Tag: August 31, 2008

WITH AGE comes wisdom – and a good academic reputation.

But aside from the the 100-year-old University of the Philippines and the 397-year-old University of Sto. Tomas which have consistently stamped their class as the top two higher education institutions in the country with a rich history of academic excellence, there are also other universities in the far off provinces that deserve a second look as far as performing well in various licensure exams is concerned.

Statistics from Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) in 2005 showed that Mariano Marcos State University in Batac, Ilocos Norte was the leading school in Region I, acing seven of 13 licensure exams, the highest of which was the 89-percent passing rate in Electrical Engineering. In all, it registered an average passing rate of 58 percent in 13 examinations that it participated in.

A FILIPINO Dominican will lead an “intellectual mission” of the Order of Preachers in Africa after being chosen by Master General Fr. Carlos Azpiroz Costa, O.P. to become the founding rector of the first Catholic university in Ethiopia.

Fr. Virgilio Aderiano Ojoy, O.P., a former vice rector of UST, stood high on the list of those who were considered to head the Ethiopia Catholic University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Ecusta).

“There was this world-wide search but the qualifications were quite stringent,” Ojoy told the Varsitarian.

REFLECTING the dearth on research in the University, records of the grants office show millions of pesos allotted to professorial and research chairs have remained untouched, and are in fact being used for other purposes where there are more requests for funding, such as travel expenses for conferences abroad.

Figures from the grants office showed that the budget of P17 million for professorial and research chairs, a recognition given to a faculty member who must present a research paper every year, was unused from June 2007 to May 2008.

“There could be faculty members who had professorial chairs last year but did not seek funding from the grants office,” said Vincent Glenn Lape, executive assistant. “Instead, they may have sought the help of their respective colleges or faculties.”

AGAIN, the results have spoken.

UST continues to underscore its billing as the top private academic institution in the country, producing three more topnotchers in the July 2008 Nutrition-Dietetics, Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy licensure examinations.

Thomasians Frederich Christian Tan, Kristel Anne Ayroso, and Kriszel Gatdula topped the Nutrition-Dietetics, Occupational Therapy, and Physical Therapy exams, respectively.

Tan led five Thomasians in the top ten of the Nutrition-Dietetics exam with a score of 85.10 percent.

UST chalked up a 94-percent passing rate as 46 out of 49 Thomasian examinees passed, reaffirming the College of Education’s new status as a Center of Excellence. The national passing rate was 52 percent with only 273 out of 523 takers passing the exams.

NO LESS than 5,000 Thomasians are suffering from various eye refraction errors despite the availability of treatment, the head of the UST Hospital Department of Ophthalmology said during the USTH’s observance of “Sight-Saving Month.”

In a program at the Angelo King Auditorium last August 5, Dr. Reynaldo Javate said that eye problems involving errors of refraction like near-sightedness, far-sightedness, astigmatism, and presbyopia (far-sightedness due to old age) are common among Thomasians.

“There is a rising number of eye problems in UST which prompted us to encourage students to undergo eye screening,” Javate said. The good news is that students’ immediate family members may also avail themselves of certain discounts for treatments such as the Laser-Assisted In-Situ Keratomileusis (Lasik).

SANDIGANBAYAN Justice Diosdado Peralta and 23 other alumni, including a medical-oriented family, received the Outstanding Thomasian Alumni Awards (TOTAL) for excellence in their respective fields last August 2 at the UST Central Seminary Gym.

An alumnus of the Faculty of Civil Law of 1979, Peralta received the TOTAL award in Law and Justice.

Last March 28, Pres. Gloria Arroyo appointed Peralta as chief of Sandiganbayan after its former head, Teresita de Castro, took the Supreme Court associate justice post.

Hailed as an outstanding citizen of Laoag City, Peralta’s expertise in criminal laws made him an in-demand bar reviewer and professor.

Among the awards he reaped are the Ulirang Ama Sectoral Awardee for Law and Judiciary in 2006, Chief Justice Ramon Avaceña Award for Outstanding Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge in 2002, and Special Centennial Award in the field of Criminal Law in 2001.

RUBBER cement, locally known as “rugby,” plays a detrimental role in the lives of street children, who rely on the substance to overcome hunger, depression, as well as personal problems and weaknesses, a University study shows.

Presented before the International Federation of Catholic Universities-Center for Coordination of Research (IFCU-CCR), the research titled, “Drug and substance use and abuse among street children in an urban setting in the Philippines: a qualitative study,” found that rugby, the orange-colored adhesive commonly bought in hardware stores, becomes part of the lives of some 20 children who participated in the study, because of the “push-pull” factors.

THE GOVERNMENT’S failure to perform its duty to serve the public interest and to protect people’s rights prompts the media to take an adversarial role, Philippine Daily Inquirer Publisher Isagani Yambot said in a forum.

“When the personal and private interests of the government prevail over the public interest, the press is one of the few institutions that are left to protect the public interest,” Yambot said in the forum, Media Responsibility in Government Advocacies and Campaigns: Media Effects and Influences on Philippine Government Strategies last Aug. 7 at the Tan Yan Kee Audio-Visual Room.

“To play the watchdog role and to provide a check on the government is to play the adversarial role by the media,” he added.

Yambot said that the press, a term which has been expanded to include all media, serves as an independent monitor of power that keeps government officials under constant surveillance.

AMID the challenge posed by coliseums and supermalls to universities, it is still worth to recall the unwavering commitment of St. Dominic to education, UST Rector Fr. Rolando de la Rosa, O.P. said in his homily during the Eucharistic celebration in honor of the feast of the founder of the Dominican Order last Aug. 7.

“For St. Dominic, everything he studies is pointed toward God that’s why he never separated himself from his studies,” De la Rosa said.

Dominic was described by many historians as the “first minister of education in Europe,” for he revered the act of studying and learning as a way to commune with God.

“His biographer even wrote that Dominic had only one obsession in life, that is to think of God, to speak with God or to talk with God,” the Rector added.

THOMASIANS should make sure restaurants and other food establishments where they eat comply with sanitation standards, the UST Health Service said, a month after issuing a bulletin that harmful bacteria had been found in the water supply of V. Concepcion Street.

The August 1 advisory came after the Sanitary Inspector’s Office of the Manila City Hall informed UST “that the water supply of V. Concepcion Street near Dapitan tested positive for E. coli bacteria.”

E. coli can cause gastrointestinal illness manifested by abdominal cramps, watery to bloody diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting, the advisory explained.

City Hall officials twice inspected one establishment in question, Flavorites Restaurant, after ten UST students who had eaten there complained to the Health Service of food poisoning.