UP Newsletter February 2012

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University of the Philippines Community Newspaper V O L U M E X X XIII

NUMBER 2

DILIMAN, QUEZON CITY

FEBRUARY 2 0 12

Read UP Newsletter online at http://www.up.edu.ph/upnewsletter.php

UP community Earthquake disrupts UPV, UP Cebu classes demands justice Jo. Florendo B. Lontoc Classes were suspended in both UP UPV Information and Publications Office and panic that might be caused by the for HR victims Visayas Miagao and Iloilo City campuses (IPO), the “earthquake with a magnitude aftershocks that followed the quake. This

Arbeen Acuña

and UP Cebu following the 6.9 magnitude UP officials, community leaders and earthquake that hit central Philippines last alumni renewed their call for justice for February 6. Classes resumed the next day.

UP constituents who are being subjected The campuses continue to monitor the to political persecution. During a press state of their buildings and other structures conference last January 26 at Quezon as aftershocks are expected to continue for Hall in UP Diliman, the UP community weeks. reaffirmed its call for “swift government Based on the official account by the action on several human rights cases involving UP students.”

Student Regent Ma. Kristina Conti recalled the cases of UP students and graduates who have been victims of human Arbeen Acuña rights violations such as illegal detention (Maricon Montajes and Ericon Acosta), enforced disappearances (Karen Empeño, Sherlyn Cadapan and James Balao) and military harassment (the ‘Porac 3.’)

of 5 hit Iloilo around 11:49 a.m. Employees and students rushed outside to open spaces within the university.”

At the Iloilo City campus, classes were suspended following the call of the Iloilo City Mayor for suspension of classes and the order of UPV Chancellor Rommel Espinosa. “This was for fear of stampede

SRP guidelines approved

Continuing human rights violations

Photo by Bong Arboleda

According to Conti, Montajes, a Film Major, was illegally arrested in 2010, along with two other youths, while in a peasant community in Batangas. Acosta, a former editor of the Philippine Collegian, was illegally arrested in February 2011 in Samar, Conti said.

Montajes and Acosta are still detained in the Batangas Provincial Jail and the Calbayog sub-provincial jail respectively, charged with illegal possession of explosives. Conti said that Acosta was also arrested without any warrant and only on suspicion that he is a member of the New People’s Army (NPA).

Employees and REPS celebrate approval of SRP guidelines.

Montajes and her companions claim Applause and chants were heard across number of years for which” the employee that they experienced “different forms of Quezon Hall as the All-UP Workers Union is “on substitute, contractual or casual physical and psychological torture” under (AUPWU) celebrated the issuance of status.” military custody, while Acosta was “held for Effective as of April 2011, the guidelines three days without charges and subjected implementing guidelines for the 10 Days Service Recognition Pay (SRP). state that “all regular fulltime administrative to continuous tactical interrogation by the The Board of Regents (BOR) approved staff and REPS in the plantilla” who will military,” Conti said.

In 2008, James Balao, a graduate of UP last January 26 the guidelines that grant SRP be covered by “compulsory retirement Baguio and co-founder of the Cordillera “equivalent to ten (10) days, as additional at the age of 65” and “who avail of People’s Alliance, was abducted in Benguet. benefit for administrative staff and REPS.” optional retirement due to severe illness as In 2006, Karen Empeño and Sherlyn The computation “shall not include the defined by PhilHealth” are entitled to the Continued on page 2 Cadapan, then students of UP Diliman, were also abducted while conducting research in Bulacan.

The most recent development in the U P H o m e E c o n o m i c s A l u m n i Nutrition (1964), Master in Education Empeño and Cadapan case, Conti said, is Association President Dr. Evelina Guevara Administration (1999), and PhD in the filing of cases against the military men Escudero was appointed by President Education (2004). who allegedly abducted the students. A Benigno Aquino last February 10 as member She has been a professor at the OB hearing was held at the Malolos Regional of the UP Board of Regents (BOR) to Montessori College Department since Trial court on the charges of Kidnapping serve until February 18, 2014.

1966. She has also been an accredited and Serious Illegal Detention filed against Escudero is a member of the Board of assessor of the Technical Education and retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan.

Directors of the UP Alumni Association Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Palparan is in hiding and has yet to (UPAA) where she served as treasurer on Restaurant Services since 2004. be arrested. The organization of retired and president of the UPAA Hostel Escudero, a daughter of the late UP general officers also claims that he is being Services, Inc. and Alumni Cafe. She is Law Professor Sulpicio Guevara, is married subjected to trial by publicity. also a lecturer at the UP College of Home to Sorsogon Rep. Salvador Escudero III. During a protest action while the hearing Economics.

The latter served as dean of the UP College was being held, Prof. Sarah Raymundo of She obtained all three post-secondary of Veterinary Medicine and member of the the Congress of Teachers/Educators degrees from UP: Bachelor of Science in UP BOR. Sen. Chiz Escudero is the second Continued on page 5 Home Economics, Major in Foods and of their three children.

Aquino appoints new regent

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5 A ‘wiki’ for the UP Diliman community

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6 IMSP prof named ‘focal person’ in Philippine Space Science Education

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allowed students to go home and calmed the parents who were worrying for their safety. It also helped parent-employees of the university who were anxious over the situation of their children in other schools,” the IPO reported to the UP Newsletter.

As of this writing, 1,000 aftershocks had been recorded in Iloilo City.

Engineers and personnel of the Campus Development and Maintenance Office (CDMO) went around the university to check the extent of the damage of building and structures in both the Iloilo City and the Miag-ao campuses. Except for very minor cracks on infrastructure finishings, no apparent damage was recorded in the university. “The CDMO in coordination with the Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Administration is continually monitoring these structures due to the still continuing aftershocks,” the report continued.

The UP Newsletter tried but failed to get in touch with the Office of the Dean of UP Cebu the day after the major earthquake. But Prof. Phoebe Sanchez, CWTS Coordinator of UP Cebu, supplied the Newsletter the following information.

She said classes were suspended at all levels in the afternoon of the quake, which registered 5 degrees on the Richter Scale.

“Classes resumed today [February 7] despite constant tremors last night though to a lesser degree compared to the noontime tremor yesterday,” she said.

Sanchez added that the UP Cebu administration had announced the checking of buildings.

“The level 2 tsunami alert was lifted at about 3 p.m. yesterday [February 6].

Aftershocks are said to continue till next week,” she reported.

According to the UPV-IPO, the tremor lasted at least 45 seconds with numerous aftershocks following it. “The last (earthquake in Iloilo ) was in July 2011 at intensity 5 which only lasted for 5 seconds [and] did not elicit so much fright as this one,” the report added.

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8 Egyptian scholar gives account of Tahrir Square, how revolutions are appropriated

10 UP as fertile place for love

2 U.P. Newsletter

february 2012

‘Paliwanagan’ colloquium showcases research in UPD Andre Encarnacion

The Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Research and Development (OVCRD) of UP Diliman (UPD) brought together students, faculty members and researchers for its 2012 Colloquium “Paliwanagan sa UP Diliman” last January 16.

The colloquium showcased OVCRDfunded research and development (R&D) programs and initiatives, discussed the research process from proposal writing to IP dissemination/utilization, and reviewed the amount of support given to UP Diliman (UPD) researchers and their projects.

Held at the National Institute of Physics, UPD, the colloquium featured presentations of concluded and ongoing research projects made possible by the OVCRD Open Grants and Source of Solutions Grants.

The Open Grants support interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and cross-disciplinary researches and creative works which lead to evidence-based interventions, policies, and notable works/ technologies with excellent socioeconomic potential. Aiming to promote UPD as a microcosm of Philippine society and a “source of solutions” to many national problems, the Source of Solutions Grants provides support to projects, solutions and

Photo by Jun Madrid

creative works addressing immediate challenges and pressing concerns of UPD. Six Open Grants and 19 Source of Solutions Grants recipients had presented their project outcomes by the end of the colloquium. Dr. Joselito Duyanen was also in attendance to present the accomplishments of the UPD-CHED Zonal Research Center.

“As it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez gets a name tag from Chit Loyola of the Office of the UP President university—researchers, during a dinner in honor of UP alumni in Congress last January 24 at the Executive House in UP Diliman. students, research staff, The alumni discussed ways of supporting the thrusts of the current UP administration led by the dinner’s host, President Alfredo Pascual. a d m i n i s t r a t o r s, a n d even outside research partners—to nurture intellectual property,” He spoke of the importance of intangible Open Grants program) promoted researches UPD Vice-Chancellor for Research and capital creation, specifically human capital that are cutting edge, have far reaching Development Benito Pacheco said as he generation – an area where universities can implications and have social development welcomed attendees. make their biggest contributions. Citing components.”

UPD Chancellor Caesar Saloma data from 2004-2005, he mentioned that He also congratulated Saloma and introduced both the accomplishments of only about 10 percent of faculty members Pacheco for coming up with programs the OVRCD over a 13-year time-span and in the UP system had PhDs, and calculated like the Source of Solutions Grants, which of the UP System with respect to advanced that today the number could not amount will help lead to solutions to the country’s degrees and peer-reviewed publications. to 50 percent. “Most of our universities problems. “This initiative by the Saloma are not able to offer viable graduate degree administration is a component of the programs particularly in the sciences and in enabling environment for faculty and Committee to help select new UPB chancellor technology,” Saloma added, because of the researchers to support them in their quest shortage of PhD holders. to produce new knowledge and creative formed Jo. Florendo B. Lontoc In terms of peer-review publications, work.”

A search committee has been formed Individuals and groups had until Saloma also said that UP Diliman, specifically Lastly, former UPD Vice-Chancellor to help the President and the Board of February 17 to submit nominations to the the College of Science, was responsible for for Research and Development and Regents select the next chancellor of UP Office of the Secretary of the University, a great number of those published each current program leader of the DOST-UP Baguio (UPB). The term of incumbent First Floor, Quezon Hall, or to any member year. “We hope that we will have a more Enterprise Center for Technopreneurship Chancellor Priscilla Supnet-Macansantos of the Search Committee. The latter has equal distribution in the coming years,” he Luis Sison commented on the changing ends on April 13, 2012. until March 15 to submit a report to the added. “We are going to design a program research paradigms brought about by Prof. Narcisa Canilao heads the president which will include the list of all not only to increase the absolute number multidisciplinary endeavors. Citing a New committee composed of Profs. Corazon nominees, assessment of their strengths of peer-review publications but also to York Times article about the team from IBM Abansi representing the senior faculty, and weaknesses and their suitability for the level the field… All disciplines must have that created a computer named “Watson” Zosimo Lee representing President position given the needs and thrusts of UP expertise especially with the problems the which defeated champions from the game Pascual, and Dymphna Nolasco-Javier Baguio. The president will submit the search country is facing.” show “Jeopardy,” Sison quoted: “From representing the junior faculty; Alicia committee report with his endorsement to Former UPD Chancellor and President the first, it was clear that we would have Follosco representing REPS; Ofelia Valencia the BOR on March 29. The BOR will then of Manila Tytana Colleges Sergio Cao to change the culture of how scientists representing the administrative staff; and select the new chancellor. congratulated the researchers and the work.”

Cori Alessa Co, representing the students.

President Pascual encourages all administrators who made the former’s The Paliwanagan theme reflected The committee is tasked to gather relevant stakeholders to participate actively in the projects possible. He described the Open the intentions of the colloquium, which information and interview the nominees search, “guided at all times by the ideals and Grants, which was instituted during his according to its book of abstracts “is and constituents, as well as outsiders. the best interests of the University.” time as chancellor, as “providing a bigger envisioned as a platform for dialogue research fund...for proposals among the UP Diliman researchers and from researchers coming from creative workers, a dialogue that is to be at least two different disciplines, conducted in the spirit of exchange and departments and colleges...(the understanding.”

Photo courtesy of Prof. Marot Flores

SRP guidelines approved

The Guro Formation Forum (GFF), composed mostly of UP professors and alumni who trace their roots to Pangasinan, conducted the international conference-workshop titled “Addressing the K to 12 Curricular Enhancement in Philippine Education in 2012” at the Sison Auditorium in Lingayen, Pangasinan from January 19 to 21. Mrs. Carmen Pascual who hails from Lingayan, Pangasinan read before 2,200 participants the message of her husband, UP President Alfredo Pascual. During the conference-workshop, the government was challenged to address problems as a result of the K to 12 program like the two-year drought in enrolment in the tertiary level and the preparation by secondary schools in terms of availability of classrooms and other resources.

benefit. Among the “exclusions” are “regular part- time and nonregular (contractual, casual, project and job order) employees.”

AUPWU said in a statement that after more than 10 months of lobbying and mobilizing for the implementation of SRP, its 1,000-strong contingent during the BOR meeting was a factor in the approval of the said benefit, as the implementing rules and regulations had been drafted in 2011.

