Tag: May 13, 2015

ANOTHER group of parents and teaching and non-teaching personnel is set to appeal to the Supreme Court to suspend the full implementation of the new K to 12 basic education program, citing unclear provisions as well as the lack of public consultations and government preparation.

Members of the Parents Advocacy for Children’s Education (PACE) are calling upon other parents to join their efforts to seek a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the K to 12 Law from the high tribunal.

JOURNALISTS should always strive to deliver the news accurately and responsibly despite the accelerated pace of social media, ABS-CBN senior correspondent Willard Cheng said during the launch of the first UST National Campus Journalism Awards (UNCJA) last March 21.

“As we demand responsibility and accountability from our leaders in our writings, we should exact the same high or even higher standard of responsibility from ourselves, whether in journalism contests like this one, or when we find ourselves as colleagues in the real world later on,” Cheng said in his message before an audience of campus journalists from different student publications in Metro Manila. “This is how we keep ourselves relevant and credible in the public that we serve.”

THE LONDON-based consultancy Quacquarelli-Symonds (QS) has given the University of Santo Tomas four out of five stars in its “Stars University Rating,” the first such rating for a Philippine university.

According to the QS Top Universities’ website, a university with a four-star rating is “highly international, demonstrating excellence in both research and teaching, and provides an excellent environment for students and faculty.”

UST recorded a perfect five-star rating in four out of eight criteria, namely: employability, facilities, engagement, and access; four stars in the teaching category; three stars in internationalization; and one star for specialist criteria and research. UST was the sole Philippine institution to be rated.

INDEPENDENT candidates nearly swept the slate of Lakas ng Diwang Tomasino (Lakasdiwa) in this year’s Central Student Council (CSC) elections, winning five out of six CSC Executive Board positions including the presidency.

Independent candidate Anna Mariz Mangalili will lead the University-wide student council for A.Y. 2015-2016 as the next CSC president, after a lopsided victory over incumbent CSC secretary and Lakasdiwa standard bearer Rosevielentine Rosales.

Mangalili, a junior Management Accounting student, won a total of 15,718 votes (56 percent), higher than the 8,916 votes (32 percent) obtained by senior Clinical Pharmacy student Rosales. Eleven percent of the total voting population, or 3,340 students, abstained.

THOMASIANS from several faculties and colleges were recognized in the 2015 UST Student Awards held at the Quadricentennial Pavillion on May 8, with the Tradition of Excellence Award bestowed upon an organization in the College of Architecture.

The UST Architecture Network received the top honor for student groups, which is conferred on recognized student organizations that have won awards for five consecutive years.

Bro. Valentinus Ruseno, O.P. of the Faculty of Sacred Theology led this year’s recipients of the Rector’s Academic Award, the highest academic award given to students for academic excellence.

UST MAY have recorded a lower passing rate in the October 2014 bar exams, but the University is still at par with other Philippine law schools in terms of passing rate, Civil Law Dean Nilo Divina said.

Civil Law placed fifth on the list of top-performing schools with a 43.95-percent passing rate, meaning 69 out of its 157 examinees hurdled the bar. This was lower than last year's 63.67 percent.

“Traditionally, UST has always been a top-performing law school. This year should be no different. The difference though [is that] the passing rate among these top law schools is getting smaller. We expect to improve further over time,” Divina said in an email.

KEEPING up with trends in Information Technology (IT), the Institute of Information and Computing Sciences (IICS) has adopted “cloud technology” in teaching some of its courses.

Through the Internet program NetSuite Academy, students can now run computer applications online without having to buy, install, or manage their own servers for courses such as Accounting and Financial Management, Business Administration, and e-Commerce.

Since a number of IICS programs offer business-related courses, NetSuite’s business concepts and principles will be useful, IICS Director Alex Santos said.

A STATE within a state.

This is what the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) seeks to establish, an act that will run afoul of the 1987 Constitution, according to experts and analysts.

The Aquino administration, seeking to secure what it claims will be a legacy of peace and development in war-torn Mindanao, appears bent on having the BBL passed by Congress, after signing a peace agreement with Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels last year. The Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, which was brokered by Malaysia, was signed after 17 years of negotiations between the Philippine government and MILF rebels.

MARY JANE Veloso was supposed to be executed in the prison island of Nusakambangan, Indonesia along with eight other drug trafficking convicts from Brazil, France, Africa and Australia.

According to media reports, the surrender of Maria Kristina Sergio, Veloso’s recruiter, paved the way for the “postponement” of the execution.

The Indonesian government led by President Joko Widodo, at the last minute, decided to grant the appeal to spare Veloso at least until the resolution of the pending Philippine case against Sergio, where she would be tapped as a witness.

THERE IS more to the month of May than Laboracay, the summer party destination during the one-day holiday.

Since Proclamation No. 439 was signed in 2003, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) has been holding the celebration of the National Heritage Month every May to honor the country’s cultural treasures and raise awareness of their significance.

The NCCA deems the University as a heritage conservation paragon. With its high-quality research outputs, UST has been of great help in protecting cultural heritage sites and artifacts.