The Varsitarian P.Y. 2016-2017 Issue 02

Volume LXXXVIII, No. 2 • September 26, 2016 THE OFFICIAL STUDENT PUBLICATION OF THE UNIVERSIT Y OF SANTO TOMAS Manila, Philippines

DARE TO DREAM. Thomasians carry the flag of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines during the opening ceremonies held at the UST Plaza Mayor last Sept. 3.

ALVIN JOSEPH KASIBAN

Rector hits drug-related killings UST makes it to QS world university rankings anew

UST LANDED on the published ranking of the QuacquarelliSymonds (QS) world university rankings this year, even as it stayed in the same bracket for the fourth consecutive year.

The University stayed in the 701+ bracket along with De La Salle University, behind the state-run University of the Philippines and Ateneo de Manila.

UP jumped to the 374th place this year from the 400410 bracket last year, while Ateneo de Manila held on to its spot at the 501-550 bracket.

In a statement, QS said UP rose in three metrics: academic reputation, faculty/student ratio, and international faculty ratio.

Ateneo de Manila “is the only Filipino university to improve its research impact, measured using QS’s citations per faculty metric,” while La Salle “has the Philippines’ most impactful researchers, as measured using citations per faculty.”

La Salle was also the only Filipino university to improve its rank for employer reputation, it said.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and Harvard University dominated the QS world university rankings anew.

QS PAGE 3

Mother Teresa declared a saint, extolled for her love of the poor and unborn MOTHER Teresa is now “Saint Teresa of Calcutta.”

Dubbed by many as the “Saint of the Gutters,” Mother Teresa was canonized last Sept. 4 by Pope Francis at St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City.

Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, read a brief account of the saint’s life, including how she established her congregation, the Missionaries of Charity.

“Mother Teresa was tireless, dedicating herself completely to

announcing the Gospel through various charitable and aid works to the needy, with no distinction of rank, religion or race,” Amato said.

Pope Francis read the official formula for canonization, which declared Mother Teresa a saint.

“We decree and define Blessed Teresa of Calcutta to be a saint, and we place her name in the catalogue of saints, decreeing that in the universal Church she is to be venerated among the saints with pious devotion,” the Pope said in Latin.

Mother Teresa’s relic, a vial of blood, was carried to the altar by two members of the Missionaries of Charity for veneration.

In his homily for the Solemn Mass, the Pope urged the faithful to emulate Mother Teresa’s smile as well as her example of humility and mercy.

“In this way, we will open up opportunities of joy and hope for our many brothers and sisters who are discouraged and who stand in need of understanding and Mother Teresa PAGE 13

RECTOR Fr. Herminio Dagohoy, O.P. urged President Rodrigo Duterte to focus on rehabilitating drug offenders amid the rising number of deaths of drug suspects.

In a chance interview with the Varsitarian, Fr. Dagohoy said the government should focus on “the Catholic way of justice” by rehabilitating drugs offenders, instead of eliminating them.

“Since we believe that life is important, [w] e have to understand that there is a thing called restorative justice. We have to provide hope and courage to change. `Yun `yung pagtingin ng Diyos sa tao,” Fr. Dagohoy said.

Fr. Dagohoy also called on the government to uphold the rule of law and give suspects a chance to prove themselves innocent.

“At face value, you have to question [the killings] because we have to uphold the rule of law. [T]he person is deprived of his right to defend himself, and we have a basic rule that a person is innocent until proven guilty,” he said.

The University’s role is to shape Thomasians to guide people on various issues, based on Church teachings, Fr. Dagohoy added.

Fr. Dagohoy urged Thomasians to be aware of Rector PAGE 12

Plan to cut trees on Forbes-Lacson is opposed DESPITE stiff opposition to the construction of a flyover on Lacson Street, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is reviving the project as a measure that will supposedly ease traffic congestion Moises Norman Garcia, environmentalist and professor at the USTAlfredo M. Velayo College of Accountancy, is seeking to stop the project, warning of environmental consequences.

The removal of remaining plant life on the street, for instance, will heighten the heat index in the area, Garcia said.

Tree-cutting on Lacson will have a detrimental effect in the long-run, he SAINT TERESA. Devotees offer prayers in front of the bust of Mother Teresa at the Santisimo Rosario Parish Church Garden.

MARIA CHARISSE ANN G. REFUERZO

Trees PAGE 15

2 News

Editor: Alhex Adrea M. Peralta

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016

UST hosts bar exams for 6th consecutive year

THE UNIVERSITY will host the 2016 Bar Examinations for the sixth consecutive year after getting positive feedback from the Supreme Court.

