immemorial is the burning of effigies of the current president, which they say is a manifestation of the country’s real situation.

I am a daily commuter and the hustle and bustle of Manila has been but a staple sight.

But the Philippine capital is polluted and grimy, chaotic and unruly, crime-infested and foul-smelling.

Spain made Manila the capital because of its natural endowments; it is, for one, a natural harbor; its centrality is in the vast archipelago is an inherent advantage. The Walled City of Intramuros is testament to brilliant Spanish colony-building, the majesty of its European architecture still somehow shining through despite the grime of the Port Area and the bedlam of much of what is around it.

Yes, Manila the capital is bedlam. It is as Dan Brown calls in it in his shallow potboiler, Inferno, “the gates of Hell.”