Tag: February 6, 2009

“There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven.” - Ecclesiastes 3:1

I WAS waiting again, just like these past eight years. I was expecting giant colorful flowers in the sky that evening despite an earlier rain shower. It was always like that every year. But this is probably my first time to drink with my mother while waiting for the year to clock out. One-liter bottle down.

“Have you found it yet?” she asked me.

After melamine-laced milk and lead-contaminated toys that left consumers paranoid last year, another health danger is coming—in the form of drugs that either do not help people get well or are toxic.

In 2008, the Department of Health (DOH) reported that one in every 10 medicines available in the market is counterfeit.

WITH the proliferation of counterfeit drugs in the markets, it is important for consumers to know the difference between genuine and fake medicine to avoid health complications and throwing away hard earned money.

Nemia Getes, officer-in-charge of the Regulation Division 1 of the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD), gives the following reminders:

Look at the packaging. Most counterfeit drugs have labels that are either faded or too bright compared to the genuine. This is because they are not made from the legitimate manufacturing site of pharmaceutical companies.

KILALA ang Unibersidad ng Santo Tomas bilang tagapagtaguyod ng maraming sinaunang institusyon sa larangan ng edukasyon at komunikasyon. Isa sa mga ito ay ang paglunsad nito ng sarili nitong istasyon ng radyo,ang DZST na binansagang “The Voice of the Catholic Philippines (Ang Boses ng Katolikong Pilipinas),” ang pinaka unang Katolikong istasyon ng radyo sa Pilipinas.

A RANKING Vatican official has warned about the “crisis in fatherhood” as a result of “radical feminism” and a liberal secular culture that ignores the biological basis of sex and sexuality.

“Today the self-understanding of manhood and especially fatherhood is in crisis,” said German Cardinal Paul Joseph Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, the dicastery for charity of the Holy See, in his address of acceptance after being conferred a doctorate degree in Sacred Theology, honoris causa, last Jan. 23 at the UST Thomas Aquinas Research Complex.

Cordes said “gender mainstreaming” and “radical feminism” have attacked biological manhood and insisted that “sexual roles are learned.” He said men are demeaned and instead, what is held up as an ideal is a man who is feminized and emasculated, one who, in a European study, is held up to be “a sweeter man.”

“Is male identity then nothing other than a product of a special culture and the consequences of social circumstances?” Cordes asked.

FORMER Sandiganbayan presiding justice and UST Faculty of Civil Law professor Diosdado Peralta is the newest member of the Supreme Court, adding to the illustrious roster of Thomasian magistrates in the high tribunal.

Peralta, one of three justices of the anti-graft court who convicted deposed President Joseph Estrada of plunder in a landmark decision in 2007, was appointed to the vacant Supreme Court seat by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last Jan. 14.

THE GOVERNMENT should not dictate the number of children couples must have and instead let families decide for themselves, the head of an economic think-tank has said.

Amid fierce debate over Reproductive Health Bill 5043, Bienvenido “Nonoy” Oplas, Jr., president of Minimal Government Thinkers, Inc., said the state has no role in curbing population size and the bill will only expand the government, which is already bloated and inefficient.

Oplas said the parents should plan their own families without intervention from the government.

PARENTS of incoming freshmen better prepare their cash earlier than usual if they really want Thomasian education for their children.

Starting next school year, applicants must pay a compulsory P5,000 “confirmation fee” to secure a spot in their preferred programs, Office for Admissions (Ofad) director Mecheline Zonia Manalastas said.

“(The fee is for) the parents (to) say, ‘I have already invested P5,000, I know I will let my child study in UST’,” she added.

THE PHILIPPINES is “in state of calm,” despite fears of a global recession, an official of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said in a forum at the Civil Law Auditorium last Jan. 27.

“The oil price is going down, the OFW inflows exceeded the targeted growth, and our banks are safe,” NEDA director Dennis Arroyo said in the forum titled “2009 Philippine Macroeconomics Prospects” organized by the Social Research Center.

THE UNIVERSITY welcomed 28 new chemical engineers and 69 new civil engineers who took their oaths last Dec. 16 and 20, respectively, amid a lackluster performance in both examinations compared to the previous year.

UST had lower passing rate in the November 2008 chemical engineering professional licensure examinations, at 58 percent, compared to 66 percent in 2007.

Out of 48 examinees, no Thomasian entered the top ten in the latest exam. The national passing rate was 53 percent, with 308 passing out of 577 takers.