Tag: No. 4

HE IS CALLED the “Dominican Pope” and has authority over every member of one of the Church’s greatest and most powerful orders, but little known is the fact that the Master of the Order of Preachers also wields tremendous influence over the University of Santo Tomas.

Fr. Carlos Alfonso Azpiroz Costa, O.P. is also Grand Chancellor of the University—an institution considered as one of the Order’s prized possessions—and as such exercises vast powers under the General Statutes of the University.

And so it was that with a sudden blow, he was able to replace the UST leadership, catching everyone, even the three priests he eventually asked to resign — the Filipino Dominican Provincial, the University Rector, and the Vice-Rector — by surprise. The three top UST officials humbly obeyed as part of their religious vows.

DR. CENON Alfonso, UST Hospital president and chief executive officer, has become the latest official to quit following the Dominican leadership’s decision to halt the construction of a 19-story hospital tower that would have required the University’s medical institution to go into more profitable businesses and take a P3 billion bank loan.

“I was asked to resign by the new rector in line with the reorganization of the hospital,” Alfonso told the Varsitarian following a meeting with Acting Rector Fr. Rolando V. De La Rosa, O.P. last Sept. 17.

Alfonso had opted to wait for clearer signals from higher-ups before finally quitting even with the earlier resignations of three top University officials who were also members of the hospital’s board of trustees — Fr. Edmund Nantes, O.P., prior provincial of the Philippine Dominican Province and UST vice chancellor; UST Rector Fr. Ernesto Arceo, O.P., the hospital chairman; and Vice Rector Juan Ponce, O.P.

THE HEAD of the Dominican Order has accepted the resignations of three top University officials over the spinoff of UST Hospital into a separate corporation and a P3 billion loan signed last April for a grand hospital expansion plan.

Fr. Carlos Alfonso Azpiroz Costa, O.P., Master of the Order of Preachers, immediately named two-term rector and former Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) chairman Fr. Rolando V. De La Rosa, O.P. as acting rector and called for a “new leadership team” to handle developments in the University and the hospital.

Putting his foot down, Father Azpiroz ordered the hospital corporation dissolved as well as the cancellation or renegotiation of the bank loan. The project must be reviewed “to protect the patrimony of the University,” he said. (See story below.)

NAGKAMIT agad ang pinakamatandang palimbagan sa Asya ng iba’t ibang parangal sa dalawang patimpalak sa ikaapat na taon pa lamang ng proyektong “400 books for UST’s 400th” ng UST Publishing House (USTPH).

Pinarangalan ng Manila Critics’ Circle sa 23rd National Book Awards ang USTPH bilang “Publisher of the Year 2003,” noong Agosto 14 sa World Trade Center sa Pasay.