Tag: September 9, 2005

ELECTRONIC learning is making headway at Asia’s oldest university.

Keeping up with the fast pace of technology, UST’s Electronic Learning Access Program (e-Leap) is now one of the most advanced e-learning systems in the country.

“We offer the whole package (referring to online classes and grading), perhaps the ideal e-learning system in the Philippines,” e-Leap project manager Ninia Calaca said.

THOMASIANs placed first and second in the Physical Therapist (PT) licensure exams, fourth and fifth in Occupational Therapist (OT) and second in Architechture, proving once more that UST gets top billing as far as licensure exams are concerned.

Thalia Angkok dela Merced (82.25 per cent) ranked first in the PT examinations last July. Kimberlyn Sy ranked second (84.90 per cent).

Meanwhile, John Lucas (80.80 per cent), and Michelle Borneo (80.60 per cent) placed fourth and fifth in the OT board exams last July.

WRITING drama is not easy especially when it attempts to find humor in misery in the same length of time it takes one to digest this review.

After “fast food fiction” comes 10x10x10 (UST Publishing House, 2005), a collection of ten short plays by ten local playwrights which explores the modern Filipino consciousness in no longer than ten minutes.

The volume compiles the works of Writer’s Bloc, a group composed of young playwrights.

Kung mayroon mang matatawag na pinakamasaklap na bahagi ng kasaysayan ng Pilipinas, ito na marahil ang panahon ng Ikalawang Digmaang Pandaigdig.

Nang nilusob ng Hapon ang Maynila noong 1942, maraming buhay at gusali ang gumuho at nawala. Ngunit nag-iwan ang digmaan ng isang mahalagang alaala para sa mga nakaligtas dito. Ang mga alaalang ito ay sinariwa ng kumperensyang “World War II in the Philippines: 60 Years After” sa Tanghalang Teresita Aquino sa Graduate School noong Agosto 16 at 17.

Pagkawasak ng lungsod

Maging ang Unibersidad ay hindi nakaalpas sa kalupitan ng Hapon. Malaking pinsala ang naidulot ng digmaan hindi lamang sa mga estudyante at paring nanunungkulan dito kundi maging sa mga gusali nito.

Sa sulat ni Frederic Stevens, pinuno ng American Emergency Committee sa Maynila, nakiusap siya sa mga paring Dominikano na magamit ang Unibersidad para sa internment ng mga Amerikano at mga kaalyado nito. Sumang-ayon ang mga pari at naging Sto. Tomas Internment Camp ang UST.

EYES are said to be the windows to the soul. And for iridologist Dr. Edwin Arellano Bien, they are also the windows to one’s health.

Iridology, an alternative approach to diagnose illness through the blood vessels of a patient’s iris, is a much-debated treatment in the world. However, Bien boldly pioneered the legalization of the controversial Iridology treatment in the country.

IN THE end, the opposition failed to sustain its boast that it could muster the 79 votes needed to impeach President Macapagal-Arroyo as only 51 voted for the resolutions of the House Committee on Justice to be overturned, which would have stirred the dying embers of the impeachment case against the President.

Ultimately, the nature of the impeachment proceedings turned against the ayes; impeachment being political and not judicial, the recent hullabaloo in the House at last was a numbers game, with the opposition 28 votes short. Game over.

OFFICE of Admissions data show there has been a decline in the number of students who pass the entrance test into the University, and in the number of students who actually enroll. According to an article elsewhere in this paper, the admissions list has been cut to almost half, from around 20 thousands to an incomparable 11 in recent years.

Mang Arnel, 37 and a father of four, has been a jeepney driver for over a decade now. When the Land Transportation Franchise and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) granted a two-peso jeepney fare hike two months ago, Mang Arnel was among the jovial thousands of drivers who thought the increase would somehow compensate for the hard times. But international crude prices rallied recently at $70 per barrel, sending local pump prizes to all-time record highs.

“Akala ko mas giginhawa ang buhay ng mga anak ko, di pa pala,” he could only complain.

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IMAGINE UST as the Parker Brothers’ Monopoly board.

In your trips through Quezon Drive, Ampuero Drive, Tamayo Drive and the other streets in UST, has it ever occurred to you why you just can’t land on the “free parking” box? (And why we often find ourselves falling on the “luxury tax” slot instead?)