Tag: Special Reports

ARE FILIPINO taxpayers burdened with an “inequitable” and “outdated” tax system?

The answer is yes, as far as Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara is concerned.

“The country’s current tax system is terribly outdated and inequitable. Since (the enactment of the current Tax Code in 1997), prices have increased, and the cost of living has roughly doubled,” he said in an email to the Varsitarian. Angara chairs the Senate Ways and Means Committee, which is the tax-writing committee of the upper house.

THE UNIVERSITY increased its freshmen admission this year despite overcrowding in several colleges, but is already making adjustments to accommodate the Thomasian population by utilizing new classrooms and fixing class schedules.

As a solution to overcrowding, the new Thomasian Alumni Center will be opened by the first week of regular classes for several colleges.

UST Rector Rev. Fr. Herminio Dagohoy, O.P. said 43 new classrooms at the Alumni Center that are expected to be used by the College of Tourism and Hospitality Management, the Faculty of Engineering, and the Faculty of Arts and Letters (Artlets).

NOW THAT the University has moved its academic calendar closer to the height of the monsoon season, will it be able to endure the inevitable rain and flooding inside the campus?

Flooding during the rainy season is a usual event for Thomasians, which is why UST has fortified its plans for crisis management this coming school year.

Lawrence Pangan, Facilities Management Office (FMO) in-house engineer, said flooding inside the University depended on how well the drainage system would work outside the campus.

THE DEPARTMENT of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has changed its mind anew and reverted to its original plan to build a flyover on Lacson Avenue as a solution to traffic woes, shelving a plan to construct an underpass at España Boulevard.

The decision was made following a study that found that the planned underpass, which was also supposed to function as a catchbasin for floodwater, won’t have an effect on flooding in the area, an official said.

The study was conducted by the DPWH in the second quarter of 2013 to find out the viability of the proposed underpass. The agency decided to scrap the plans in the third quarter after the results showed a flyover would be more practical.

CONCERNS are growing over the decision of the country’s top universities to shift to a new academic calendar starting this year, in particular over weather conditions during the new schedule of classes.

UST has moved classes to July-May from the traditional June-March schedule, to align with other countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which is pushing through with economic integration in 2015. Other universities such as the University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila, and De La Salle University are also adjusting their academic calendars.

CONSTITUTIONALITY issues hound the recently signed Bangsamoro peace pact which the Aquino administration claims will bring an end to decades of conflict in Mindanao.

Under the new Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a new Muslim-ruled political entity named “Bangsamoro” will replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). As a result, rebel forces and private armies in the region shall be disbanded.

THE PHILIPPINES and China have hardened their positions in their raging territorial dispute, with the former invoking international law and the latter raising historical claims.

China and the Philippines have been fighting over various islands and reefs including the Spratly Islands and the Scarborough, Panatag and Ayungin Shoals.

The islands are located in an area that is traditionallyknown South China Sea but which Manila now calls the West Philippine Sea.

Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Spokesperson Charles Jose told the Varsitarian that the Philippines is entitled to a 370-kilometer Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in disputed sea as mandated by the United Nations Convention of Law of the Sea (UNCLOS.)

CALLS for the decriminalization of libel were made following the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold most of the controversial Cybercrime Law’s key provisions including online libel.

Sec. 4 of the Cybercrime Law punishes acts of libel as defined under Article 355 of the Revised Penal Code committed through a computer system. Libel, under the country’s penal code, means any malicious imputation tending to cause dishonor upon a person’s reputation.

The Philippine Press Institute (PPI) was among those groups who expressed disappointment over the Supreme Court decision, citing infringement of Free Expression protected by the Constitution.

UST IS set to terminate the services of full-time and tenured faculty members who would fail to earn a master’s degree by the end of the academic year.

School officials set the deadline in compliance with Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) Memorandum No. 46, requiring such faculty members to have at least a master’s degree by this year so the university could keep its autonomous status.

Autonomy means independence from regular monitoring and evaluation by CHEd, freedom to set academic calendars, and the privilege to revise its curriculum and to establish branches or satellite campuses, among others.

THE IMPASSE between administrators and the faculty union over employment terms threatens to be a repeat of the labor troubles experienced by the University more than two decades ago.

Disagreements between the University of Santo Tomas Faculty Union (USTFU) and the UST administration over a new, five-year collective bargaining agreement (CBA) have led to a deadlock, which could be a prelude to a strike.