Magazine 2014 Vol. 43 Issue 1

The Official Student Publication of Benguet State University April- June 2014 Volume 43 Issue 1

Le spac t the chi l disc e of inn dren plu ocen ove n r thin learn ce a ge into g n f sto rom th s, com d allow the ry o e m n Pa se. See it mista them to ge 8 rela kes . ted and

Change is epochal. a deviation from the past.

inside

a reasessment of the future.

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FEATURES:

in memory of madiba

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FEATURES:

Cursive's last stroke

13

DEVCOM:

KAYANIHAN A Calling to youth

32

NEWS:

bsu turns 98 ;

strives for asean '15

contents

The Mountain Collegian April- June 2014 Volume 43 Issue 1

EDITORIAL Reawakening the student leadership within ..............................................

3

FEATURES Nelson Mandela ................................................ 4

Raise Your Voice, Not the Sea Level .......... 17 MC’s Monthly Writing Olympics

Playing indigenously: The Bontoc Way ............................................... 20

The life story of the first black South African president.

Cursive’s Last Stroke ....................................... 6 This way of writing is vansihing. Would you dare to save it?

Loom Bands ......................................................... 8 These are not just toys but catalysts of change for children.

Bruno M. Santos .............................................. 10 The significant journey of MSAC first president ends.

Earth Hour .......................................................... 12 “Be a superhero for the planet”- Spiderman.

LITERARY Isang Romansa ng Kahapon.......................

The Answer ..........................................

Mga Pilat sa Dibdib ng Little Kibungan .........................................

A Wish of Curse ....................................

18 18 19 19

OPINION DEVCOM Kayanihan ........................................................

Kaya natin + Bayanihan= Kayanihan

13

Say-am ................................................................. 14 This tradition is a doorway to Isnags’ multi-anito world.

Combat Sports ................................................. 16 Disputes can be settled through community dynamics.

Blue Bleeding Pen ...........................................

Nostalgia ............................................................

The Epsilon ........................................................

Phenomenal Punch ........................................

Hashtag ..............................................................

Perestroika .........................................................

The Flambeau ...................................................

22 23 24 24 25 26 27

NEWS Student development revisited; centennial history in the making ..................................... 28 BSU graduates are LT awardees .......... 29 BSU welcomes freshmen, first campus tour held ..................................................................... 29 47 kids vow to save frogs .................... 30 PACE: ASEAN ‘15 is an opprtunity, not a threat; BSU hosts PACE confab 2014 ........ 31 BSU stude is NYP 10 parliamentarian.. 31 BSU turns 98; strives for ASEAN’15............. 32 257 ESGP-PA grantees undergo IBP..... 33 Cordi’s youth orgs to launch disaster advocacy prints ................................................ 33

SPORTS When basketball is more than just a game for fun .................................................. 34 Musangs land 4th anew in BBEAL 2014 . 35 BSU-ROTC marks 3-peat triumph in RAATI 2014 ...................................................... 35

The Mountain Collegian

Editorial Board 1st Semester of 2014-2015

The Official Student Publication of Benguet State University

Limang Dekada ng Pluma at Panitik.

Rhe-Ann B. Ngayaan | Editor-in-Chief Richard A. Giye | Associate Editor Mylyn C. Maitang | Finance Manager Bobby Mc Gee O. Lee | Managing Editor

Chatelaine Wansi | News Editor Kevin Jake M. Angyab | Features Editor Arniel A. Dumigsi | Research and Culture Editor Ericka Mae Pistola | Literary and Entertainment Editor Brendon Bangco-og | Sports Editor Jerson B. Sabado Jr. Chief Lay-out Artist & Senior Staff Writer

ON THE COVER:

T

The Children are our commitment for change. Nurturing our children the way we want them to be is preparing them as catalysts of change in the challenges of the coming generation.

Behind those magnificent creations of the modern society from luxurious cars to tall and winding buildings, the innocence of the human mind hides and holds the face of a delicate heart- a celebration indeed of creativity, art and immortality.

Mark Samuel De Guzman Junior Lay-out Artist Jaina Ashlyn Awas | Abigail Joanna L. Nagpala Daniel Jason Maches

Senior Staff Writers

Giselle I. Ocyaden | Gilbert P. Barro | Mark Samuel D. De Guzman Harmon C. Nicer | Ceasar James Osben

PHOTOGRAPhs courtesy of paul joseph nuval

Senior Cartoonists

Paul Joseph A. Nuval | Adviser Grace T. Bengwayan | Adviser

The Mountain Collegian is a 50 year-old mother student publication of Benguet State University published by the students of BSU. A member of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) and the School Press Advisers Movement (SPAM), Inc. The views and opinions expressed by our columnists do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the entire publication.

NO PART OF THIS MAGAZINE MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT PERMISSION TO THE PUBLICATION. Office located at 1/f Office of Student Services Building, Benguet State University. You may reach us through our website: themountaincollegian.org | email: themountaincollegian@gmail.com and through Facebook: www. facebook.com/TheMountainCollegian

EDITORIAL

Reawakening the student leadership from within They filed. They campaigned. We voted…what now?

They applied. They spoke of commitments during the screening. We chose them…what next?

Year in and year out, they are recognized as the so called student leaders and journalists, the epitome of servant leadership who are empowered to work under their respective organizations in the University. They are the stage’s spotlight. At the same time, they are the contention of students’ inspirations, as well as criticisms.

Anything new?

Something transformational? A giant step?

In the earlier years, most of the student organizations reached the peak of heart-felt

student leaders dared to toil at the best of their performance.

Remember that we are in a visionary university, a home to Asia’s changers and catalysts. Thus, we must not only speak of our plans but put them into action. We should not forget that our main concern as student leaders are the benefits of our fellow students and not to impress the supervising units and the administration with our showy effects. We are funded by the students which mean we are to work for them heartily. As leaders, we are

we need to get involved with issues relating to student empowerment. We need to speak up and let our voices be heard. Reinforced by the principle of walking the talk and talking the walk, we can make a big difference just by raising our voices.

Perhaps, if we have been more involved and more concerned, more vigilant and more active in waking up and helping rebuild the broken posts of our dying organizations, then there will be a lesser possibility of dissolved and dissolving organizations. We should not only be cognisant when we are already victims of our own irresponsibility or others’ negligence…when we are already corrupted and left unattended.

A lot of student organizations did not survive the tests of time that even students’ activeness in sports and in parliamentary ousting other colleges and universities before is already weakening because of overlapping “lacks” and of almost empty bottle of supports from their leaders.

Moreover, the powerful student movements that once in the history of BSU pulled down the highest position holder down to his knees were already just tales of the past retold.

We should dismiss the thoughts that student leaders play menial roles in the future of our University which in turn, we fail to see the weight of their duties. Amidst suppressions and complications, the job of every student organization is to rebuild and solidify the core of its foundations through its committed leaders that bear the predicament of the studentry. As models of service, we are not only tasked to serve, but it is also our duty to ignite and lead students to take strong collective improvements to fight for what is rightfully ours.

As student leaders and publicists, we should work together, help one another, be united and take a stand. No one and nothing will make us shut down instead we stay updated for more instalments for the students’ betterment. We must not sleep with works unsaved. Never choose to put down your pens as student writers, continue to pen your noble thoughts; and to the student leaders, never choose only to

No one and nothing will make us shut down– updates are still installing for the students betterment.

Do not let anyone or shut us down with works unsaved. Be strong, be empowered! service where they moved mountains just to render the most outstanding service to their Alma Matter. Solid works such as fencing and planting florae around the campus were voluntary and even part of the curriculum.

With their unbeatable community services, the studentry led by different organization presidents was full force in working not only for the University’s development but also for the progress of the community.

Nowadays, we see student organizations seemingly hibernating or even shutting down without any trace of either tangible or intangible projects or services. Gone were the days where

purposed to fight for their rights and to cater to their needs with utmost services.

The best that we could accentuate to this situation is that leadership is integral to students’ rights. We are part of the studentry and we are undeniably not separate from its accomplishments, failures and difficulties.

We stand for the students’ improvements and empowerments and not to serve as dismal failures. We are expected to uphold truths in every move we do, to be held accountable with the results of our actions, and to render fair and quality services to all students.

We students should also be aware that

be dreamers but doers to stand as the students’ front liners.

The students are the wealth of the University; therefore, we focus on helping them by nourishing them to be pro-active and by initiating change- change for the better.

All we wanted is to stop the inactiveness and revive what legacy has been left. Be strong, be empowered!

Servant leadership is illusive? Never. Let our organizations be breeding grounds of assets and not liabilities to the University and to the country!

April- June 2014

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The Mountain Collegian

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A B I D A M

f o y r o m e m In

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T A IM L C H G U O R H T E IF L G IN Y IF N IG

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BY: ARNIEL DUMIGSI

We must act now, or the world we pass on to our children and grandchildren will be almost unimaginably troubled. What will they think of us? We have the awareness, the knowledge, and the expertise to do something about climate change. Let us not be accused of failing to act, while there was still time.�

A

December 5, 2013- the Earth paused a while in rotating on its axis to mourn the death of a global icon. This 95year old South African known warmly by his clan name Madiba, joined the Creator after failing in his battle against respiratory infection.

A

A pragmatist and philanthropist, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on July 18, 1918 in Mvesco, Transkei, South Africa. He was the first black South African president (1994-1999) who centered his works on institutionalizing poverty, racism, and disparity, nurturing racial reconciliation, and dismantling the inheritance of apartheid.

Apartheid, the former official policy in South Africa refers to the racial segregation involving political, economic and legal discrimination against people who are not whites.

Mandela's legacy on climate justice

Nelson Mandela is the first black South African president (1994-1999) who institutionalized poverty, racism, and disparity.

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Volume 43 Issue 1

Mandela’s ideas of racial reconciliation and compassion during the apartheid regime boosted the climate movement forward. One of his prime missions was giving Africans access to clean and safe water. His speech titled "No Water, No Future" in the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development quotes "That our government has made significant progress in bringing potable water nearer to so many more people than was previously the case, I rate amongst the most important achievements of democracy in our country."

In 2007, he founded The Elders, a global cross-cultural group of leaders. The organization makes climate justice as one of

Feature | The Mountain Collegian

TE JUSTICE

its chief priorities and forges human rights-based solutions to worldwide problems.

As cited on the organization’s official website, theelders.org, “We must act now, or the world we pass on to our children and grandchildren will be almost unimaginably troubled. What will they think of us? We have the awareness, the knowledge, and the expertise to do something about climate change.

Let us not be accused of failing to act, while there was still time.”

But what is climate justice in the first place?

According to actforclimatejustice.org, climate justice is a vision to dissolve and alleviate the unequal burdens created by climate change.

Thus, it is a form of environmental justice giving fair treatment to all people and freedom from discrimination with the creation of policies and projects that address climate change and the systems that create climate change and perpetuate discrimination.

Climate change, an issue to HR

To live is inherent human right (HR) but is seemingly unattainable because of the swelling mortality due to expected or unexpected events. But then, among the top violators of this natural right include the climate change.

According to the Global Humanitarian Forum, an international non-profit organization based in Switzerland, climate change already accounts for over 300,000 deaths throughout the world each year.

The actforclimatejustice.org reads that people’s lives particularly those who belong to low-income, and indigenous communities, are threatened by compromised health, financial problems, and social and cultural disruptions. Consequently, these communities are the most likely to experience the resentment of global warming such as health problems particularly heat-related illnesses,

Image from the internet

Mandela's advocacy on preserving life extends through his radical strive for a worthwhile environment.

ILLUSTRATED BY: CJ OSBEN

A:

Madiba has captured the hearts of the people both young and old.

respiratory illnesses, infectious diseases, and eventually death, unaffordable rises in energy costs, and extreme natural disasters.

Furthermore, same site states that as a movement, climate justice advocacies are working from the grassroots up to create solutions to our climate and energy problems that ensure the right of all people to live, work, play, and pray in safe, healthy, and clean environments.

While 2013 was full of triumph in sports and pageantry, it became a nightmare to all Filipinos because of the blockbusting pork tales of the government, and the devastating aftermath of typhoon and other calamities. Typhoon Yolanda’s strike of the Visayan Region last November 8 resulted into ghost towns and cities.

According to Rappler, the typhoon internationally named Haiyan left 4.4 million homeless and death toll leaped to 6,166 while there still 2,507 unidentified bodies in Tacloban, and 1,785 people remain missing. The cost of damage to agriculture and infrastructure rose to PhP 36,690,882,497.27, based on the official tally of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) as of January 3, 2014.

Haiyan: a manifestation of climate change

Seeking negotiations towards a global climate agreement, the United Nation Climate Change Convention’s 19th Conference of Parties was held in Warsaw, Poland on November 11-23, 2013. The growing mortality rates, and devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan in the country gained attention during the first days of the conference.

Filipino diplomat Naderev Saño challenged that anyone who continues to deny climate change to visit his ravaged country- then launch a hunger strike to demand results.

However, scientists said that it is too early to tell that global warming was responsible for the storm.

Professor Matthew Collins of Exeter University explained that climate change is the average change over many years over many weather events.

“It is difficult to say in this case whether this event has been worsened by climate change, but we certainly could not say that it would have been caused by it.”

“Storms happen and always have and always will, so you cannot say that this storm could not have happened if it were not for climate change,” Professor Myles Allen of Oxford University added.

Jaina Ashlyn Awas, a BSES II student believes that we must start to acquaint ourselves with the events going around us.

“Lahat ng nangyayari sa mundo ay related to environmental aspects. Sana in little ways, we can be able to take in consideration that we hold the responsibility for Mother Earth,” she hoped.

Remembering what Mandela once said, “It always seems impossible until it is done;” the humanity then is encouraged to reflect on his life and philosophy. We must look at it as a motivation in struggling not only for a just climate but also a dignified life, and in bringing justice to the world.

He is now in peace, yet his philosophy and life will always be a relic, not only to his fatherland but also to the whole world.

Rather than polluting the air with our cigarettes’ smokes and burning, throwing dirts on the Balili River or cutting agoho trees and others, let us prevent and eventually stop these climate injustices that endangerour health and ruin the finite resources God entrusted to us. In these little but equitable way, we can help in saving the Earth, lives, and the future. Let us act as vanguards of our mother Earth, while she still stands.

April- June 2014

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The Mountain Collegian

Cur

| Feature

LAST

ave you been amazed H how a grade two pupil write

smoothly flowing script without raising the pencil, while you are drowning in self-embarrassment when you find out that you really have a hard time lifting your hand in frustration to ink a continuous chain of flawless alphabet letters?

I bet most of you nodded twice on that statement. It is disheartening that college students are a generation of merciless murderers who are killing the cursive writing... who are pushing it to its final deathbed, burying it in their deepest unconsciousness.

S

“Because I love you darling and my death is in your hands…”

PHOTOGRAPHEB BY: RHE-ANN NGAYAAN

Slowly, the young generation is turning their backs on what was once an important matter in history like cursive writing, a status symbol of the past that was handed down by our ancestors to the next generations. But due to the advancement that humanity has achieved, this writing seems to take its last breath.

Last academic year, in our Developmental Reading class, we the Bachelor of Elementary Education (BEE) students were scolded by our instructor because most of us forgot how to write in cursive. We were initiated to buy writing notebooks, the ones grade-schoolers use, for us to do our summaries in cursive.

We were repeatedly encouraged to write in cursive occupying the blue line in the bottom and the blue line above. As future elementary teachers, we feel ashamed of ourselves that we need to relearn again the alphabets in cursive. But the training did not end there because at present in our subject Strategies in Teaching Elementary English, we bleed our hands in writing cursive leaf by leaf in our notebooks to master the curves and tails.

According to vocabulary.com, cursive is a style of writing in which all the letters in a word are connected. It is also known as script or longhand.

