Tag: January 30, 2002

Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas has assumed jurisdiction over the brewing labor dispute in the University, averting in the meantime a strike by non-academic employees of a deadlock in collective bargaining.

In an order dated Jan. 22, Sto. Tomas ordered the two sides to cease and desist from “actions that would exacerbate” the dispute. She ordered the two sides to submit their position papers within 10 days.

The Samahang Mang-gagawa ng UST (SM-UST) expressed dismay at the order, but said it would abide by it.

TO ENCOURAGE professors to improve their academic profile, the University will grant merit bonuses to faculty members who pass the licensure and bar exams effective this school year.

According to the newly-ratified UST Faculty Union Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), the merit bonus of P5, 000 will be considered as a new taxable benefit.

This was patterned after the Faculty of Civil Law’s cash incentive program given to graduates who topped the bar.

THOMASIAN scientist and College of Science professor Edward Quinto won the gold medal at the Far Eastern Economic Review’s (FEER) and Hewlett-Packard (HP) Asia-Pacific’s Second Young Inventors Award last Jan. 10.

His research on a new method of testing water toxicity with the use of paper discs and bioluminescent bacteria found in seafood bested other researches from different Asian universities like Temasek Polytechnic, the National University of Singapore, National Cheng Kung University and Hong Kong Universityof Science and Technology. (see related story on page 17).

IN LINE with the new mission-vision of UST to expand and improve its community services in the country, the University inaugurated the Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel last Dec. 16 at Sitio Malasa, Bamban, Tarlac.

The UST Theological Society sponsored the construction of the chapel as part of its project titled MALASA (MAka-Diyos na mga LAyko ng SAmbayanan: Towards the Improvement of Sitio Malasa’s Spiritual –Religious Conditions).

A FORMER Varsitarian editor bagged the grand prize in an international poetry contest, based in the United States.

Former Varsitarian associate editor Carlomar Daoana, a Literature major from the Faculty of Arts and Letters, placed first in the 2001 Holiday Poetry Contest, sponsored by Meritage Press, run by writers Eileen Tabios and Jade Afable in the US.

FORMER UST Museum Director Fr. Jesus Maria Merino Antolinez, O.P. succumbed to a lingering illness last Dec. 18. He was 90.

Fr. Merino served as director of the UST Museum of Arts and Sciences for 30 years, as dean of the Faculty of Sacred Theology, and as professor of Oriental Religion and Culture at the Graduate School. He also became regent of the Reserved Officers Training Corps (ROTC), prefect of libraries, and director of Boletin Eclesiastico de Filipinas, the official publication of the Faculty of Ecclesiastical Studies.

UST FACULTY Union (USTFU) president Dr. Gil Gamilla allayed fears that the new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) endangers the security of tenure of teachers because of a clause that allows the University to dismiss teachers.

“Only those who have done wrong or intending to do wrong are the ones who should be afraid of their security of tenure,” Dr. Gamilla said in response to the old USTFU’s statement that the security clause of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) endangers the security of tenure of faculty members.

FILM adaptations of popular books seldom turn out successful. But in the case of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings, director Peter Jackson has skillfully translated the mystical world of Middle Earth from book to film, satisfying even the most critical of fans.

ALTHOUGH David Auburn’s Proof takes its name from a mathematical procedure, you don’t have to be a mathematician in order to appreciate the subtle beauty of the play. The Pulitzer Prize-winning play is essentially a family drama and is not loaded with heavy dialogue.

Proof is about Catherine (Lea Salonga) and her relationship with her deceased father, her sister, and her father’s protegee, Hal (Joel Trinidad).

Her natural mathematical genius and her authorship of an important mathematical proof serve as the factors that propel the plot forward.

“TO THE FILIPINO – definitely worth writing for.” This apt dedication by Australian journalist Greg Hutchinson and Malaya columnist Ellen Tordesillas of their book, Hot Money, Warm Bodies: The Downfall of Philippine President Joseph Estrada (Anvil Publishing, Inc., 2001), is a fitting introduction to the blow-by-blow account of People Power II.

Hutchinson and Tordesillas chronologically outline the details of the historic event. The book includes a biography of Estrada, the “Robin Hood” of the masa, his ascension to power and his unexpected end.