Tag: March 23, 2006

ANOTHER senseless death.

Last March 4, another UST student was shot dead on P. Noval St. at around 7:30 p.m. when he refused to hand over his belongings. According to reports, the robbers, on board a scooter, went after the student who was running for safety from the scene of the attempted robbery on I. de los Santos St, which is a few meters away from the UST gate on P. Noval St. The culprits caught up with the victim behind the Beato Angelico Building’s wall and shot him. The student died while undergoing emergency treatment at the UST Hospital.

CONGRATULATIONS, graduates.

With that out of the way, let’s turn to matters that will affect students who will be coming or returning in June for the new semester.

For students in the blink because of final requirements or examinations, tuition has yet again been hiked up by the administration due to rising inflation and projected expenses.

THREE weeks after the controversial Presidential Proclamation No. 1017 was lifted, President Macapagal-Arroyo continues to be under fire for having issued Proclamation which the opposition as well as the extreme left and right have branded as oppressive and tyrannical.

Through the proclamation, the President declared a national state of emergency and called out the armed forces to suppress rebellion and lawlessness and to maintain peace and order in the country pursuant to the Constitution.

THE UNIVERSITY has welcomed the elevation of Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales as cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI.

“Since Manila is the oldest seat of Christianity in the Philippines, it is only proper that the archbishop of Manila should be a cardinal,” said Fr. Ernesto Arceo, Central Seminary rector and Faculty of Philosophy acting dean. “I think he (Rosales) deserves it because he has been in the ministry for a long time, dedicated and committed especially in the service of the poor.”

FOR ELYESTER Losania, a confessed former homosexual, deviating from the “normal” lifestyle has its consequences, among them discriminatory looks and prejudice. But despite this, he never thought once of going straight. Until he became 100% pure, or chaste.

“Although the change is still a struggle, I can say that, after becoming a 100% Pure member, I am no longer gay,” Losania, a Business Administration graduate from the Pamantasan ng Lunsod ng Maynila, told the Varsitarian. “For two years now, I have given myself an ultimatum to stop my old ways.”

STUDENTS will have to shell out a little more money to study in UST next schoolyear.

The University will raise tuition for freshmen by seven per cent and tuition for old students by 5.5 per cent, after a tuition consultation with student leaders last March 1 at the Rector’s Hall. The rate is 1.5 points higher than last year’s four per cent.

“(Proclamation 1017 is different from) Proclamation 1081 (Martial Law). people were subjected to graver physical abuse then.”
- Rebecca David, Faculty of Pharmacy professor

“Proclamation 1017 is supposedly a passive declaration. It doesn’t grant additional powers to the President unlike Martial Law. But what happened was a quasi-Martial Law (after the arrests and bans).”
- Bobby Montaña, Faculty of Arts and Letters professor

Was President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s Proclamation 1017 Ferdinand Marcos’s Proclamation 1081 33 years later?

Yes, said the opposition, lawyers’ groups, some business groups, and the media.

No, said the President, it was merely a proclamation to quell threats to the constitutional order, as posed by what appeared to be an alliance between certain segments of the military and the opposition, and armed communist groups.

President Macapagal-Arroyo meets with Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz Jr., National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, Philippine National Police (PNP) Director Gen. Arturo Lomibao, and other members of the national security cluster in Malacañang to discuss an alleged power grab by the political opposition, the extreme Left represented by the National Democratic Front, Communist Party of the Philippines and New People’s Army, and the extreme Right, represented by military adventurists. Army Brig. Gen.

Danna Reeve, wife of “Superman” actor Christopher Reeve, said she never puffed a cigarette her entire life. Yet, last March 8, the 44-year-old American actress and singer died of lung cancer.

Although it was unlikely that a non-smoker like her would be inflicted with such a disease, Danna was just one of the increasing number of non-smokers who suffer lung diseases. As claimed by American Cancer Society, 10 per cent of males and 20 per cent of females in America who have lung cancer do not smoke.