In an article published by Jennie Cohen at history.com, people in the past used their penmanship to represent their status. If somebody had a good penmanship, the person was recognized as elite, well- educated, or aristocrat. Before, only those who have influence can afford education.

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Volume 43 Issue 1

Cursive evolution

Throughout the centuries and millennia, cursive writing was developed and enhanced. Written scripts started with the ancient Roman in the fifth century A.D. Eventually in the mid-1500s, Johannes Gutenberg used Gothic method in his printing press. However, the Italian humanist opposed the idea of Gothic method because of its heavy-look giving way to the invention of another cursive called Italic.

Moreover, Platt Rogers Spencer created the Spenerian method in mid-1800s. Later in the 19th and 20th century, Austin Palmer promoted the Palmer method that was more convenient than the past forms.

The craft had undergone many changes but in the 1920s, cursive method started to fade according to Time Magazine. Educators believed that this is because children got accustomed too of the printed writing as they come across with numerous books published in such printed form. Thus, they learned to write in print and read the printed form at ease and on fast pace.

Today’s case of cursive writing is so much like baybayin, otherwise known as alibata, the most primitive type of writing which was believed to exist on the early 14th until late 20th century. Filipinos, with their own method of writing, were already creative and unique back then without the influence of foreign nations. But when the Spaniards

STROKE

ILLUSTRATED BY: CJ OSBEN

rsive’s

Feature | The Mountain Collegian

BY: RHE-ANN B. NGAYAAN WITH REPORTS FROM HEZY JANE PACULAN

introduced the Roman alphabet to the natives, only two forms of baybayin fortunately survived to the present period, namely the baybayin of Mangyans in Mindoro and Tagbanwas in Palawan.

Anti-cursive writing

Meanwhile, in an article of New York Times in May 2013, Morgan Polikoff, assistant professor at the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education mentioned that cursive should be allowed to die. “In fact, it is already dying despite having been taught for decades,” he claimed.

Polikoff said that districts and states should not mandate the teaching of cursive because citizens do not learn two types of handwriting. He cited the state of Hawaii and Indiana which dropped the old requirement and rather support the Keyboard Proficiency that is measured to be relevant in this era.

The article further reads that it is unnecessary for people to learn two types of writing. It was also mentioned that teaching cursive will be a waste of time because in accordance to the advancement of living, a lot of new and better breakthroughs had been made that should be taught to the present generation.

Cursive writing endangered

Now and even before, threats to cursive method are skyrocketing. Computer literacy is one foregoing risk that is eating up the handwritings of senior students even that of elementary pupils. In place of cursive writing, the “antis” agree of introducing new lessons like that of a skill related education. In other schools that still require cursive method, the daily 30-minute discussion was cut off to only 15 minutes.

Moreover, technology is another cause of its death case. As we use the keyboards of our mobile phones and computers for communication, we get used to reading and seeing printed letters; thus, we get the greater tendency of using printed in writing despite the fact that we actually learned to write

in cursive. If we who can do cursive will no longer practice it, how could we pass this old culture to the next generation? Who will hold his/her hand firmly and carry out the craft if someday the writing will be totally dropped from the curriculum?

Certainly, the thing is being taught in our country particularly to the third graders of elementary. But most of the pupils still prefer the printed method once they reach the higher grades though they are required to use cursive in some of their write ups.

Despite all the reasons and practicalities that are convincing the new era to let go of the ancient writing, there are still hopes and motivations on why we should keep it. According to an online survey, asked if schools should still teach cursive writing, 56% said “yes” and 44% said “no”. This fact shows that more people online are giving importance to the ancient writing in spite of the technological advancements.

In New York Times, Jimmy Bryant, an archivist, noted that “We need to teach cursive to school children to preserve this history.” He added that cursive is a long held cultural tradition that should be continually taught not just for tradition but for the sake of history.

On the other hand, in comparing print and cursive in terms of helping children enhance motor skills, cursive would be better according to experts.

With the loops and connections the pupils have to make with the letters, it would be easier for them if they practice hand control.

“Using cursive in classroom setting makes writing faster; though at first, it is hard to master, but when the hand gets used to it, cursive writing could be ‘funtastic’ and easy. We need practice,” said a BEE student.

Furthermore, as stated in her article in New York Times (2013), Suzanne Asheron, an occupational therapist, claimed that “putting pen to paper stimulates the brain like nothing else, even in this

age of e-mails, texts and tweets.”

She explained that learning to write in cursive improves brain development in thinking, language and working memory as it stimulates brain synapse and synchronity between the left and right hemispheres. This is something not present in printing and typing.

What if this cursive writing is not anymore being taught in the schools today? How can we understand the scripts of our ancestors like the baybayin? We need to stick to this old fashion writing if we desire to acquire ideas on our descendants’ early literatures such as their short stories, poems, and verses, among others.

As our motivation, think that through those unending scripts, they are trying to communicate with us? That the moment they were writing, scribbling, or sculpting, they were thinking of the coming generations. They were hoping that their handwritings are read and their legacies are kept.

Indeed, writings can never be out of our daily communication. It is a substantial record of information that is more reliable than speaking or telling the story that could be changed, added, or taken away with details as it is passed on from one generation to another.

If we just let the cursive writing fade in the future years, then all histories of humanity are gone with the wind. The next generation would just like be an archeologist who labored much in decoding inscriptions of the past. Is it not a shame that we let our inheritors spend their whole lives studying and understanding our scriptures, when what it only serves them utmost is the knowledge of cursive writing we should have passed to them?

“I cannot stop from dying darling, but it is not yet too late for you to do something and rescue me from this cruel execution… save me darling from this injustice funeral!”

April- June 2014

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PHOTOGRAPHEB BY: JERSON SABADO JR.

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Volume43 43Issue Issue11 Volume

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| Feature The Mountain Collegian

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A mas ba L ar , n yea og co ndas m b vity s lo ges e ar se a An Co az nd atio loom de w r e p) av ic fo the the oom th Aw ds of Go he is ne ste g h s a uc to s. ba oo oom siti le a an es L we last to o , f l 14. ay ren ys on e t e to pi a kin cat Ed ing ok ren se n e l po ib e ch t. Th o( A t d x o s d e d k o a o u p a e f ak pit er lip oW o Li s of s fle o th cen a p itte d an , US its r 20 on and ar to toy es , th Phi Ec e ch s lik nt o m oteb , a p y ca e th ts oy am ild t or lor r A o t r r e D l e g kn atte gan n un yea er M ds pul hed s t , tar ch for m d co be th th a me e in r n ges ma o ren te lou ful. apt l inn in a o m ichi illio this yb ne fa t po earc c av s. 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April- June 2014

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Adieu

PHOTO FROM HIS MEMOIR "ANAK TI DAGA"

The Mountain Collegian

Dr. Bruno MANUEL Santos

Two months before Benguet State University (BSU) turns its 98th page in history, the sky was peppered with stars as the Earth mourned for the loss of a good son. The son of the Earth and the first president of the Mountain State Agricultural College (MSAC) now the BSU, Dr. Bruno M. Santos passed away last April 27. He was 96.

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When stars twinkle, God has embraced mission accomplished sons and daughters in heaven as the choir of the angels welcome them in sweet singing. Before the 27th day of April faded, the entire constellation burst in enthusiasm and there was this perfectly star-studded sky where the new stars beamed light over those that Dr. Santos has gone ahead of, lighting their way back home when their time comes.

As BSU gears for its Centennial Anniversary celebration, at the same time it laments the death of a great man whose forbearance and commitment to his mission as the “Anak ti Daga” has catapulted the country’s agriculture industry. Dr. Santos was one of the builders of what is known today as BSU which over the years carries excellence in agriculture. As one of the faces of BSU, his legacy is a brilliant star’s eternal flame, a permanent fixture in BSU history which anybody can draw inspiration from anytime by looking at the promising starry sky. Memories of his kindness, collegial governance, and fatherly personality will forever spark the brilliance in both established and budding agriculture practitioners in BSU, in the Philippines, and beyond.

Beginning his journey

First MSAC Prexy's success journey ends BY: RHE-ANN B. NGAYAAN 10 10

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“My journey was a long road fraught with relentless hardships. But it was also a journey full of love and unconditional support. Although throughout my career, I had many opportunities to define my success in other ways distant from agriculture, I always felt that the land was where I started and the land was, therefore, where I wanted most to make a difference ,” Dr. Santos etched on the foreword of his memoir titled, “Anak ti Daga” (Son of the Earth, April 16, 2012).

Likened to BSU, Dr. Santos had humble beginnings which ticketed his success journey. Born on September 15, 1917 in Jones, Isabela, his story is a story of a son’s struggle to achieve the dream of dirt-poor farmers but ambitious parents.

Considered himself anak ti daga, he owned his parents’ dream and despite the hardships, he was able to earn his Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture at the University of the Philippines -Los Baños in 1941. His career began as a substitute teacher and rose to the ranks as a principal.

That was the end of his teaching vocation for in 1952,

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Fathering MAC, MSAC

Shortly after his return to the country, he was then a father to seven; he accepted the job to father Mountain Agricultural College (MAC) with his nurturing hands.

Amado Tolentino, superintendent of MAC had suffered heart attack and died en route to Davao to attend the Philippine Association for Vocational Education convention,. Dr. Santos was elected president after.

Replacing Tolentino, he then served as the superintendent from 1961-1965 with his notable accomplishment of the construction of a well that supplied 24- hour flowing water to all the school buildings and cottages of teachers and employees, which greatly aided the students on their laboratory work for chemistry, biology, and physics. But marred by an unfortunate incident, he left MAC and transferred to Bulacan National Agricultural School.

However, his calling to serve the highlands continued to haunt him so that in 1970, as petitioned by the Benguet Provincial Board, Municipal Council of La Trinidad, and the student body,

now as one of the universities to be tagged as Center of Excellence in Agricultural Education catering to the needs not only of the highlands, but also of the lowlands and even of the foreign lands.

This is the ultimate legacy he left behind being a piece of the rock that founded the University.

His graceful exit

During his last breathes, he happily penned in his memoir saying, “I had accepted the job sincerely believing I had an unqualified support and that my vision for MSAC was shared. I constantly reiterated that a university in Benguet would not only serve the needs of the local community and indigenous people, it would also expand the institution’s sphere of influence outside its catchment area.”

In the same breathes, he proudly acknowledged BSU today as one of the top ten state colleges and universities of agriculture in the Philippines.

When he took his humble exit from this Earth last April, his initiatives in the academe and agriculture which paved way for the rise of successful research and extension programs for the University’s immense progress were highly commemorated.

BSU and the nation will continue to speak how Dr. Santos became a beacon in the pursuit of agricultural development. And how industrious and skilled agriculturists will make a difference on their lands like how their dreams danced in the same tune as that of Dr. Santos’.

But most of all, BSU especially on the occasion of its 98th

BSU and the nation will continue to speak how Dr. Santos became a beacon in the pursuit of agricultural development. faculty and employees of the College, he was enthroned to be first president of the MSAC, receiving his appointment from the then President Ferdinand E. Marcos. Instead of grabbing two handsome job offerings from the University of Nigeria and the Mississippi State University, he came back and chose to continue fathering the College to its vision of excellence and of becoming a university someday.

Not long after, the dream of Dr. Santos and the community came true for in 1983, the growing MSAC finally metamorphosed into a developing full university. Through Presidential Proclamation No. 2010, it was named Benguet State University, which is considered

Foundation Day will forever remember him as a son, a father, a superintendent, and a president whose life has been a blessing and an inspiration.

The studentry of BSU extends its deepest sympathies to the family of Dr. Bruno Santos. And, we join the University on its foundation merry-making, convinced that as we move forward to the next chapter of our history, Dr. Santos stays to twinkle above us and our memories of him sparkle in our hearts, and start thinking beyond ourselves... BSU soar high above the challenges and opportunities of ASEAN 2015!

PHOTOGRAPHEB BY: JERSON SABADO JR.

he received a study grant under the sponsorship of the Philippine Council for United States Aid. Utilizing the scholarship, he finished his Master of Science in Agricultural Education at Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University) within nine months. He pursued his advanced degree of Doctorate in Education and graduated at the Michigan State University in the duration of 20 months in 1961.

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EARTH

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“Be a superhero for the planet”-Spiderman

BY BOBBY MC GEE O. LEE

Tick tock…tick tock…

The clock struck 8:30 in the evening; little by little, the earth was engulfed in darkness—an hour of darkness saving light and transforming it into an ounce of hope for a brighter future for the planet.

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From the Sydney Opera House to the Bird’s Nest in Beijing, from the Burj Khalifa in Dubai to the Great Pyramids of Giza, from the Eiffel Tower to the Christ the Redeemer statue, and from Times Square to Tahiti where it ended—Earth Hour.

In its eighth year last March 29, Earth Hour recorded the most participation since its conception.

It extended to over 162 countries and territories and over 7,000 cities worldwide, continuing its legacy of being the world’s largest global environment change initiative.

Earth Hour, having its roots in Sydney in 2007, is a program of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), an international non-profit organization working for the environment. It encourages people around the world to put off their lights for an hour, in order to save energy and raise awareness for action for a more sustainable future for the world.

Starting its participation in the event in 2009,

ambition and pioneering actions to combat climate change and bolster the quality of life for its citizens. It stood out as a role model because of its green programs and actions to battle various environmental and social challenges such as engaging the community on sustainability issues and its notable progress in increasing energy efficiency.

Spidey is first Earth Hour hero ambassador

Partnering this year with the makers of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Earth Hour encouraged and challenged people around the world to “use their power to be a superhero for the planet.”

The upcoming film’s actors Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, and Jamie Foxx, together with its director Marc Webb, led the switching off of the Marina Bay skyline lights in Singapore.

In a video message, Garfield, who plays the

aiming at encouraging people to use their “power” to take action and support any project of their choice across the globe.

Created this year, Earth Hour Blue, is growing to becoming the world’s largest grassroots movement for the environment. It mainly functions with the voice and dollar of the people in order to support its crowdsourcing and crowd funding projects, where support and/or funds are collected from citizens around the world, who choose any project they want to support and/or make cash donations to.

One project of the movement, dubbed “Bancas for the Philippines,” is the crowd funding of fiberglass boats aimed at helping thousands of fisherfolks in the Visayas affected by typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) the previous year.

The fiberglass fishing boats are more durable, more efficient, and earth-friendly since fiberglass is characterized by its being lightweight, extremely

“Never underestimate your power, never underestimate what you can do.” the Philippines also observed Earth Hour this year, with the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City, and the WWF- Philippines led switch-off at Eastwood Mall in Quezon City being the most notable.

“While the planet looks amazing and beautiful from outer space, it also looks fragile and therefore people should do their part to protect it,” expressed Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin in a recorded message from the International Space Station.

Moreover, Cape Town in South Africa was announced the Earth Hour capital for 2014, after Vancouver, Canada in 2013, for its outstanding

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role of Peter Parker in the movie, thanked the Philippines for ‘using [its] power’ for the Earth Hour.

Moreover, he added, “The earth is not ours, we are of this earth. We all have a responsibility to each other in preserving our home.”

Foxx, who plays Electro, said, “Never underestimate your power, never underestimate what you can do.”

Earth Hour Blue: an act beyond the hour

Harnessing the power of the crowd after the lights come back on, Earth Hour Blue was born,

strong, and robust.

The said project raised a total of US$ 7, 382 with 116 total funders worldwide, and will pay for the moulds, materials, and training of the beneficiaries who will build the boats themselves.

Backing and engaging in crowd funding and crowdsourcing projects worldwide are accessible through its website, www.earthhour.org.

On the other hand, Earth Hour 2015 will take place on March 28. When that hour comes, will you also extinguish your light in order to brighten up the future of the world and make a change?

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The Filipino's Identity;

Kayanihan

a calling to the youth BY: jaina ashlyn awas

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Ang pagbabago’y nasa atin, Natutupad na, pangarap natin Kayganda na parang musika Ang bansa na nagkakaisa…

These are some of the few lines in the Kayanihan song.

