Tag: October 5, 2001

EXACTLY a week after the infamous terrorist attacks in New York and the Pentagon in the United States, the Philippine National Police uncovered a threat to bomb UST.

University officials suspended elementary and high school classes last Sept. 18, after the PNP notified them of a plan by suspected terrorists to bomb the University, particularly the UST Pay High School Bldg.

FOR THE third consecutive year, a Thomasian topped the Physician Licensure Examinations given every August.

Thadeo Catacutan, a magna cum laude graduate, got the top spot with a rating of 87.92 percent while cum laude graduate Shaun Frederick Aure placed 10th with a grade of 85.50 percent.

THE UNIVERSITY’S P50-million power substation is now operational.

According to Engr. Oliver Gagarin, who is in charge of the substation’s electrical and instrumentation unit, the project dubbed as POWER 2000 has been finished since the last week of August––two weeks ahead of the target completion date of Sept. 11.

However, they were only able to fully operate the substation last Sept. 15 after securing the approval of the city mayor’s office.

FOR THE FIRST time, a Biochemistry graduate from the Faculty of Pharmacy landed in the top 10 of this year’s Chemistry Licensure Examination.

Ma. Irene Dela Cruz ranked fourth in the board exam with 88 percent. She was the only Thomasian who made it to the top 10.

Last year, magna cum laude graduate Donnabel Kuizon from the College of Science topped the board examination.

According to Biochemistry department head Dr. Mafel Ysrael, it was not really expected that Dela Cruz would make it in the top 10.

PLANTS are a rich source of potential drugs that relieve pain.

This was the subject of a lecture titled “A study of Indole Alkaloids found in the Tropics” delivered by Dr. Hiromitsu Takayama last Sept. 12 at the Tanghalang Teresa Quirino the UST Graduate School (UST-GS).

Takayama, a professor and research scientist from Chiba University, talked about several indole alkaloids extracted from three Oriental plants.

Clarifying media reports that the Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of the Philippines (CBCP) is amenable to moves to amend the Constitution, CBCP President Archbishop Orlando B. Quevedo, O.M.I. issued a statement during the radio program “CBCP on the Air” broadcast over Radio Veritas last September 2.

In the interview, Archbishop Quevedo reiterated and upheld the Bishops’ Pastoral Exhortation in 1997 on Renewing Politics in the Philippines wherein the Bishops expressed strong opposition against Charter Change (Cha-Cha).

TERRORISM spares no one.

In the Philippines, Irish missionary Fr. Rufus Halley, MSSC, 57, was buried last Sept. 1 at the Columban Father’s plot in Cagayan de Oro City after he was killed Islamic militants.

Investigations showed that Fr. Halley, who spent 30 years of missionary work in the Philippines, was a victim of a foiled kidnapping by six suspected members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Two suspects were arrested by local authorities.

FROM 1930 to 1934, the Varsitarian came under three consecutive Ilocano editors in chief from the old Faculty of Philosophy and Letters—Ricardo Dulay, Efren Peña and Virgilio Floresca.

It is said that Dulay initiated the “Ilocano dynasty.” He was accused of nepotism, having 95 percent of his staffers from his college. But they proved hardworking as he was. The Varsitarian was able to produce lengthy but philosophical editorials and editorial cartoons that stirred the University spirit.

REHABILITATING the UST Hospital does not only mean reviving its financial health and public image. It also means fostering industrial peace to ensure smooth operations and delivery of services.

Summit Ventures Management and Marketing Group, Inc., which took over the hospital’s management in September 2000, is seeking to arrest the financial erosion of the hospital. Pilar Almira, chief operating officer and USTH Board of Directors chair, said that USTH is performing positively for this fiscal year.

IMMEDIATELY after those three hijacked airliners were caused by terrorists to nosedive into each of the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon, I received through short messaging service (SMS) Nostradamus’s supposed “prophecy” regarding the event. I’m sure most of you received it, too. It was so moronic it still makes me cringe whenever it recurs in my memory.

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