Speakers during the mass action said that despite the approval of the 10 Days SRP, the university’s workers are still facing other challenges. For example, the BOR has yet to finalize its decision on the case filed by a former UPLB Chancellor against then AUPWULB President Florendo Sambrano; and determine the validity of the

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charges against suspended UP Cebu Dean Enrique Avila who filed libel cases against complaining employees.

UP President Alfredo Pascual said that he was for the approval of the SRP which was delayed due to the selection of chancellors for three UP campuses. Pascual also asked for the support of UP’s staff, REPS and faculty in conserving energy and water so that these savings may be used for additional benefits for UP employees and for other expenses.

AUPWU National President Felix Pariñas said that most of the employees in UP remain contractual and were only regularized when they are about to retire. In another statement, Staff Regent Jossel Ebesate said that the strength of organization and collective action of the university’s staff paved the way for the grant of the SRP. He added that the workers of the university will link arms with the labor force inside and outside the academe.

february 2012

Arbeen Acuña

Maliban sa pagtangkilik ng mainstream media sa iba’t ibang akademikong larangan, kinikilala rin ang Unibersidad ng Pilipinas ng mga midyang alternatibo tulad ng pahayagang Pinoy Weekly (PW). Sa ikatlong taon ng pagtangkilik nito sa mga nagambag ng pagbabagong “progresibo,” naitampok nito ang ilang mga tao, grupo at pangyayaring may kaugnayan sa UP. Pinarangalang “Natatanging Progresibong Opisyal ng Pamahalaan” si UP President Alfredo Pascual, kahit “maituturing na malayong kawing ng burukrasya ang Unibersidad ng Pilipinas (kumpara, halimbawa, sa posisyon sa gabinete),” dahil ang pagtatalaga ng Presidente ang naglagay sa kanya sa posisyon ng pangunahing pamantasan ng estado. Kahit “may ilang alingasngas na pagsablay sa pangakong” hindi magtataas ng matrikula, ayon sa Pinoy Weekly, sinisikap ng administrasyon ni Pascual “ang pagsasaayos ng piskal na katayuan ng UP, habang patuloy na gumigiit ng sapat na badyet. Hindi ito naging hadlang sa patuloy na pangakademikong kahusayan na ipinagmamalaki nito sa halos lahat ng disiplina” at hindi lang “pagkunsinti” kundi “pagsuporta pa” ang pinapakita nito sa militanteng pagkilos ng mga estudyante para sa mas mataas na badyet.

Tinampok naman bilang “Natatanging P r o g r e s i b o n g A g aw - E k s e n a ” a n g binansagan ng mainstream media na “heckling” o “panggugulo” ng punong patnugot ng Philippine Collegian na si Marjohara Tucay noong bumisita si US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton noong Nobyembre. Nilahad ng Pinoy Weekly na “tumayo si Tucay, bitbit ang mga plakard na “Junk VFA, Junk MDT!” at sumigaw ng “There is nothing mutual in the Mutual Defense Treaty!” Pinalabas sa lugar si Tucay, pero pagkatapos lamang niya maihayag ang nais ihayag kay Clinton at sa mga sponsor at tagapakinig sa porum na tila inilunsad para papurihan ang Amerikanong lider.”

Maaalalang pinag-usapan ang isyung ito ng mga batikang mamamahayag noong nakaraang taon.

“Gumuhit” din ang “mga aksyong protesta hing gil sa ‘imperyalismong US’” na inilunsad ng Anakbayan, isang “komprehensibong militanteng organisasyon ng kabataan” na kinilala namang “Natatanging Progresibong Organisasyong Masa.” Bukod sa aktibong paglahok sa mga isyung makakaapekto sa kabataan, kasama rin nila sa pagbibitbit ng mga partikular na isyu ang mga batayang sektor. Ilan sa mga pormang kanilang isinagawa ang “walk-out sa mga klase,” “sit-down protest sa estasyon ng LRT,” “planking,” at ang tinaguriang “Kampuhan o Occupy Mendiola.” Ilan sa mga nasa pamunuan ng Anakbayan ay mula rin sa UP, tulad nina Vencer Crisostomo, Anton Dulce at Charisse Bernadine Bañez.

Bahagi rin ang Anakbayan ng Kilos Na Laban sa Budget Cuts, na kinilala ng Pinoy Weekly bilang “Natatanging Progresibong Alyansa o Koalisyon.” Bahagi ng alyansang ito ang UP Kilos Na, na may mga lokal na sangay sa bawat yunit ng UP System.

Ang alyansang ito rin ang nanguna sa Kampuhan.

Dalawa sa apat na “Honorable Mention” sa kategoryang ito ang mga pormasyong may partikular na pagtatangi sa kampanya laban sa paglabag sa karapatang pantao— ang Free Ericson Acosta Campaign, na nananawagang ng pagpapalaya sa dating

UPD unveils historical marker Arlyn VCD Palisoc Romualdo

“I have come full circle,” remarked UP President Alfredo Pascual during the unveiling of the historical marker of the Monument to the Heroes of 1896 in front of Vinzons Hall, UP Diliman (UPD) last January 16.

Pascual explained that he was a member of both the student council and the Upsilon Sigma Phi Fraternity when the memorial was transferred from Balintawak to UPD. Both organizations were instrumental in its installation at Vinzons Hall. Now UP President, Pascual has unveiled the original historical marker from the National Historical Commission.

Pascual recalled that the monument had been left on the side of the road when the road was being built in Balintawak. It was then that UP students decided to rescue it and make the campus its home. Created by Ramon Martinez and erected on August 27, 1911, it was inaugurated on September 3 of the same year and transferred to UPD on November 29, 1968.

National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) Chair Maria Serena Diokno, meanwhile, said it was only fitting that the original marker be formally handed over to the university as the monument just marked its centenary last year. UP’s responsibility over the shrine’s care and maintenance was officially recognized in the signing of the document between the university and NHCP during the event.

UPD Chancellor Caesar Saloma said that next to the Oblation at Quezon Hall, the monument at the opposite end of the President Pascual and NHCP Chair Diokno sign the documents that academic oval was the second most recognized statue on campus. formally hand over the historical marker to the university. Witnessing It is an important landmark, Saloma added, and he expressed his the signing are UP Diliman Chancellor Saloma and NHCP Deputy gratitude to the NHCP for formally acknowledging its place in Executive Director Emelita Almosara.

UPD. Photo by Misael Bacani

Ilang ‘progresibo’ ng UP, kinilala sa alternatibong pahayagan

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BALITANG UNYON Insurance card at iba pang usapin Ang All-UP Academic Employees Union (AUPAEU) ay nagbibigay ng libreng Special Accident Insurance Card para sa lahat ng faculty at REPS na miyembro na o nais maging myembro ng AUPAEU. Maaaring matanggap mula rito ang sumusunod na mga benepisyo: life insurance: P10,000; accidental death: P30,000 + P10,000; accidental dismemberment: P30,000; accidental medical reimbursement: P2,000.

Isang taon ang coverage ng card at dapat may legal na personal na relasyon ang may hawak ng card sa kanyang mga beneficiary.

Lapitan na lamang ang mga opisyal ng unyon sa inyong mga AUPAEU Tsapter o tumungo sa opisina ng inyong unyon.

Para sa hindi makakapunta sa opisina ng unyon, maaari kayong mag-fill-out ng membership form na mada-download sa http:// upissues.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/ insurance-card/ at ipadala sa inyong representative sa opisina. Importanteng ma-fill-out ang form dahil dito kukunin ang beneficiary information para sa inyong insurance.

Pulong ng Steering Committee for the System Workshop on Faculty Concerns naganap Naganap noong Pebrero 3 at 4 ang unang pulong ng Steering Committee para sa pinaplanong System Workshop on Faculty Concerns.

Binubuo ito ng mga kinatawan ng faculty mula sa lahat ng constituent university (CU) ng

UP System. Layunin nitong maghanda ng balangkas para sa darating na mga buwan na malawakang workshop hinggil sa mga usaping kinakaharap ng faculty at hinggil na rin sa kinakailangang mga rebisyon at istandardisasyon ng Faculty Manual.

Masasabing naging mabunga naman ang naturang pulong at maraming ipinapangako ang darating na workshop.

Ipinatawag ang pulong na ito ni VicePresident for Academic Affairs (VPAA) Gisela Concepcion ayon sa mga suhestyong ibinahagi ni Faculty Regent (FR) Ida Dalmacio sa Kapihang naganap sa UP Manila noong Oktubre 12.

Sa K apihang ito ipinahayag ng Pambansang Pangulo ng AUPAEU na si Prop. Ramon Guillermo na handang makipagtulungan ang unyon sa ganitong uri ng komite. Nakapaloob sa Artikulo III, Seksyon 12 ng Collective Negotiation Agreement (CNA) na dapat may kinatawan ang unyon sa lahat ng mga komite sa lahat ng lebel sa mga usaping may kinalaman sa kondisyon ng trabaho, kompensasyon at benepisyo ng faculty. Gayunpaman ay kinailangan pang maghabol ng AUPAEU hanggang sa pinakahuling mga minuto upang makatanggap ng imbitasyon si Guillermo na dumalo sa naturang pulong, pero hindi pa rin bilang kinatawan sa pambansang antas kundi bilang kinatawan lamang ng Diliman. Ipinapakita lamang

ng kasong ito na kailangan pa ng higit na pagsisikap upang mapaunawa sa mga administrador ng UP ang mahalagang papel ng unyon sa demokratiko at bukas na sistema ng pamamalakad ng Unibersidad.

Magsasagawa rin ng kahalintulad na pulong ang opisina ng VPAA para sa mga REPS kaya’t importanteng matiyak na may dadalo doong kinatawan ng AUPAEU para sa REPS na kikilalanin bilang kinatawan ng unyon sa antas ng System at hindi lamang bilang kinatawan mula sa Diliman.

Kontraktwal sa UP Nagsaya ang halos buong komunidad UP sa pagpapatupad ng 10 Days Service Recognition Pay (SRP). Sinundan pa ito ng isa pang magandang balita hinggil sa posibilidad na magiging P5,000 ang Clothing Allowance.

Hindi pa nga natatapos ang buwan ng Pebrero ay may mga nagtatanong na kung kailan at magkano na ang makukuhang Rice Subsidy. Sinasabing dapat daw ay apat na sako na ang nakapaloob sa ating Collective Negotiation Agreement (CAN). Malambing naman nating sinasagot ang mga ito.

Tunay na marami pang dapat tapusing laban, at isa rito ay ang kontraktwalisasyon at pagsasaregular ng marami nating kapwa kawaning kontraktwal na ang ilan ay nanilbihan na sa loob ng napakatagal ng panahon. Marami sa kanila ang untiunting nililipasan ng panahon, nanatili na Sundan sa pahina 6

patnugot ng Philippine Collegian, at ang Justice for Leonard Co & Kananga 3, na nananawagan ng hustisya para sa pinaslang na siyentistang mula sa UP. May mga aktibidad ding nilahukan ng mga organisasyon ng UP na pinarangalan ang Pinoy Weekly. Isa na rito ang Kampuhan laban sa kaltas, krisis at kahirapan, ang “Natatangiing Prog resibong KilosProtesta” na ginanap mula Disyembre 6 hanggang 10. Nilahukan din ito ng iba’t ibang pamantasan at iba’t ibang sektor, sa kabila ng pandarahas na ginamit ng estado. Ginanap rin sa UP ang dalawang “Natatanging Progresibong Pagtatanghal,” ang “Poldet: Panata sa Kalayaan ng Mga Detenidong Pulitikal” na unang ipinalabas

sa UP at ang “pagbibigay-pugay kay Gregorio ‘Ka Roger’ Rosal” sa UP Theatre, bilang pagpaparangal sa “pinakakilalang tagapagsalita ng kilusang komunista,” na kinilala rin ng Pinoy Weekly bilang “Natatanging Progresibong Lider-Masa.” Sa huling nabanggit na kategorya, ‘Honorable Mention’ ang mga dating mag-aaral ng UP na sina Bayan Muna Representative Teddy Casiño at si Crisostomo ng Anakbayan.

Bukod sa mga progresibong aktibidad na pambansa, maging ang tinagurian ng Pinoy Weekly na “Natatanging Progresibong Pandaigdigang Pagtitipon” ay ginanap sa loob ng pamantasan. Pinagdiwang sa loob ng UP ang International Festival of People’s Rights and Struggles, na

naglalayong gunitain ang “mga kaganapan sa iba’t ibang panig ng mundo na nagpakita ng palalang kalagayan ng pandaigidgang sitwasyon, tulad ng naranasang mga food riot sa Algeria, Morocco, at Chile, at mga kilos-protesta laban sa mga austerity measure tulad sa Pilipinas, at sa Greece, France, at iba pang bansa sa Europa” at iba pang pandaigdigang mga mga pagtitipon, tulad ng International Conference on Progressive Culture, Agitprop International Film Festival at asembliya ng International League of People’s Struggle, “isang malaking liga ng mga indibidwal at organisasyon na nagkakaisa laban sa imperyalismo at iba’t ibang uri ng pagsasamantala at pagpapahirap sa mga mamamayan ng mundo.”