Last year, the country has suffered certain physical and psychological destructions, from the terrorist attack in Zamboanga, the earthquake in Cebu, and the typhoon Yolanda storm sturge. With these frequent disturbances that the Philippines is experiencing, Filipinos are going stronger and unkabogable (undefeated).

Because of this, the Kayanihan Song was born. It is a composition based on a verbatim coming from bloggers of the different social networking sites which aimed to capture the drastic changes experienced by the Filipinos in recent years.

The song sponsored and piloted by GMA Network, exemplifies another calling to all Filipino especially to the youth. As revealed in gmanetwork.com, Kayanihan is only one of the thousand ways of help we can do amidst today’s struggles the Philippines is put into.

The Birth

According to gmanetwork.com, Kayanihan was coined from the terms “Bayanihan”, or community spirit, and “Kaya Natin” attitude, one that exemplifies Filipinos’ resilience in weathering situations. "Kaya" is a Filipino word which entails one’s capacity to undertake challenges in life; while bayanihan, refers to a Filipino tradition wherein members of the community will help each other for a certain task, which signifies Filipinos’ unity.

Further stated, the newest definition of help that only Filipinos portray is kayanihan. “Kayanihan” defines the Filipino generation of today. The resilience of the Filipino combined with his innate love to his fellow Filipino. In “Kayanihan”, no Filipino is ever alone in his struggles because he has brothers and sisters ready to extend a helping hand especially in times of difficulty.

Kayanihan among Pinoys

Filipinos are best known for the hospitable act being portrayed to visitors, but there is more than that. According to goodnewsphilippines.com, Philippine culture became diverse due to the influence of foreign cultures, but even though diversity existed, bayanihan is strengthened.

Family. In the country, family centers the priorities every Filipino could think of. It is a common knowledge that extended family is the most type in the country. Unlike for other nations, it is better for the couples to live separately from their family of orientation. But Filipinos treat it the practice the other way around.

Further, revealed in goodnewsphilippines.com, the children most likely wanted to let their parents live with them instead of sending them to the homes-for-the-aged. This gives way for the grandparents to have an active role in the family, despite their age. The responsibility of instilling the same moral values they taught to their children to their grandchildren, tagged the increased importance of the elderly in the society. This shows the bayanihan system in a family.

Religion. Filipinos always display faith and religiousness throughout history that they take prayers to help their fellow countrymen. A family abandoned by a family member who is up for war, fills their heart with prayer. They believe that these prayers would somehow give much protection for their love ones. Religion binds the brethren closer as intimacy is greatly felt among the group. Kayanihan is manifested when Filipinos hold hand in hand to pray for the whole nation. It is recalled that BSU participated in the ‘Prayer in the Philippines’, a national event which holds an hour of prayer for the Philippines last January 20.

Calamities. These phenomena serve as obstacles to Filipinos. May it be like earthquakes, flash floods, mudflows, landslides and the like. But nevertheless, it seem to display kayanihan all the time.

The send2press.com revealed that as of the recent earthquake, youths impressed the nation for using Facebook, Twitter, Skype, and SMS tracking sites to locate victims in Cebu. They used trackers in detecting the signals from cell phones used by those who were trapped.

Moreover, Kayanihan was also seen during calamities.

Lately after Yolanda triggers, a lot of juvenile help pour through donations in cash or in kind that reached Leyte, Tacloban, and other provinces in the Visayan region.

Youth as Kayanihan movers

Clinging to Dr. Jose Rizal’s words, youths are still tasked to do better for the country’s welfare. The song Kayanihan, which signifies unity, is a calling to youth. The use of the social networking sites in the formation of the song gave chances for youth to be part of the Kayanihan change. It reflects that the voices of the youth serves as empowerment to every countrymen.

In one way, the studentry and faculty of BSU are in one accord in the kayanihan change. After the devastations from the typhoon Yolanda, the YOURS (Yolanda Outreach for Unity and Responsive Service) project of the BSU-Department of Development Communication Society (DCC) with the participation of the BSU-Student Supreme Government, the Mountain Collegian, the official student publication of BSU and the College of Agriculture’s student publication named CA Pride, was accomplished to extend donations to Visayas regions.

A total of PhP 69, 000 was collected by the project, and the third phase which would consider the rebuilding of communities and provide survivors assistance services for education, medical, and livelihood.

“Being in an organization, we can build a project para makalikom, then i-relay na lang sa government. At least through the actions, we can show them our sympathy,” Gail Patrice Galigo, BSIT student, said.

But youths who are reared in the technology era should be responsible enough to think of what they can do as steps for the country, since the future is up to them.

The new term that defines Filipino citizenship always gives credit to those who have thought of it. It may not be our idea of this new identity but we are happy enough to display this identity globally. At the end, Filipinos are hand in hand and will together say “kaya yan, basta may tulungan!”

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Say-am: a Doorway to the Isnag’s

Multi-Anito World BY: ARNIEL DUMIGSI

Heard of spirit-filled majorities of the minorities?

Inhabiting the province of Apayao, the Isnag tribe, also Isneg, is somewhat the least widely-known among the ethnic groups of the Cordillera. But ironically, they are able to share their rich cultural heritage which shapes their lives even in these contemporary times.

Such includes the say-am, among other religious ceremonies of the Isnagthought.

PHOTOGRAPhs courtesy of paul joseph nuval 14

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Say-am is the most important public sacrifice or ritual observed by the Isnag for certain occasions such as thanksgiving.

The research book titled “C.I.C.M. Missionaries and Indigenous Filipinos” authored by Dr. Carlos R. Medina and funded by the Saint Louis UniversityCordillera Research and Development Foundation, Inc., highlights the details on the encounters of the foreign missionaries with the indigenous peoples in the Northern Luzon. The account of Maurits Vanoverbergh, a Belgian Catholic priest about the Isnag people was one of those dilated and featured by the book.

Say-am, the grandest rite

In his days with the Isnag, Vanoverbergh justified say-am as normally celebrated by the rich Isnag as a way of thanksgiving to Anlabban after a successful headhunting trip. Anlabban, the protecting spirit of the headhunters, is a chief spirit of more than 300 anito populating the no gods-spiritual world of the Isnag.

Say-am is also performed when rich families enter their newly built house called binuron, a house made with timber walls; when close relatives of the deceased remove their mourning apparels; among other occasions at the decision and preference of the wealthy Isnag.

Accordingly, say-am, which is offered at least once or twice a year, lasts for several days. Thus, celebrating it obliges sacrifice of one’s granary because of the successive feeding of great crowds, making it the grandest rite.

However, two or more persons of the same village may conduct say-am together to ease the burden of the big budget. Such agreement allows them to help each other bear handsome expenses and to reduce the duration of each particular say-am.

During the say-am, the menfolk are dressed in their Groin-string called abag; while women wear their wrap-around tapis called aken, and shortwaisted, long-sleeved blouse called badiyu. There are also much eating, drinking of wine, singing, and dancing of the taddo, the native dance of the province which is accompanied by the hansa or gongs.

The shaman called dorarakit or anitowan has the salient role in the say-am and other public sacrifices. The dorarakit, who is always a woman, serves as intermediary between the living Isnag, and the supernatural realm. To arm the Isnag against bad spirits, the dorarakit is tasked to determine and collect amulets called tanib. She is also a physician for all kinds of diseases.

Pildap, the poor man's say-am

Sometimes called bitti-a say-am or ‘small’ sayam, pildap is practiced by the poor natives of Isnag.

Due to the comparatively little expenditure incurred on its celebration, the feast is offered more frequently and obligatory than say-am practice by the rich Isnag.

Usually, pildap occurs when a family moves into a new nipa house called paglangkan; when a family

member is afflicted with severe bodily illness; when the adult has his/her haircut for the first time; when enemies accept an invitation to a peacemaking parlay or gamble play, among others.

Unlike the say-am, pildap does not last more than a day. Neither pakkaw, tongtong, nor other solemn ceremonies are observed. The host due to scarce resources may only slaughter a chicken or a dog. Foods are then packed in banana leaves and are distributed to the villagers.

Moreover, Vanoverbergh claimed that there were no written rituals among Isnag. Consequently, the rites of the say-am, pildap, and the others were not always performed in exactly the same way in the different villages.

Say-am at present community

The Say-am Festival, which is held every February 14 ushers the prominence of say-am culture among the Isnag folks today. The festival is a part of the province’s celebration of its foundation anniversary after its disjunction with Kalinga in 1995. It features the Isnag’s traditional way of thanksgiving executed through their rituals, along with their native songs, chants, and dances.

A native of the Isnag tribe, Miguel Vasquez, in his article “Apayao: Home of the Isnag Tribe” published in the Baguio Midland Courier, wrote that such feast highlights the essence of sharing a practice and promoting camaraderie among the people. Thus, it maintains community development and promotes the diplomacy of each member of their society.

Vasquez also stressed that many Isnag still practice the pildap until today to the point that they request seriously ill-patients to be brought out of the hospitals for such ceremonies. Since they believe that some illnesses are caused by bad spirits that only their female shaman or dorarakit can cure through the performance of pildap.

Like the rest of the Cordillerans, the Isnag have started embracing Christianity. Though, they remain steadfast to their religious rites and beliefs. They have imbibed new ways of living yet they still uphold the relics of their ancestors. Most importantly, civilization has unfolded, but their observation of the say-am and pildap continues to unlock the doorway to their genuine beginning and identity.

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Settling Disputes THROUGH

Combat Hulk Hogan, John Cena, Dave Batista.When we talk of wrestling as a sport, we reflexively think of these world’s main stream-pop wrestlers.

SPORTS

B

But do you know that we have also Cordilleran wrestlers who champed in their own cultural version of this combat sport?

They are Ifugao’s Jason Balabal, and Ronald Bingwaoel. Balabal, the country’s flag- bearer in the opening ceremony of the 2013 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, is a 2009 SEA Games gold medalist in freestyle wrestling. Meanwhile, Bingwaoel is one of Asia's best sanshou (Chinese kickboxing) fighters in the 1990s and a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter.

Both are champions of a wrestling called bultong.

In the study titled “Cordillera Indigenous Games and the Enculturation of Values from the Perspective of Art Philosophy,” Vicky CadaligMadangeng, a Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Management graduate of Benguet State University, documented the indigenous games of the Cordillera which include the bultong of the Ifugao natives.

Subjected to erosion, some adjacent boundary lines of Ifugao’s rice fields were changed or obfuscated. To settle land disputes, an alternative practice is conceived by the Ifugaos, not through a peace- pact like Kalinga’s bodong but in an exciting practice of bultong.

Traditionally, bultong is played by the Ifugaos to execute social justice. Falling under the international classification of ‘belt wrestling’ forms, it can be traced back in the early part of the 20th century.

The Bultong Procedure

Madangeng asserted in her study that the opposing clans or families will choose the strongest and most agile man in their family or a close relative to represent their respective clans in the bultong tournament.

The parties will first agree on the specific terms and conditions of the game through the mediation of respected elders whose primarily duty is to reinforce the said agreement.

Before the match, a representative from both

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Volume 43 Issue 1

ILLUSTRATED BY: FERDINAND PALBUSA JR.

The Mountain Collegian

BY: ARNIEL DUMIGSI

parties calls out to their gods. Also, the outer spirits able- bodied male teenagers and adults but there are or the spirits of their ancestors are also summoned; no weight classes. for they believed that these deities will provide their Hoping for the growth of wrestling on the world respected battler the needed skills and strength stage, campaigns to save the olympics of wrestling in in order to win and ask them to show the true the country have started to push on. boundary of the disputed land by helping that Karlo Sevilla, a local wrestling coach, hopes rightful claim to win the match. the inclusion of this combat sport in the annual The Ifugaos firmly believe that their gods will Palarong Pambansa to search for new olympians in help the one who have a clear conscience and clean wrestling. He also inspires private and public high motives; even if he is smaller than the other, he will schools to launch a wrestling program to prepare win the match. This is the main reason why the for the intense-region competition in Palarong wrestlers of both parties and their relatives were Pambansa. generally in the friendliest mood.

This was seconded by Madangeng in her Usually, the wrestling is done directly on the study as she recommended the Ifugaos’ traditional disputed area. Wearing a loin cloth, each wrestler wrestling to be included in the official list of the laro must hold the belt of Groin-string on each side ng lahi to be integrated in the Physical Education of their opponent’s body during the tournament.

(PE) curriculum and in values formation subjects.

When each wrestler holds his opponent in the In the year 2011, the Provincial Athletic Meet prescribed manner, the mediator or referee signals of Ifugao became more exciting because of the the start of the bout. However, the mediator may inclusion and integration of different indigenous stop for a while the match in progress if the G-string sports. Such sports include the bultong, hanggol of one wrestler looses.

Simply, the one who takes down and pins his opponent's shoulders or ...bulton upper back on the ground g wins. This is also compared mascu does not only linity me to what international enterta inment and strength asure wrestling termed as or com a cataly in any winning by ‘one fall’. The p s e t t f it o io r winner of the game is nb soc justice ial developm ut rather, declared the just owner of and so the plot of disputed land by cial va ent, social the mediators. lues; The bultong tournament is concluded by a betel chewing session between the opposing parties and (arm wrestling), and others. Thus, in such way, the referee as a sign of respect to the result of the Ifugaos can preserve and promote their native games game and to each other. which will imbue their rich cultural identity.

Truly, bultong does not only end as a measure Caimpaigns for the growth of of masculinity and strength in any entertainment or competition. But rather, a catalyst for social wrestling development, social justice and the perpetuation Today, bultong, as a way for entertainment, is of social values; and a showcase of the camaraderie the most awaited event during town and provincial and cordiality among the peace- keeping natives of fiestas. It is played by single elimination system, Ifugao. one-on-one per match. The participants include

ENTERTAINMENT | The Mountain Collegia

We are

e s to all th n o ti la tu a Congr pics!

June Olym f o s r e n Win

Filipinos

and

we are

Free

BY: Karianne bag-ayan, BSAEng'g CHAMPION- Independence Day Category English Essay

Every year during the 12th day of June, we celebrate a day which commemorates the recognition of the Philippines as a free country, which is also dubbed as the ‘Independence Day’. On that day, the bloodshed and fallen soldiers became no waste- at last we are finally free.

We continued to live and to strive but we have never been truly free. If we look around we will see how much has been degraded in our culture and in our live. Filipinos in other countries are seen as nothing but maids and caregivers. People from other countries even defined us as moneys who deserve to die on the flood. Then there are Filipino children who cannot even speak straight in our own language.

Some of our local ethnic groups have even died.

We do not appreciate our own products. Most of what we use are made in other countries. There are many other things that have degraded in us.

On that 12th of June, we called ourselves free men. We defined ourselves as people not under the role of another country but people with a country of our own, a culture and a language of our own.

The only reason we achieved such freedom was because some people fought for it.

Some people thought that they had enough and wanted to redeem the right to be a free man in our own country. Now that we have lived our lives under no rule of any invading country, what should our generation and the following do? Maintenance and change.

We must maintain our freedom to not waste what was lost for it. But to be truly free, we have to be under no chains whatsoever of what we think things should be according to others. We are free, we are Filipinos, a child of our own free country, and we should act like one. Do not waste the lives of the people who died to protect our country, our culture and our people. Having double standards because we compare ourselves to other countries is not a way. We should appreciate our race, protect our culture, and be a person who does not disgrace

his country. We should not define ourselves according to what other countries think. We are past being indios. Be proud- be yellow, blue, red and white. The blood that flows in us is connected to those who raised their bolos to guns. So we, as children of this country should appreciate our freedom, thank those who fought for it and continue to live as a proud free man of our own free country.

We are men, not monkeys; we are free, not oppressed; we have our own language and culture, we don’t need others; we are independent, what more reason is there to have?

