Tag: May 27, 2005

AFTER 27 years, another Thomasian has topped the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) board Exams.

Magna cum laude graduate Jhoanna Go registered a 93.86 per cent to lead the new batch of CPAs, who took the exams last May 8, 9, 15, and 16. Go graduated in 2003.

“Finally my dream had become a reality, I was so happy I cried,” Go said. “Also, I was very relieved because the ordeal was over.”

EVEN in death, Manuel and Aurora Quezon have not reneged on the promise they made on their wedding day—to be together no matter what. Thanks to the efforts of their children and the National Historical Institute, they have remained true to their vow.

To mark her 56th death anniversary last April 28, the late first lady’s remains were re-interred beside the crypt of her husband, Commonwealth President Manuel L. Quezon, at the Quezon Memorial Shrine.

HABANG binabagtas ni Francisco Duque III ang kursong Medisina sa Unibersidad, wala sa kanyang isipan na isang araw maninilbihan siya sa pamahalaan bilang kalihim ng Kagawaran ng Kalusugan (DOH).

Ngunit higit sa karangalan na nakamit, hindi pa rin nalilimutan ni Duque ang adhikain ng isang Tomasino.

“I would probably consider the value of having a strong religious conviction as my most important lesson from the UST,” ani Duque. “It was in those halls of the academe that my spiritual formation grew and my faith nurtured.”

Don’t tell me that by having one’s body splayed

across the centerfold, or on a quack work of art,

like slab meat, one has prostituted one’s self.

For by merely sitting here, pen in hand,

a coffee cup on a paper doily steaming nearby,

I have, in my silence, whored myself to words.

For at times, I have no power over what takes me.

Every word, every verse seduces me senseless

until nights have become as colored as a harem.

And yet, in the morning, unable to make them mine,

JUST as when history seems to be fading, Frank Tejada’s The Treasures of Lamon Bay (UST Publishing House, 2001) brings the past to life and evokes the harshness of the Japanese invasion through the viewpoint of a 17-year-old boy, reliving painful memories and drastic life transformations.

Set in 1940s, the novel tells the story of Max Galvan, who joins a guerrilla movement and in the process loses not only his close friends and family but also his identity.

A THOUSAND words flitted past my mind and not one of them seemed willing to linger on my piece of paper. They glowed like fireflies in the air, but in my hand they lost the glimmer of light that made them so attractive that I caught them.

UNTI-UNTI nang ginagawa ang eskinitang madalas kong daanan.

Gamit ang pinaghalo-halong graba at buhangin, tila malapit nang mawala ang dating baku-bakong kalyeng kapalit ang isang matibay at maayos na daanan.

Sino’ng mag-aakalang ang dating kalye, na nagmistulang ilog sa lalim ng baha mula sa kaunting patak ng ulan, ay handa na ngayon sa anumang bagyong maaaring dumating?

BEFORE the bells tolled and the new pope came out of the central window of St. Peter’s Basilica, I was one of the billion Catholics who were dazed at the moment. Excited but at the same time nervous, I waited to know the identity of the new pope.

I am one of those expecting and hoping that the new Pontiff will follow John Paul II’s footsteps. From the time Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger became a leading papabile, his life started to be an open book. But I initially had reservations on Ratzinger’s capacity to be the next leader of the Church.

ANO NGA ba ang dala ng nagbabalik na alaala?

Binubuo ng iba’t ibang akdang minsang pinagkaguluhan, pinag-aksayahan ng panahon, at tuluyan nang nabura sa gunita ng maraming Pilipino ang Liyab sa Alaala (UST Publishing House, 2004) ni Roberto T. Añonuevo.

Mapapansin ang pagsasabuhay ng may-akda sa mga paksang hindi-kadalasang napag-uukulan ng pansin dala ng pagiging “normal” ng mga ito sa pang-araw-araw na pamumuhay, o di kaya, naging bahagi na ito ng kahapong nasapawan ng pabago-bagong panahon.

Our very own Pinay superhero has finally landed on TV. When GMA-7 announced last year that it bought the rights to create a TV series out of Mars Ravelo’s Darna, it secured its place in Philippine television history as the series would eventually become the highest-rated “fantaserye” on primetime, and assure stardom as well for the new show’s lead actress, Angel Locsin.

From her days in Click and her role as Alwina in Mulawin, this teen actress has come a long way. Indeed, so far has she gone in her career that no one knows she was once a Thomasian student.