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february 2012

Scholar tackles Rizal and the woman question

authorities and the blow he received Furthermore, when discussing the Weyner for a “night school” under Teodoro from the guardia civil.

Fili’s dedication to the three martyr Sandiko reveals Rizal’s espousal of rational Rizal and the Revolution priests of Gomburza, San Juan reveals judgement and good will. Its conditional In the first essay titled “Rizal the intention of Rizal to “demystify and approval was met with controversy that and the Revolution in the Age expose” the social cancer through radical “reverberated up to Spain.” Rizal’s letter of Imperial Terrorism,” San Juan social critique. It is this theme of curing printed in La Solidaridad in 1889 reveals argues for the importance of a the body politic which motivates several both his disdain for the “avaricious friars dialectical, historical-materialist important questions surrounding Rizal’s and malicious Spaniards’ and his concern appraisal of Rizal’s life and works. work and life. for the maternal function and its great The 150 th birth anniversary For San Juan, it is critique, ever-present effects. Because mothers are the first to of the hero is an opportunity to in Rizal’s two novels, which provides the “influence the consciousness of man,” reassess the works of Rizal. Now mode of intervention and agency needed they are urged to “awaken and prepare more than ever, it is time to re- in the absence of a transcendent power the will of our children towards all that is think what it means to be Filipino and to salvage what is valuable into a honourable, judged by proper standards, in a time when the country is being “new, enlarged frame of rationality.” It is to all that is sincere and firm of purpose, re-colonized by the United States the drive to take charge of what is both clear judgement, clear procedure; honesty under the guise of the global war on required and accidental in the narrative, in act and deed, love for the fellowman and terror and the diasporic condition “the necessary and contingent” which is respect for God.” of Filipino laborers scattered across revealed in the author as the existential Despite this, in Rizal’s mind, the Filipina the globe while “their homeland’s question of human affairs in the absence of mother has become a “slave, hoodwinked natural endowments, cultures and deity is staged. “In a world bereft of gods and tied, rendered pusillanimous.” In fact, traditions are wasted by foreign or any transcendent cosmic power,” says San Juan quotes Rizal as generalizing that profiteers supported by comprador San Juan, “healing ensues after purgation the backwardness of Asia was due to the parasites who claim to be the of the toxic elements and the salvation of “ignorance and slavery of their women.” elected stewards of the land.” the body through the collective sacrifice of Sisa’s Vengeance Though the topic of women and their Drawing from Marx’s Theses humans making their own history.” importance was briefly touched on in the on Feuerbach (1975) which stresses the The case of the 20 young women from importance of viewing the individual Malolos who petitioned Governor General first essay, it is only in ‘Sisa’s Vengeance: subject as the totality of its social relations, Continued on page 7 San Juan critiques several biographical accounts of Rizal’s life and corpus by Impact of five-year program for SMEs assessed figures such as Leon Maria Guerrero, Nick Joaquin and Ante Radaic for the limitations inherent in their works.

Guerrero is criticized for painting Rizal as a reluctant revolutionary, which leans toward a dualistic either/or perspective, which privileges certain aspects of Rizal’s life and career. San Juan questions the contention that Rizal’s La Liga Filipina was meant to attract rich liberals and progressives while the Katipunan was founded for the proletariat.

Both Guerrero and Joaquin are critiqued for their being “die-hard apologists for the ilustrado generation of surviving creoles” whom Joaquin credits for envisioning a “compact and homogenous society based on common interests and mutual protection” from within the unified totality created by Spain and Christianity of the islands’ tribes.

UP VP Lisa Grace Bersales speaks at the ISSI project assessment workshop.

Radaic’s psychoanalytical study of Rizal’s physical deformities and sublimated Vice-President for Planning and Finance SMEs by building the capability of both libidinal impulses is critiqued in turn for and Professor of Statistics Lisa Grace SMEs and lending institutions. not providing, in San Juan’s eyes, the Bersales acknowledged the wealth of data, In particular, the CES sought to enhance radical social phenomenon that was Rizal, gathered by an impact assessment study the evaluation and risk management and for endorsing a “toxic ideology of individualism” which Rizal himself was involving a major entrepreneurial extension competencies of loan officers so they program implemented by the university. can ser ve SME clients better; guide said to disavow.

A forum was held last January 20 to entrepreneurs and loan officers in preparing discuss a research study of the UP Institute strategic plans that will ensure continuing, for Small-Scale Industries (ISSI) on the viable, sustainable, and competitive business impact of its training program for small and operations; and increase availment of the medium enterprises (SMEs) and financial IGLF loan facility by both SMEs and FIs. wasp, and scorpion stings; and jellyfish institutions (FIs). The training program The other discussants were Department and other marine animal poisoning are sought to improve the access of the SMEs of Science and Technology (DOST) also discussed. to the credit facility of the Industrial Marinduque Provincial Director Bernardino While not all bites or stings are fatal, Guarantee and Loan Fund (IGLF). The Caringal and Roy Kempis of the Pampanga the authors further advise bite or sting impact assessment study was conducted by Agricultural College Business Assistance victims to immediately consult a physician the Institute’s Entrepreneurship Research Center of the. after receiving first aid so they can avail of Development Department (ERDD).

Caringal emphasized concerns about proper medical treatment.

Bersales stressed the importance of the selection of training participants The booklet by Drs. Marilyn Vinluan, gathering pre-training information and for post-training action plans. He also Jerome Ramos, Cecilia Montalban and data on those outside the training program mentioned some of the initiatives of DOST Agnes Mejia, and illustrated by Dr. David for comparison. She noted that the data in improving access of small and medium Olveda, is the sixth and the latest in the gathered, though substantial, may not entrepreneurs to the agency’s SET-UP Milflores Health Series. All booklets in provide the answer to the question of program. The program aims to shorten the the series provide easy-to-understand impact. period for processing applications to four information on common ailments.

The capability enhancement seminars months, then one month (instead of one to Animal Bites is available at all National (CES) of the IGLF were designed and five years); and decentralize the evaluation Book Stores at P120 per copy. The implemented by the ISSI in 16 regions process. royalties of authors will be donated to nationwide from March 2007 to March Kempis expressed approval of the the Sagip Buhay Medical Foundation, Inc. 2011. The goal of the CES, which were accomplishments and conclusions of the to support the indigent patients of the conducted simultaneously for two groups study but observed that a lot has to be done Medical Wards and Intensive Care Unit of (one for SMEs and another for FIs) was to to improve access of small and medium the Department of Medicine, UP-PGH. create a favorable lending environment for entrepreneurs to the IGLF loan facility.

Animal bites a serious health problem— UP-PGH Fred Dabu Animal bites are a serious health problem, with 300 to 600 Filipinos dying due to rabies each year, says the authors of the Health Series Booklet on Animal Bites.

A person can get rabies even if he or she is not bitten by an infected animal.

Even the scratch of an infected dog or cat can be deadly, according to the authors from the University of the PhilippinesPhilippine General Hospital (UP-PGH).

The rabies virus can also be transmitted through the ingestion of the raw meat of an infected animal; transplantation with infected corneal tissue and solid organs; or contact of the infected patient’s saliva or other body fluids with the eyes, mouth or open skin.

The booklet aims to educate readers about common and life-threatening animal bites and what to do about them.

Symptoms, first aid and preventive care for snake and spider bites; bee, hornet,

Photo courtesy of ISSI

“Who is the ‘real’ and ‘true’ Rizal?”

Scholar E. San Juan addresses this question, as he seeks to “explore the network of duplicities and contradictions” related to it in a postmodern age in his book Sisa’s Vengeance: Rizal/Women/Revolution (2011).

San Juan claims that despite the confusion between the “public appearance and covert essence” of Rizal due to several ambiguous meanings which can be extracted from his life and works, he remains “unique and extraordinary in his single-minded commitment to his people’s liberation.”

San Juan’s book, composed of two long essays on Rizal, also aims to give a glimpse of the biographical as well as the socio-historical conditions that made the emergence of such a man in his time possible. The hero’s personal tragedies, in addition to the inspiration of his predecessors such as the Gomburza, are visible in his works and writings, according to the author, as an anagogic idea of vengeance – a “collective mode of fulfilling a promise to ancestors to heal the rupture of interrupted group exchanges—as the legitimizing foundation of a nation-in-themaking.”

The will to right wrongs and redress grievances was a desire that sprang early on in the life of Rizal in the form of their exile from the family home in Calamba, the brutal treatment of his mother by local

A review by Andre Encarnacion

U.P. Newsletter 5

february 2012

A ‘wiki’ for the UP Diliman community What is of UP, by UP, and for UP? The answer is iskWiki (http://iskwiki. upd.edu.ph/index.php/Main_Page), an open-purpose community wiki for the UP Diliman community and a collaborative platform for instruction, research and UP life.

Created and maintained by the Diliman Interactive Learning Center (DILC) and officially launched in February 2009, the iskWiki is a community-wiki that serves as a platform and archive on anything and everything about UP Diliman. Any UP student, faculty member, scientist, artist, researcher, musician, administrative officer and staff member—in short, anyone with a UP Webmail account—can add to this stockpile of knowledge.

According to—what else?—Wikipedia, a wiki is “a website whose users can add, modify or delete its content via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a rich-text editor. ” Wikis are “typically powered by wiki software and are often created collaboratively by multiple users.” iskWiki is not exactly Wikipedia though, says DILC Director Peter Sy. “Wikipedia is about building an open encyclopedia. [iskWiki] is a community. We’re taking account of our stock of knowledge [about UP] and of our activities.”

A wiki for iskos and iskas Sy describes wikis as “the closest thing to a do-it-yourself website” and the closest thing to a commons area or central lobby for UP Diliman students, faculty and staff alike, where any bit of information or knowledge about

UP—from the serious to the trivial—can find a permanent home. iskWiki—a contraction of “a community wiki by and for the iskos and iskas of the University of the Philippines”—began through the DILC’s efforts to come up with an efficient information distribution/dissemination system for the UP community. “We looked at how information is distributed in other universities such as Stanford, Case Western, Columbia and Cornell, and how these universities use wikis,” Sy says. “Then we gave careful thought on the tack we were going to take. We saw the potential of [wikis].”

Wikis today are used for a variety of purposes: as a library cum storage space for information about specific disciplines; as a means to expand knowledge about

certain topics, including entire books, through inputs from as many authors as possible; and as a community center for a wide array of fields, interests and fandoms.

“The wiki is now the platform of choice for a lot of things online,” says Sy. “The problem with [traditional websites] was that they were so hard to maintain and to update, and you ended up with silos of knowledge and information. Now we can start with something grand and we can just populate the platform, put in a lot of stuff and aggregate it for you. That’s why we’re presenting iskWiki as anything about research, instruction and the UP life.

Basically anything UP.” iskWiki for UP students Anything UP it is, as iskWiki is designed to fulfill a function for any member of

Harassing students at fieldwork

Photo by Jun Madrid

Conti said that the bias of the military and law enforcers against UP students is quite alarming. Other than the College of

UPD Department of Geography inaugurates GIS Lab The newly-renovated Geographic Infor mation Systems and Digital Cartography Laboratory (GIS Lab) of the Department of Geography of UP Diliman’s (UPD) College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP) was inaugurated last January 25.

The event was led by Department Chair Darlene Occeña-Gutierrez and attended

by UPD Chancellor Caesar Saloma, CSSP Dean Michael Tan, CSSP department chairs, faculty members and students of the Geography Department.

The GIS Lab was constructed in 2003 and was upgraded to meet the increasing demand for GIS as a geospatial technology.

Saloma said in his message that like any other technology, GIS involves constant upgrading.

Tan said that GIS is gaining recognition for application in social sciences. Not only is it being used in resource management, urban and regional planning, demographic studies and others, it has also been recognized as an indispensable tool and technique in disaster risk reduction and management.

Saloma added that GIS is an interdisciplinary program that could be used in research on risk management, including that of the Diliman campus.

The GIS Lab is primarily used for

Social Work and Community Development (CSWCD) which requires its students to engage in community work, the College of Medicine and the College of Law also have extension activities in various communities.

This “bias” was manifested in a recent incident in Porac, Pampanga. Rafael Anton Dulce, national vice-chairperson of Anakbayan and one of the three BS Community Development students of UP Diliman who were harassed by the military, relayed their experience while they were doing fieldwork as required for their graduation.