Congratulations to the other CHAMPIONS!

Evasco, Nora Hill G. (BSA III) - Filipino (Literary-Environment) Aquino, Samantha P. (DVM IV) - English (Literary-Environment) Bungongor, Geneva L. (BSDC I) - Filipino (Essay- Environment) Salcedo, May Ann (BSA I) - Filipino (Literary- Independence)

! be heard Let your

voice

Every BSU student is encouraged to join MC’s Monthly Writing Olympics.

See posters for details.

Flipped

BY: terry joy tip-ac, BSE III CHAMPION- Independence Day Category English Literary

Everyone’s in a hustle. One… I know one person, who loves such lovely view. Two… I see two attractive ladies eyeing me. Three … I have been sitting at this park since 3 P.M. Four …I cannot wait for the fourth hour to come.

I stopped counting and counted on my feet to lead my way.

Counting busy people is a waste of time. So I thought about the person who would love to see such lovely bustle…

Rayleen with her light- brown eyes, her genuine smile and her intoxicating kindness.

“Hey, man!”

I looked back, it’s Alvin. I hastily put my thoughts of Rayleen away.

“Man, imagine! She walked right past me when I asked for her number. Do me a favor will you, why don’t you get it for me?”

“I won’t” “Girls flock around you! Surely Elena would give her cell number like lightning.”

I clicked my tongue to tell him no.

“With your looks, it is chicken for you. Don’t tell me it’s still Raayleeen?”

I stonily smiled at Alvin and lulled his words but he keeps on yapping.

“Lawrence, I cannot believe you fell for that kind of girl. She is not even a girl with those baggy clothes. She is cute but that’s it, she is nothing compared to your exes with their hot curves. She is flat as a board,” and sniggered maniacally.

Rage- blinded, I harshly grabbed Alvin in his collar and punched him straight at his nose. I forcedly punched and punched and didn’t care if his shit comes out of him. I stopped when I felt his blood splattered on my face, I smiled contentedly as blood oozed profusely in his battered face.

“Still there, Lawrence?”

Frantic, I looked back and saw Alvin behind me. I slapped my forehead real hard… I was imagining.

“Alvin, I make my own decisions. I don’t need to hear yours.

I want you to stop tagging along with me. I don’t like your views.”

As I walked away shaking, my eyes were caught by the words in the bulletin board.

“This June 12, be a better man for your COUNTRY.” Suddenly, I realized the old me would really beat the hell out of Alvin but now I am slowly flipping into a better man.

One, I see a blue strip floating in the air. Two, a second color underneath it was red. Three, three stars and a big sun were flashing. It is beckoning me from a tall and pensive pole. I was struck that my mouth was almost agape. I slowly went for it and as if pulled by gravity I looked down at the end of the pole. There she was, Rayleen.

My heart pounded. I smiled, and she smiled. I nodded but did not go near her. Not now. She understood and kept smiling, for she was the one who broke up with me for me to transform into a better and more humane Lawrence- for myself, for Rayleen, for my loved ones and for that beaming Philippine flag freely waving at me.

April- June June 2014 2014 April-

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| opinion

Mga kwentong hatid ng tunay na karanasan.

Literary

The Mountain Collegian

Kahapon

Isang Romansa ng

Mausok noon…sa nayon Tanaw mo ako mula sa malayo Mainit…

Ngunit mas maalab ang damdaming namumuo Pawis mo’y tagaktak…

Pumapatak sa bawat buntong-hininga mo’t halakhak.

Alam kong gustong-gusto mo ako Kayat nga’t ako’y hinarana mo Umakyat ka ng ligaw sa aming bahay kubo Dala-dala’y ‘di gitara kundi supot, naaalala ko, Maanghang sa ilong matapang mong pabango, Yon pala, sili’t asing binalot mo sa’yong panyo.

Pumila ka…

Ang haba-haba.

Sa dulo’y hinintay kita Daandaan, karibal mo’y kayrami Siyamnapu, limangpu, biente, Sampu, tatlo, naku! konti pang sakripisyo.

Dalawa pa, isa na lang mahal ko…

Sa wakas ako’y inabot ng mama sa’yo.

Nasa pasmadong kamay mo na ako Nakahaing hubad sa harap mo Sa bawat paghaplos- pagtangan mo Maging sa titig mo’y nalulusaw ‘tong puso.

Mga daliri mo’y makati na’t naglalaway ka pa noon…

Naduduling na rin sa matinding gutom.

Ako’y nilaro mo sapagkat ika’y uhaw na sa sabaw ko, Isa- isang inaalis… pinupunit- punit… pira- piraso…

Binudburan pa ng mga pampalasang butil mga laman ko Unti- unti mo akong dinadala sa’yong mga labi’t isinubo.

Napapikit ka sa sarap…

Kinain mo ako sa romansang ‘di ko makalimutan Nais maulit ngunit ngayo’y ikaw naman ang nagpakalayo Kailan kaya kita ulit makakaulayaw?

Kahungkagan sa loob ko’y umaalingawngaw Tulad ng pagtili ng kumpare kong kasalukuyang binibitay Mausok ngayon, parang noon, ganito rin… may kinakatay Madalas tayong magkita sa cañao ni lolo at ng ‘yong impo Itong tula ng aking pangungulila’y handog para sa’yo At kasabay ng paghihintay ko sa pagbabalik mo rito Nagtatalik na laman ng kumpare ko’t gambang ng tiyo mo Ako lang naman ito, si Watwat, naaalala mo pa ba ang lasa ko?

Poet’s Note: The poem talks about a romantic encounter between a young boy and the “watwat” in a cañao where they first meet. From then on, the boy always crave for the taste of the “watwat” that he attends every cañao in their community.

But the romance did not last for the boy left the village to study at the city. Many years passed and many cañao had been held but the boy never went home. The boy symbolizes every youth who forgot their cultures if not, are de-culturalized brought about by trends and modernization.

By Rhe-Ann B. Ngayaan. This poem won 3rd place in poetry writing on culture during the First SPAM Extramural 2014.

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I handed you my heart Opened doors but you wanted to close.

You never took them, never tried.

Never uttered the words I have been begging you to say Why don’t you say something?

When all I need is your sincerest apology.

Your sincerest apology.

I wish that the wind carry your words to nothingness, Wish that my icy glares answer the questions that you ask Wish that your pointless speech echo in an empty cave And your senseless nagging bounce in bare walls.

Wish that I be shielded from your merciless hands!

ERICKA MAE PISTOLA

Make me oblivious from your existence, Conceal your presence from my senses, Make my heart numb from the pain that you’ve caused Indulge me, for this day is mine.

For once, listen to me.

Hear my plea.

On my birthday, I whispered a curse.

For you to shut your voice within those walls And give me nothing else but silence.

For your words are drops of kerosene, a fuel to my burning fury.

Burning unceasingly, inflicting nothing but agony.

ILLUSTRATED BY: GILBERT BARRO

Curse

A Wish of

opinion | The Mountain Collegian

Ang mga Pilat sa Dibdib ng

Little Kibungan

but peace

Utter your words, I won't speak; Hard, it may hurt, it doesn't matter a bit still, I shall forever be as calm as the sea, never to resist, For fire ain't the answer for fire, .

DANIEL JASON MACHES

Answer

The

ILLUSTRATED BY: CJ OSBEN

RHE-ANN B. NGAYA AN

Noo’y isang malagim na linggo ng Oktubre Buhos ng tubig-ulang nakatutusok… sumusugat Bigla-bigla’y tinalupan ng balat ang Little Kibungan Walang awang minolestiya ni Ondoy at Pepeng Waring mga salbaheng bubuyog na sumipsip ng kanyang katas Maging dibdib nito’y tuyot na rin sa pagsuso ng kanyang gatas.

Sa mga naglalabong alaalang pinagtagpi-tagpi’t pinagsulsi-sulsi Kitang-kita ang pulbos sa durog na katawa’t butong bali-bali Walang sinanto’ t pinarusahan ang bawat kaluluwa sa buong bundok Nilamon maging pangala’t apelyido ng mga biktima sa pook.

Ano na lang ang pakinabang ng mga naiwang kamag-anak, Sa alaalang walang puso’t puno ng sugat na nagnanaknak?

Datapwa’t di nauubos ang pagsabog ng liwanag Inihasik mo, O Kabunian, ang kidlat ng ‘yong awa Bumangon nga ito’t nag-abang ng milagro Tubig na walang kasinlupit naging maamo Dating marahas na hangin, ngayo’y masuyo Sinunog ng araw pulang putik naging bato’t abo.

Naku! May dalang babala ang mga nagsusumamong bangkay: Sa mga naghahanap ng tunay na kahulugan ng buhay Sa aming mga nabubuhay na kababayan, kaibiga’t katoto, Nawa’y nagsilbing aral ang kabagsikan ng mga nagdaang bagyo Balutin niyo ang kahubdan ng Little Kibungan mula sa mata ng mundo Bigyang saplot ang mga paang hubad na aakyat sa tuktok ng ating pangarap Kung sa kabila nito’y lantad pa rin ang hubad nitong dibdib na naghihinagpis Mga pilat nito’y nagigising sa impit na langitngit ng kulog at iyak ng langit, Mga latay ng kahapo’y sariwa pa sa dumadaing na sugatang lupa.

Ngunit pangako namin sa mga libu-libong pumanaw na, Bangungot na nagsilang sa atin ng pangamba’t takot ay tuluyang ililibing Mga naiwang pilat sa dibdib nito’y sisibol ang mga puno ng pag-asang lililim!

April-June June2014 2014 April-

1919

The Mountain Collegian

| devcom sports

Playing Indigenous Ga

mes:

The

C o t n Bo

Way

2020

Volume Volume4343Issue Issue1 1

sports | The Mountain Collegian devcom |

AprilApril-June June2014 2014

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Blue Bleeding Pen NYP 10 is Hogwarts and I am no Harry Potter

“

Rhe-ann B. Ngayaan

“

One magical morning of May 15, I stood shy and nostalgic in a huge, rambling, quite scary-looking hotel, with pure bloods and half-bloods pouring in like ants. Like Hogwarts, admission here was very selective among ages 15- 30. Thus, I believed that I show magical abilities just like the others to be enrolled here, not for fake magic but for genuine participation. I went inside with high spirit and head higher.

Komikero

Mga Guhit na Hatid ng Tunay na Karanasan.

I have never mingled with so many youth leaders from all across the country until I was admitted by the 10th National Youth Parliament (NYP), otherwise known as the National Parliament of Youth Leaders for four days in a hotel that turned out to be the local ‘Hogwarts’ of my youthful life.

I came to know that the NYP, now on its 10th run this year remains to be the country’s leading, most prestigious and most relevant gathering of the best and the brightest regional parliamentarians.

By the way, Hogwarts School of Withcraft and Wizardry, shortened Hogwarts is a fictional British School of magic for students and is primarily the setting for the first six books in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.

Amongst the crowd of 200 who made it out of the 800 aspirants, I found myself a Muggle (nonmagic blood) in the world of aggressive debaters, fluent nurses, most zealous teachers, dedicated government employees, elitist students, highfaluting politicians, rich princes, good doctors, brainy lawyers, wizards, witches, etc.

We were given tag names with color codes and were divided into four houses through the sorting hat of the screening committee: Committee of Education (blue); Committee of Health (orange); Committee of Employment (green); and Committee of Participation (red). Just like in Hogwarts, each

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Volume 43 Issue 1

of us belong to a house of committee which defined our advocacies and principles, as well as described our personalities and values: Gryffindor, the lion is courageous, brave, has nerve and chivalry; Hufflepuff, the badger, is hard working, patient, just, and loyal; Ravenclaw, the eagle is intelligent, creative, inquisitive, and witty; and Slytherin, the serpent, has ambition, cunning, leadership, and resourcefulness.

Now, looking for Harry Potter at Gryffindor House? Not only there because each of the four committees claimed to have their own Harry Potter counterparts. You must be looking for me this me?

Please do not give me that stare; I am the intruding Muggle remember? Definitely, I am not the local Harry at the House of the Committee of Education.

What I meant is we are individuals of different identity, culture, and advocacy who are summoned by the National Youth Commission for a purpose of harmony... to be one and solid as the nation’s future vanguards, front-runners, and decision makers.

But like Hogwarts’ rival houses, assertive parliamentarians during the committee sessions and the plenary competed for the Quidditch Cup--- the cup of pride and fame. It was healthy for some time; the nonstop arguments were intense, free flowing, and scorching. This added up to the sizzling heat of the youth delegates’ goal, and commitment to

pass eight resolutions within just six hours. This also doubled the burning temperature inside the National Museum Main Building which once housed the old Senate and House of Representatives and where the 1934 Constitutional Convention was held. After the battle of the brains and all the exchange of debates, I could not agree more that Filipino youths are truthful, selfless, and inclusive.

After being oathed, from that day on, as I and other 199 marched down the museum’s front steps where Manuel L. Quezon was sworn in as President of the Commonwealth, I made it a goal not to be — and should never be—like the corrupt officials that I am so sick of having. I am not—and I should never be—like the divisive politicians who choose conflict and violence over peace and unity.

Feeling revived of my passion for servanthood and leadership after that Parliament, the fundamental premise of my primary advocacy on “equal qualitative and quantitative education for all”, is back at flame as I finally embrace my God- given vocation of caring, touching, and empowering lives.

Equal education is not when all learners get the same from the government, but it is when learners get all what they need ...meeting the quality and quantity of their learning above the status quo.

And, as a youth soon to be a teacher by profession, I learned to be teachable like Harry Potter. To keep leading, I must keep learning.

Challenged by the action man of our province of not just putting the resolutions into writing but instead going home and acting them out, I see to it from then on that the first person I will lead is myself… my definition for self- discipline.

Looking back to that event… the biggest event of my juvenile years, my purpose was practically to listen to the experts of our exceedingly politicized society and enjoy the luxury of the Manila Grand Opera Hotel which later on I came to know that it is where the inauguration of the First Philippine Assembly took place on October 16, 1807. But more than that, I was never been this proud throughout my juvenile years of existence because that day we were united to serve the Filipino youth—with integrity, and sincerity—prevailed. And by that, I can say that it was really a reeling Hogwarts encounter… an enchanting experience of going beyond nation-building. NYP 10 is more or less Hogwarts. It was, yes it was!

Illustrated by: CEASAR JAMES OSBEN

| opinion

Illustrated by: GILBERT BARRO

The Mountain Collegian

How come Elisha-a simple farmer turned to be an attendant, received a ‘double portion of anointing’ greater than his master Elijah, the prophet in a story anchored to radical leadership written in 1 Kings Chapter 19 of the Bible? What is the secret behind Elisha’s immense and vibrant leadership?

Remarkably, Elisha’s desperate need to receive God’s flow of anointing in leadership through Elijah would still fascinate and hook- up Bible scholars and leaders up to this generation. And what has this ‘double portion of anointing’ has to do in the refashioning of churches to disciple people in order for them to take -up the greatest challenge of all times- leadership.

Let us not be the first to judge our political leaders, be cause they are still the author ity given to us by God- th ey are a consecration, a revolu tion indeed!

Firstly, one has to understand that anointed leadership comes from the Lord and flows in the spiritual realm of impartation and not in the flagging knowledge; however intense and virtuous the human mind is.

Who could ever understand the intricate genre of righteous leadership in contrast with that of the authorities we are experiencing today?

This made the blatant difference- on how

Illustrated by: MARK SAMUEL DE GUZMAN

Illustrated by: MARK SAMUEL DE GUZMAN

Nostalgia

Reinvented Leadership: A Double Portion of Anointing Richard A. Giye fractured and molested leadership can be when entrusted to the wrong hands of hopeless people; the superficial enigma of the Philippine political trajectory would boil down to how elusive our political leaders can be as to how leadership becomes political and how politicians become so critical. Of whether they are really on the right track or leading us blindly to an unattractive place of doom and defeat. Leaders should be reinvented urgently!