UST has been the host of the Bar Examinations since 2011, after the University signed a contract with the Supreme Court. The contract is renewed annually.

Faculty of Civil Law Dean Nilo Divina said the Supreme Court Justices were “very happy” with UST as venue of the Bar Exams.

“They decided to renew the contract with UST. [UST] will be the venue [of the Bar Exams] for many more years,” Divina said in an interview with the Varsitarian.

However, the Faculty of Civil Law is not supposed to be involved in the preparations because Thomasians also take the Bar Examinations, Divina said.

The 2016 Bar Examinations is scheduled on all four Sundays of November. A liquor ban will be implemented around the campus. The selling of beer and other alcoholic products between 4 a.m. and 8 p.m. will be prohibited during examination days.

Last year, there were no major incidents reported during the Bar Examinations. The Manila Police District, however, banned party poppers due to a minor disturbance on the last day of the tests.

Supt. Mannan Maurip of the Sampaloc Police Station said the 2015 Bar Exams were “generally peaceful.”

Improved passing rates Aside from campus preparations, UST aims to improve its Bar passing rate as well as to

JUSTICE. Student activists march on España Boulevard and stage a candle-lighting ceremony in honor of the victims of the recent Davao City blast.

BASILIO H. SEPE

Bar Exams PAGE 5

UST dominates electrical, psychometrics, medtech boards THE UNIVERSITY emerged as the top-performing school in the recent electrical engineering licensure examinations, and placed second in the psychometrician exams. Two Thomasians also entered the top 10 in the medical technology exams.

UST recorded a 98.48-percent passing rate in the September 2016 electrical engineering exams, with 65 passing out of 66 examinees, results from the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) showed.

Last year’s passing rate was slightly higher at 98.61 percent, with 71 passing the test out of 72 examinees from UST. Leading the new batch of Thomasian electrical engineers was Zedisteo Vivo Jr., who placed 10th overall with a score of 89.10 percent.

The national passing rate rose to 68.46 percent, with 2,817 passing the test out of 4,115 examinees, from last year’s 63.01 percent (2,536 out of 3,772 examinees).

A lone examinee from UST meanwhile passed the master electrician licensure exam.

Psychometricians, psychologists The University was named the second top-performing school in the 2016 licensure examinations for psychometricians, with six Thomasians landing in the top 10.

UST registered a 91.86-percent passing rate with 158 Thomasians out of 172 making the cut.

This was higher than last year’s 89.25-percent passing rate in which 166 passed out of 186 Thomasian examinees.

Leading the new batch of Thomasian psychometricians was Kathleen Kaye Medriano, who placed fourth with a score of 84.80. She shared the spot with Ian Timothy Sarmiento of Adamson University, and Arielle Gem Soneja and Kristina Angelica Usita of Far Eastern University (FEU).

UST’s Rose Anne Silva placed seventh, along with Audrey Antonio, Miguel Francisco and Janine Ong Co Sy of Ateneo de Manila, Jacqueline Roanne Chua of Notre Dame of Dadiangas University, Raimiel Dionido and Miguel Silan of University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman, Marjorie Marzan of Adamson, and Allen James Aguilar Temena of FEU. All got a score of 84.20 percent.

At eighth place was Princess Debbie Cootauco with a score of 84 percent. She tied with Merillie Grace Alberto of Manila Tytana Colleges, Patricia Eloise Amelda of Ateneo de Zamboanga, Lorraine Bagol of Holy Name University, Krsytell Pearl Boac of Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University–Agoo, Camille Gabiana of Cebu Boards PAGE 5

Grad School to offer specialized programs in 2018 THE UST Graduate School will soon offer “highly specialized and joint programs” in preparation for vertical articulation, a system that places undergraduate, master’s and doctorate programs in the same field under the different colleges and faculties.

Graduate School Dean Marilu Madrunio said some of the highly specialized programs to be offered are global affairs; international development and economics; policy, organization and leadership studies; and Philippine studies.

Joint programs will include master’s in education and business administration, master’s and juris doctor in law and education, master’s in public policy and education, and master’s in business administration and global relations.

The Graduate School is targeting to offer the new programs by 2018.

Madrunio said the new

Usapang Uste

programs would help the Graduate School in implementing vertical articulation in the University.

The Varsitarian previously reported that for undergraduate programs declared as Centers of Excellence by the Commission on Higher Education, the corresponding graduate programs could be transferred to the respective colleges and faculties from the Graduate School to achieve vertical articulation, which is a global practice.

