Tag: 2016

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.

ONE RECTOR for all campuses.

UST will soon oversee other schools run by the Dominican Order in the Philippines under an integration plan to be crafted this year.

Rector Fr. Herminio Dagohoy, O.P. said University officials were working on the final arrangements to merge with other Dominican schools and build satellite campuses, to extend Thomasian education beyond the Sampaloc campus.

Fr. Dagohoy said the proposed integration “would mean there would be only one rector but different boards of trustees.”

WITH the implementation of the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 or the K to 12 next school year, higher education institution (HEI) workers face retrenchment and an uncertain future.

With K to 12, students will now have to undergo kindergarten and 12 years of basic education (six years of primary education, four years of Junior High School and two years of Senior High School [SHS]), before qualifying for higher education.

HINDI ko malilimutan ang hagikgikan ng mga propesor, estudyante at manunulat na dumalo sa isang seminar ukol sa paggamit ng wikang Filipino sa pagtuturo ng mga teknikal na asignatura tulad ng agham at matematika.

Ang rason? Kawalan ng tuwirang salin para sa mga terminolohiya sa mga nasabing asignatura.
Ano sa Filipino ang mathematics? Sipnayan. Ang square root? Ikalawang ugat. Eh, ang chemistry? Kimika. Ilan lamang ito sa mga salin na kinahagikgik ng mahigit limampung katao sa loob ng isang awditoryum sa unibersidad.

Kung titignan sa kasaysayan, naging bahagi ng pag-usbong ng wikang pambansa ang mga salitang sipnayan, kimika at iba pang teknikal na termonolohiyang isinalin sa Tagalog.

FRIARS or brethren of the Order of Preachers, or the Dominicans, have much to be thankful for their order having reached its eighth centenary.

Their father, St. Dominic de Guzman, would be proud of the achievements of his sons, especially since the reform and renewal of the Church since the medieval ages have always been associated with the mendicant friar orders of which the Dominicans, along with the Franciscans, Carmelites, and Augustinians, are at the forefront.

His pride should extend to the whole Dominican family—not only friars, but sisters and nuns as well as the Third Order and lay confraternities.

DESPITE strong opposition from UST officials, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is pushing through with the plan to build a flyover along Lacson Avenue.

Alex Bote, DPWH project manager of the Lacson flyover since 2014, said the start of the construction period was moved to late 2016 due to revisions in the design.

The four-lane flyover, aimed at easing traffic woes in the area, was originally designed to start at Alcantara Street and end near Dapitan Street. The endpoint has been extended three blocks further to Aragon Street.

INCUMBENT and former lawmakers dominated the top senatorial picks of Thomasians for the 2016 national elections, a survey conducted by the Varsitarian showed.

Former senator Richard “Dick” Gordon, chairman of the Philippine National Red Cross, emerged as the top contender, with 61 percent of Thomasians saying they would vote for him if the elections were held on the day they were polled. He was followed by former justice secretary Leila de Lima with 57 percent.

Gordon, a former mayor of Olongapo, served as senator from 2004 to 2010. He ran for president in 2010 and senator in 2013, but lost in both elections.