In fact, no one is sure enough, strong enough to pull his head out of water, and say enough is enough for a tiresome, clichéd and predictable game of servant leadership. Not until one has to fully recognize his/her incompetence before God. Perhaps, Elisha does not have to worry to be genius to receive anointing from Elijah. Because in fact he was called in the leadership arena while he is in the middle of ploughing field, surrounded by 12 yoke of oxen and simply living an ordinary life. Yet, notice that when he saw Elijah, he immediately left his oxen, just like how immediate the 12 disciples of Jesus, left their job, and follow Jesus instead.

Amazingly, Elisha slaughtered his oxen, burned it and share among the people. Finally, he bid goodbye to his father and run after Elijah for what? Just-tobe an attendant or ‘alalay’ to the prophet. What a martyr act to consider!

How Elisha left everything for the sake of followership entails a big leap of forgetting his past and setting himself to a destiny of fruitful leadership. The burning of the oxen, symbolizing Elisha being healed from his past, is relevant to his success as soon to be a leader.

Indeed, Elisha’s impregnable commitment,

submission and faithfulness to Elijah strike us to think on how to submit ourselves to the delegated authority set by the Lord. It entail no understanding at all- but is set out (a gift) to those people who have the right attitude, and willingness to be under God’s cover. After all, submission to the people of God is submission to the royalty Himself.

In the latter part of the story, Elisha said to Elijah, “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit.” This demand of Elisha would mean a more dynamic power of God to unleash in his leadership spirit. With boldness, Elisha fully understood that he is in the right position to demand such. After all, he became an excellent and faithful follower of Elijah unto the very end-breath of his master, his commitment, loyalty and submission never wavered.

With this I could say that the elixir to this political jumble in our country, can be no less painful, with-out putting all corrupt political leaders behind bars. Because this year promises a great twist in our political arena. I am seeing a brighter future in the yellow administration as I write this article.

President Ninoy Aquino is perhaps the successor of the late President Cory, thus my confidence lies in the double portion that runs through him.

The second-generation of presidency among the Aquino’s is alluring to the Filipino mass. Yet, why not give it a try? After all righteousness exalts a country, blessed by God. Let us not be the first to judge our political leaders, because they are still the authority given to us by God… they are a consecration, a revolution indeed!

With much passion and love to all the authorities set to me by the Lord.

Illustrated by: gisselle ocyaden

“

“

The success of a leader is parallel to the radical success of his/her successor.

opinion | The Mountain Collegian

AprilJune 2014 AprilJune 2014 23 23

| opinion

The 3psilon

Ang Kahangalan ng sakim at Kasakiman ng hangal

“

Arniel Dumigsi

Sa lipunang nababalot ng mga misteryo ng kasakiman, pananamantala, at pang-aabuso, tila manhid na ang mga taong pinagkaitan ng kapangyarihan, mga nakatanikala sa lupa kung sila ay ituring ng mga taong nagpapakasasa sa katungkulan.

UP-Diliman confession page sa Facebook. Inilahad ni Ginoong Isko ang kanilang ginawang ‘pagluto’ sa halalan ng kanilang organisasyon. Nanalo ang kanyang kanyang kasintahang tumatakbo sa pagkapangulo. Ngunit konsensya ang nad-udyok sa Iskong ikumpisal ang kanyang lihim.

Kung sa pinakaprestihiyosong unibersidad nga ng Pilipinas ay hindi na bago ang ganitong usapin, sa ating pamantasan pa kayang sandamukal ang mga mapanlinlang na student leaders.

Unang katotohanang iniinda ng mga mag-aaral sa BSU. Hindi dahil walang nagtatanong ay maaari na nilang kalimutan ang mga pambalot ng tinapang kailangang ipamudmod sa mga mag-aaral na siya sanang maghahatid ng mga kaganapan sa paaralan.

Pangalawa, hindi dahil walang nagrereklamo ay malaya na silang gumawa ng mga dinastiya at monarkiyang sila-sila lang ang nakakaalam.

Pangatlo, hindi dahil nakagawa ng kasalanan o ‘di nakihalubilo sa mga pagtitipon ang ilang magaaral ay mabilis pa sa alas-kwatro kung huthutan nila ang mga kaluping ni singkong duling ay walang wala. Maaari naman silang pagbanatin ng buto at ‘di ang pamamalimos sa kanila ang ipataw na kaparusahan tuwing sumapit ang oras ng lagdaan?

Tandaan din sana nilang pare-pareho lang nating ibina-badyet ang allowance na pinaghirapang huthutin sa mga magulang.

Oo nga at tungkulin nating mag-aaral na tiisin kada semester ang mahabang pila para lamang magpa-autograph sa mga student orgs sa halagang bente o trenta pesos. Oo nga at tungkulin nating makibahagi sa kanilang mga programa at aktibidad.

Ngunit hindi ba tungkulin ng student leaders na imulat ang ating mga mata at ituro sa atin ang daang tuwid?

Kailan pa kaya sila magigising sa mga tungkuling iyan? Kapag nangitim na ang tagak?

O pag puno na ang salop ng nakararami? Anong kahangalan ‘yan? Paki-explain. Lab yu.

Hiling ko lang, sana ay hindi pa huli ang lahat para tayo ay magising katotohanan. Tama na matutunan natin ang maging pinuno sa murang edad at makialam sa mga organisasyong manghuhulma sa ating pagkatao bilang pag-asa ng bayan. Ngunit hindi tama na abusuhin natin ang mga pribelehiyong ito na ibinibigay sa atin.

Likas na marahil sa ating kabataan ang pagiging mapusok ngunit hindi ang pagiging hangal. Pilitin nating buksan ang ating mga mata at ‘wag magbulag-bulagan. Ngunit bago pa maging punyal ang ating pluma, wala nang mas hahangal pa sa mga sakim na tanging ang pananamantala at panlalamang sa kapwa ang ikinakaligaya ng kanilang balintataw. Hangal ang sakim. Sakim ang hangal.

Phenomenal Punch In shatter or in cluster?

Redefining unity.

Kevin Jake Angyab But if it will be reunited with the other sticks and form a bundle, accomplishing such job is just like chewing gum and eating nuts. What makes the difference? It is about the tie that binds them- unity!

If you would ask me as to what famous characteristic Filipinos have, it is primarily the spirit of brotherhood.

Mr. Webster, Mr. Thesaurus, and other great word masters have provided their versions towards defining unity. But knitting these definitions into a string proclaims a singular thought. Thus, unity

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implies being one, as simple as it is.

We are bona fide products of countless uphill battles and downhill shortcomings. Up to this day, these problems are continuously penetrating our beloved country and threatening our dear countrymen. Yet it seems to be a glitter in the dark because through these tough endeavors that we strongly manifestunity.

For instance, we demonstrate an accord in helping the victims of typhoons, contributing to the development of schools for quality education, reaching out to our fellows at far flung places, and

“

“

Lumipas ang tatlong yugto ng pananakop ng mga dayuhan sa Pilipinas, ngunit may pamanang kahit na tayo ay lumaya na ay patuloy paring nagpapaalala ng kanilang mapaniil na paghahari.

Isang pamanang dugo, sa ayaw man natin at sa gusto ay animo’y nananalaytay na sa ating pagka-Pilipino.

Ang dugo ng pagiging gahaman…ang dugo ng kahangalan.

Hulyo ng nakaraang taon, ginimbal ang buong sambayanan ng kontrobersiyang Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) Scam.

Maraming mambabatas ang inaakala nating tupang ‘di makabasag-pinggan ay nadadawit din pala sa ganitong anomalya. Maraming mababangong pangalan ang nagmistulang alimuom na lang.

Mayroong umako at mayroon din namang sukdulan kung magkaila ng pamamalabis sa kapangyarihan.

Marahil hindi na palaisipan kung bakit ang mga ganitong senaryo ay talamak pa rin sa government of the people, by the people, at for the people. Simple lang, dahil may pinagmanahang ninuno ang sana ay taga-hulma ng batas na pangunahing bumabasag rin sa mga ito.

Sino nga ba ang dapat sisihin kundi tayo-tayo rin lang? Ang problema sa mga Pilipino’y kaunting tulong lang ay nadadala na. Kaunting pabango lang ay nahuhumaling na. Porke sikat na artista’y iboboto na.

“Ang kabataan ang pag-asa ng bayan.”

Lumang tugtugin na kung ituring nating mga kabataan ang sinabing ito ng ipinagkikibit-balikat nating pambansang bayani. Pangalang tunog sa balot ng eskwelahan, jeep, kendi, maging tatak ng arina at bigas. Sadya ba talagang nakakasawa itong pakinggan o sadya lang itong nakakapikon?

Tayo ang sinasabing susunod na pinuno ng bansa. Ngunit paano natin ito pamamahalaan kung mismong tayo rin pala ang susunod na magmamana ng kasakiman ng mga mambabatas.

Mga makabagong Emilio Aguinaldo at kung sino mang Pontiyo Pilatong pera at karangalan lamang ang sinasanto.

May nabasa akong kumpisal ng isang “Isko” (katawagan sa ating mga Iskolar ng Bayan) sa isang

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The Mountain Collegian

If a single stick of a stickbroom is separated from the whole and sweeps the mess alone, expect that nothing will happen.

many others. No matter how laborious these could be, all hardshipsare undeniably a piece of cake since we are clothedwith theomnipotent spirit of unity.

But I just wonder. What kind of unity do really exists nowadays?Is unity really healthy as it should be? How could I ever ask such things as these?

Actually, I do not know. Is it that my sharp senses, critical brain, and sensitive heart perceive this phenomenon as true? This is no joke at all.

Believe it or not but there are some scenarios where disarrays manifest, which in some point, we are not be aware of.

opinion | The Mountain Collegian

In the classroom, for example, we deeply think about competition and besting others. Even if we clearly know that a classmate needs assistance, we tend to be like rushing cars not minding whoever and whatever we bump into. Thinking that we arrive to our destination in the fastest time possible, we dare to overlook others. Where is unity then?

Also, in the various organizations where we are acquainted to, our union sometimes is being risked.

I am absolutely aware that a particular organization has its own visions, missions, goals and objectives to fulfill. Yet why do still some members function independently even they are expected to work in a team?

In my experiences, do you know what was unveiled to me? Inevitably, difficulties are

I dare invite you! Let us in the oneness to center r again. est

#Hashtag

Of Eradicating Self-Centeredness Ericka mae Pistola

“

“

It was just a simple question. The words “yes” and “no” were at the tip of my tongue. The question hit me like a bullet, pierced my brain (processing...), my pride (ahem), into my heart and finally, I found my consciousness. I was suddenly jerked awake in the realization that, seriously, am I that self-centred?

Nevertheless, I was able to resolve the issue of adjustments within the innermost part of my being.

My being a student and my world as such.

I am sharing this to you not because I wanted to talk about myself and prove my self-centeredness but rather to show myself as a mirror for others to reflect upon … to those people out there who might

have been in the same state of mind and have not been jolted awake by a question like that.

What am I talking about? I am talking about us thinking about the pressures of school life, the endless reasons for us to stop doing what we are supposed to be doing as a student.

Reasons, reasons and more reasons. We never seem to run out of reasons for not doing things.

“Ang hirap, Wait lang, wala ako sa mood, Ang pangit naman kasi ng ganito, ganyan…”. Endless reasons.

But when carefully pondered upon, they are actually endless because we never stop looking, never stop paying attention to them. And at times, we, ourselves, even create them.

Bottom line.

Everything is up to us. When we say “Ang hirap”, then we need to exert greater amount of effort. We should not expect the work to adjust itself for us. Wala ka sa mood? C’mon. Will everything have to wait for us to get on the mood? Or can we make ourselves get in the mood to do things? Ang pangit ng ganito, ganyan? Then raise our standard.

Remember, what might be horrible for us may actually be desirable for others. And what might be pleasant for us is perhaps a little off to other people. Got the point? The world does not just stop revolving for us and follow our thoughts. It will keep on revolving around its orbit, and that orbit is not

So, iyong classroom ba ang mag-aadjust para sa iyo, huh, Ericka?

us.

I hope my words aroused every living cell in your body right after the last punctuation above.

So together we start looking inside ourselves.

What is it that is keeping us from breaking out of our selfishness? Are we still chained by those endless reasons we, ourselves, created? When will we be free out of the prison we put ourselves into?

Wake up! Everything will not change just because we want them to adjust for us.

Well, personally, the subjects we enrolled will not turn easier unless we start doubling our efforts to understand the lesson. The teachers will not become great educators if we do not do our part as a student. Our classmates will not become the best classmates they could be, unless we start to be the best classmate to them. And by the way, I guess we also have to modify our standards in judging the greatness of our teachers and our classmates. Or we might as well consider trying to apply those standards to ourselves first, before applying them to other people; and see for ourselves how it is to adjust to standards we have formulated.

Whatever it is that is holding us back, either

intervening anytime and striking anyone.

Thus, nobody is exempted.

Sometimes, we tend to forget that everything is easy if unison demonstrates itself in every member.

May we always instill in our minds and hearts that being in a team is notlike ridingin a sinking boat whereone would quickly swim towards the land and leave others struggling behind.It should not be. As a famous song delivers: together we stand, divided we fall.

If someone is keen enough, even in sports, unity has no match. I understand that a certain team has a target to hit. In competitions, we generally crave to bag the championship title we are aspiring for. It maybe droll but I cannot really imagine myselfas a member of a basketball team, reluctantly hiding in a corner, doing nothing for the team. How can such target be seized? Still, unity should come in.

Further, in as high as in our political affiliations, unity is seemingly being dismissed from its tenure.

Along the turns and twists of crises, working handin-hand is the first bond that will put everything in its proper place. What is happening to the public servants whom we invested our trust for a godly governance?

We follow what are written in our daily “to-do” lists and that is all, nothing more, nothing less.

What is my point in all these? Simply, unity

fear, pride, or sheer carelessness, yielding to it will not bring us to anywhere. Again, the world stays as it is, with or without us. Let us not be blinded by our self-centered thoughts and standards. Things will not adjust for us, it is us who needs to adjust,

hen Everything is up to us. W we we say “Ang hirap”, then ount need to exert greater am pect of effort. We should not ex r us. the work to adjust itself fo for we are humans, the most intelligent and flexible creations of God (Amen!).

Ikaw… are you to adjust or are you to be adjusted upon?

is the lone key. Nothing will ever happen if unity deteriorates in us. We heard much of this and it appears to be a cliché to reiterate it. Perhaps, it is just a reminder to everyone. We insist change to dwell from the bottom to the top but have we enthroned unity in the midst of this? Things arevoid if unity is deceased.

I dare you! Let us invite oneness to rest in the center again. However, before it progresses farther, it is best when one reexamines himself who is he: a supporter of unity’s cluster or a backer of unity’s shatter?

If we slumbered for lengthy periods of time, perhaps it is the alarm that wakes us to be gathered in the spirit of unity once again. If we have took unity for granted, then it is high time for us to be serious.

If an individual works alone like a stickbroom’s stick, there is no big change to be staged. However, despite our diversities in identities, advocacies, beliefs, cultures and traditions, and principles, if we come in a bundle then boom! The everdreamt changes for all will be conceived. If we thirst and hunger for the genuine change, it will be best when we starturging our feet to step in our common foundation, unity. Mind catching this challenge?

Join me.

April- June 2014

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The Mountain Collegian

| opinion

Perestroika

A Sarah G vs. GG revolution: “hallyu” and NoyPi’s Cultural Cringe

“

“

Chatelaine Wansi

Culture is a feature of everyday existence shared by people in a place or time or simply, it is our way of life.

The greatest and shameful mistake a Filipino can commit is to allow himself become ignorant of the culture that honed his identity as he desperately try to fit in a culture he was never meant to have.

