Tag: February 11, 2013

THE FIGHT is far from over.

Pro-life groups are challenging the constitutionality of Republic Act No. 10354, otherwise known as “An Act Providing for a National Policy on Responsible Parenthood,” after President Benigno Aquino III clandestinely signed the bill last Dec. 21.

Lawyer James Imbong and wife Lovely-Ann filed a petition against the reproductive health (RH) law before the Supreme Court last Jan. 2 to strike it as unconstitutional.

THE EARTH is having an abnormal shift in climate, and we are now starting to experience the consequences.

Ban Ki-Moon, secretary-general of the United Nations (UN), said climate change is taking place so fast that a solution has to be made as soon as possible.

“Climate change is happening much, much faster than one would understand," Ki-Moon said during the Doha Climate Change Conference in `November last year. “The science has plainly made it clear: it is the human beings' behavior which caused climate change, therefore the solution must come from us.”

There is an “artificial” hope to extend life.

Artificial heart transplantations have made it possible for patients with deteriorating hearts to buy time while waiting for a donor.

According to Dr. Jose Yamamoto, a surgeon at the UST Hospital, an artificial heart serves as a pump circulating blood to the parts of the body, just like what a normal heart does.

“The artificial heart is like a pump, which has its own power source, that drives the device toward the pumping action so it can temporarily take over the failing heart,” Yamamoto said.

A THOMASIAN biologist has discovered another beauty in the country’s rich biodiversity.

Mae Lowe Diesmos, a biology professor at the College of Science, together with her team, uncovered three new species of the genus Brachymeles, a type of lizard also known as skink, in the forests of Camiguin Sur, Samar, and South Cotabato.

WHAT was supposed to be the end of the world in the Mayan apocalyptic prophecy was just the beginning of a new life for a young couple.

While the Thomasian community reveled under the magnificent pyro-musical during the annual UST Paskuhan last Dec. 21, Johannes Cortez dropped to his knees in front of his girlfriend Diana Bacual at the rooftop of the Thomas Aquinas Research Complex to ask for her hand in marriage, as their close friends watched with mouths agape.

Starting off as friends nine years back and being classmates at the College of Education, Cortez, 34, and Bacual, 27, never imagined being in a relationship together.

AFTER the rock and roll scene of Sazi’s bar along España Boulevard ended about a year ago, two Medicine graduates decided to turn what was then a raucous ambiance of the premises into a living space for Thomasians.

Thanks to Dr. Juanito “Jon” Abaquin and Dr. Noel Martin Bautista, it thus became an upscale dormitory.

Sandwiched between two high-rise condominiums, Dormus Boutique Living Spaces is a high-end dormitory equipped with electronic keys and minimalist design of glass-paneled walls.

Dormus is the perfect abode for Thomasians looking for a good space amid the rigors of academic life, said Bautista.

STUDYING Law is no easy task, but one journal is trying to extend some help.

The UST Law Review (ULR), the official law journal of the University of Santo Tomas, hopes to make the subject more understandable by publishing articles from legal luminaries, legislators, and law students.

“The goal of the ULR is to bring the [civil] law closer to the people with our policy, as much as possible, and to avoid [legalese] because the legal profession has its own jargon,” said editor in chief Lamberto Santos III.

“What ULR is trying to do is to make the language easily understood by common and ordinary men, so they would know what their rights are and what legal issues to confront,” he added.

MORE THAN nine million people clad in maroon and yellow filled the streets surrounding Quiapo last Jan. 9, clutching their white towels and handkerchiefs and throwing these to the marshalls to wipe the miraculous image of Jesus, the Black Nazarene.

Since 1963, Renato Roquiño has been struggling among the mass of devotees who believe in the image’s power to change lives. The 64-year-old manghihilot or taga-tawas travelled from Bulacan to be a part of this year’s procession. “Manalangin lang kayo. Hindi kayo pababayaan noon,” he said.

THE SANTO Domingo Church unveiled last Dec. 14 its newly restored pipe organ, ushering in a revival of sacred music in the shrine of Our Lady of La Naval.

As a result of several projects initiated last year, the mother church of Filipino Dominicans was able to restore the pipe organ which last played in 1980.

Among the fund-raising efforts were the “Adopt-a-Pipe” and “Pinggan para sa Pipe Organ.”

“In less than a year, [naipon na 'yung funds]. Marami kasing deboto ang ating Birhen ng La Naval,” said Fr. Guiseppe Arsciwals, O.P., prior of Santo Domingo Convent and rector of the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Naval.

Fr. Anscar Chupungco, O.S.B. the country’s top liturgist, died last Jan. 9, just days before he was to receive the Papal Cross of Honor for service to the Catholic Church. He was 73.

On the Feast of the Black Nazarene, the Benedictine monk succumbed to heart attack at around 5 a.m. in Malaybalay, Bukidnon.

Aside from the papal award, which is also known as the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice award, Chupungco was also set to receive the Jorge Barlin Golden Cross Award from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).