Initially based at “Katutubo Village,” Dulce’s group was harassed by alleged military elements in the outskirts of upland Kamias where they were invited by the Aeta into their ancestral lands for a celebration.

instruction and research, particularly in the Geography Department’s GIS, Digital Cartography and Map and Air Photo Interpretation courses. Classes of Quantitative Methods in Geographic Analysis are also held here as statistical software is required in teaching the said subject.

The department also uses the laboratory when offering short-term courses on GIS applications to members of the CSSP faculty and staff members, nongovernment and community organizations, private individuals and government officials who are involved in development-related programs.

Continued from page 1

According to Dulce, his groupmate Marie Gold Villar was casually asked by a soldier in civilian clothes who introduced himself as ‘Paul’ of ‘DPWH region 3 office’ what they were doing in the area. The seemingly casual questions turned into accusations that the students were NPA guerillas. They were detained and released only after one of their groupmates broke into tears. After issuing threats, the alleged military elements noted the cellphone number of one of the students and, according to Dulce, the military has been contacting and harassing his groupmate via text messaging since then.

In a statement, Anakbayan condemned “the physical assault and terrorizing” of three UP students “at the hands of members of the 70th Infantry Battalion-Philippine Army” and called “on the DOJ and the rest of the Aquino administration to end the climate of immunity by immediately arresting Palparan and prosecuting other ‘butchers in uniform’.”

“This incident threatens the viability of our programs and derails the practice of our legitimate profession,” said CSWCD in a statement that denounces “in the strongest terms the harassment done to (our) fieldwork students” and calls “on the military chain of command” to “conduct a thorough, swift, and impartial investigation of the harassment incident, and deal accordingly with those at fault.”

Ongoing people’s manhunt

The manhunt for Palparan started last year when an arrest warrant was issued against him Student Regent Conti explains the human rights violations experienced by UP students, as Kabataan and his co-accused. In December Partylist Rep. Raymond Palatino, Prof. Mykel Andrada of AUPAEU, Anton Dulce of Porac 3 and Felix 2011, Karapatan Alliance for Pariñas of AUPWU wait for their turn to speak.

the UP community. For UP students, iskWiki is a place where information on student organizations, such as histories, membership rosters and calendars of activities, can be uploaded. Information, press releases and materials about events organized and sponsored by UP students or UP student orgs can also up uploaded on iskWiki, which should complement whatever they may already have on their official websites or on social networking sites. Groups of students doing projects and reports for class may also document their work process and upload these on iskWiki, from the preliminary research work to the final product, and maybe even a “behind-the-scenes” narration, album of photos or video.

Finally, UP students can also upload their Continued on page 7

UP community demands justice for HR victims for Nationalism and Democracy-UP (CONTEND-UP) said that Filipinos do not tolerate killings. According to Atty.

Julian Oliva, private prosecutor from National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), Palparan cannot ask for special treatment while in hiding.

As regards the transfer to Fort Bonifacio under military custody of Lt. Col. Felipe Anotado and S/Sgt. Edgardo Osorio, two of Palparan’s co-accused, NUPL said in a press statement that “All of the accused in the disappearance of Empeño and Cadapan must be jailed in an ordinary civilian penal facility where they rightfully belong.”

Celeste Ann Castillo Llaneta

the Advancement of People’s Rights and members of Desaparecidos and other supporters started disseminating “Wanted Palparan” posters online and offline.

During the same month, the University Council of UP Diliman issued the statement “Release our students and alumni” stating that “these UP students and alumni are the country’s assets rather than its liabilities.

Their detention and disappearance, while UP’s loss, are the nation’s too.”

During the January 26 press conference, different sectors of UP reaffirmed support for the people’s manhunt. Prof. Michael Francis Andrada, president of All-UP Academic Employees Union Diliman, said that every UP student brings with him the mark of the militant history of UP, making him or her seem like a “threat” to the government.

Felix Pariñas, national president of the All-UP Workers Union, said that they experienced the same harassment during their participation in the celebration of Mangyan Day last summer.

President Alfredo Pascual urged the alleged perpetrators to face the charges and also expressed support for the call for justice.

Kabataan Partylist Rep. Raymond Palatino, former UPD University Student Council chairperson, appealed to the UP alumni, to the House of Representatives and to the Aquino administration to help in the manhunt. Palatino filed House Resolution 2055 to urge representatives, of which 68 are UP alumni, to help in the manhunt. He added that if the Aquino administration shows determination in the investigation and proceedings of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona’s impeachment, it should also harness the political will to hold human rights violators like Palparan accountable.

6 U.P. Newsletter

february 2012

UP alumnus gets US presidential award

Jo. Florendo B. Lontoc

Washington DC along with eight others last December. He was said to be the only one from a community college.

Enriquez is a professor of Engineering at Cañada College in Redwood City, California where he has taught for 17 years.

Before that, he took his MS and PhD at Ohio State University and University of California-Irvine, respectively.

A news release from the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, quoting the US National Science Foundation, says the award is given by the US President to “individuals and organizations in recognition of the crucial role that mentoring plays in the academic and personal development of students studying science and engineering, particularly those who belong to groups that are underrepresented in these fields.”

According to the college website, Enriquez has attracted more than $10 million in state and federal grants to the Redwood City community college over the past three years. He has developed

A geodetic engineering alumnus of the university received a US Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring.

A report in his home college’s website says that Prof. Amelito Enriquez, who graduated from UP in 1984, was given the award by US President Barack Obama in

ni.com/cs/app/doc/p/id/cs-14157

Photo courtesy of Cañada College website

Prof. Sese

Prof. Enriquez

IMSP prof named ‘focal person’ in Philippine Space Science Education Program Department of Science and Technology Secretary Mario Montejo, through Special Order No. 712 series of 2011 dated December 1, 2011, has designated Prof. Rogel Mari Sese of the Institute of Mathematical Science and Physics (IMSP) as the government’s Focal Person for the Philippine Space Science Education Program.

This is in recognition of Sese’s competence in and dedication to space science education as well as in response to the need to effectively integrate space science and technology in the basic

education curriculum.

Sese, head of the IMSP Astrophysics Laboratory, will be the country’s permanent representative to the Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF) and other international conferences on space science education.

With this appointment, DOST also identified UPLB as the “focal academic institution” that would help the government in crafting programs aimed at improving space science education and research in the country.

Photo by Misael Bacani

A team of faculty members from UP Diliman’s (UPD) Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute (UP-EEEI) received top honors in the 2011 National Instr uments ASEAN (NI ASEAN) Graphical System Design Achievement Awards (GSDAA).

The NI-ASEAN GSDAA is a yearly international competition showcasing the most innovative projects based on NI software and hardware and is participated in by universities and industries all over the ASEAN region.

NI products such as LabVIEW are being used by top universities and industries worldwide for research and development in a wide variety of fields and for automation and control of production and manufacturing processes.

The team, consisting of UP-EEEI instructors N. Fernando Bautista and Mr. Leonard Bryan Paet and Professor Joel S. Marciano, Jr., bagged two awards: the “Overall Winner” prize in the Academic Category and the “Best Innovation in Wireless Technology” for their paper, “Using NI-PXI and LabVIEW to Build UHF RFID Development Platforms.” The entry, which beat over 50 other entries, including those from top universities in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, describes current research and development efforts at the Wireless Communications Engineering Laboratory (WCEL) of the UP-EEEI aimed at enhancing the performance of current passive Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology operating in the ultrahigh frequency (UHF) band.

In particular, the team built software and hardware platforms that emulate the behavior of RFID and interpret signals from commercial tags and readers. The aim, according to Marciano, is “to investigate, using actual hardware implementation, techniques such as multiple antenna signal processing and novel decoding structures that will enhance the read range and reliability of RFID communication.”

This, he added, “would hopefully lead to the next generation of RFID systems.”

The research has also resulted in three international refereed publications and an invention disclosure at the UPD Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Research and Development.

The awards came with a cash prize of Singapore $2,000 and plaques which were handed out in the awarding ceremony in Singapore last December 15. The team from UP-EEEI will be invited to NIWeek – the worldwide Graphical System Design Conference and Exhibition of National Instruments and their entry will be automatically shortlisted for the global GSDAA competition. The winning paper may be accessed in full at: http://sine.

Photo courtesy of UPLB Astrosoc

EEEI faculty members get top honors in regional design competition

a series of programs designed to help underrepresented students achieve success in science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs.

Enriquez also established an intensive summer math program aimed at helping students improve their math test scores and a Summer Engineering Institute for underrepresented students; partnered with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to establish an internship program for students; and partnered with San Mateo County to help veterans transition from the military into engineering careers.

The DFA report said Enriquez was also invited to participate in the Philippine Consulate’s program of partnering with Filipino-American scientists, engineers and techno-professionals in the Bay Area who are giving back to the Philippines by improving science, engineering and technology education for kababayans back home.

Vice-President for Public Affairs J. Prospero De Vera III expresses his views, as columnist Amando Doronila, Prof. Florin Hilbay and Akbayan Party spokesperson Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel (not in photo) wait for their turn to speak during a forum organized by the National College of Public Administration and Governance. Earlier, a similar forum was held at the College of Law also featuring Hilbay, with messages coming from House Prosecutors Miro Quimbo and Sonny Angara and Integrated Bar of the Philippines President Roan Libarios, all UP alumni.

CBA wins Philippine Investment Research Challenge The UP College of Business Administration (CBA) team composed of 5th year BSBA students Beatriz dela Cruz, Maria Monica Fajardo, Mary Anne Jelli Gaza, Jonathan San Juan and Regine Sheena Tan won first prize in the national finals of the 6th Philippine Investment Research Challenge (IRC) sponsored by the Chartered Financial Analyst Society of the Philippines (CFAP) held at the Philippine Stock Exchange last January 27.

UP won over Ateneo de Manila University which placed second. The team from UP Visayas won third prize. The winning team received P100,000.

The tournament mechanics require each team to write an investment report about a publicly-listed company through primary research supported by a financial model in order to come up with a Buy, Sell or Hold recommendation. The subject company for the Philippines is Robinsons Land Corporation.

CBA has now won the Philippine Finals of the IRC for four consecutive years. The UP CBA team will become Team Philippines as it competes against 18 other universities in the Asia-Pacific Regional Finals in Hong Kong this March 2. The regional winner will represent the Asia-Pacific Region in the Global Finals in New York on April 11 against the winning teams from the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, Americas region and from the New York region. CBA was Global Final Champion in 2010 and won over 434 universities worldwide. (From UPCBA Alumni News)

BALITANG UNYON Mula sa pahina 3

walang kaseguruhan sa trabaho o security of tenure. Tumatanda na walang katiyakan ang patutunguhan, at walang katiyakan kung bukas makalawa ay may trabaho pa.

Nakakasiphayo ang kanilang katayuan.

Sila ang pinakabulnerable sa pang-aabuso at pananamantala na maaaring sekswal o pagpilit sa kanilang gumampan ng gawain kahit ito ay labas sa pinirmahang kontrata at marami pang iba.

Sila na gumag ampan naman ng kahalintulad ng ating gawain ay marapat lamang na tumanggap ng kahalintulad na benepisyo na katulad din ng ating mga tinatamasa (GSIS, sick leave at vacation leave, 13-month bonus, at iba pa). Hindi rin sila sakop ng ating CNA. Ang ganitong anyo ng kalagayan ng ating mga kapwa kawaning kontraktuwal ay maituturing na makabagong anyo ng pang-aalipin. Dapat harapin at bakahin ang ganitong kondisyon. Mainam na masuri natin ang sitwasyon nang mabuti.

Una, mula sa usapin ng internal na kalagayan ng UP, na maging tagapagtaguyod sana ng karapatan ng mga manggagawa, na kumakaharap sa desisyon na dapat punuin na ang mga nabakanteng posisyon sa halip na ito ay kumpiskahin o bawaiin ng DBM. Pangalawa, sa pambansang saklaw sa ilalim ng pamumuno ng administrasyong Aquino na nakatuntong sa Public Private Partnerships (PPP) na desididong gipitin ang State Universities and Colleges (SUC) upang kumita at magisip negosyo ang mga administrador ng mga pamantasang pampubliko. Pangatlo, kailangang isaalang-alang ang galaw ng pandaigdigang ekonomiya, partikular ng mga kapitalistang bansa na kasalukuyang dumaranas ng matinding mga krisis dulot ng patakarang neoliberalismo.

february 2012 Niceto S. Poblador, Ph.D.

Photo by Bong Arboleda

Commentary

U.P. Newsletter 7

Rethinking UP’s GE program—yet again A conference was held recently at U.P. Diliman to discuss issues relating to the University’s General Education Program (http://www.upd.edu.ph/~updinfo/ dec11/index9.html). From the tenor of the discussions during that conference, one can detect a measure of concern among the participants that the GEP has not been living up to expectations.

I share this apprehension. The GEP has been in place since the late fifties.