In August 2015, seven general education subjects, namely philosophy, literature, English, history, foreign languages, political science and economics, which were formerly under the Office for Academic Affairs, were transferred to the Faculty of Arts and Letters as part of vertical articulation.

“Vertical articulation would take its full swing so we would take out some of the programs that are COEs. What will happen

to the Graduate School? We have to innovate,” Madrunio said in an interview with the Varsitarian.

Madrunio also said the new programs would put the Graduate School up-to-date.

“Other schools have very highly specialized programs. Ours are very generic programs,” she said.

Some programs cannot stand on their own, requiring “inter-disciplinarity” or the merging of two or more academic disciplines into a single program, Madrunio added.

“We’re gearing towards inter-disciplinarity, multidisciplinarity, and transdisciplinarity,” she said.

The University of the Philippines, De La Salle University and Ateneo de Manila are already offering highly specialized and joint programs, mostly specializing in management.

The UST Graduate School

has a total of 55 programs.

Online certificate courses The Graduate School is also conceptualizing online certificate courses, a first in the University, in partnership with the UST Educational Technology Center (EdTech).

EdTech operates Blackboard Learn, known in the University as the E-learning Access Program or eLeAP, where students and instructors can hold virtual classes.

Madrunio said the introduction of online certificate courses would be a step closer to her vision of making the Graduate School an “open university.”

The UST Center for Continuing Professional Education and Development is coming up with online certificate courses for cultural heritage studies and investment management.ROY ABRAHMN D.R. NARRA

Kampanyang ‘Bantay Estudyante’ ng ROTC

HINDI lamang mga guwardiya ang nagbabantay sa bawat sulok ng Unibersidad upang tiyakin ang kaligtasan ng mga Tomasino noon.

Taong 1994 nang magpatupad KAPAKANAN ng mga mag-aaral ang unang ng bagong patakaran ang Reserved dahilan ng pagtatayo ng mga bagong gusali Officers Training Corps (ROTC) sa Unibersidad. hinggil sa paghihigpit ng seguridad “Taun-taon nagkakaroon ng forum sa Unibersidad bilang sagot sa kabiang [Central] Student Council (CSC) at ang kabilang kaso ng nakawan at iba pang administrators,” ani Enrique Sta. Maria, mga krimen na naitala sa loob ng in-house architect ng Unibersidad. “The kampus.

CSC serves as the student’s echo and these Nagpasya ang ROTC na italaga concerns serve as great factors that affect ang mga kadete nito sa mga pasukan at project proposals.” labasan sa paaralan upang magmatyag Aniya, anumang proyektong nakasentro at siguraduhin ang kaligtasan ng mga sa pag-unlad at pagsulong ng kapakanan ng kapuwa nila mag-aaral. mga mag-aaral ay 90 porsiyento at mabilis Tinawag nila ang proyektong ito na sinasang-ayunan ng mga administrador. na “Bantay Estudyante” na siyang Samantala, ang mga pagpapaayos ng mga pinasinayaan noong Setyembre ng opisina ng mga dekano at mga guro ay nasabing taon. tumatagal mula lima hanggang 10 na taon.

Ayon sa patakaran, kinakailangang Halimbawa ng pangyayaring ito ang kumpletuhin ng mga kadete ang apat na naunang paggiba ng Rizal Conference Hall oras o higit pang pagbabantay sa mga sa gusaling St. Raymund Peñafort upang lugar kung saan sila nakadestino. Halos gawing mga silid-aralan na sinundan naman kapareho ng sa mga guwardiya ang ng paglipat ng faculty room mula sa una uri ng kanilang paninilbihan. Bilang tungong ikalawang palapag. kapalit, maaari na silang lumiban sa Ang kasalukuyang suliranin sa kawalan lingguhang Citizen’s Military Training ng sapat na silid-aralan ay maaaring

na bahagi ng kanilang pagsasanay.

Naging malaking tulong ang naturang hakbang sa mga kadete sapagkat nabawasan ng isang araw ang kailangan nilang gugulin sa pagpasok magkaroon na ng solusyon sa inaasahang sa paaralan maliban sa kanilang mga pagtatapos ngayong taon ng itinatayong klase.

Alumni Center.

