Tag: July 10, 2002

THE REGIONAL Multi-Sectoral Committee on Tuition Fees (RMSCTF) will press for the regulation of miscellaneous fees after discovering that Batas Pambansa (BP) Blg. 232, otherwise known as the “Education Act of 1982”, regulates increases in such.

During the third RMSCTF convention at the UST Faculty Union (USTFU) office last June 21, USTFU director Gil Garcia said former Department of Education, Culture, and Sports (DECS) Secretary Armand Fabella committed a grave mistake when he issued an erratum dated May 11, 1993, exempting miscellaneous fees from regulation

GAMBLING educates.

Last June 20, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) chairman and chief executive officer, Efraim Genuino personally handed a check of P5 million to the UST Research and Endowment Foundation at the Office of the External Affairs/Grant’s Office.

UST Rector Fr. Tamerlane Lana, O.P. personally received the amount, with Vice-Rector Juan Ponce, O.P., Secretary General Fr. Winston Cabading, O.P., and Dr. Ramon Sin, assistant to the rector for external affairs, in attendance.

UST security guards arrested a man who tried to rob a Letran student last June 28 at the España overpass.

The victim, Crizelle Lauren Sahagun, 18, said she felt her bag being opened and was surprised to see a man opening her bag. Instead of shouting, Sahagun approached the UST guards stationed near the España overpass for help.

“Dapat sisigaw na ako noon ng “snatcher!” Kaya lang natakot ako baka may dala siyang patalim,” Sahagun said.

She described the man to the guards, who immediately caught the man they saw loitering on Lacson St.

SECRETARY Patricia Sto. Tomas of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has ordered a P6,000 salary increase in the next three years for non-academic personnel of the University.

The May 31 order is contained in the much-awaited ruling on the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) dispute between the UST management and the Samahang Manggagawa ng UST (SM-UST). The labor chief had earlier taken over the dispute when it ended in a deadlock over the crucial issue of salary increase.

TO stem faculty defection, the UST administration granted another salary increase to its faculty in connection with the 2001-2006 collective bargaining agreement.

According to UST Faculty Union (USTFU) president Dr. Gil Gamilla, the rates of the increase range from eight percent to 46 percent, depending on the faculty classifications, from instructor to full professor. The increase took effect last June 1.

A PLATOON of Philippine Army Soldiers and a large contingent of Philippine National Police, some carrying guns, practically turned the campus into their barracks during the tense first training day of the new National Service Training Program (NSTP) at the Engineering Sports Complex last June 23.

According to Army Lt. Col. Meliton Sangria, commandant of the Department of Military Science and Tactics (DMST), the heightened alert was in anticipation of activist groups sabotaging the training.

IN LINE with the University’s growth and expansion program for VISION 2011, UST’s Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, Faculty of Engineering, and other technology- and health-related courses may soon be transferred to a new campus in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.

According to UST Rector Fr. Tamerlane Lana, O.P., this is aimed at attracting more students to the courses as a response to the shortage of physicians, nurses, and engineers. He explained the Commission on Higher Education had raised the alarm on the declining number of entrants to these professions.

EDUCATIONAL Technology (EdTech) Center director Fr. Melchor Saria, O.P. will replace Fr. Roberto Pinto as Vice-rector for Finance starting July 15. After eight years as treasurer, Fr. Pinto will pursue a doctorate degree in Canon Law.

Former Faculty of Engineering Dean Alberto Laurito will replace Fr. Saria as Ed-Tech director. Laurito is presently assistant to the rector for planning and development. It is not known if he will keep the post in a concurrent capacity.

AS THE highest official of the oldest university in Asia, Fr. Tamerlane Lana, O.P., leads the march towards the quadricentennary of the University’s foundation.

At the start of his term in 1998, Fr. Lana, tagged as the millennial rector, vowed to continue the programs of his predecessor, Fr. Rolando de la Rosa, O.P. He pledged to improve the University’s academic standing by focusing on four issues: faculty development, research invigoration, community development, and building a stronger image of UST as a Christian community.

“I love you

the way water loves.

Which is to say

I wish the world

Were through with you,…”

—J. Neil Carmelo Garcia, “Gift, 2”

I must warn you that I only write about the dead:

The washed up carcass of a whale,

or the calcified corals edging the sand

with every ebb and flow of water’s

hurtling blow, or a mermaid’s graying lock

of hair knotted into a shell, this pendant

dangling limply around my neck,