A lot of traditions are becoming extinct as generations evolve to embrace modernization. Some of the beliefs and practices 20 years ago were not even present today like avoiding a loud music while at the river, cemeteries, and mountains. It is not a bad thing that we change our ways. But the sad thing is that we are slowly losing our identity as we push ourselves to foreign lifestyles, trends and customs when in fact we have our own.

A growing number of Koreans have visited the Philippines either for pleasure or study English. As a result, friendly Koreans and hospitable Filipinos

Then here we are again, saying Filipino fashion is oldage, dull, and boring so we ten d to color our naturally black hair to something flaring, glowing, and shining which is not even compatible with our skin color .

developed a strong bond of relationship. Koreans even captured the demure Filipiniana heart.

The alarming influence of Korean popular culture under the so-called Korean wave or “hallyu” strongly proves the unstoppable growing interests of Filipinos to Korean culture. In our university alone, proofs are everywhere. Gangnam style, Gentleman, the Boys, etc. were already played as a part of the annual aero fusion and also as the most played on students’ phones.

Our elders may be very confused of what made us so devoted to Korean fashions, music, movies

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and all others. In fact, the K-Pop sensations like the Girl’s Generation (GG), Wonder Girls, 2ne1, Super Juniors, Big Bang, Rain, 4minute, Rainbow, SS501, DBSK, among others were already a part of our vocabularies which shows South Korea’s big business of pop industry in Asia. It is so sad to see teens not even appreciating our very own Filipino pop singers, Sarah Geronimo’s (Sarah G) enchanting voice, Lea Salonga’s magical and theatrical voice, and so with many other gifted Filipino talents.

I would then want to enumerate things that keep everyone to be an avid fan of anything Korean.

First, teens love the head-bopping, catchy tunes and so with the slick dance routines. Second, the Korean fashion is what is trending and hot right now. It offers a good mix of colors and a variety of clothing styles. It is livelier and pleasing to the eye.

Third, Korean novelas are intelligently manipulated with spell-binding twists. Unlike Filipino teleseryes which introduce a lot of confusing characters with not-so-believable protagonists.

In contrast, Korean novelas are simple, straight to the point, and heart-touching.

But on the other side of the coin, we see Korean teenage crushes coming here for a once-a-year date in a national love story, where commitment is measured in colored balloons, and devotion is knowing all the words.

Filipino artists are naturally beautiful decades ago but because of trying to be like somebody else, some already indulge to plastic surgeries just to join the fantastic idolism of our society. If it is the Korean’s culture, then it is theirs; we do not need to do what they do.

We are born this way so why fake ourselves? Philippines appreciate what you do and not how you look like.

It is a shocking trivia that Korean kids aspiring to be singing divas are locked up in a building where they would be trained to dance while developing their voices. They are treated no lesser than a puppet as a child since their freedom is limited. But then, according to koreannewstv.com, they (Korean singers) still do not get the price of their hardships.

This is just a contradictory of what we believe in.

In Juan dela Cruz’s eyes, Koreans are the best while Filipinos are the worst, well both have flaws because

nothing is perfect.

It is also very funny and disgusting to see Filipino teens listening to songs having lyrics that they really could not understand because in the first place Korean Language is not our national language.

We love Korean music because the rhythms are ear-candy and those dance moves are making us surprisingly crazy. But because of that, the Filipino pop has no sense to us at all. May I just ask, what country do we really belong?

Then here we are again, saying Filipino fashion is old-age, dull, and boring so we tend to color our naturally black hair to something flaring, glowing, and shining which is not even compatible with our skin color. We also use high-cut shorts on unsuited events, seasons, and places revealing our beautiful legs. For Koreans, that’s nothing and they really look good in it with their flawless legs, but here in the Philippines, you are just an intolerable threat adding to our country’s rape cases.

But, thanks to the Koreans that they added color to fashion with their differently trimmed and designed clothes and blouses, as well as to their skinny jeans and high-heeled shoes (etc.) that are overused or rather misused by the Filipino society.

Thanks to their fantastical, realistic, addictive, and well-written Korean novelas that makes us dream of our own happy-endings; and also made us crya-river on their logical tragic endings. Because of these, Filipino televisions create their own copy-cut version which simply suggests they cannot create their own original novela. So are we proud of it?

Maybe. For the past years, Philippines have been the center of Korean novela’s re-enactment.

So, we Filipinos are really like this? Always aim to be somebody else and always want to change his/ her own culture to conform to foreign lifestyles. And after we succeed conforming to them, do they even appreciate it? Or are we even happy about it? This is as if we passively submitted to a peaceful but fatal invasion of the mind, heart, body, and soul.

The bottom line is, can we not stop these crazy cravings of others way of living, but instead try to cultivate, strengthen, and empower our forgotten identities. We should not let the essence of our traditions pass away and become just a word of mouth and letting our own backgrounds vanish in just a blink of an eye. I hope we wake up from our cancerous yearnings and stand to face the battle to protect our culture from the bullets of ever lost. We must not degrade our very own while adoring what others have. We have the best for us and we should not make our culture inferior to others when in fact this is our home!

I was privileged to be one of those journalists to join the 1st SPAM-Extramural 2014 at Tagaytay City last April 28-30. In the editorial writing which is my first contest at the night of April 28, we were tasked to squeeze every neuron in our brains to read, understand, and write about a news article written

by DJ Yap published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer titled, “Filipinos attracted to Korean culture, K-pop, Korean novelas but majority of Koreans don’t trust Filipinos.” We were pressured by the time as we need to produce our contest piece in just an hour while the reading of the three-paged, single spaced news article was included in the time allotment. Reading the article is like being slapped to wake up from a long episode of day dreaming. It is a bullet shoot straight to the heart that woke my dancing pen to scribble some words and let it be published.

opinion | The Mountain Collegian

The Flambeau

Dare to play the endearing games of life?

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BRENDON BANGCO-OG

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Sometimes, we encounter life as a channel of trials and challenges, and of lessons and teachings.

Life could go through as an adage that teaches us the things we should do and those we should not.

It has its own ways in guiding us to our dreams and goals; some of which we expect and some are not. Nonetheless, life, in all its aspects, failure is inevitable.

Who would have ever forget the arousing moment of Derek Redmond, a former British 400 meter record holder when he was 19, who was near from winning when he lined up for the 400-meter race in the semi-finals in Barcelona Olympic Games but made a surprisingly remarkable episode in the history of sports?

“When I took my place on the starting blocks I felt good. For once I had no injuries, despite eight operations in four years, and I have won the first two rounds without breaking sweat – including posting the fastest time in the first round heats. I was confident and when the gun went off I got off to a good start,” said Derek.

He was leading the race and about to run 175 meters only towards the finish line to be able to enter in the Olympic finals when he came to hear a pop coming from his right hamstring causing him to stop, and sit on his right leg in pain. Derek, with agony on his face, knew he could not continue the race with an injury, looking at his rivals nearing the finish line. Yet he still struggled to run with all the pain using the left foot with the aid of his father, and truly, he finished the race the last but the happiest of all racers.

Just like him, I believe everyone is experiencing downfalls and frustrations in life. As we step out of our courts, after each game we played and each battle we faced, either pains of loss are what we feel or the reverse. But sometimes, the problem within

Many tried to fight but they failed; started a race but got tired before getting to the finish line; always asking why but never had the answer … us is that we tend to dwell on our cynical views (afraid to be crushed again) that we tend to easily give up our goals whenever we face hurdles which we cannot jump-off, not knowing that just a single step forward is the door of our dreams. Is it not what life is? Rising after we fall?

The story of Derek Redmond is a reminder that

athletes practice, train, and spend most of their time working hard in order to attain their goals; same as with everyone, we must attempt to invest and struggle to work for us to survive -- that is how we can truly win from within.

Athletes are one of the University’s prides and barely five months to go, comes the unending sports activities- both intramurals and extramural.

Applause to the Institute of Human Kinetics for making some visible improvements in the facilities.

Meanwhile, it is saddening that there are some sports issues that are not yet addressed! One of which is the lack of sports gears and equipment for a number of sports teams. Skills cannot be properly maintained and heightened if these sports equipment are missing or not enough.

And also, we cannot do away of the “sports incentives”.

I suppose athletes must also be given credits not as payments but a sense of gratitude for continuing to uphold BSU’s name in many sports affairs.

I believe BSU has already the best and most skilled athletes ready to compete in higher sports competitions and deserves to be given attention and support.

In the we los games of li fe e for us our own ba , failure exis ts to tt rain, th somehow le, but if that . Somehow le ere is i alway arn and rea s what it tak s a rai nbow lize that afte es to colo r r our s the kies. life may not turn as easy as it seems but through hard work, determination and nerve to fight another round, our weakness can be felt more than big achievements.

In the games of life, failure exist. Somehow we lose our own battle, but if that is what it takes for us to somehow learn and realize that after the rain, there is always a rainbow to color our skies. While

The Mountain Collegian invites every student writer of Benguet State University to participate in the 8th Annual National Convention, 5th National Journalism Quiz Bee: Pambansang Pautakang Pampahayagan, and 2nd International Cultural Exchange of

School Press Advisers Movement, Inc

“Inculcating the essence of Truth, Credibility and Morality in Campus Journalism amidst Global Challenges.”

Venue: Teachers’ Camp, Baguio City For more details, kindly visit our office located at 1/f OSS Building, Benguet State University.

Abangan ang ikapitong pagpintig ng mga pantig!

7

Pintig Pantig

The Mountain

Collegian Literary Awards

at

Magkaroon ng pagkakataong mailimbag ang likhang lathalain sa Kalaleng!

April- June 2014

27

The Mountain Mountain Collegian Collegian The

NEWS || news

Student Salo-salo: Students of Benguet State University bond together as they enjoy their lunch to refuel their brains for the next class. This scene is common at the loans of the university campus.

MC Archive

Student dev’t revisited; Centennial history in the making BY: RHE-ANN B. NGAYAAN

University historians gathered themselves to collect pearls of the La Trinidad Farm School (LTFS), Trinidad Agricultural School (TAS), Trinidad Agricultural Farm School (TAFS), Trinidad Agricultural High School (TAHS), Mountain National Agricultural School (MNAS), Mountain National Agricultural College (MNAC), Mountain Agricultural College (MAC), Mountain State Agricultural College (MSAC), and finally, of the Benguet State University (BSU) for them to sew into one golden necklace of history by 2016.

Aimed at mapping the collective memories of former teachers, officials, and alumni of Benguet State University (BSU) in preparation to its 100 years celebration, the University’s History Committee conducted a workshop participated in by selected retirees, alumni, other concerned student representatives, faculty and officials at the ATI-NTC Multipurpose hall on May 29- 30.

In terms of reference, the University’s history has a rich repertoire from the World War I to World War II until the contemporary times. Through storytelling and photo interpretation with the participation of the said people behind BSU, the memories are to be unearthed, shared, enriched, and documented along with the following themes: governance (pre-war, post war, contemporary times); curriculum and faculty development; student development; research and extension; Income Generating Project; infrastructure development, among others.

“By putting context to photos through the years, the write ups for photo essays will be crafted as materials for a Centennial Coffee Table Book template,” said Dr. Grace T. Bengwayan, chair of the BSU History Committee.

In the two-day event, updates and nodal points in BSU history as perceived by men and women contributors were established in different group workshops, and accounts narrated are presented for confirmation and complementation in an open

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forum.

The activity is in the context of the project titled “Writing the History of Benguet State University”, which was conceptualized by Dr. Ma. Luz D. Fangasan.

Student dev’t before In the result of the discussion on the student empowerment among deliberators Dr. Alumno Ampaguey, Dr. Edna Chua, Olga Dangwa, Carolyn Dimas, and Dr. Victor Singa, the student organizations in the Academic/Intra-curricular started with the Student Body Organization/Supreme Student Council now Supreme Student Government.

Accordingly, after the colleges were established, some organizations were born namely: From G-string to Modern Pants (now Mountain Breeze), The Mountain Collegian, Future Farmers of the Philippines, FFHP, Glee Club, Kontad, Debating Club, Dramatics Club, CCA, Mindanao Repertoire Sports, among others.

Further, in academics, students had supplies for the chemistry laboratory facilities supported by the UNESCO. Extra-curricular student organizations, on the other hand, include Girls Scout of the Philippines, Boys Scout of the Philippines, 4H Club, 2-2 Plan, Red Cross, YMCA, YWCA, and others.

With these different student organizations, students had trips abroad under President Bruno Santos (1975-1976). One of them was the respondent,

Dr. Ampaguey of the 4H Club who went to United States and stayed there for two years.

“The 4H Club was a program of DA, but students of MAC-MSAC-BSU were selected to be recipients of their program. I was able to go around the different states of America except Alaska,” said Ampaguey.

Meanwhile, the involvement of the students to community work and extension was high. There were graduates who were employed because of excelling in sports. In YMCA debate, MAC-MSAC always won championship titles.

“The College parliamentarians had prominent players like Bugnosen, Tipayno, and Bawang was a powerful team, they ousted other colleges and universities,” stated Singa.

Moreover, the deliberators recalled that in 1969 under the administration of Mr. Pedro Ventura, the students moved for the conversion of MAC to MSAC. “The students kept on calling the Malacañan for the approval of their proposal on transforming the college into a state university,”added Singa.

Further, according to Chua, “98% of student population rallied for the removal of Mr. Ventura as recorded by the late Cecile Afable”.

The deliberators stated that as early as the establishment of the farm school, students had been contributing to its development through taking part in solid works and fundraising activities. In the late 1960s, a week- long solid work had been a part of the curriculum, in which tree planting and fencing of the school were undergone. The students were active in cleaning the surroundings and planting flowers in front of the old buildings (now CAS and CA) since there were no hired janitors or utility workers.

“Aside from doing the school labors and maintenance of facilities, most of the trees in the mountains of the municipality were planted by the students; and every graduating class will have to donate and build for the fences which until today are standing around the campus”, explained Ampaguey.

news

| The Mountain Collegian

BSU graduates are LT Awardees BY: MYlyn maitang and jerson sabado jr.

Three Benguet State University (BSU) former students were given Special Awardees for being Outstanding Youth/ Students who contributed in the municipality’s welfare, for this year’s La Trinidad 64th Foundation celebration held at the municipal gymnasium last June 16.

They were Safrone Jade Dicam (Bachelor of Science in Nursing) and Aileen Kryl Simeon (Bachelor of Elementary Education), both fresh graduates, and Martes Dionisio Jr. (Bachelor in Secondary Education) who graduated on 2012.

It is the first time the municipality gave the Kayabang Award in conjunction with its foundation day. The municipality targeted LT citizens who have significantly contributed to the community in their own fields.

“There is alot to be thankful for in the town and stressed teamwork between the local government and other private sectors that contributed to the development of the town.” said La Trinidad Mayor Edna C. Tabanda.

“We should not take people for granted, we should recognize and give honor.” Tabanda added.

Safrone Jade Dicam’s has proven her academic excellence by recently graduating Cum Laude and receiving various academic related achievements throughout her collegiate years in the university.

She has concretely manifested servant-leadership in school-based and Hospital/Civic organizations by creating and implementing programs that have benefitted various communities within Benguet.

She also received several citations for being an outstanding student leader from the university.

Moreover, she has participated as a volunteer student-nurse and help organized medical missions that have been carried out in far-flung communities

Head held up high: Three BSU graduates take pride to receive special awards for the University during LT’s Foundation Day Celebration- a share of the Academe’s Excellency.

PIA-CAR

in the province.

Aileen Kryl Aliman Simeon, on the other hand, has proven her academic excellence graduating as Magna Cum Laude and have achieved several awards throughout her collegiate years. Accepting the challenge of social responsibility through her volunteer efforts, she manifested servant-leadership in school based and church-based organizations by creating and implementing programs that benefit her constituents.

