Tag: January 30, 2007

I was eating my favorite sisig in Almer’s canteen when I received a text message about Ely Buendia’s heart attack.

Buendia, 36, the former front man of the defunct ‘90’s band Eraserheads, was reportedly performing onstage with his present band Pupil, when he felt a sudden pain in the chest and a numbness in his left arm. He was rushed to the Asian Hospital in Alabang where he was given angioplasty to clear his blocked arteries. Tests made on him later revealed that two of his arteries were blocked.

DESPITE Saddam Hussein’s hanging and the problematic situation in Iraq, US President George W. Bush has persisted in the American occupation of Iraq and has vowed to send more troops there.

The occupation is now on its fourth year and the casualties have reached tens of thousands. But the situation in Iraq has not stabilized. It appears in fact that the presence of American troops there has fueled an insurgency that threatens to undermine the new government that has replaced Saddam’s regime.

By our language, you will know why in our country, no-brainers are “in.”

Not only do we Filipinos cubbyhole scientists as creeps: we use hate speech against those in the business of deep scholarly thought otherwise known as “philosophy.”

It is only in the Philippines where to be a philosopher—a pilosopo—is not an honorific but a pejorative label for the mental malefactor. Philosophizing, pamimilosopo, is cockeyed rationalizing; that a rambling child is told “pilosopo kang bata ka!”

PINANGUNAHAN ng isang kalahok mula sa Ikalawang Ustetika Palihang Pampanitikan ang mga Tomasinong nagsipagwagi sa ika-22 Gawad Ustetika Patimpalask Panitikan na ginanap noong Disyembre 16.

Iginawad ang Rector’s Literary Award (RLA) kay Samuel Raphael Medenilla, kasalukuyang nasa ikalawang taon sa kursong Journalism sa Faculty of Arts and Letters (Artlets), para sa kaniyang maikling kuwentong “Overpass.”
Naging kalahok si Medenilla sa taunang palihan ng Varsitarian noong Setyembre ng nakaraang taon.

MASAMA na naman ang timpla ng araw ko. Walang pasok pero may prelims. Katulad ito ng bagoong at ice cream na parehong masarap ngunit hindi maaring pagsabayin. Hindi ko malaman kung ano ang hihilingin sa Diyos dahil iisa lang ang puwede.

“Inuulit ko po ang announcement mula sa DepEd, may pasok daw ang lahat ng year level,” sabi ng taga-anunsyo. Ngunit nagkataon nga lamang na higit na makapangyarihan ang tinig ni dean kaysa kay Ernie Barong.

MANILA could have been a dream city in the early 20th century, with its tree-lined boulevards devoid of traffic, its huge houses with gardens of dama de noche, rosal, gumamela, and makahiya, and its sunsets of “purple, orange, (and) vermilion” unmatched by any city in the world.

EVEN after Filipino scholar Luzviminda Francisco made a thorough documentation of the Philippine-American War in her book, The End of an Illusion (London, 1973,) little attention either from Filipinos or Americans was given to what was considered the “First Vietnam.”

IF IT took the UST Hospital (USTH) project management team eight months to construct the Benavides Cancer Institute (BCI) and three more months to make it fully operational, the same team believes that the P3 billion expansion project, which includes the construction of a 17-story hospital tower, can go full steam by October 2008.

The team, headed by engineer Danilo Ferrer, is now focusing on the next phase of the expansion project after the completion of the BCI, which comprises the first phase of the development plan.

A 17- STORY hospital tower with a helipad, 1000 doctors trained in multi-disciplinary healthcare and four new health institutes, the UST Hospital (USTH) seems not only to have recovered financially, but is eager to reach for the stars. But is its P3 billion expansion plan simply too starry-eyed for comfort? Is it too ambitious?

Yes, according to Dr. Cenon Alfonso, president and chief executive officer of USTH. He said that the P3 billion financing for the expansion came from a fixed-term, syndicated loan by the Development Bank of the Philippines.

A FACULTY member from the College of Science (Science) won the best poster presentation award in the 11th Annual Convention of the Natural Products Society of the Philippines (NPSP) last December 5 in Dumagete City.

Chemistry professor Alan Patrick Macabeo bested 12 other scientific poster presentations of other universities and colleges in the country and in Southeast Asia for his research work, “An antimycobacterial indole alkaloid from Voacanga globosa.”