Tag: June 30, 2007

IF COLLEGE-BASED organizations have the Student Activity Fund to support them, then what do university-wide organizations have?

“None, most of our money come from sponsors and alumni donations,” Teatro Tomasino artistic director Niña Belle Gavan said.

The theater group celebrates its 30th year in September and it plans to produce plays that center on Filipino values and traditions, a departure from its usual social- and gender- themed productions.

What can you say about the University?

“It is big!”
- Meryl Anne Tongio, Architecture

“The campus is very clean. The security guards are very friendly, too.”
- Kristine Villaruel, Medical Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy

“The University has excellent facilities.”
- Alson Domingo, Nutrition and Dietetics, College of Education

“The enrollment system is fast.”
- Julian Lintag, Nutrition and Dietetics, College of Education

Why did you enroll in UST?

“I enrolled here because the University has a good reputation, being the oldest institution in the country.”
- Jean Carla Santos, Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy

“It’s a Catholic school, so I’m assured of receiving teachings with Catholic values from teachers and priests.”
- Dominic Lubirin, Information Technology, Faculty of Engineering

I HAVE always wondered how Koreans have taken the Philippines by storm. After the wave of Korean dramas ruling television primetime ratings, the country has also seen the escalating immigration rates of Korean nationals. Assuming that it was always a difficult feat to immerse oneself in a different cultural system, I pondered as to how they manage to integrate so well with us Filipinos.

To shed light on my queries about Koreans, I signed up for the Cultural and Educational Exposure Trip to South Korea last July 3-13, 2006. Financed by the Korean government and the National Institute for International Education Development (NIIED), the program was devised not only to encourage tourists to visit Korea but for the participants to make lasting connections with another Asian culture.

Annyonghaseyo!

KARAPATAN ng bawat mamamayan ang mabigyan ng sapat na edukasyon ngunit hindi lahat ay pinapalad at kasama na rito ang ating mga kababayang naninirahan sa malalayong kabundukan. Ngunit salamat sa teknolohiya, milya-milyang balakid ang nabigyang tulay ng Unibersidad upang maghatid ng edukasyon.

Sa pamamagitan ng “radio transceiver” at ng Distance Education Program ng Unibersidad, maaaring makapagsahimpapawid ng mga aralin ang mga Tomasinong guro upang maturuan ang mga mag-aaral na nakatira sa mga liblib at malalayong lugar. Matatagpuan ang radio transceiver sa radio room ng College of Education habang may mga radio transceiver unit din ang bawat lugar na pinagdadausan ng mga klase ng Distance Education Program.

THE Varsitarian has surveyed the streets around the University to determine the most student-friendly school supplies stores. The results are summed up in this “Ultimate School Supply Spot Map.”

Trixie’s and Irish Nicole’s: One-stop shops

Its proximity to the Dapitan gates of UST makes Asturias the most accessible school supply haven. One shop there is the Irish Nicole Copy Center, which is at the ground floor of the blue-painted R&F building.

Looking like a sari-sari store, Irish Nicole Copy Center not only sells common school supplies like pad papers, pens, and notebooks, it also offers a wide range of services from liquid photocopying for P50 centavos per page to rush book binding for P70 to P90 pesos.

EVERY year, global warming gets worse. Despite complaining about the heat constantly, have we ever really done anything to level it down?

The youth’s concern for the country’s worsening climate and environment leaves much to be desired. Although we suffer from the consequences of climate change daily, we seem oblivious to the fact that we too have a responsibility to our environment.

In 1972, the United Nations’ General Assembly declared June 5 of every year to be World Environment Day to promote awareness of the environment and to instigate change. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) meanwhile, has been celebrating Environment Month every June since 1998 by virtue of Proclamation 237 issued by President Corazon C. Aquino.

HOSPITALS are in the business of life. But what if hospitals are barred from running their business effectively? The result may have an impact in life.

Hospitals now warn that their business and the health and life they cater to are now in danger because of Republic Act No. 9439, called the Hospital Detention Law. This recent legislation declares it unlawful for any hospital to detain or to otherwise cause directly or indirectly the detention of patients for non-payment in part or in full of medical expenses. The law is a foil to the policy of patients who cannot pay for their bills, thus prolonging their stay and increasing their bills as well.

“In times of deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”

- George Orwell

***

FOR ALL his stars and war medals, AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon knows that obedience, despite its myopic underpinnings, is still better than retiring in career limbo.

Such is Esperon’s loyalty to the rust-stiffened chain of command that he has nonchalantly exhumed the treacherous carcass of Executive Order 464–the Palace ruling that bars Cabinet members and other executive offices from appearing in Congressional hearings—in order to apparently conceal what the Filipino people should know about the unadulterated truths behind the Medusa-headed depredations that hound the Arroyo government to date.

LINGAYEN-DAGUPAN Archbishop Oscar Cruz has urged Pope Benedict XVI to decline the invitation of President Macapagal-Arroyo to visit the Philippines, Asia’s largest Catholic country. Accepting the invitation may “dignify a national leadership that is suffering from dire lack of moral ascendancy, not to mention its big socio-political liabilities.”

The brazen call seems uncharacteristic of bishops who are usally prudential in speech and deed, not to say collegial in their big decicions and declarations. Moreover, Cruz seems ignorant of the fact that historically, papal visits of the Philippines have always been pastoral, not state visits; they have been visits made on the invitation not of the president or the head of state, but of the bishops of the Philippines.

POPE Benedict XVI canonized four new saints last June 3 at the celebration of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity in St. Peter’s Square. According to the Pope, the new saints epitomize the various forms of holiness espoused by the teachings of the Church.

“God’s wisdom is manifested in the cosmos, in the variety and beauty of its elements, but his masterpieces are the saints,” he said.