Tag: October 5, 2006

TWO CONGRESS bills are seeking to restore the mandatory nature of the Reserved Officers Training Corps (ROTC) only four years after Republic Act (RA) 9163 made it optional in order to check the excesses and abuses of a compulsory ROTC.

Senate Bill 2224 (SB 2224) by Sen. Alfredo Lim seeks to make ROTC mandatory for male and female students while House Bill 5460 (HB 5460) by Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas seeks to make ROTC mandatory for males but optional for females.

THE SACRED Congregation for Catholic Education of the Holy See has confirmed the appointment of Fr. Ernesto Arceo, O. P. as rector of the University of Santo Tomas, the Varsitarian has learned.

Father Arceo, the rector of the UST Central Seminary and former prior provincial of the Philippine Dominican Province, will replace Fr. Tamerlane Lana, O. P. who finished his term last April.

UST is a pontifical university and the Vatican confirms the election of the UST rector.

CRIMINALS would not anymore have a dog of a chance on campus.

The UST-Reserved Officers Training Corps (ROTC) is training canines at the University grounds every Sunday to guard the campus during special occasions. According to Elmer Tan, trainer of UST-ROTC canine unit, UST’s ROTC is the first in the country and in Asia to train a canine unit in its Army Reserve Command Unit.

FACULTY leaders of the College of Nursing are confident that their stand for a retake of the leakage-marred June nursing licensure exams will be sustained by the Court of Appeals (CA).

Earlier, President Macapagal-Arroyo made an about-face on the issue and ordered a retake of the exam. Previously, she had stated there was no need for a retake.

But apparently informed that the matter had been brought to the CA by the Faculty Association of the College of Nursing (Facon) of UST, she said she would wait for the court’s decision.

MEDICAL Technology (Med Tech) magna cum laude graduate Lorayne Ann Lim Chua topped the Med Tech licensure examinations last Sept. 2 and 3.

Chua registered an 87.30 per cent average. The last time a Thomasian topped the Med Tech exams was in 2004 when Mark Christian Pabustan averaged 89 per cent.

“I was so afraid of failing so I prayed about the exams,” Chua told the Varsitarian. “I just saw myself passing the exam but when I got the results, I was really shocked that I topped it.”

BINIGYANG-DIIN ni Jun Cruz Reyes ang pagmamahal at paggalang ng isang manunulat sa sariling akda sa ikalawang Ustetika Pampanitikang Palihan na idinaos ng Varsitarian noong Setyembre 17 sa St. Raymund’s Bldg.

“Huwag kayong humingi ng respeto at papuri sa inyong mga akda kung hindi niyo naman ito pinaghirapan,” ani Reyes, dating patnugot ng Diyaryo Hagonoy, kuwentista, makata, at propesor sa Unibersidad ng Pilipinas (UP) at De La Salle University.

LAKING-TONDO ako.

Inamin ni Rosario Torres-Yu, dating dekana ng College of Arts and Letters ng Unibersidad ng Pilipinas na nahihiya siyang sabihin ito sa mga tao dahil iisipin nila na laki siya sa isang lugar na pinamumugaran ng mga kriminal.

Ngunit sa Silakbo (UST Publishing House, 2006), ang unang koleksiyon ni Yu ng mga sanaysay na halaw sa kanyang mga karanasan bilang laking-Tondo, manunulat at guro, nilinaw niya ang akala ng karamihan.

OKTUBRE na naman, buwan ng rosaryo, daragsa sa dambana ng Manaoag ang maraming deboto mula sa pag-asang diringgin ng Mahal na Birhen ang kani-kanilang mga panata. Bagaman higit pa rito ang dami ng tao tuwing Semana Santa, tila mas mabilis pang matutupad ang iyong kahilingan sa Birheng Maria kaysa umandar ang mga sasakyang usad-pagong sa masikip na kalsada ng Urdaneta.

PERSONAL essays tend to be subjective, but for award-winning writer Kerima Polotan, they can be avenues for the plain and simple truth.

Polotan’s third collection of essays, The True and the Plain (University of the Philippines Press, 2005), a 2006 National Book Award finalist for essay, collects her published works from the early ‘70s to the present.

AKING Ina,

Sa isandaa’t limampung taludtod

Ng alay kong dasal,

Dinggin mo ang hikbi

Ng aking kaloobang

Sa sulirani’y naghihingalo

Gaya ng upos

Ng isang kandila.

Sa bawat paghigpit

Ng aking kalyadong daliri

Sa kuwintas kong

Krus at butil,

Dama ko ang pag-asang

May bubulong at tutugon

Sa paulit-ulit kong daing.

Isa akong bulag na ‘di makakita,

At manhid na hindi makadama