Tag: Vol. LXXXVII

MARY JOY Ong-Laig, who taught journalism and theology in UST, passed away in her sleep last March 14 at the Missionaries of Charity’s Home of Joy in Manila. She was 80.

Laig, whose teaching career spanned nearly 50 years, was affiliated with the Faculty of Arts and Letters and the Ecclesiastical Faculties, mentoring countless students and seminarians.

A member of the Varsitarian staff, she earned her bachelor of literature in journalism in UST in 1957.

Laig co-authored Marriage and the Family: A Life of Love and Commitment with former rector Fr. Tamerlane Lana, O.P., and former assistant directors of the Institute of Religion Ana Ma. Ocampo and Thelma Santos. The book is the University-wide text for the subject Marriage and the Family.

THE UST Central Commission on Elections (Comelec) has vowed to shore up election activities this year and plans to hold mandatory debates ahead of the upcoming University-wide elections.

The debate, dubbed “Harapan,” will require candidates for the Central Student Council elections to answer “issue-based” questions, Central Comelec Chairwoman Alyssa Arreola told the Varsitarian. The debate will be held on April 12 to 14.

One issue to be tackled is the long-delayed Students’ Code.

“We will adopt the same strategy at the national level. But it will be student-centered,” Comelec Vice Chairman Raymond John Naguit said in an interview.

IT IS THE middle of dry season, but not all students in the Faculty of Arts and Letters have the “Type B” uniforms supposed to help them deal with the scorching heat.

Seven hundred eighty-eight Type B shirts out of 8,431 ordered have yet to be delivered by the supplier of the Artlets Student Council, a problem that has dragged on for a year.

Council President Jan Dominic Castro claimed the supplier, Bright Ravens Co., was found to be “non-existent” after an investigation by council officers. Linearity Shirts Trading produced the shirts under a subcontracting arrangement made by Mark Beltran, a Communication Arts student and owner of Bright Ravens, Castro said.

VICE PRESIDENTIAL candidate Alan Peter Cayetano last Feb. 5 said a Duterte administration won’t violate human rights under a campaign pledge to wipe out criminality.

“If you see how Mayor Duterte talks, yes, he talks about [it being] bloody, about killing. But he’s never said he’d kill anyone in cold blood,” Cayetano said in a forum at the Seminary Gym, in answer to a question about his running mate, presidential bet Rodrigo Duterte, being involved in summary killings of criminals and drug peddlers in Davao City.

Duterte, who has been mayor of Davao City for seven terms, was unable to attend the UST forum due to a prior commitment in Pampanga, where he was seen kissing some women attending his event.

CHANGE starts with the youth.

The country has taken the first step against political dynasties in the form of the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) Reform Act or Republic Act 10742, a law that bans second-degree relatives of government officials from running for posts in the barangay youth council.

Section 10 of the SK Reform Act, which lists down the qualifications of an SK official, states that an SK official “either elective or appointee […] must not be related within the second civil degree of consanguinity or affinity” to any incumbent national or local government official which includes parents, grandparents, siblings and relations by law or marriage such as spouses and in-laws.

THE FUROR may have died down, but UST and the public at large must reflect on what lessons could be learned from the death of Andrew Pelayo’s newborn last Feb. 29, an incident that caused a social media storm and tainted the reputation of UST healthcare.

Pelayo has vented his grief on social media and blamed the death on the refusal of obstetrician-gynecologist Ana Liezel Sahagun to admit his laboring wife for not having the full P20,000 advance required by the UST Hospital for admitting patients.

While Pelayo’s original Facebook post or rant has been deleted, it has been shared and reposted a thousand times, which resulted in an online character assassination of Sahagun, with netizens branding her “mukhang perang ob-gyne,” and worse, “killer doctor.”