But questions are now being raised as to whether or not the program should be continued at all. As one who has played a minor role in the GEP’s inception and early implementation – I was part of a team that put together the economics module under the direction of the late Philosophy Professor Ricardo Pascual – I ask myself these questions: To what extent has the GEP met its objectives? What lessons have we learned from the over fifty years of experimenting with it?

Objectives

There is little disagreement over what the ultimate goal of the GEP should be that of turning out liberally-educated and well-rounded graduates. But there is much less agreement on how this overarching goal should be operationalized. To borrow a concept from management, what are the relevant key result areas with which to assess the program? What in measurable terms are the acceptable criteria of success?

One thing is certain: there are limits to what can be achieved in the two years or so of exposure to the program. The most that can be accomplished is to sow a few seeds in terms of basic knowledge, skills and competencies that will eventually take roots to ensure lifelong learning for the graduates.

There are fundamental differences between knowledge on the one hand, and skills and competencies on the other.

These should be developed separately and differently, and the GEP should

concentrate only on knowledge creation.

Knowledge has to do with understanding the world around us. It reflects the ability to make informed judgments and opinions, and to take actions that can potentially change things. Explicit knowledge is transferable and can be taught.

Skills and competencies cannot be taught; these, along with tacit knowledge, are either learned from experience, through continued practice, and by effective coaching, or they are genetically wired in us. In implementing the GEP, tacit knowledge, skills and competencies, including communication and thinking skills, can be honed in on the students through their own active participation in the learning process - through open, interactive discussions of current issues and by requiring them to hand in written reports on topics that are of interest to them. I see no reason, therefore, in offering separate courses for this purpose.

There are two statements of objectives that must be rejected outright: (1) “to ensure, in theory, that the U.P. Graduate is both jack and master of all trades” and (2) “to develop proficiency in fields outside of the students’ chosen course.”

I stress this for the reason that they run counter to the logic of specialization that has been articulated by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations. In the societal context, and from a longer-run perspective, the Program should aim instead at developing, in addition to individual capabilities, values and attitudes that are conducive to the sharing of individual knowledge and specialties such as openness and a trusting attitude towards others.

Perhaps a more relevant criterion is that suggested at the conference by Professors Cynthia Bautista and Ma. Serena Diokno, that of “develop(ing) the ability to adapt and change.” I shall dwell on this subsequently.

Integrating framework

A major characteristic of current

Scholar tackles Rizal and the woman question Continued from page 4

Rizal and the Woman Question’ that San Juan asks: “What is Rizal’s ultimate assessment of women’s actual virtue and potential?” In this essay, San Juan explores through a historical-materialist lens the subaltern marginalization of women with the advent of colonialism and its apparatuses.

To explain this pivotal moment in Philippine history, San Juan turns to Engels and his treatise, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1844; 1891) which states that in the patriarchal, monogamous family based on private property, women were “relegated to the private sphere of the kitchen and the boudoir.”

San Juan opposes this situation to pre-Hispanic Philippines where women’s productive function gave them autonomy and parity with men. San Juan says that women were “relatively sovereign thinking, and enjoying subjects like men,” in a communal setup which was destroyed by the advent of colonialism and its regulation of women’s bodies by the church and private property.

San Juan asks: “(W)as Rizal… a contributor to the maintenance of the patriarchal order or a critic of the effects of the social division of labor in class

society which is the condition of possibility for male supremacy… ?” In the following sequences, he reflects on the role characters such as Maria Clara (as a mediating instrument to satisfy the demands of filial piety), Juli (as a figure of women’s defiance), and Sisa; in addition to the role of real women in Rizal’s life such as his mother Teodora Alonzo, Leonor Rivera, Segunda Katigbak, etc.

San Juan also paints a clear picture of Rizal’s admiration of his mother, who he calls “a woman of more than ordinary culture.” Hence his mother’s humiliation and detention on a false charge when Rizal was merely 11, pushed Rizal to create characters who sublimated his mother’s painful experiences in order to resolve the trauma. San Juan writes: “Sisa’s walk to the barracks is Rizal’s re-enactment of his mother’s torture, an unforgiveable outrage. It was not just an empathetic reliving of the mother’s agony but a mimetic performance of the ordeal.”

Sisa’s sense of honor, however “testifies to an inherent human dignity,” according to San Juan – qualities which Rizal recommended Filipina women to acquire. San Juan then draws from Rizal’s studies of the manggagaway (witch) and the

Continued on page 11

Dr. A. Gabriel Esteban (center, in black), the new president of Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey and a UP alumnus (BS Math ‘81, MBA ‘83) is greeted by UP President Alfredo Pascual, with Profs. Joey Balmaceda and Honesto Nuqui from the UP Institute of Mathematics on his visit to the university last January 5.

approaches to the teaching of GE courses is that content is organized by discipline or specialty. This is true among the specific sciences and disciplines within each of the three broad knowledge domains, for example, chemistry and physics in the domain of mathematics, science and technology, and economics and sociology which fall under the domain of social sciences and philosophy.

As currently implemented, the GEP also offers little opportunity to capture the inter-relatedness among the three domains of knowledge (for example, the strong links between the evolution of the human species on the one hand, and the development of human society and culture on the other). This manner of designing courses gives a fragmented view of reality, and students fail to perceive and appreciate the complex interconnectivity among the diverse and limitless elements that comprise the world around us. A unified perspective of reality cannot be developed in this way not only because the different sciences and disciplines employ different terminologies and methodologies, but also because they are founded on different assumptions about the nature of things.

A ‘wiki’ for the UP Diliman community Continued from page 5

undergraduate or graduate theses—or even particularly good term papers produced for certain classes—on iskWiki and make these available for their fellow students and researchers from outside. iskWiki for UP faculty, researchers and artists iskWiki can also make life easier for UP faculty members. They can upload their profiles on iskWiki, including educational background, current and past positions, teaching interests and expertise, lists of published works and journal publications and hardcopy versions, photos and videos of papers they read and lectures they delivered. They can also set up iskWiki pages for their course work, including syllabi, reading lists and schedules for the entire semester. They can create a collaborative environment for class projects and at the end of the term can showcase their class output through photo and video galleries, essays and so on.

Through iskWiki, UP artists, writers and musicians have an additional venue for their art work, literary work and musical or dramatic performances via photo and audio/video uploads and as a multimedia archive of their collective works. UP scientists and social scientists, on the other Continued on page 10

As an alternative, we propose that courses in the GEP be designed around certain issues or problem areas. For example, under social sciences and philosophy, we can identify topics of current interest such as poverty and social inequality, sustainable development, crime and delinquency, and corruption in public service. Under mathematics, science and technology, the issues of climate change, the impact of Information and Communication Technology on society, and the promise of genetic modification loom large. We believe that by designing courses “laterally” – that is, by issue or problem area – rather than “vertically” by discipline, the GEP can develop a better appreciation of the relevance of the various sciences and disciplines in addressing the entire range of issues confronting society today. Moreover, we believe that this approach makes better pedagogical sense. By introducing concepts and theories in the context of problems and issues, especially those with which the students are familiar, new ideas are better internalized and learning therefore becomes more lasting and meaningful, much more so compared with forcing our students to suffer our boring lectures and humdrum PowerPoint presentations.

But how can we perceive a semblance of unity in a world characterized by confusing diversity? We strongly believe that the GEP can achieve the required coherence by adopting Complexity Theory as an integrating framework. By viewing social, biological and physical phenomena as Complex Adaptive Systems, and noting the essential commonalities among them (for example, their extreme sensitivity to initial conditions, their self organizing criticality), we are able to discern order in what appears to be a convoluted and aimless world, and to understand better the dynamics of systems change.

We have earlier noted Professor Bautista and Diokno’s suggestion to focus on change and adaptation. By long-standing tradition, we have mistakenly adhered to the notion that we can manage or respond to change in a manner that brings predictable results.

The realization that we live in a world of complexity, instability and unpredictability requires us to think differently in interpreting and dealing with today’s realities, and to learn how to live and work more productively in a world characterized by incessant and unpredictable change.

Nick Poblador, A.B. ‘58, is a retired Professor of Management and until recently taught knowledge management at the School of Economics. At the time of his retirement in 1998, he was head (with the rank of Associate Dean) of the then newly-organized School of Management at U.P. Mindanao. Comments are welcome at

nspoblador@yahoo.com

8 U.P. Newsletter

february 2012

Academics discuss contemporary issues in honor of SP Lopez

Photo by Jun Madrid

provisions such as value-added tax exemption.

In recounting Philippine negotiations with the World Trade Organization, Tadem provided a take-off point for discussions on Lopez’s legacy in diplomacy. It was shown that the Philippines, despite separate teams dealing with the global giant characterized by “bullying tactics of US representatives,” has stood its ground through a diplomacy which is “progressive and with a global South perspective.” “At the very core of this is SP Lopez’s diplomatic advocacy to address global injustice and socioeconomic inequalities domestically as well as internationally,” Tadem said.

Sobritchea referred to Lopez’s opening remarks at the National Convention of the Philippine Sociological Society in 1973 Prof. Taguiwalo, one of the convenors of the SP Lopez academic conference, analyzes the to begin her lecture “Promoting Gender structure of responsibility and democratic governance in UP. Justice and Women’s Human Rights: Gains and Challenges” Egyptian scholar gives account of Tahrir Square; which is a tribute to Lopez’s legacy how revolutions are appropriated discussed as ardent defender of human rights at a time when the writ of habeas Jo. Florendo B. Lontoc corpus was suspended and martial In line with its thrust of linking up researchers of the South, the UP Third World Studies law declared.

Center (TWSC) hosted last January 16 and 17 lectures by a scholar-participant in the recent Ta g u i wa l o d i s c u s s e d t h e Egyptian “revolution” on the topic of social movements. structure of responsibility and Dr. Mustapha Kamel Al-Sayyid, professor of political science from the American democratic governance in UP, University in Cairo, delivered two lectures titled “The Promise of Tahrir Square” under the which she said was still “a contested “Social Movements in the South” lecture series of the TWSC and its international research one.” Based on a pronouncement partner, SEPHIS (South-South Exchange Programme for Research on the History of

by Lopez during his first address Development). to students as UP President in According to the TWSC, “an exchange with activists and scholars from nations that went 1969, he wanted a UP governance through similar ‘people power’ revolts may help Egyptian social movement actors to set their that was more democratic. For state on the path to becoming a paragon of democracy, keeping their January revolution example, Taguiwalo contended that from going down in history as another opportunity for democratization lost to the interests until now, student representation of an influential few.” in governance is still an issue and The lectures also featured discussions by Professor Emeritus Francisco Nemenzo Jr. cited the non-inclusion of a student and Professor of Political Economy Amado Mendoza Jr. who related Al-Sayyid’s lectures representative in the drafting of to the Philippine experience and posed questions on the strengths and weaknesses of the the University Student Code in UP Egyptian “revolution.”

Diliman, the Executive Committee According to Al-Sayyid, the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak constituted an unfinished in UP Cebu, and decisions to revolution toward democracy. The uprising was initiated mostly by a new social movement, implement the large-class policy using online social networks to mobilize mass protest. However, the old and more organized in UP Los Baños. She noted the Islamist movement, never seen as advocates of democracy, influenced the military most. erosion of UP as a public university After the overthrow it was able to push for elections and successfully placed their members as a result of a “neoliberal attack.” in a parliament that would draft the constitution and prepare the country for presidential She objected to this development elections. This situation does not sit well with the democracy movement, which suspects and argued that a great university collusion between the Muslim Brotherhood and the ruling military council, which have had is supposed to be a model of ties since before the revolution, to establish a theocratic state. Al-Sayyid observed that the good governance to the country old and new movements were united only in the desire to oust Mubarak. it serves.

Nemenzo recalled the events before and after the Philippine’s 1986 Revolution. He noted Given the topic of Lopez’s that spontaneous social movements, such as Egypt’s middleclass-based new movement, appear advocacy of freedom of to be more successful in that they are more daring, unlike established movements whose information, Tolentino used quotes studies always conclude that the timing is not right. from Lopez to weave a theory in He had the impression that organized groups joined Tahrir Square only later and reluctantly. support of freedom of information He made an example of how the Philippine Revolution was made possible by the masses but and media self-regulation. “Only by events after the overthrow of the dictatorship were maneuvered to favor the old elite. being free can the media enhance Nemenzo expressed the hope that the frustration of Egypt’s new movement would their own credibility and perform compel them to organize a party influential enough to see through the democratic goals of the vital function of discussion the unfinished revolution. and criticism which justifies their Mendoza would not call the events of Tahrir Square a revolution or an unfinished revolution existence,” Tolentino quoted because they had not produced substantive political and social change. He mentioned military Lopez. corporate interests as one factor in the decision of the military to support the uprising.

Lastly, National Artist Lumbera affirmed the continued relevance of Lopez’s credo of engaged art and literature. “Pag may sinasabi sa lipunan, mahalagang pakinggan ito,” he said.

