Tag: September 9, 2012

The Court of Appeals has ruled against the UST Faculty Union’s (USTFU) claim for P80 million in hospitalization and medical benefits accumulated since 1996, citing a technicality.

In a July 13 decision, the appellate court’s former fourth division said a labor arbiter and the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC), which had favored USTFU in September 2010 and June 2011, respectively, had no jurisdiction over the case.

Citing the Labor Code, the court said the USTFU should have sought voluntary arbitration to straighten out disagreements over its collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the UST administration, before going to the labor arbiter or the NLRC.

DESPITE the country’s worsening environmental condition, Filipinos must not lose hope as nature has “antibodies” to help cure itself.

This was according to biotechnologist Edgar Maranan, recipient of the 2011 The Outstanding Thomasian Alumni (Total) Award for Ecological and Environmental Conservation, who spoke during the 1st Total Lecture Series last Aug. 28 at the Benavides Auditorium.

Maranan discussed biotechnological solutions in solving the country’s environmental problems, particularly bioremediation or the use of “useful microorganisms” as weapons to prevent epidemics, especially diseases brought by floods.

IN A BID to improve research output, the Office for Research and Development will be reopened as a separate entity from Academic Affairs next semester, the Rector has announced.

“The unit will be responsible for the effective planning and implementation of research and development policies and programs of the University,” Rector Fr. Herminio Dagohoy, O.P. said in his keynote speech during the biennial Research Recognition Awards last Aug. 29 at the Thomas Aquinas Research Complex.

Dagohoy said the move would encourage “a dynamic research environment among faculty members [and] provide more opportunities for publication and paper presentations here and abroad.”

UST has again proved that it is the country’s top producer of professionals, following the recent Medical Technology, Physician, Nursing, and Guidance Counseling licensure examinations whose Top 10 lists were dominated by Thomasians.

The University was named second top-performing school in the Med-Tech exams after recording a 95.36-percent passing rate, with 267 passers out of 280 examinees. This was slightly higher than last year’s 94.32 percent wherein 249 of 264 examinees made the cut.

Leigh Di Avril Agdeppa led the new batch of Thomasian medical technologists as she ranked second with a 91-percent score.

WITH the advent of technology comes new methods of preserving heritage.

UST hosted the Science and Technology for Art 2012 conference last Sept. 3-7 in partnership with Kyoto University and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (Unesco) to discuss new methods of preserving tangible, intangible, and natural heritage.

“Being the oldest university in the Philippines, we have materials to preserve. What is important now is [that] technology provides [us] with new ways of conservation,” Fr. Isidro Abaño, O.P., director of UST Museum of Arts and Sciences, told the Varsitarian.

UST has reopened the Center for Creative Writing and Literature Studies after a four-year hiatus, aiming to redeem the University’s reputation as the “sanctuary of the finest litterateurs in the Philippines.”

“My mandate from the Rector is to restore UST to its literary pre-eminence,” said Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo, the center’s director.

Pantoja-Hidalgo, who was appointed to the post last June, was director of the Publishing House from 2010 to 2012. She will head the writing center for a three-year term.

The late Ophelia Alcantara-Dimalanta, a former dean of the Faculty of Arts and Letters (Artlets), served as director since the center’s establishment in 1999 up to 2008.

NANINDIGAN ang Pambansang Alagad ng Sining Para sa Panitikan na si Virgilio Almario na ang pagkilala sa sariling kultura ay susi sa pag-unlad ng sarili at bayan.

Sa pagtutulungan ng Departamento ng Filipino, Varsitarian, at propesor ng Filipino sa Faculty of Arts and Letters na si Imelda de Castro, isang pagpupulong ang naganap sa AMV-College of Accountancy Hall noong Agosto 29 bilang pangwakas na programa sa Buwan ng Wika.

Pinamagatang “Sagisag Kultura: Lundayan ng Programang K-12, Filipino Bilang Wika ng Edukasyon,” sinabi ni Almario na ang pagkilala ng “atin” ay isang karangalan na bubuo sa national creativity ng bansa.

THOMASIAN filmmaker Brillante Mendoza won multiple awards in the 69th Venice International Film Festival for his film Thy Womb.

Mendoza received La Navicella Venezia Cinema award, a collateral prize given by a group of Italian film criticc.

Mendoza also received the Premio della Fondazione Entedello Spettacolo e della Rivista del Cinematografo and the P. Nazareno Taddei (special mention) award in the film festival.

Thy Womb, starring veteran actress Nora Aunor, tells the story of a Badjao midwife suffering from infertility. This is the second film by Mendoza to compete in Venice, after his 2009 film Lola.

TWO THOMASIANS received awards in the poetry and one-act play categories of the 62nd Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature last Sept. 1 at The Peninsula Manila in Makati City.

Former Varsitarian associate editor Carlomar Arcangel Daoana won the grand prize for English poetry with his collection, The Elegant Ghost, while Patrick John Valencia won third prize in the one-act play category for In Bed With My Mother.

This year, 59 winning works were selected from 1,077 entries in 20 categories. Twenty-nine authors were first-time winners. Daphne J. Magturo

After holding off major infrastructure projects during its first two years and generally plunging everything to a stasis, the Aquino government has come up with a lavish public works budget that comes uncannily too close to next year’s national and local elections.

It has proposed a P407.4-billion budget for infrastructure in 2013, for the construction of roads and railways, rehabilitation of rivers, and the formulation and execution of a flood control master plan.