Tag: March 29

VICE PRESIDENTIAL candidate Alan Peter Cayetano last Feb. 5 said a Duterte administration won’t violate human rights under a campaign pledge to wipe out criminality.

“If you see how Mayor Duterte talks, yes, he talks about [it being] bloody, about killing. But he’s never said he’d kill anyone in cold blood,” Cayetano said in a forum at the Seminary Gym, in answer to a question about his running mate, presidential bet Rodrigo Duterte, being involved in summary killings of criminals and drug peddlers in Davao City.

Duterte, who has been mayor of Davao City for seven terms, was unable to attend the UST forum due to a prior commitment in Pampanga, where he was seen kissing some women attending his event.

CHANGE starts with the youth.

The country has taken the first step against political dynasties in the form of the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) Reform Act or Republic Act 10742, a law that bans second-degree relatives of government officials from running for posts in the barangay youth council.

Section 10 of the SK Reform Act, which lists down the qualifications of an SK official, states that an SK official “either elective or appointee […] must not be related within the second civil degree of consanguinity or affinity” to any incumbent national or local government official which includes parents, grandparents, siblings and relations by law or marriage such as spouses and in-laws.

THE FUROR may have died down, but UST and the public at large must reflect on what lessons could be learned from the death of Andrew Pelayo’s newborn last Feb. 29, an incident that caused a social media storm and tainted the reputation of UST healthcare.

Pelayo has vented his grief on social media and blamed the death on the refusal of obstetrician-gynecologist Ana Liezel Sahagun to admit his laboring wife for not having the full P20,000 advance required by the UST Hospital for admitting patients.

While Pelayo’s original Facebook post or rant has been deleted, it has been shared and reposted a thousand times, which resulted in an online character assassination of Sahagun, with netizens branding her “mukhang perang ob-gyne,” and worse, “killer doctor.”

THE LATEST additions to UST’s roster of award-winning writers have one advice for their fellow Thomasians who want to make it to the literary scene—persevere.

On the 65th year of the Carlos Palanca Memorial Literary Awards last September, the works of Thomasians John Carlo Pacala, Lance Lauren Santiago and Brylle Tabora were added to the competition’s 2,278 winning pieces, which include the works of renowned Thomasian writers Nick Joaquin and Bienvenido Lumbera.

Pacala, who won first prize in the Maikling Kuwento category for his story “Ang Reynang Espada at mga Pusa,” used a homosexual prisoner as his subject. The story is about love, life and freedom.

MAGANDA ang hinaharap ng pantitikang Tomasino kung titignan ang patuloy na pagtaas ng kalidad ng mga lahok sa taunang patimpalak-pampanitikan na Gawad Ustetika.

Sa 119 na lahok para sa ika-31 nitong taon, 29 ang umuwing may hawak-hawak na babasaging plake na nagsasaad ng kanilang pagwawagi.

Ito ang ikalawang taon na may 29 nagwagi sa kasaysayan ng patimpalak, ang pinakamarami sa nakalipas na dekada ng Gawad Ustetika.

“Presyo ng langis
sa malawakang merkado
bumagsak,” balita mula sa car radio
habang bumibiyahe pa-Clark Airport.
Pagdatal sa trangkahan ng paliparan
Ibinaba ni Tatay ang kaniyang
pulang maleta,
bumabakat ang mga ugat sa kamay
niya habang hinihila ito.
“Boarding gate for flight PR337
bound to Qatar is now open,”
ani ng public announcement.
Lumingon sa akin si Papa
Pagdating sa harapan ng check-in area.
“Mag-iingat ka anak.”
Pinipigilan ko ang maiyak.
Mahigpit ang aking hawak sa aking panyo.
Hinabol ko si Papa sa pagpasok niya
sa check-in area.