Aside from being academic achiever, and graduating as Magna Cum Laude on 2012 and ranking 10th during the 2012 Licensure Examination for Teachers, Martes Daniel Dionisio Jr., is a firm promoter of grassroots level football. He too has established a name in the local football crowd as an athlete and organizer of various football skills clinics.

All of them were Outstanding Students in Cordillera Administrative Region (OSCAR) awardees and are Ten Outstanding of the Philippine (TOSP) nominees , Dicam and Simeon this 2014 and Dionisio on 2012.

“I am honored to be recognized as a special awardee especially I am only a fresh graduate and I am also grateful that the initiatives and advocates we put forward were recognized as contributory to the community.” Dicam said.

She added: “I hope the youth can be inspired by this feat because it is not age that matters to effect change but the strong will and determination.”

Qualification of awards includes; nominee must be a locally based in La Trinidad, was never been awarded or recognized by the Municipal Government for the past five years on the same field. Achievement/ accomplishment must be exemplary and have made a significant impact to the community and have received recognitions/ awards from other awarding bodies/entities aside from local government of La Trinidad.

Moreover, former BSU President Dr. Rogelio Colting, current College of Agriculture Dean Dr. Sonwright B. Maddul, and BSU On the Air anchor, Dr. Silvestre Kudan were lauded for their contribution in the academe.

BSU welcomes freshmen, first campus tour held BY: ericka mae pistola and jaina ashlyn awas

Benguet State University (BSU) through Office of Student ServicesGuidance and Counselling Unit (OSSGCU) conducted the first ever Freshman Parade cum Campus Tour last June 11 as part of the freshmen orientation.

Accordingly, the freshmen students were toured around the university by the Supreme Student Government (SSG) officers and were assisted by the different college student government officers.

“The tour was primarily aimed at familiarizing the freshmen students on the different areas of the University. Secondly, it was to make them feel welcome,” explained Maricris Lad-ey, OSS-GCU

Head.

Also, the different college student officers were tasked to prepare some “pakulo” or a short program to welcome the students during the tour.

“The tour also aimed to introduce the students into different offices and people whom they can turn to in case of emergencies,” said Ruth Eteng, SSG president.

Meanwhile, the students were grouped according to their courses and toured the University from the College of Agricultural Engineering at Km.6 to the College of Nursing and Veterinary Medicine at Km.5, La Trinidad.

“We enjoyed the activity. We are glad to be introduced to the different buildings,” said Crizel Pistola, a freshman student of Bachelor of Nursing.

“But it would have been better if we had it earlier, like on the first day of classes,” she added.

According to Lad-ey, the activity was not conducted on the first day of class because the OSS-GCU has to consider some factors such as the simultaneous activities during that day.

“Aside from the reason that the college student governments were busy during the first day of classes, we were also affected by the weather,” she further explained.

Furthermore, Eteng shared that the activity also aimed to eliminate some classroom issues especially the “to be announced” (TBA) arrangements.

“It was a great idea to help the freshmen locate their room assignments easier and synchronized,” Eteng ended.

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ILLUSTRATED BY: HARMON NICER

The frogs and tadpoles are over there. The Mountain Collegian third swing of the Save the Frogs Movement holds true to its commitment of educating children towards protecting the environment and amphibians like frog.

MC Archive

Kids vow to save frogs; MC holds STF III BY: BRENDON BANGCO-OG

Forty seven children joined The Mountain Collegian (MC) and the world in saving the frogs in April 26.

Why in the world frogs?

Because according to savethefrogs.com, amphibians, like frogs which are good indicators of ecological balance, naturally go extinct at a rate of only about one specie every 500 years.

Further, frogs, as one of the most integral parts of the ecosystem, have been undergoing vast decline in number recently and some even are already extinct.

However, approximately 200 amphibian species have completely disappeared today since 1980.

Thus, in answer with frogs’ extinction, The Mountain Collegian (MC), the official publication of Benguet State University (BSU), conducted its own local version of the ‘Save the Frogs’ (STF) international movement celebration of the 6th Save the Frogs Day. Forty seven children from all over the Cordillera Administrative Region pledged to save and preserve remaining frogs in the world through Literary and Arts Workshop of at the College of Home Economics Strawberry Hall on April 26.

From its first year in 2012 to its third year now, MC’s STF recognizes the environmental contributions of frogs, and all other amphibians, as they are considered important in the ecosystem.

The activity draws inspiration from the ‘Save the Frogs’ movement founded in the United States of America by Dr. Kerry Kriger which primarily aims to save and preserve remaining frogs in the world.

According to Dr. Erlinda C. Bestre, professor from the Biology Department of the College of Arts and Sciences and guest speaker, frogs play an

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important role in the food chain, since they feed on insects and also serve as food for snakes, birds and other predators.

“Frogs are very good ecological indicators of a healthy environment. Since they have a high degree of sensitivity, they respond to very slight changes in the environment,” said Dr. Bestre.

Following the lecture on frogs and their importance to the ecosystem, the one- day event also held workshops on froggy song and dance, essay, and poetry writing, drawing, frog origami- making, and a frog habitat exploration at the Strawberry Hall.

School’s contribution Rhe-Ann B. Ngayaan, MC Associate Editor shared “Top Ten Actions Your School Can Take to Help Save the Frogs” lifted from savethefrogs.com.

These are: celebrate Save The Frogs Day each April; stop dissecting frogs; hold a fundraising to support Save the Frogs’ worldwide conservation efforts; post ‘Save the Frogs!’ flyers on your bulletin boards; put ‘Save the Frogs!’ posters on your classroom walls; put ‘Save the Frogs!’ info cards in your school library; organize a school assembly and a skype with a save the frogs! biologist; write an article about frogs in your school newspaper; give a short announcement about frog extinctions over your school’s loudspeaker and ask all students to visit savethefrogs.com; and start a ‘Save the Frogs’ Club with your fellow students to further organize and implement amphibian conservation actions at your school and within your community.

“If we save the frogs God has created, we save ourselves from mosquito bites, diseases cause by flies, and bugs and pests which destroy our crops,” said Kristel Joy Balasin, a participant from Saint Paul’s Academy- Sayangan, Atok.

These little creatures may be as minute as we see them but they play a big and vital part in the global environment. Let us not wait that they will totally vanish before we look into this serious endeavor.

Together, let us save the frogs, and save ourselves like

Aimed at becoming a part in addressing the pressing issues that directly affect the youth sector, RheAnn B. Ngayaan, the current editorin-chief of The Mountain Collegian, the official student publication of Benguet State University (BSU) got right on track after National Youth Parliament (NYP) 8’s Claudine Malis and Jane Aprille Luis.

Ngayaan, now the NYP 10 Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) Parliamentarians’ Press Release Officer said, “Dr. Jose Rizal was never wrong when he recognized the youth as the hope of the nation. As the society’s backbone, we must address the challenges of today’s status quo by directly participating in policy-making and in governance”.

“After the event, the Parliament did not just end there. It was actually just the beginning, a training ground for us to keep on participating towards nation-building,” added Ngayaan.

She joined other 199 parliamentarians nationwide after being qualified among 800 applicants with nine other qualifiers from CAR.

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PACE: ASEAN 2015 is an opportunity, not a threat; BSU hosts PACE National Confab BY: mylyn maitang and arniel dumigsi

witH REPORTS FROM PACE DOCUMENTATION COMMITTEE

“Philippine Association of Communication Educators Foundations, Inc. (PACE) sees ASEAN integration as an opportunity not as a threat,” ensures Prof.

Marco M. Polo, president of PACE during the 2014 National Conference held at the Agricultural Training Institute-Cordillera Administrative Region (ATICAR), Benguet State University (BSU) on April 3-5, 2014.

With the theme, “Communication and Media Education and Practice: Issue and Challenges on Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) integration and K-12,” the conference aimed at discussing the implications and challenges on the K-12 and the ASEAN integration for better understanding of the people.

The three-day event kicked off with a total of 100 communication educators attended the event and Thai envoy Dr. Sauwakon Ratanawijitrasin, outgoing Center Director of the ASEAN who served as the keynote speaker and emphasized about the ASEAN integration.

Accordingly, ASEAN Integration targets to unite its member-countries as one economic community by 2015. Among the different areas that will be integrated are human resources, development and capacity building, and recognition of professional qualifications.

Through the integration, there will be free

movement of goods, services, investment, skilled labor, and free flow of capital among the member countries; enhancement of the region’s capability to put leverage on its economic traffic along with other regions; and encouragement of human mobility to enable people to practice their professions easily and with relaxed requirements within member countries.

“ASEAN integration will change how schools operate in the sense that eventually, schools will have to internationalize their academic calendar parallel with the academic calendar of the ASEAN countries,” said PACE Professional Development Committee Head Prof. Joeven Castro.

The K to 12 program is the government’s way to reach its aim of making the Philippine education sector be at par with its Asian neighbors and meet global standards.

BSU hosts PACE National Confab 2014 To cultivate new insights and perspectives into

future media landscapes and invite thoughtful reflections and re-examine values as communication specialists and practitioners, PACE together with the Benguet State University- Department of Development Communication organized the first PACE national conference.

“We wanted to bring PACE back to the region where it was founded and to participants outside Manila,” adds Prof. Polo.

Since 1975 it was only this time again that the neighboring town, La Trinidad hosted an important event of the said organization.

Dr. Divina Yango, BSU Educational Training Specialist, said there is a need to enlighten the minds of the people by making the stakeholders aware and have an understanding of the programs, considering K to 12 is not 100 percent accepted at the moment.

BSU is endeavoring to be a model in adapting existing curriculum of the K-12 and the ASEAN integration while maintaining its pedestal on being an organic university in the country.

PACE is the oldest, biggest, and most dynamic organization of educators of community broadcasting, and journalism from several Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) all over the country. It has been known for its projects promoting peace communication, media education, media monitoring, broadcast internships for students, public service broadcasting, theory-teaching skills and government-academe dialogue.

BSU stude is NYP 10 parliamentarian BY: chatelaine wansi

They raised issues besetting the region’s youth on education, health, employment, and participation.

In her Issue/Problem, Causes, Effects, Needs matrix submitted during the Pre-Parliament Online Discussion, Ngayaan indicated that in Benguet alone, the schools lack classrooms and facilities including teachers and is even more intensified following the immediate implementation of the K to 12 program, especially in the outskirts of the province.

Further, as member of the NYP’s Committee on Education, she co-sponsored a resolution urging concerned agencies to act on the high incidence of Out-of-School Youths (OSYs).

“The region has the least number of OSY in the country according to the Annual Poverty Indicators Survey of the National Statistics Office, but still some areas like in my hometown Kibungan has a growing number of OSY,” she said.

On the other hand, I shared my observation of the gaps between DepEd and the Higher Educational Institutions on the K to 12 comes 2016,” Ngayaan added.

As a lone representative of the University, her

advocacies are honest and responsible journalism, and accessible, qualitative, and quantitative education for all.

As regional conveners, the ten of them contributed to the plenary’s adoption of the eight resolutions passed to the newly appointed National Youth Commission Chair Gio Tingson and to Senator Paolo “Bam” Aquino IV, Senate Committee on Youth who acknowledged the youth parliament resolutions as gifts. These are endorsed and lobbied from the concerned local, provincial or city councils to the national government agencies.

The said resolutions were: more open and readily available labor market information system programs; genuine youth participation in the peace process; proper implementation of the ABOT ALAM program; strengthening of youth participation in the policy process addressing the issue on HIV and AIDS; reforming of the Sangguniang Kabataan; improvement of youth entrepreneurship initiatives and programs; modernization of public primary and secondary educational institution by giving priority to less advantaged areas and enhanced training of

public school teachers in the utilization of ICT; and the upgrade of the health services of the marginalized sector specifically indigenous peoples and persons with disabilities.

“I am happy that one of the BSU applicants was identified to be one of the participants in the NYP. She was able to bring issues within BSU to the national level,” said Ramon Fiangaan, Head of Student Organizations and Activities Unit.

“Through her, napansin iyong issues natin and she was able to be part in crafting bills on education reform that hopefully maging law na,” Fiangaan ended.

The NYP is a biennial gathering convening the best youth leaders and youth sector representatives countrywide to draft policy endorsements and craft program proposals.

They engaged in a simulated legislative process where they undergone presentations, deliberations, and plenary debates to resolve youth issues. The outputs served as the government’s guide in youth policy formulation and program development as mandated by law through Republic Act No. 8044.

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Go Girls! : The student nurses’ teamwork was put to test during the Tug of War, one of the games played during the Laro ng Lahi. This is one of the foundation day’s student activity highlight organized by the Supreme Student Government.

Photographed by Mylyn Maitang

BSU turns 98; strives for ASEAN ‘15 BY: MYLYN MAITANG

True to the theme of the University’s 98th Foundation Anniversary, “BSU @98: Gearing up for the challenges and opportunities of ASEAN 2015,” the Benguet State University (BSU) prepares for the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) integration this coming 2015.

Marking this year’s foundation celebration June 25-30, the weeklong anniversary activities kicked off with a motorcade routing from BSU gym to Camp Dangwa, Buyagan-Pico Road to Bell Church/City Limit then back to the university grounds on June 25.

The motorcade was followed by a thanksgiving service at the university gym served

by Bishop Carlito Cenzon. The festivity was opened simultaneous with the opening of exhibits at the university covered court.

Benguet dad graces opening ceremonies Benguet Governor Nestor Fongwan graced the opening ceremonies as the Guest of Honor and Speaker. He lauded the University for being the province’s partner in supporting the agriculture industry especially the vegetable production by which 50 percent of the province population depends.

Being one of the premier agriculture-based institutions in the country, Gov. Fongwan challenged the university and its constituents to allow the vegetable industry in the locality not to collapse especially in the upcoming ASEAN 2015 integration.

He expressed his concerns that vegetables from China, especially carrots will flood the local market which may threat the province’s vegetable industry due to ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) once in full swing this coming year.

Benguet dad explained that under the AFTA, tariff on agricultural products of the member countries would be free, meaning the entry of foreign vegetable product may affect the price of the local vegetables and there is a possible entry of pests that come along with imported products.

Benguet and nearby farming communities supplies almost 70 percent of the demand for temperate vegetables of Luzon and some parts of Visayas. Further, fifty percent of the province’s population depends on agriculture industry.

On the other hand, Fongwan proposed some safety nets that may address the threat of competition in local and foreign vegetable trade.

Fongwan stressed there must be a strict

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implementation of quarantine policies by the Bureau of Plant and Industry of the Department of Agriculture. This will avert the vegetables from China which are bombarded with too much chemicals, from entering the local market. And, the entry of agri-products contaminated with pests will also be prevented.

“Let us now start educating our farmers on how to compete” Fongwan added.

He also encourages the Research and Extension administration to research on how to propagate varieties of potatoes that can compete in the food market.

“Inculcate in the minds of farmers the good agricultural practices and see to it that agricultural practices are in place” appealed Fongwan to the administration.

He also stated that BSU is more prominent than the province because of its Excellency not only region wide but also internationally.

Students’ Day Supreme Student Government (SSG) spearheaded the Laro ng Lahi, essay writing and painting contest participated in by students from all eight colleges, including the Secondary Laboratory School (SLS) and representatives from BSU Bokod Campus.

Among the games played at the university oval were tug-of-war, suck-and-blow, farm games, pop the balloon game, and mayroon ka ba?.

The College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) team won against the College of Nursing (CN), placing second, for the tug-of-war game. College of Engineering and Applied Technology (CEAT), on the other hand, grabbed the third place.

Meanwhile, the College of Agriculture (CA) champed the suck-and-blow game, and the College of Teacher Education (CTE) and College of Forestry (CF) ranking second and third, respectively.

Moreover, the College of Home Economics (CHET) placed first for the pop the balloon game while CN and CEAT took home the second and third prizes.