This centennial academic conference was organized by the UP President’s Committee for the Commemoration of the Birth Centennial of Former UP President Salvador P. Lopez, the Office of the UP Diliman Chancellor, and the Third World Studies Center. It was attended by Lopez’ widow Adelaida Escobar-Lopez.

The conference papers will be compiled in a book subtitled “essays in honor of SP Lopez”, which will be widely disseminated to policy-makers, academics, and Dr. Al-Sayyid, said to be an observer-participant at Tahrir Square, delivers two lectures on researchers. recent social movements in his country.

Photo by Bong Arboleda

In commemoration of the birth centennial of Salvador P. Lopez, the university held a conference on topics related to themes associated with the former UP president: leadership and the UP System; progressive diplomacy; peace and human rights; freedom of information; democratic governance in UP; and literature and society.

Held at the Claro M. Recto Hall in UP Diliman last January 19, “The SP Lopez Legacy: Issues and Challenges” featured papers by UP President Alfredo Pascual on UP governance; Prof. Teresa Encarnacion Tadem on Philippine negotiations with the World Trade Organization; Prof. Carolyn Sobritchea on women’s rights; College of Mass Communication Dean Rolando Tolentino on freedom of information; Prof. Judy Taguiwalo on democratic governance in UP; and National Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera on engaged art and literature.

Each lecture was followed by two reactions. Chancellors Caesar Saloma of UP Diliman and Rex Victor Cruz of UP Los Baños were the reactors to Pascual’s lecture; Agriculture Undersecretary Segfredo Serrano and College of Social Work and Development lecturer Riza Bernabe, to Tadem’s; College of Law Professor Leo Battad and EnGendeRights Inc.’s Atty. Clara Rita Padilla, to Sobritchea’s; Rep. Teodoro Casiño and Secretary of the University Lilian de las Llagas, to Taguiwalo’s; Malou Mangahas of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and Melinda de Jesus of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, to Tolentino’s; and College of Arts and Letters Professors Jose Dalisay Jr. and Ramon Guillermo, to Lumbera’s.

Through the discussions, the relevance of Lopez’s legacy in the above-mentioned themes was affirmed.

Pascual traced UP’s evolution into a system inspired by the University of California System and terms used to describe its campuses from autonomous unit to the now-official constituent university. Implemented during the time of Lopez, the System prevented units from seceding from it. Pascual said it is his administration’s task to pursue one UP, beginning with the removal of CU distinction in the diploma, contending that ideally all UP graduates have the same caliber. Toward this end, his administration is prepared to undertake redistribution of faculty, system-wide implementation of a quality assurance mechanism and a uniform General Education program, which should be one of the strengths of UP education.

A readily implementable tool for “one UP” is “e-UP” currently being undertaken under the Office of the Vice-President for Development.

For Pascual, UP is an organic whole although the entire System reflects the state of the country in possessing not just “geographical and lateral divisions.”

“Only a diverse but unified UP can make UP the great university it is meant to be,” Pascual said.

In terms of financing, foremost in the administration’s thrusts is the campaign for bigger state subsidy. UP should maximize its resource mobilization options, which include development of land grants and properties; campaign for Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and budgetary insertions from legislators; coordinating grants, endowments, and projects from international agencies and corporate donors; generating alumni support; reducing operational costs; portfolio management of trust fund earnings; and operationalizing charter

Jo. Florendo B. Lontoc

U.P. Newsletter 9

february 2012

‘Go beyond proficiency in the arts and sciences’ –Aguinaldo T he Metro Manila Commission Professorial Chair Lecture “The Literary Appropriation of Science: Barthelme’s Postmodern Fiction as a Possible Resource for UPLB” was delivered by Prof. Dennis Aguinaldo at NCAS Auditorium in UPLB last January 16.

According to Aguinaldo, Donald Barthelme’s fiction “can help us evaluate the promise of technology and distill methods for using science to aesthetic effect.”

He said, “As a community of artists and scientists, UPLB provides fertile ground for creative work and critical discourse that set the arts, natural sciences, and social sciences in various modes of struggle and fusion.”

Aguinaldo’s study of the transhuman discourse in the story “Report” is about the “notion of human transcendence through technological means” that makes one become “posthuman,” seeing “no essential difference between mechanism and organism.”

Among the key concepts he discussed were synthetic morality through punched cards; elimination of desire through games and social networking; ethical issues in biological modification; the algebra of inequalities such as the access of technology as a question of power and wealth; and the theological aspect of transhumanism, with theists believing that “enhancement technologies amount to playing God.” The engineers’ “inability to fail” and “insufficient moral insight” show they are not just “incapable of elevating humanity but also tragically blind to their own limitations.” Thus, Aguinaldo raised several questions to science communities such as UPLB, such as: “How far can aspiring scientists take interrogation and criticism?”

He also said that the university should not merely tolerate critiques of science, but must encourage it.

“Barthelme considers the words themselves as stories,” Aguinaldo said, and focused his discussion of the narrative “Bunny Image, Loss of: The Case of Bitsy S.” on the name-plays and effects of such

literary devices. In sum, he showed how devices such as epigraphs (news item clipping), collages (mash-up of names, discoveries and personalities), truncation (erasures that “imbue an individual with the veneer of experise”), and the double bind (appearance of historical characters in the narrative.) are employed in the narrative.

The story “At the End of the Mechanical Age,” according to Aguinaldo, “grafts elements of Biblical Genesis onto a vision of the rise and fall of technology,” where “Maude was a female Adam who names tools instead of Animals” and God was a mere “service provider” that does not intervene, thus making Him “less of a character and more of a setting.”

In Barthelme’s point of view, according to the English Division’s Christian Tablazon, who delivered the closing remarks after the open forum, science and myth have no differences in the sense that myths tell

Arbeen Acuña

allegorical truths and science does the same by using modern terms.

“UPLB is the community that can make full use of Barthelme’s critical insight, interdisciplinary aesthetic and expansive form of literary energy,” said Aguinaldo.

“Without vision, people will perish,” said Prof. Emmanuel Dumlao of the Humanities Department’s Filipino and Foreign Languages Division, quoting Proverbs 29:19 as he introduced his colleague, Prof. Dennis Aguinaldo.

According to Dumlao, while he was looking at the stars and thinking of the possibilities of UPLB’s literature, Aguinaldo was already etching the campus’s literary terrain on the ground. Prior to the lecture, Prof. Jerry Yapo, chair of the Humanities Department, awarded the Metro Manila Commission Professorial Chair Certificate to Aguinaldo.

CMC hosts first national ComRes conference The Department of Communication Research of the College of Mass Communication (CMC) of UP Diliman (UPD) hosted the first National Communication Research Conference (NCRC) last January 13 and 14 at the CMC Media Center in Diliman, Quezon City.

With the theme “Creatively Rediscovering Communication and Media,” more than 150 students and faculty members from across the country attended the conference. Nine best research papers, one per category, were selected from the students’ submissions for the NCRC competition.

A post-conference workshop was also held to equip teachers with advanced research paradigms and methodologies.

The UP CMC, Philippine Association of Communication Educators, and Philippines Communication Society co-sponsored the two-day conference.

NCRC winners

University of Santo Tomas (UST)

students Carissa Caraig, Mery Rose Ajero, Lou Mariz Abadilla, and Mary Janine Baban’s “Rhetoric of Radio: An exploratory study on the language of AM Radio news in Manila and its implication in the structural journalistic approach of radio journalism” was chosen best presentation under the category “Keeping Up With Evolutionary Media.” It describes how selected radio news in Manila influences audiences.

For the two-part category “Learning About Communication in Education,” the studies awarded were: “Interpersonal Relations Over Negative Media Exposure: Non-Muslim Children’s Attitudes And Behaviors Towards T heir Muslim Classmates In Zamboanga City” by January Leron and Candeze Mongaya of the UP Cebu College; and “Shared Life: A Promotional Video for INSA’s Scholarship Program” by Avon Abogadie, Michelle Denise Amio, and Phoebe Tarroja of Miriam College.

“Leadership Style & Employee

UPOU co-organizes forum on agricultural heritage systems

Photo by Jo Lontoc

The Kanazawa University of Japan, chair of the organizing committee, who A total of 90 participants from various together with the Faculty of Management presented a paper on Noto’s satoyama and institutions and regions attended the and Development Studies of the UP satoumi as GIAHS; and Mayor Koichiro forum, during which 11 poster papers were Open University (UPOU) and the Ifugao Takano of Sado, Japan who talked about presented. The forum’s proceedings will State University (IFSU), organized the Sado’s satoyama in harmony with the Japanese be published in a scientific journal. (Joane “RP-Japan Forum on Globally Important crested ibis (Sado’s GIAHS Project).

Serrano) Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS): Current Scenario, Challenges and Future Development.”

The forum was held at the Ifugao State University, Lamut, Ifugao last January 14.

The forum served as a venue for discussing research, management, and governance of GIAHS. It also provided a platform for the academe and its stakeholders in sharing and exchanging information on the current state of the Ifugao Rice Terraces (IRT) which is the first GIAHS site in the Philippines, and Noto’s Satoyama and Satoumi, and Sados’ crested ibis which are the GIAHS sites in Japan.

The Philippines and Japan are among the seven countries identified by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) GIAHS Initiative as pilot sites in developing and implementing adaptive conservation and management of agricultural systems and their components.

Two Japanese speakers attended the forum: Prof. Koji Nakamura, deputy A portion of the Batad Rice Terraces in Ifugao, which represents an agricultural heritage system president of the Kanazawa University and that has survived at least two millenia.

Fred Dabu

Complacency” by Alvina Antonio of UP Manila, which tackled the reorganization in the National Power Corporate main office, was declared best paper under the category “Dynamics of Interpersonal Relations”.

UP students Angela Mhae Herrera and Albert San Diego’s “Brrrrr! Coke as an Instrument of Globalization and Equality” bagged the prize in the category “Glo[c]alization: Localizing the global, globalizing the local.” The research discusses how the company’s commercials promote globalization and equality by focusing on the culture of the country.

In the undergraduate competition, the papers “The Otakus Who Walk among Us: A Study on the Experiences of Young Filipinos on Japanese Pop Culture” by Gina Margarita Cabildo, April Joy Cruz, and Larize Lee of Miriam College, and “Paghubad Kay Adan: Isang Pagkilatis sa Maskulinismo ng mga Pilipino sa Kristine ni Martha Cecilia” by Genevieve Gail Vitas of the Southern Luzon State University, Lucban, Quezon, were selected as best entries for the categories “Deeper into Everyday Communication: Analyzing the language of everyday texts” and “Looking Beyond the Media Portrayal,” respectively.

Vitas’ study shows how a pocket book series depicts and affirms as inherent to their sexuality the roles males (domineering) and females (dominated) play in society.

In the graduate level of the competition, UST students’ researches bested others’.

“The ‘Evolving Self ’ in the Narratives of Recovering Addicts: A Jour ney through Symbolic Interactionism” by UST student Susan Jo won best paper in the category “Community Communication: Communication that originates from, circulates in, and resonates with communities.” The paper discusses how recovering addicts articulate their identities as ‘evolving selves’ within a ‘therapeutic community’. It affirms how rehabilitation patients and people with other illnesses can be better understood and helped via figurative language, metaphorical texts, or symbolisms.

In the category “Transformative Media: To transform and be transformed by media,” the best research was “Free and Fearless: The online disinhibition effect in blogs and social networks” by Sherelle Mainica Perez, also from UST. The study features cyberpsychology and analyzes the concept of online self-disclosure and disinhibition using indigenous psychology such as Jocano’s concept of hiya.

10 U.P. Newsletter

february 2012

UP as a fertile place for love Engineering. The video has been uploaded to iskWiki [http://iskwiki.upd.edu.ph/ index.php/iskWiki!:Community_Portal], and features banana-cue in a way all UP people can relate to.)

But UP love stories spring from deeper reasons as well.

“In the past, many UP alumni found their husbands and wives in organizations like UP Student Catholic Action (UPSCA), Kabataang Makabayan (KM) and Student Cultural Association of the University of the Philippines (SCAUP). They met because of the community—the orgs, the groups, or the disciplines they came from,” says Capili.

“In many of our campuses, students come from far-away places. Since they live far away from their families, they look for surrogate families and alternative families. It’s easy for them to have best friends or barkadas, and from these friends and acquaintances, they end up finding their respective boyfriends, girlfriends, even lifetime partners who are morale boosters and romantic interests at the same time.”

There’s also something to be said about college romances, as opposed to that other rose-colored idealization of the past, the high school romance. For one thing, college romances could be considered more stable and more likely to last. Compared to high school, “there’s a greater deal of maturity in college. You get exposed to socio-political realities and you tend to find commoninterest friends, many of whom become your partners, close friends and surrogate families,” says Capili. During the chaos of Martial Law, for example, many people found themselves growing closer because of shared political ideas and common ordeals.

