Tag: July 7, 2012

READER’S Digest Asia has named UST as the Gold Winner of the “Most Trusted Brand” awards under the university category this year.

UST ranked first over University of the Philippines, which topped last year’s list. UST has been on the list since 2009.

The Trusted Brands Awards, which started in 1999, surveyed 8,000 consumers in the Philippines, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, and India through phone calls and postal mails last October.

The criteria were credibility, quality, value, understanding of consumer needs, innovation, and social responsibility.

TWO THOMASIANS were named most outstanding professionals in the fields of medicine and occupational therapy by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC).

Maria Minerva Patawaran-Calimag, a professor from the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, received the first Eric Nubla Excellence Award last June 22 during the 39th PRC anniversary celebration.

Meanwhile, Sally Jane Uy, an assistant professor from the College of Rehabilitation Sciences, was named most outstanding occupational therapist during the 39th Anniversary Celebration and Awarding of Outstanding Professionals at the Manila Hotel.

The PRC cited Calimag and Uy for their “exemplary achievements and exceptional professional competence with integrity” in the exercise of their professions.

AMID the mushrooming of skyscrapers around the UST perimeter and the untrammelled development in the area that has no rhyme and reason as far as urban planning is concerned, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Urban Road Project Office has proposed to construct a four-lane flyover along Lacson (Forbes) Avenue in a purported attempt to alleviate traffic congestion.

The flyover, estimated to cost of P900 million, would stand as high as the Roque Ruaño Building to give way to the proposed rail construction of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 9 that would traverse the España Boulevard and Quezon Avenue.

There’s no such thing as universality.

Poets talk of grief and of sorrow and of happiness like they know its very core, unpeeling, slowly, layer after layer, the skin, then after the mounds of flesh, until what is left is the seed of grief, of sorrow, and of happiness. They talk about it in seedy jazz clubs, during conclaves in underground bars, and even on narrow streets under the veil of their billowing smoke, snapping their fingers to the rhythm of their poem talking about grief and how it envelops our most private selves, or clicking their tongues at every end of their sorrow-filled verses of a mother carrying her dead baby around, or leering through those half-opened eyes as they express love for everything benign in their Shakespearean sonnets. Even the birds do not listen.

CONFUCIUS once said: “No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.”

In one of our subjects, our professor observed how Filipinos do not seem to have the habit of reading newspapers and asked us the causes for this. I thought at first it was a simple question for discussion, but it opened another question: does it have a definite answer?

The 21st century is the flowering of technological advancements from little things to unexpected discoveries.

WHAT IS it with the Pontifical University that makes people want to destroy its 401-year-old reputation?

Last June 18, the Philippine Daily Inquirer published an article, “UST Snubs ‘Sick Books’ Crusader’s Bid for Degree” on its front page. The headline itself cast the University an antagonistic light. But it’s not really a surprise, since responsible journalism is a rarity these days.

The story was about “sick books crusader” Antonio Calipjo Go’s row with UST after his bid for a journalism degree through the University’s Extended Tertiary Education Equivalency and Accreditation Program (ETEEAP), which seeks to award work experience with an academic degree, was turned down.

Architects and urban planning experts are joining UST’s opposition to a plan by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to build a flyover on Lacson Avenue, warning that the project could result in “urban decay.”

The government wants to construct a flyover along Lacson Avenue and later a Metro Rail Transit (MRT) 9 along España Boulevard “to alleviate traffic congestion at this major intersection.”

According to the plan, the four-lane flyover will be 1,440 meters in length—as high as the five-storey Roque Ruaño building—to allow the proposed MRT 9 rail to pass underneath.

QUEEN Sofia captured the hearts of Thomasians when she first visited UST in 1974. Nearly four decades later, the memory remains.

Clad in her immaculate white blazer, Her Majesty, then a young princess from Greece was a picture of elegance. And what endeared her more to the UST community was her down-to-earth demeanor that showed with every smile and handshake.

It was, to many, a symbol of how much the Spanish royalty valued UST, a Royal University.

THOMASIANS are no strangers to visits by the Spanish royalty.

Nearly four decades ago, the husband of Queen Sofia, then Prince Juan Carlos de Borbon, set foot on UST where he was conferred the title Royal Patron and doctor of laws honoris causa.

Memories of that momentous affair on Feb. 19, 1974 remain fresh in historian and former UST archivist Fr. Fidel Villarroel, O.P. The experience was surreal, filling UST with a sense of “satisfaction and pride,” the Dominican recalled.

Rite of conferment

The arrival of the royal guests was met with cheers and the waving of numerous Filipino and Spanish flags. Military honors were accorded the visitors by the UST ROTC composite model battalion.

AMID the Philippines’ raging dispute with China in the West Philippine Sea, the government is sticking to the best, and probably lone, weapon at its disposal--diplomacy.

And at the frontline of this strategy is Sonia Brady, one of the country’s most accomplished and reliable diplomats. The 70-year-old Brady, a product of UST’s journalism program, breezed through the confirmation process at the Commission on Appointments (CA) last May 30.

Besides Brady, another Thomasian is serving as an envoy under the Aquino administration. Carlos Salinas, who graduated from the College of Commerce in 1955, is the Philippine ambassador to Spain.