News

You SEE them in horror flicks as blood-thirsty, nasty villains with ferocious-looking fangs and sharp claws. We know them in folklore and legends as werewolves and vampires, but is there really a scientific rationale behind all these mysteries? So before you get scared by them this Halloween, better know the rare diseases that have contributed to their legends.

GRADUATE School Regent Fr. Jose Antonio Aureada, O.P. was appointed dean of the Faculty of Sacred Theology (Theology) last Oct. 5, following an election by the Theology faculty council.

Fr. Aureada replaced Fr. Fausto Gomez, O.P., who teaches Theology and Bioethics at the Faculty. Fr. Gomez is also a member of the Dean’s Council of the Graduate School and the Institute of Religion.

As of press time, Fr. Aureada is still unavailable for comment, as he left for a Eucharistic Congress in Mexico. He is scheduled to return on Nov. 22.

GMA NETWORK news director Jessica Soho advised aspiring Thomasian journalists to treat the celebrity status that comes with the craft as “incidental,” during Responsible Broadcast Journalism, a lecture organized by the Metrobank Foundation in cooperation with UST, last Sept. 27 at the Continuing Medical Education Auditorium.

“A journalistic career is far from being glamorous,” she said. “I even teach our young reporters in GMA News to earn their ‘stripes’ through hard work and to be journalists first and foremost.”

TO ENABLE Thomasians to recognize media’s “aesthetic excellence, moral value discernment and social responsibility,” the University launched the first USTV Student’s Choice Awards last Sept. 24 at the Main Building Lobby.

Themed “TV on TV: Thomasian Vision on Television,” the award-giving body will serve as means for students to voice out their views on the mainstream media, said Xialeemar Valdeavilla, UST Central Student Council president.

THOMASIAN students, get ready to be “empowered.”

The central board of students and several student leaders have formally drafted the Magna Carta of students’ rights during the All Leaders’ Meet last Oct. 13 to15 at the San Juan De Dios Educational Foundation in Pasay City.

WHILE the University of Santo Tomas Hospital (USTH) administrators are getting pay cuts, its employees will be enjoying wage increases starting this month.

Based on last year’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between USTH and the Sandigan ng mga Manggagawa sa USTH (SM-USTH), employees will be getting a P1,200 monthly wage increase and a P45 daily meal allowance. But the increase is coming during a tough time for the hospital.

THE OFFICE for Community Development (OCD) and the Bamban Aeta Tribal Association (Bata) Training have agreed to promotional and developmental plans regarding the management of the latter’s ancestral land during a planning congress at the Thomas Aquinas Research Center seminar-workshop room last Sept. 29 to Oct. 1.

“Madali lang naman pala ‘yung pagpapunlad (ng ancestral land) kung nagkakaisa (kami),” said sitio Santa Rosa representative Jonathan Cosme.

SOME 100 Civil Engineering (CE) seniors of the Faculty of Engineering (Engineering) helped build houses for the residents of the fire-torn Bataan Shipyard and Engineering Corporation compound (Baseco) in Tondo last Aug. 23 to 27, as part of their department’s outreach program.

According to CE department head Engr. Peter Lim, the outreach program is in coordination with Gawad Kalinga (GK), a non-government charity organization.

“Immersion din ito ng mga estudyante sa industry ng profession na pinapasukan nila,” he added.

THE CONGRESSIONAL investigation on the alleged corruption in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has led some congressmen to UST, but for nothing, as former AFP finance chief Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia, who was confined at the UST Hospital (USTH), was a “no-show” at a specially arranged hearing held for his convenience at the UST Continuing Medical Education Auditorium last Oct. 14.

“Kahit maliit, may magagawa rin.”

Ito ang iginiit ni Arsobispo Gaudencio Rosales ng Maynila nang ipakilala niya ang “Pondo ng Pinoy” sa mga lider ng maralitang taga-lungsod noong Setyembre 17 sa Thomas Aquinas Research Complex.

Programa ng Caritas Manila ang Pondo ng Pinoy na naglalayong makalikom ng pera para sa mga proyektong pangmahihirap tulad ng micro-lending program para sa kabuhayan at pabahay, mula sa mga tig-25 sentimo na donasyon ng mga mamamayan.