Their dates would consist of playing and talking at Freedom Park or going bowling in the Student Union Building. They would also hang out with their friends in their “tambayan” or go swimming at the hot spring resorts. One date I could not forget was when they went for a hike in Makiling. The sweethearts carved their names on a tree. Papa wrote, “RICO,” then the shape of a heart, then “DEL,” meaning Rico loves Del. Every time we went to Los Baños, he would tell us that story, and we would attempt to find that tree. “First Kiss”, Romina Puno, from 50 Kwentong Peyups, UP Press: 2009 Of course, all these love stories have one more thing in common: the environment.

“Actually, UP campuses in general tend to be very romantic, because they are some of the few places in their respective localities where there are trees and open spaces,” says Capili. This is especially true of the larger and older campuses with long-standing traditions, such as Diliman, Los Baños, Mindanao, and Miag-ao, Iloilo. UP Baguio, too, is known for its close-knit constituents, pine trees and mountain air. Capili adds that UP Manila, although now rather hemmed in by buildings and a train-track, can also be considered romantic, particularly back in the day before World War II. An article on “Romantic Places to Elope” on the website LoveToKnow Weddings (http://weddings.lovetoknow. com/wiki/Romantic_Places_to_Elope) lists the characteristics a place must have to be considered romantic: it must offer the couple some privacy; it must give the couple opportunities to spend time together and focus on each other; it must be unique; and it must have romantic touches. With its trees and greenery, its campus hangouts, restaurants and cultural events, its unique architecture and its romantic scenery (see: sunsets and evenings on campus), UP’s campuses certainly fit the description. No surprise then, that UP campuses tend to attract non-UP lovers as well to its sheltering

grounds, especially couples seeking a more affordable date alternative to beach resorts and island getaways. As a matter of fact, PinoyMoneyVantage.net has listed stargazing in UP Diliman as a good idea for a Valentine’s Day date for the cash-strapped couple (http://www.pinoymoneyvantage. net/2011/02/pre-valentines-treats-datingon.html). The UP Diliman Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Community Affairs received around four requests to conduct romantic or pre-nuptial shoots on campus, with the Lagoon, Sunken Garden, the Carillon Plaza, the Academic Oval, and Quezon Hall-Oblation Plaza as favorite spots.

The romantic atmosphere of the UP campuses may prove detrimental to academic success at times. “There was a joke in the 1980s that the soil in UPLB has high protein content,” Capili says. Seriously, though, “I’ve heard of a lot of stories of people who found lifetime partners in UPLB. Mt. Makiling is very conducive...” to extracurricular activities, apparently.

I thought that our diverse opinions on things, being products of an open-minded institution like UP, was also what made us click. I don’t know if it was a UP kind of love, but whatever it was, I became a willing victim in surrendering to its beauty. “UP Love”, Maffy Carandang, from 50 Kwentong Peyups, UP Press: 2009 It’s not only UP’s physical environment that makes it conducive to romance, it’s the culture as well. In UP, one is not confined to the traditional concepts of love and sexuality, for one thing. For instance, “Diliman, regardless of political, social or sexual orientation, tends to be a little more tolerant, and you have a greater chance of getting respected vis-à-vis the outside world,” says Capili. Things such as love

and courtship may run a bit more on the conservative side in many other places, but “UP will always have people who will always deviate from the norm, and they will stick to it and fight for their convictions, despite people not sharing their values.”

The beauty of UP lies in its willingness to tolerate, if not embrace, diversity. “You will find god on campus, and you will find atheists on campus. No need to camouflage or trim down your identity, because people will respect you for who you are,” says Capili. He adds that the perceived culture of permissiveness among UP campuses “can be attributed to the fact that we tend to challenge existing norms, to think outside the box. People in UP tend to be more creative, and to problematize a lot.

It’s part of the upbringing of UP students and faculty—the UP community in general.

People don’t go for emotions. [In fact], people think too much in this campus,” he adds with a laugh.

Part of this process of questioning, analyzing, exploring and experimenting extends to sexuality, religion and the very concept of romance. Because of this, there is room in UP for the traditional and the alternative, the conservative and the liberal, the common practice and the experimental, and everything in between. UP is home to people who are happily married and happily single, people who are devoted to their partners and to their research on abstract theory, and people who are committed to their interpersonal relationships as well as to their creative and advocacy work.

“I think in general, UP is a fertile place for romantic interludes,” says Capili. “There is academic freedom [here] that enables people to respect each other’s feelings while at the same time, be less inhibited. [In short], UP is a wonderful playground of love.”

Photo by Ocs Alvarez

may naglalakad sa bangketa. may nagyoyosi sa brickwall. may naghahagilap ng id. nagsisigawan ang mga dispatsador. naghihiyawan ang mga tibak. nagiiyakan ang mga busina. may nagbabantay na guwardiya. may naka-shades na matanda. may jeepney na pumara. nagtitilamsikan ang mantika. nagliliparan ang mga palara. naglalakbaykamay ang mga pera. may dumaang lrt. may nalaglag na kendi. may nagsindi ng panibagong yosi. tuloy tuloy ang ikot ng magulong mundo. sabay sa walang puknat na pagtakbo ng oras. gising na gising ang kalsada. buhay na buhay ang diwa. andun ako. andun ka. isang maikling yakap. ako’y nabigla. magulong mundo’y parang tumila. doon nagsimula. ang love story sa faura. “Love Story sa Faura” by Dannyboi Rallonza, http://oble.ph/articles/190/ love-story-sa-faura/ UP is a strange place. Viewed from afar, it is the national university, the country’s premier institution of higher learning—a place where the leaders and achievers of the land are nurtured and trained; a center of research where the best scientific minds work to expand our knowledge base; and a haven of freedom for the country’s premier artists, writers and musicians. All very formal, distant and grand.

But UP viewed up close is also the backdrop for a hundred thousand stories about real people. It is the noisy classrooms, the echoing hallways, the sun-warmed benches, the tree-lined streets, the grassy fields, and the venerable buildings that have witnessed the awakening of a hundred thousand passions, the unfolding of a hundred thousand lives, and the joining of a hundred thousand hearts. And after over a hundred years of nurturing youthful passions and budding romances, UP has become a place where the dream of “happily ever after” can—and often does—find a home.

This, many UP faculty, students, staff and alumni can attest to. Dr. Jose Wendell P. Capili, assistant vice-president for public affairs and director of the UP System Office of Alumni Relations, can list several prominent UP people from among different generations who have found their lifemates on campus. In fact, UP has become something of a family tradition as well for many of its alumni. The fact that the UP Alumni Association (UPAA) established the annual UPAA Multi-Generation UP Alumni Family Award in 2008, giving special recognition to families who have produced three or more successive generations of UP alumni, is a testament to this.

The highlight of my UP student days was meeting Butch, my college sweetheart, the love of my life, my future husband, while eating beside Rodic’s Diner at the UP Shopping Center with my dorm-mates. Memories flow as I recall the days we strolled the UP campus before our dorm’s curfew. Locking our hands together, we often sat by the grassy knoll of the Sunken Garden and watched the sunset as we wove dreams of being together forever and having babies one day. Amidst the Beegees “How Deep is Your Love,” time stood still for love-struck us. By Noemi Lardizabal-Dado, http:// aboutmyrecovery.com/my-up-centennialcelebration/ The standards of a typical UP love story are unmistakable: becoming block mates during the freshman year; meeting each other through a campus org; getting to know each other over dozens of sticks of isaw and kwek-kwek; helping each other through hell weeks; marching side by side during rallies and demonstrations—all the hallmarks of UP life are there. (In fact, as an example of a quintessential UP love story, one can look no further than a wedding video of a couple who met as students of the UP College of

Celeste Ann Castillo Llaneta

Fertility Tree

A ‘wiki’ for the UP Diliman community hand can upload research abstracts, preprints, papers and reports on iskWiki for a quick and handy reference.

Iskwiki being a platform for collaborative work, UP researchers can upload profiles and descriptions of their research projects, give updates on their progress in order to invite open collaboration and feedback and restrict public access to only a few authorized researchers. And while research findings may eventually end up as a publication or a report to funding agencies, a good deal of useful materials that are not included in final reports or publications need to be archived or shared with colleagues—and iskWiki is just the platform to do it. iskWiki for UP administrators and staff For the many academic units and

Continued from page 7

administrative offices in UP, there is such a thing called “institutional memory.”

Officers and staff may come and go, but the administrative processes, internal operations, administrative roles and functions, and university policies remain. iskWiki can serve as a platform for storing and documenting these processes and policies, as well as intraunit updates, memos and newsletters, thus providing an archive of that office or unit for easy retrieval.

The DILC itself keeps its documentation in iskWiki. “For instance, we [in the DILC] have developed a template for how to respond to requests from the faculty,” says Sy. “Even if we have a change in our staff, the template is still there. And that’s another special feature of iskWiki. You can restrict access to information so that the public Continued on page 11

february 2012

Photo courtesy of UPV-IPO

French Embassy counselor meets with UPV officials

Anna Razel L. Ramirez

Christian Merer, cultural counsellor of the French Embassy in the Philippines, visited UP Visayas (UPV) and met with Chancellor Rommel Espinosa and other university officials last January 20.

Merer briefed the UPV officials on the 40-year partnership between France and the Philippines in the areas of education, arts and culture. There are 350 Filipino students in France on scholarships, most of them are enrolled in Mass Communication courses. There is also a link between French institutions and Philippine museums in the propagation of arts and culture between the two countries.

He noted that UPV had been cooperating with the embassy in a study on the Epics on the Silk Route, which include the Hinilawod epic of Central Panay in 1996. Merer believes that there are still more possibilities of cooperation between the university and his embassy, particularly in the areas of film, food security and student scholarships.

Also present during the meeting were Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs Emilia Yap; Vice-Chancellor for Administration Nestor Yunque; ViceChancellor for Research and Extension Ricardo Babaran; College of Arts and Sciences Dean Ma. Luisa Mabunay; School of Technology Dean Emeliza Lozada; College of Management representative, Prof. Christine Hernando; and UPV Committee for Culture and the Arts Chair Roman Sanares.

After the meeting, Merer visited the UPV Art Gallery.

A ‘wiki’ for the UP Diliman community Continued from page 10

cannot access it. It’s really very flexible.” iskWiki for everyone And that’s just the serious, academic/ administrative side. However, the members of the UP community are also known for their vibrant creativity, witty humor, the UP angas, and the willingness to open the university to the rest of the country.

Again, iskWiki serves as a platform for all of these.

For visitors to UP, iskWiki can serve as a repository of relevant and useful information, such as seminar and conference venues (with locations, rates and contact information); hotels, hostels and dormitories; schedules of art shows, theater and musical productions and other events; alumni reunions and events; short courses, workshops and community recreation programs, and the like.

There are other aspects of UP life that people outside find fascinating and useful: the many restaurants and assorted cuisine for food-trippers; date-spots on-campus for lovers or would-be lovers; historical landmarks for day-tourists; jogging and sports facilities for athletes and the healthconscious; even the collections of clever graffiti, humorous witticisms and “onlyin-UP” anecdotes that set UP people apart, and, for UP alumni, bring back fond memories of their own UP experience. All of these are waiting to be written up and archived in iskWiki.

While these are not considered “official” information, “these are still part of the knowledge-base of UP,” says Sy. “So where do you aggregate them? Certainly not in the front page of the official UP website. There

A recent photo of the research vessel

U.P. Newsletter 11

UPV turns over TRV Sardinella to PASUC 6 Anna Razel L. Ramirez

UP Visayas (UPV) Chancellor Rommel Espinosa and Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges in Region 6 (PASUC 6) President and West Visayas State College of Science and Technology (WVSCST) President Luis Sorolla signed an agreement finalizing the sale of the Multi-Purpose Fishery Training and Research Vessel TRV Sardinella by UPV to PASUC 6 last January 19 at the UPV Iloilo City campus.

The agreement is on an “as-is-where-is” basis in the amount of P8 million. Only P5 million of the total amount will be paid by PASUC 6, with the remaining P3 million to be donated by UPV as a charitable act for the association.

The vessel will be used as a training facility for research and maritime programs of the PASUC member state universities and colleges.

Former UPV Chancellor Minda Formacion, UPV College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences Dean Carlos Baylon, and presidents and representative of PASUC 6 member-institutions witnessed the signing of the agreement.

The TRV Sardinella was made by the Nippon Kaiji Kykai. It has a length of 114.35 feet, a breadth of 28.95 feet, and a depth of 10.75 feet. It has a gross tonnage of 411.35 tons and a cruising speed of 11.5 knots. The TRV Sardinella arrived in the Philippines as a donation of the Japanese government through the Japan International Cooperation Agency to be the research and training vessel of the College of Fisheries.