Lastly, CHET and CTE shared the prize for the ‘mayroon ka ba?’ game and SLS students tied with the CTE for the farm games.

The winners of the essay writing contest were Samantha P. Aquino (CVM) placing first, Daniel Jason Maches (CA) for the second place and Milliscent Lucio (SLS) for the third place.

For the on-the-spot painting contest judged by the Department of Humanities, the painting of CVM students Hayde Palaleo, Mary Jane Culaton, Harmon Nicer, Abegail Nagpala, and Auleth Shamar Jovellanos won. Luis Amador and Claudio McHenry from BSU-Bokod campus grabbed the second placed while CTE representatives Mark Samuel de Guzman, Gisselle Ocyaden and Bobby McGee Lee’s painting placed third.

BSU honors lot donors Descendants of the Ibaloi couple Clemente Laoyan I and Albin Maltini Laoyan who shared 50 hectares of their land which eventually became the site of the BSU Main Campus received the posthumous recognition awarded by the institution during the Anniversary’sopening ceremonies.

The award was received by Laoyan’s eldest living granddaughter, Elizabeth Laoyan Pucay-Bagcal while Teresita Panagan received the award for her aunt, Albin Maltini-Laoyan.

The plaque given recognizes the couple for being great leaders in the 1990s and for their pioneering support and assistance in the development of the institution’s early beginnings from a farm school to becoming a university.

The 50 hectares of the Laoyan’s were given without payment but due arrangements made between Laoyan and James Wright on 1990’s, who was the first superintendent of the school, La Trinidad Farm School.

Moreover, several institutions were also recognized for their excellent services, support and partnership with the university in preparation and occurring of the said celebration. These were: Abatan-Buguias Van Association, Barangay Alno, LA Trinidad, Bureau of Agriculture and Fisheries Standards (BAFS), Commission on Higher Education (CHED-CAR), Fulbright Commission on the Philppines, Japanese embassy in Manila, Lepanto foundation, National Organic Agriculture Board, Philippine Information Agency (PIA-CAR), Philippine National Police Regional Command and Institute of Plant Breeding-UPLB.

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257 ESGP-PA grantees undergo Bridging Program BY: ERICKA MAE PISTOLA AND JAINA AWAS

257 Expanded Students’ Grants-In-Aid Program for Poverty Alleviation (ESGPPA) grantees go through an Intensive Bridging Program (IBP) conducted by the Office of Student Services- Guidance and Counselling Unit (OSS-GCU) on May 6 to June 7.

The IBP was held in accordance to the role of Benguet State University (BSU) as a member of the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges (PASUC). The joint memorandum Circular No. 2014-1 signed between the Department of Social Welfare Development (DSWD), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Department of Budget Management (DBM), Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and PASUC states that the State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) including BSU are “tasked to institute as needed a bridging program to provide remedial/ mentoring program to cater to the special needs of the student- grantees.”

“The IBP was implemented as an advanced summer class for the incoming freshmen ESGP- PA grantees. It aims to bridge the gap of transition status among high school students to their college level,” explained Isidro Alindayo, Jr., OSS-GCU personnel.

“It was to give them time to adjust to the changes as well as to be familiar with the system of being a college student,” he added.

Circle of Learning : Yet like no other children playing around,these ESGP-PA grantees have a better way of learning with fun. With the intervention of IBP, freshmen have now a better outlook of college life.

Photo Courtesy of Isidro Alindayo- OSS GCU

“There were a lot of instances where freshmen usually drop out from their subjects because they find it difficult to adjust to their college life,” stated Maricris Lad-ey, OSS-GCU Head.

“With this, the bridging program served as their orientation to college,” ended Lad-ey.

Accordingly, the program was implemented among the grantees in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) whose general classes are scheduled of either from 8 AM to12 noon, 1 PM to 5 PM, or 8 AM to 5 PM for weekdays. The IBP was an intensive move to allot subjects for at least four hours of continuous

discussion two to three days a week.

“Basically, the subjects they have taken during the bridging program are part of their curriculum. They will still be taking these subjects during the regular semesters. We hope that the bridging program prepared them, both emotionally and intellectually,” expressed Alindayo, Jr. “The program was great since it gave us an opportunity to be oriented on the system of college life. It would not be hard for us to go with the flow once the classes officially start,” said Lesiery Lictag, an ESGP- PA grantee.

Cordi’s Youth orgs to launch disaster advocacy prints BY: rhe-ann b. ngayaan

Aimed at producing Information, Education Campaign, and (IEC) materials such as coffee table books, leaflets and posters on Disasters Risk Reduction Management (DDRM), the Mabikas Youth Federation, Inc. (MYFI) and members of the six communities of Cordillera Parents Federation, Inc. (CPFI) held its regional DRR Information Education Campaign: Literary, Photography and Arts workshop at Prince Plaza Hotel, Baguio City on May 28- 29.

According to MYFI President Giselle Ocyaden, the activity generally targets to create an avenue for the participants to develop their writing and artistic skills and formulate advocacy materials regarding disaster awareness and preparedness through knowledge products, literary, photography, and arts expression.

“Environmental hazards and climate change are significant global issues which can cause disastrous events. And that disaster is a phenomenon that happens suddenly and causes much suffering or loss to many people,” said Ocyaden.

“The impacts of calamities can be lessened through educating and informing the communities about DRRM by conducting trainings and orientations, ’’ added Ocyaden.

The two- day training gathered 45 Mabikas

officers, facilitators, and members from the said six communities of CPFI namely: Aphochan Community Development Inc., and Kiphodan Community Organization Inc., both from Ifugao; Namnama Development Project Inc. Association, and Pumat-a Community Organization Inc., and Sulumabadu Community Organization Inc., both of Mountain Province; and Saleng Community for Baguio and Benguet.

The outputs of the participants were critiqued by the respective resource speakers coming from The Mountain Collegian, the official student publication of Benguet State University.

Ray Dulnuan served as the speaker for news and feature writing; while the creative writing speakers were Juman Kevin Tindo for short story, and Mariel Laoana and Rhe-Ann Ngayaan for poetry.

In the technical were: Paul Joseph Nuval for photography, IEC-making and layout; and Ocyaden for comics strip.

Disasters besetting Cordi According to Ocyaden, there are five top calamities affecting the highlands: earthquake, typhoon, landslide, vehicular accidents, and fire.

“Environmental hazards and climate change are significant global issues which can cause disastrous events. Disaster is a phenomenon that happens suddenly and causes much suffering or loss to many people,” read the rationale.

“The impacts of such catastrophes can be lessened through educating and informing the residents about DRRM, and conducting local trainings and orientations; however, only few were given the opportunities to attend these activities”, said Divina Dumalnog, MYFI Vice president.

“The activity provided us an avenue to develop not only our writing, photography, layout and artistic skills in formulating information materials regarding disaster awareness and preparedness, but it also advance our interests and mastery on DRRM”, ended Dumalnog.

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| SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHEB BY: vic arthur masliyan

The Mountain Collegian

when

BASKETB

is more than just a game for fun

LL BY: bobby mc gee lee

16, 783 against 16, 732. What game would ever reach such scores?

120 hours, one minute, and 7.8 seconds—non-stop. Dare to play that long? Or would you rather cheer with your pyjamas in the bleachers?

But for the 24 players of the 2014 Basketball B

Marathon at the MERALCO complex in Pasig City recently, these figures meant charting their love of basketball to greater heights, marking another history for our country, and continuing to rebuild what many have lost—the Guinness World Record for the longest basketball game ever played.

The five- day marathon which started at 7:00 AM last March 24 and ended at around 9:00 AM last March 29 gave justice to every street corner with basketball rings nailed to patched up driftwoods and attached to tree trunks or branches, and as well as to the jerseys taking over our closets.

When the ball bounces to the Philippines Being introduced to the country in the early

1990s, basketball claimed fast and massive patronage since it is an equal-opportunity sports, cutting across gender, age, and socio-economic status; and it can be played anytime and anywhere—in school grounds, in community streets, in gymnasiums, and even in the middle of ricefields.

The country’s immense patronage of the sports even brought its name to supremacy during the 1950s, battling against powerhouse teams from around the world during the Federacion Internationale de Basketball Association (FIBA) Cup and other competitions, and unleashing star players such as Carlos Loyzaga and Lauro Mumar.

On the other hand, the 24 players of the marathon, armed with beddings that filled the

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complex, and made up two teams where team Bounce Back defeated team Walang Iwanan, were selected from among 1, 500 people who joined the try- outs nationwide from December 2013 to January 2014.

The former record holder, Missouri in USA, clutched the record in 2012, for a game that lasted for 112 hours and 13 seconds; 11,806- 11,620.

...we have just proven that being six- feet high does not matter in shooting through the hoops...

The marathon beat the former’s record for the highest score (11,806) at around 12:17 AM last March 27, and for the time at past 1:00 AM last March 29, where the game was halted for a short time due to a foul.

However, of course, such a game is a test of will and courage, especially when sprains, dehydration,

and fatigue, among others, had to be endured by the players who were given only two hours of rest each.

But all these were paid off by the announcement for clutching the record and turnover made right after the game.

Hoops to bounce back Philippines More than snatching the Guinness record, on the other hand, the marathon is an initiative which aims at raising funds for Operation “Walang Iwanan” (Operation Stay Together), a project of Gawad Kalinga, to build Basketball Marathon Village in Negros Occidental which was hit by typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) the previous year.Operation “Walang Iwanan” helps in the reconstruction and restoration of houses and in

providing of livelihood programs for the victims of the typhoon. Proceeds of the marathon will be used to build around 24 houses, a community basketball court, and a community hall.

With this new feat for our country, we have just proven that being six- feet high does not matter in shooting through the hoops when one is doing what he loves while bringing glory to his homeland and extending hands to those in need.

Now, we can regain our sleep knowing there would be more needy families safer in cosy homes because of this well- deserved world record. And tomorrow, we can play again in the neighborhood with our ‘liga’, never minding if we wear slippers and silk shorts, and have no shirts at all.

SPORTS | The Mountain Collegian

Musangs land 4th anew in BBEAL 2014; Mr. BSU is first ambassador BY: brendon bangco-og

Amassing one gold, three silver, and one bronze medals this year, the Benguet State University (BSU) Musangs emerged fourth in the entire year-long sports combat on the Baguio- Benguet Educational Athletic League (BBEAL) Season 27 to thrash five other competing collegiate institutions last March 28.

Adding to the bronze medal of the takraw kickers earlier in phase 1, the Musangs’ football booters marked their three-peat win this year as they rolled up an easy 2-0 kick-out over the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Cavaliers and the University of Baguio (UB) Cardinals in a round robin clash, and rallied past the Saint Louis University (SLU) Navigators during their championship game to prevail an impenetrable 3-0 win against 2-1 win-loss of the Navigators. Musangs clutch only one gold this season during the phase 2.

Moreover, the Musangs’ baseball and softball (men and women) batters skidded to third place from last year’s first, striking three silver medals in the entire medal tally.

“Our team has been topping the competition in the last three years and now, it is a challenge for us to regain our title,” said Alnijie L. Fuchigami, BEE softball player.

“On our part, we need to be committed in our daily practices,” she added.

On the other hand, the UB Cardinals retained its

championship title, locking- up 14-45, leaving far behind the University of the Cordilleras (UC) Jaguars in the second spot with 8-13-3 medal tally.

In the third and fifth places stood the Navigators (6-9-11) and the Cavaliers (0-0-4), respectively.

Mr.

BSU crowned Youth Ambassador ‘14 BSU Musangs’ stunner, Martin E. Blando, DVM IV, astounded the UB gymnasium last March 1 to nip the BBEAL Youth Ambassador crown during the first Mr. and Ms. BBEAL proper pageant night, edging out four other contestants, while Cardinals’ pride, Myles Costales, was crowned Ms. BBEAL Youth Ambassadress.

On the other hand, Princess Ventura (Navigators) and Guion Antonio (Jaguars) boasted the first runner- up crown and sashes leaving both their partners, Michael Chio (Navigators) and Vijita Shah (Jaguars) are on the second runner- up spots.

Alyssa G. Rosimo (Musangs) and Jerold Dominguez (Cardinals) trailed in third runner- up spots while Leandra Ceferino and Jordan Goyone, Baguio Central University (BCU) Eagles, landed fourth runners- up.

Furthermore, Antonio and Costales nabbed the best in talent special awards, competed in previously during the Mr. and Ms. BBEAL Pre- Pageant Talent

Head-on Clash. Alcurt Fuchigami of BSU Musangs dashes on to his feet against UB Cardinals to secure BSU’s title.

Photo Courtesy of Ma. Lourdes Obidos

Presentation Night at the UC Theater last Feb. 20.

BSU joined games selectively this season such as sepak takraw, taekwondo and chess for phase 1 and athletics, softball (men and women), baseball, football, and wushu for phase 2.

The awarding and closing ceremonies was held at the UC theatre.

BBEAL season 28 was launched last July 2 to be hosted by Baguio College of Technology (BCT) starting on August this year.

BSU-ROTC marks 3-peat triumph in RAATI 2014 BY: brendon bangco-og

Benguet State University- Reserved Officers Training Corps (BSU- ROTC) proved that the Regional Annual Administrative Tactical Inspection (RAATI) is now their colony as they dominated the grand slam for three consecutive school years now as recognized during the BSU Foundation Anniversary awarding ceremony concluded last June 27 at the University gym.

Topping 13 other universities and colleges all over the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) and Region I offering ROTC component, the BSUROTC Cadets accumulated over 96.35 points from administrative aspect (23.95), and tactical aspects such as ceremonial parade (11.64), inspection in ranks (4.72), company drill (7.62), theoretical exam (9.67), Operation Order writing (4.88), method of instruction (4.75), military courtesy and discipline (2.98), field stripping calibre 5.56mm M16 A1 rifle (2.81), field stripping calibre 45 pistol (2.83), map reading (2.75), small unit tactics (7.95),and Disaster Rescue and Relief Operation (DRRO) where BSU championed with 9.80 points.

“The reason why BSU is always winning in RAATI is that, we have the full support from the

Administration, good partnership in the NSTPROTC department, and good training facilities and highly qualified staff members,” said Prof. Angel C. Cawat, the National Service Training Program (NSTP) coordinator and Director.

Moreover, Prof. Cawat said that despite making good performances in RAATI, students are still somewhat afraid to the quality of trainings and disciplines imposed in the program, thus not joining ROTC. Composing of 430 cadets, 292 participating cadets came from BSU- La Trinidad, 52 cadets from Buguias Campus, 60 cadets of Bokod Campus, and 26 cadets from Governor Bado Dangwa Agro Industrial School (GBDAIS) in Kapangan.

Colonel Pedro C. Dulos Jr., Field Artillery (FA)

General Staff Corp Group Commandant (GSC) of the Philippine Army (PA) of the First Community Defence Group (FCDG) based at Camp Abat, Manaoag, headed the inspection using the point system tally. The breakdown of the points includes 25 points for the administration aspect, and 75 points for the tactical aspects.

“We were able to show what BSU is capable in terms of military knowledge and skills as it retains the title,” said Lobelyn A. Victoria, Cadet Major of the BSU- ROTC unit.

Meanwhile, Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU)- Laoag ranked first runner- up, nicking a close tally of 96. 18 with BSU, University of the Northern Philippines (UNP)- Vigan came second with 96.16, lowering the point of UNP to 0.02 points.

On the other hand, Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College (ISPSC)- Sta. Maria, and Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU)– Batac, Ilocos Norte rallied to the third and fourth runner- ups with 96.08 and 95.80 points, respectively.

BSU- ROTC’s ground demonstration for the competition was held last Feb. 27 at the BSU grounds.

April- June 2014

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Richard, Rhe-ann

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The Mountain Collegian

The Official Student Publication of Benguet State University

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Volume 43 Issue 1

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