Tag: 2015

YOU DON’T need a port key, floo powder, Knight Bus, or Hogwarts Express to experience Hogsmeade and have a taste of the famous Butterbeer.

Nicole Guanio, a Business Economics graduate of 2014, came up with a Harry Potter-themed café called The Nook Café on the famous Maginhawa food strip last July which continues to leave Potterheads spell-bound with all of its quirky charms.

Butterbeer, a frothy drink that was adopted from the Three Broomsticks pub in Harry Potter, is the signature drink of the Nook Café, which allowed it to gain the favor of many Harry Potter fans in and out of the metro.

SAAN tayo kakain?

For the College of Commerce and Business Administration, finding the answer to this generic question has been one of the objectives of some Thomasian entrepreneurs.

Students under the entrepreneurship program were required to establish businesses as part of their theses and, true to their objective, were able to hit this sweet spot.

Not ‘just’ a thesis

Thomasian gourmets may start to recognize stores at a glance, and even formulate "food plans" before ever entering their chosen establishments. From a diversity of meals and price ranges, a prospective Thomasian may either try new meals or simply choose their “usual.”

This UST graduate is a world-class bartender.

Kenneth Bandivas, who obtained a bachelor’s degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management in 2011, was named winner of the “Around the World” challenge of World Class 2015, the cocktail industry’s most prestigious mixology competition.

Bandivas bested 53 other bartenders with his drinks “Bitter Felipe,” an ampalaya infused cocktail mixed with lime, and “My First Float,” a Marula flavored cocktail with rum and syrup.

Aiming to pay homage to the Filipinos, Bandivas’ “drinks with a twist” relived all-time favorite drinks, but cream liquors provided extra twists to his pieces.

World Class 2015, hosted by Diageo Reserve bar in South Africa, was held last Sept. 4.

WORKS by top Thomasian visual artists such as National Artists Ang Kiukok, Arturo Luz, and J. Elizalde Navarro, and Ramon Orlina and Romulo Olazo fetched high bidding prices in the Magnificent September Auction of Leon Gallery last September 13.

“Seated Figure” by Ang was sold for P10 million, the highest bid among his five other auctioned works. The expressionist painting shows a nude human figure with arms clasping the knees and with the skeletal framework highly prominent.

Luz’s “Desert Architecture” was sold for P800,000. It shows a carnation-pink geometric landscape of ancient Asian temples.

Luz’s three-piece mixed media “Collage” also rose from the pegged price of P100,000 to the final hammer price of P500,000.

SA KABILA ng mabilis at samu’t saring pagbabago sa komunikasyon, pantay na pagpapahalaga pa rin ang dapat ituon natin sa Filipino, katutubong wika, at dayuhang wika na humuhubog sa kultura at kasaysayan ng Filipinas.

Sa paglulunsad ng “Linguistic Atlas ng Filipinas” ng Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino (KWF) na naglalayong itala ang mga impormasyon gaya ng distribusiyon, deskripsiyon, at mapa ng mga wika sa bawat rehiyon, mas mapagyayaman at mabibigyang-pansin ang mga katutubong wika. Ilan sa mga ito ang unti-unti nang nawawala o iilan na lamang ang nagsasalita.

FIVE PLAYERS from the UST Juniors Fencing Team secured podium finishes during the Luzon leg of the Batang Pinoy Sports Tournament held at the PhilSports Complex in Pasig last July 26.

The boys’ team bagged one silver and one bronze medal, while the girls’ squad snagged one silver and two bronze medals.

In the boys’ individual epee category, Timothy Gonzales won silver while Andrea Alarcon also settled for second in the girls’ individual sabre category.

Anthony Macaraig (boys’ individual foil), Pauline Bernate (girls’ individual epee), and Hannah Alarcon (girls’individual foil) all won bronze medals. Philip Martin L. Matel

POPE FRANCIS’ first encyclical, at first glance, seems a document focused only on environmental issues—the first of its kind, though previous popes have mentioned the significance of care for the environment in their own encyclicals—but it is more than that: it is actually more of a critique of today’s individualism that led to the corruption not just of the natural, but also our social, economic, cultural, and moral ecologies.

THE THOMASIAN community could have ignored the highly intriguing reference made by President Aquino in his last State of the Nation Address (Sona) to a “big university” (“malaking unibersidad”) that had allegedly refused the plan of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to transform its campus into a catch basin for floodwaters. But trust the President’s men to make matters worse for him by making things clear, blunt, and arrogant: two days later, Malacañang spokesman Edwin Lacierda superciliously told a TV program that the big university the President alluded to “was definitely not Jesuit” and later urged UST to choose public “safety” over a “prized soccer field.”

WHEN it was signed early last year, the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) was welcomed albeit cautiously as a road map to peace. Nowaways it is often held up as an effigy of hate, a clarion call for war. It appears that Filipinos, Christians and Muslims, have made up to break up.

But could “lasting peace,” a term thrown around these days casually, be attained through the legislation of a 99-page document that many observers believe would literally make or break the peace?

THE UNIVERSITY administration has slashed next academic year's tuition hikes to just 2.5-5.3 percent from 5-8 percent, after strong opposition from students.

Under the final schedule of fees released by the Office of the Vice Rector for Finance last March 26, the tuition increase will now amount to P34 per unit for first-year students (up 2.5 percent), P67 per unit for second-year students (5.1 percent), P68 per unit for third-year students (5.3 percent), and P32 per unit for fourth- and fifth-year students (2.4 percent).