Scholar tackles Rizal and the woman question Continued from page 7

babaylan to reveal the fate of women unable to assimilate to the roles assigned to them by the syncretisation of the church. San Juan claims that colonial society ascribes its “vices, crimes and ignorance” to a portion of the female population and in doing so, “acquits male authority of any wrongdoing.” In Rizal’s novels, the sacred and profane are but two sides of the same coin and it is his duty to “enlighten his women compatriots...of the need to liberate themselves from...mind-forged manacles by their own collective effort and initiative.”

The author then returns us to Rizal’s address to the young women of Malolos where he pinpoints Rizal’s revelation of the efficacy of colonization’s subalternization of

women. Rizal bewailed “blind submission to any unjust order” and urged the use of the rational faculty in all facets of their lives.

This rejection of the stereotype of “modesty, passivity, and docility” is also an attempt to include women as qualified participants in the fashioning of the “General Will.”

According to San Juan, motherhood for Rizal is not merely a natural attribute but an acquired social role. He would then praise the civic consciousness and unity of Spartan women – their “austere independence” and their “giving birth to men who were willing to sacrifice their lives in defense of their homeland.”

Finally, the reader is called to the legend of Maria Makiling, who, betrayed by her mortal lover, took revenge and left the world of mortals thereafter.

Invoking Rizal’s suggestion that perhaps she was incensed by the attempt of Dominican friars to strip her of half the mountain, San Juan says: “The original harmony of humans and the ecosystem is sundered by predatory acquisitiveness, by the exploitation of nature to yield subsistence…”

“And so,” San Juan claims “did Salome abandon her home in the forest, so did Sisa and Juli depart from the fallen world…

And with Rizals’ ultimate sacrifice, Sisa’s revenge is viewed through his plea to pray or “our unhappy mothers who in bitter sorrow cries.” And after honoring the role and exposing the suffering of women, San Juan, quoting Zaide, poses a challenge to their children: “The furrow is ready and the ground is not sterile!” (1984, p. 74)

has to be a place where [information such as these] can be shown, and there’s no other place like iskWiki.” iskWiki for the UP community and beyond In addition to being a powerful storage facility for documents, photos, media and video files, and a repository of every bit of information about UP, iskWiki has many other advantages. The most prominent is that information uploaded in iskWiki is easily collected, sorted and aggregated into any category. Entries about student organizations, for instance, can be aggregated into a directory and may be further sub-categorized. UP faculty profiles and directories can be aggregated according to fields of specialization. Theses, papers and conference materials uploaded on iskWiki can be sorted according to subject, author, date or any other category, which makes it easier to do content analyses of theses and research work. It also makes it easier for UP faculty to create lists of publications or published papers, and for UP administrators to access such a list when considering promotions.

IskWiki’s capacity to aggregate data can be invaluable. “It [makes things] very efficient,” says Sy. “You can maintain this little piece of information, you can make

it accurate, and then it could be aggregated to some other category.” Data categories depend on how the information is tagged, and “there is no limit to the number of tags you can put. For as long as we have categories, and that our tags are accurate, then we can have many choices” with regard to categories of data.

In addition to this, iskWiki is extremely flexible and easy to use. (To contribute content, simple visit the Contributor’s Page [http://iskwiki.upd.edu.ph/index. php/Iskwiki:Contributors_Page] for instructions.) It is easily indexable and search-engine optimized. It is also immune to vandalism, since its restriction to people with UP Webmail accounts makes it easy to track down changes. It can also be updated quickly, which gives UP a means to respond promptly and efficiently to the public’s need for information during crises such as natural disasters.

With regard to traditional websites, libraries and social networking sites, “our aim is complementation, not competition,” Sy stresses, adding that iskWiki can be used to address the gap between the need for information and the comparative lack of updated information about the University.

In fact, given that iskWiki is more easily updated, UP units and student organizations

are encouraged to upload their information and update these via iskWiki as well, and maintain these alongside their websites.

Information stored in iskWiki also tends to last longer than information stored in social networking sites, especially once the DILC’s off-site backup system is up and running.

(Although Sy does make it clear that iskWiki is neither a blog nor a microblogging site.

Lolcats and other Internet memes not related to UP are also not allowed.) iskWiki ng bayan Beyond its promise of being the goto place for anything UP by anyone UP, iskWiki will be an invaluable tool for enhancing the sense of community among UP constituents, as everyone is encouraged to add to the body of knowledge and information about the university. “It has to be a community effort. It takes a village to maintain a wiki, so it takes the whole UP community to maintain iskWiki,” says Sy. The DILC is currently working to expand iskWiki to other UP constituent units, thereby creating a UP System-wide iskWiki. But there is a greater aim to this.

“The larger vision [for iskWiki] is to open this to all knowledge producers,” says Sy. “We have a lot of knowledge producers in the country. We have to find a way to document all this [knowledge].”

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U.P. Newsletter

february 2012 Photo by Fred Dabu

UPIS scores three-peat in UAAP track and field Celeste Ann Castillo Llaneta

Photo courtesy of Jun Potenciano

UPIS team scores three-peat in UAAP track and field The UP Integrated School Track and Field Team scored a three-peat performance by winning the championship in the 74th Junior UAAP Track and Field Championships held last February 12 at the University of Life Track Oval in Pasig City.

James Mejia earned five gold medals in the 110-meter hurdles 400-meter hurdles, 200-meter dash, 4x100 relay and 4x400 relay, plus one silver medal in the 400-meter dash and a bronze medal in the 100-meter dash, garnering a total of seven medals in all seven events.

Coach Jun Potenciano said that the UP Senior Track and Field Team also did well, placing eighth in the overall tally.

After capping 2011 by bagging the second top spot with a total of four silver and one bronze medal at the Milo Little Olympics National Championships held last November 18 to 20 at the Narciso Ramos Civic and Spots Center, Lingayen, the team is gearing up once again for a year of triumphs leading up to the upcoming 75th UAAP Season in July.

The team won first place during the City Schools of Quezon City Division Meet 2011, accumulating a total of 7 points in the individual events and 10 points in the 100- and 400-meter relay. Grade 8 student Jaime Immanuel Mejia also earned two gold medals for the 200-meter dash and the 400meter low hurdles, and a silver medal for the 400-meter dash.

The other top performers of the UPIS Track and Field Team are Grade 10 student Joseph Bautista, who earned a gold medal for the 100-meter dash; Grade 10 student Franco Lorenzo Abenojay, who earned a gold and a silver for the high jump and the long jump, respectively; Melvin Ariel Sangalan, who won a bronze medal each in the 100-meter and 200-meter dash; Justin Philip Abraham Monje, who won a gold in the 110-meter high hurdles; Carl Bryan Morales, who earned a silver medal and a bronze medal in the 800-meter run and 15000-meter run, respectively; Earl

Christopher James Mandapat, who earned a gold medal and a silver medal in the long jump and triple jump, respectively; and Ryann Remo Bugarin, who won a silver medal and a bronze medal in the 3000meter run and 5000-meter run, respectively.

The team members who competed in the 100-meter and 400-meter relay—Bugarin, Sangalang, Morales, Bautista and Mejia— also reaped gold medals for both events.

Top performer Mejia credits past experiences as well as the rigorous training and practice sessions established by their coaches as key to their achievements. This is not to say that the thrill of competing has waned for Mejia, who won two silver medals and one bronze medal during Milo Little Olympics National Championships despite running at less than full capacity due to an injury. He admits to still feeling “excited and nervous” before every event.

“Baka kasi di ko makayanan, pero laging sinasabi ng mga coaches namin na tamang application lang [ng training] sa bawat event… Tinitigan ko [rin] mga previous runs ko, at sinasabi ko na kakayahnin ko ito, kasi nakaya ko naman.”

The UPIS Track and Field Team is also strengthened by the bonds among its members. “Masaya kami kasi we’re getting stronger, kasi yung training naming fini-fit kami sa pagdating ng competition. At tsaka very close po yung bawat member,” he said, adding that he and the rest of the team play games on their PC tablets and generally just kid around and hang loose in between training sessions.

This camaraderie and team spirit is spreading from the UPIS Track and Field Team to the UP Diliman varsity track team.

Potenciano has decided to train the two UP teams together in preparation for the 75th UAAP Season and, for the UPIS team, the upcoming Palarong Pambansa 2012, the Philippines’ biggest annual scholastic athletic competition for elementary and high school students. The two teams not only undergo a thorough, balanced training regimen based on scientific principles.

“Our aim is [for UP] to become overall champions,” Potenciano says. “So we are

UP Diliman Chancellor Caesar Saloma discusses the campus security system with student leaders in light of the February 1 stabbing and robbery incident in Vinzons Hall.

The victim, UP student Lordei Hina, spent nine days at the hospital’s intensive care unit and is in the recovery room as of press time.

UP Mountaineers launch ‘Green is Good’ talks Jo. Florendo B. Lontoc

The UP Mountaineers launched last January 13 the “Green is Good” (GIG) forum which the organization expects to hold regularly to feature the expertise of its members on various environmental issues and to encourage the audience to take on an environmental advocacy.

The first GIG talk was held at the College of Architecture and featured five presentations and one performance in honor of slain UP botanist and UPM member Leonard Co. Anthony Arbias (UPM Batch 2010) of the Native Plants Conservation Society talked on the importance of conserving and promoting native plants instead of exotic ones; Dennis Lopez (2004) of the

UPM Search and Rescue Team talk was on the team’s new mandate to include urban settings in its search and rescue efforts; Lei Mangubat (2007), a Physical Education teacher and Pedala bicycle messenger, talked about her experiences in bike commuting and messenger service; Tope Ordoñez (2006) of the UPM Education and Research Committee talked about environmental infrared photography; and Prof. Nicolo del Castillo (1989) of the UP Diliman College of Architecture talked about green architecture.

Bullet Dumas (2009), a teacher in Miriam College, presented a song and guitar number accompanying an audiovisual presentation honoring the late Leonardo Co.

boosting every member of the team, from the weakest to the strongest. The stronger ones will pull the weaker ones up so that they meet somewhere in the middle.”

For Potenciano, it is essential that team members regard track and field as a team sport, despite the fact that most of the events are individual events. “The system is the same: team sport pa rin,” he says.

Potenciano believes that, given the skills of the individual team members, with proper training the UPIS Track and Field Team, as well as the UP college varsity team, are more than likely to clock another good year.

In order to achieve the vision of another year full of triumphs for the UPIS and UP Track and Field Teams, Potenciano is appealing to alumni and friends of the university to support UP athletes. “One of our biggest problems now is the lack of uniforms for the athletes,” he says. The UP College of Human Kinetics had given the teams a budget of P200,000, which was used to purchase high-

quality running shoes for the athletes. The teams are in further need of funding not only to purchase uniforms, but also to fund the psychological development arm of their training regimen as well as the simple things such as equipment for training, food after practice sessions, and transportation to and from competitions.

Support has also come from the parents of the athletes. Dr. Agnes Mejia of the Philippine General Hospital, mother of Jaime Mejia, has offered her help in treating the injuries of both the UPIS and UP college athletes and in facilitating their rehabilitation at the PGH. Potenciano has also formed the Maroons Parents Alumni Association (MAPAA), an SEC-recognized organization established by Potenciano consisting of the parents of UP athletes who work together to support the activities of the athletes.

Interested members and friends of the UP community may get in touch with the MAPAA through its Facebook page ( http://www.facebook.com/pages/

Mapaa-Maroons-Parents-Alumni-Asso ciation/308589952515387).

Fo r M e j i a , w h o e m b o d i e s t h e determination to win despite the odds, the future is undeniably promising, beginning with his dream to continue to run for the UP varsity team after high school. And does the Philippine national team beckon after college? “Kung maganda po performance ko,” he says.

UPIS Track and Field Team member Jaime Immanuel Mejia hurdles through the Quezon City Division Meet 2 with flying colors.

U.P. NEWSLETTER PROF. DANILO ARAÑA ARAO Editor-in-Chief JO. FLORENDO B. LONTOC Managing Editor PROF. LUIS TEODORO Editorial Consultant ARBEEN ACUÑA, FRED DABU, ANDRE ENCARNACION, CELESTE ANN CASTILLO LLANETA, JO. FLORENDO B. LONTOC, KIM QUILINGUING, ARLYN VCD P. ROMUALDO Writers BONG ARBOLEDA, MISAEL BACANI, JONATHAN MADRID Photographers ARBEEN ACUÑA Layout OBET EUGENIO Editorial Assistant TOM MAGLAYA Circulation The U.P. NEWSLETTER is a monthly publication of the UP System Information Office, Office of the Vice-President for Public Affairs. We welcome contributions from the faculty, non-academic staff, REPS and students. Please send your contributions to: THE EDITOR U.P. Newsletter Mezzanine Floor, Quezon Hall, UP Diliman, Quezon City 926-1572, 436-7537 e-mail: upnewsletter@up.edu.ph upsio@up.edu.ph