Tag: December 6, 2001

FORMER UST-ROTC Commandant Maj. Demy Tejares has broken his silence and implicated his successor in the UST Reserved Officers Training Corps (ROTC) and five dismissed corps cadets for the murder of the Mechanical Engineering student Mark Welson Chua last March. He also implicated the former head of the National Capital Region-Regional Community Defense Group (NCR-RCDG), which oversees the ROTC program in Metro Manila.

PRESIDENT Macapagal-Arroyo stressed the importance of the “skilled classes” composed of engineers, teachers, information technologists, and other professionals to rebuild the country economically.

The skilled classes are important in sustaining a country’s economy, the President told Thomasians during her new weekly broadcast show, “May Gloria ang Bukas Mo,” taped at the Medicine Cinematorium last Nov. 10.

MANILA Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin and UST Rector Fr. Tamerlane Lana, O.P. led the blessing and inauguration last Nov. 15 of the St. Thomas Aquinas Research Complex, UST’s multi-million showcase of science and technology.

Designed by former College of Architecture and Fine Arts Dean Yolanda Reyes, the research complex brings under one roof the research facilities of UST in the natural sciences, social sciences, and education.

THE UNIVERSITY improved its standing in the Civil Engineering (CE) board, registering a significant increase from last year’s 83.51 percent passing rate to 95.74, with 90 out of 94 who took the exam . The improved rating is second among top performing schools.

In addition, Mary Ann Lisette Del Mundo posted a grade of 93.60 percent to land seventh and lead five other Thomasians in the top 20.

DUE TO worsening drug dependency, the Philippines may well be on its way to becoming a narco-state.

This is the view of Fr. Carmelo Caluag, S.J., vice-president for planning and development and academic affairs of Ateneo de Manila University, and Mary “Rosebud” Ong, the controversial former deep penetration agent of the defunct Philippine Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF).

THE OWL Magazine, the official student publication of the UST Faculty of Philosophy, was named Best Student Paper by the Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA) last Oct. 24 at the Ateneo de Manila University.

The magazine, which is published twice a year, contains articles on philosophical, religious, socio-cultural, and political issues.

DIFFERENT sectors have been clamoring for the abolition of the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) since the murder of Mark Welson Chua, the UST Engineering student who exposed the alleged rampant corruption in the University’s program.

Various student groups have called the ROTC corrupt, irrelevant, oppressive, and senseless. They believe that students would be more productive if they would engage in community service programs.

THE CONTRASTING stands on the future of the Reserved Officers Training Corps (ROTC) were triggered by a cadet’s expose on the alleged anomalies in the program.

The varying views on the issue, which no one had dared to raise for decades, include options on how to best instill discipline in the Filipino youth.

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POPE John Paul II celebrated his feast day last Nov. 4 by beatifying two women and six men, one of them a Dominican, and presenting them as examples of life in a world gripped by fear and violence.

The Pope celebrated the Holy Eucharist in St. Peter’s Square and beatified Pavol Peter Gojdic (1888-1960), Metod Dominik Trcka (1886-1959), Giovanni Antonio Farina (1803-1888), Bartolomeu Fernandes dos Martires (1514-1590), Luigi Tezza (1841-1923), Paolo Manna (1872-1952), Gaetana Sterni (1827-1889), and Maria Pilar Izquierdo Albero (1906-1945).

FOLLOWING the Holy Father’s call to conduct inter-religious dialogue, a Christian-Muslim conference, sponsored by the Sant’Egidio community, was held in Rome on Oct. 3 to 4.

Representatives of both faiths condemned terrorist acts and called for efforts to eliminate terrorism. They also discussed the problems that may have given rise to terrorism.