Tag: March 26, 2010

A MAN who had attempted suicide was found along Lacson Street last February 8 and got “first-aid” treatment from the UST Hospital charity ward.

The nurses on duty had initially denied the man because they said there was no one willing to pay for him.

The hospital said the unidentified victim “was just drunk and had only wounds that were not deep.”

Varsitarian artist Rey Ian Cruz and his friends saw the man on Lacson Street with “a lot of blood and unconscious.”

“We saw the man lying on the street. Pumipikit-pikit ‘yung mata,” said Marah Villarubia, one of Cruz’s companions.

This prompted Cruz to ask help from hospital guards to bring the injured to the hospital. They were directed to the nurses’ station.

“ONLY in the Philippines can these things happen, so many priests in one gathering.”

This was how Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, the preacher to the Papal Household, described the Second National Congress of the Clergy held from January 25 to 29 at the World Trade Center, Pasay City.

With the theme “Faithfulness of Christ, Faithfulness of Priests,” the event drew almost 6,000 priests and bishops from different dioceses nationwide, including Filipino priests based abroad, to celebrate the Year of the Priests of the Catholic Church, which opened last June 19.

SOMETHING is amiss when the Department of Health (DOH), which should be the protector of public health, turns into a promoter of irresponsible and immoral behavior.

Such is the case with Esperanza Cabral, who replaced Thomasian Francisco Duque III in the DOH (he is now chairman of the Civil Service Commission, a constitutional body). While vowing to continue Duque’s “good programs,” Cabral, who was a disaster as a social welfare secretary during the Ondoy disaster last year, has arrogantly set aside his policy of not promoting artificial contraception because of its divisive nature. Instead, she has promoted “safe sex” in the guise of stemming the HIV-AIDS menace.

OLD HABITS die hard. But some are so detrimental to success that they must be excised out of the human psyche.

This is something I observed after four years of mingling with my peers, both in the classroom and in the Varsitarian. Frequently, a select few would indulge in an unhealthy behavioral cycle that would usually end miserably for them.

A solid example of this would be those that violate the University’s golden rule – no absences beyond the limit given by UST, lest you receive the two most dreaded letters for any student: F/A, or “failed due to absences.” I have known exceptional students who consistently get good marks, only to falter because they didn’t show up.

MY MOTHER and I carry out our relations largely through SMS. I get up late for afternoon classes when she has already driven off to work. We barely see each other so practically all the errands she makes me do come in text messages and settled by just a “K” reply from me.

But on weekends, we still seem not to see each other, for I am either drowned in Facebook or catching up on my American TV series in YouTube.

I might have been born in 1989, but I believe that I belong to the “iGeneration,” as dubbed by California State University’s Larry Rosen.

WHEN Globe’s “immortal text” service went inactive last February 16, I was extremely pestered, along with scores of my friends, who often used this “promo,” as said by Globe’s customer care when I e-mailed them about whether the service would come back. Truth be told, it is the best service that Globe gave to its medium-high rate users because it had no expiry. Then the Autoload (electronic credit loading system of Globe) seemed to have crashed on the 20th. Just my two cents, but it seems coincidental that the expiry of the “immortal call” service was the next day.

THE UNIVERSITY of Santo Tomas, our alma mater is no longer young. Next year we will celebrate its 400th anniversary of establishment. But it remains young because of the presence of the students who rejuvenate it annually, the energetic administrators, faculty members, and employees who infuse with vitality and a sense of mission, the army of alumni who incarnate their ideals of the University; and of course, the presence ad influence of God who continue to shower it with exhilarating and unexpected bleessings.

If you come to think of it, UST is indeed a blessed educational institution. The fact that it has survived several colonial battles for supremacy, two world wars, countless calamities and disasters, economic and political upheavals in the country, internal intrigues and struggles, is a clear proof that UST is an institution imbued with an unending grace.

UNIVERSITY buildings are strong enough to withstand the kind of earthquake that hit Haiti last January, but may have problem dealing with a Chile-like shock as far as “experience” is concerned.

Engineer Lawrence Pangan of the Facilities Management Office (FMO) said the buildings can handle intensity seven to intensity eight quakes, while the Main Building, the country’s first “earthquake-proof” structure, can bear up to intensity nine.

“With the innovation in engineering available, we can guarantee that new buildings like the Tan Yan Kee Student Center, Miguel de Benavides Central Library, Beato Angelico building, Thomas Aquinas Research Complex (TARC) and [the soon-to-rise] Sports Complex can last longer and endure future calamities,” Pangan said.

WHAT is the number one goal of a new dean?

The Varsitarian pores over newly-appointed Michael Anthony Vasco of the Faculty of Arts and Letters (Artlets), Josefin de Alban Jr. of the Faculty of Engineering, and Cynthia Loza of the College of Fine Arts and design (CFAD) as they set the agenda for their respective colleges in their next three years of deanship.

Vasco, who was appointed last October, has one goal as dean: to make Artlets “the number one liberal arts school in the country,” he says.

He may be one of the youngest deans in the University at 37, but he has his 14-year experience as an administrator to back him up.

PHYSICIAN-composer Ramon “Mon” del Rosario, Jr. was literally in the right place when the idea for his famous pop music composition Sino Ang Baliw? dawned on him: He was a UST Medicine student on duty in the psychiatry ward attending to mentally-ill patients.

With its catchy melody and stunning lyrics, Sino Ang Baliw? went on to win the grand prize in the Metro Manila Popular Music Festival songwriting competition. The amateur composer got the P50,000 cash prize.

“It was such a happy moment when I won for Sino Ang Baliw?. I never thought that the money would be such a big amount,” Del Rosario told the Varsitarian.