“Ang pasok ko [ay] tuwing Ang Alumni Center ay sinimulang itayo Lunes hanggang Sabado,” ani Hector noong 2011, kasunod sa paggiba ng UST Garingalao, isa sa mga kadete, sa isang Gymnasium na naitayo na simula pa noong panayam noon sa Varsitarian. “Kung 1932. mag-a-attend pa ako ng [isang araw “The Alumni Center, originally, was to na] training, wala na akong pahinga,” have four floors, five, or six and now it’s going dagdag pa niya. to be twelve,” ani Sta. Maria. “The increase in Sang-ayon naman sa naturang the number of stories and floors is because we programa ang mga guwardiya noon are addressing the lack of classrooms.” sapagkat karagdagang ginhawa sa Ang pagkawala ng UST Gymnasium kanila ang pagtulong ng mga kadete sa ay sinalubong naman ng pagpapatayo ng kanilang tungkulin sa mga Tomasino at UST Quadricentennial Pavilion na sinimulan sa mga bumibisita sa Unibersidad. noong 2009 at nagbukas noong 2012.

Bukod sa pagbabantay, umutulong Nakaharap sa España Boulevard, ang UST din ang mga kadete sa pag-aayos Quadricentennial Pavilion ay nabigyang ng daloy ng trapiko sa paligid ng daan nang gibain ang Engineering Sports paaralan upang maiwasan ang hindi Complex. pagkakaintindihan sa kalye at mga Ang kinalalagyan ng gusaling Beato aksidente.

Angelico, itinayo noong 2001 at nagbukas Hindi na ipinatutupad ang noong 2003, sa kanto ng España at P. Noval ay nasabing patakaran sa kasalukuyan, dating gusali ng UST Printing Press, giniba ngunit kabilang pa rin ang mga kadete upang madagdagan ang mga silid-aralan para

ng ROTC sa paniniguro ng kaligtasan ng mga Tomasino sa tuwing may malalaking pagtitipon, pagdiriwang at iba pang mga mahahalagang sa mga mag-aaral ng Fine kaganapang isinasagawa Arts at Architecture. sa loob ng Unibersidad.

Samantala, ang UST Printing Press Tomasino Siyana ngayo’y kilalaIsa bilang UST si P N u bo l ir s hmi n ag House L e r m aay, inilugar d a t kaloob i n g ng dekana Beato ng Angelico.

Fakultad ng Hindi Parmasya, sa mga nagpapatunay na angat ang galing ng mga Tomasino pagdating sa pagpapakadalubhasa sa larangan ng agham.

Usapang Uste PAHINA 6

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016

News 3

Thomasians pledge support for better PH New central

laboratory finished before deadline

THOMASIAN alumni and students have pledged to support a vision calling for a more egalitarian society toward a “better Philippines” by 2021.

Rector Fr. Herminio Dagohoy, O.P. said the vision of the document “Youth Vision for a New Philippines towards the Year 2021” posed a huge challenge, but should be put into action immediately.

“While it is also true that the future is uncertain and the demands of the future are severe, dreaming for a brighter tomorrow, whether we are aware of it or not, is something that is constantly worked on and worked hard for,” Dagohoy said during the launching of the document at the Civil Law Auditorium last Sept. 1.

“Sa totoo lang, nalulula ako sa document, but it has the

PH PAGE 7

QS ranking FROM PAGE 1

According to the QS website, the world rankings are based on five criteria, namely: academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty-to-student ratio, citations per faculty, international faculty ratio and international student ratio.

Research output As in previous years, research was UST’s weak spot in the QS listing.

UST has stayed in the 701+ range since 2013, after being ranked in the 601+ bracket in 2011 and 2012. UST landed on 500th place in the 2009 QS

BETTER BY 2021. Masbate Rep. Elisa Tingcungco-Kho, a UST alumna, signs the pledge to work for a "better Philippines."

BASILIO H. SEPE

World Rankings and descended to the 501-550 bracket in 2010.

According to a webinar presentation last June 13 by QS Intelligence Unit Senior Researcher Samuel Wong, QS changed its methodology this year, using a scheme involving the normalization of citation scores in research outputs.

Normalization is a statistical approach used by QS to fairly distribute the weight of research by subject area.

It sought to equalize the number of author citations among five faculty areas: Arts and Humanities, Engineering and Technology, Life Science and Medicine, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and Management.

UST’s research mainly focuses on Life Sciences and Medicine, producing 1,351 citations. Research on Arts and Humanities had four citations.

Because of normalization, UST’s total citation score was cut from 1,456 to 799, resulting in a lower research output score.

This affected UST’s overall performance, according to a QS document obtained by the Varsitarian.

More research needed Augusto de Viana, chairman of the UST History Department, said the quantity and quality of research produced by the University could be attributed to heavy

faculty workload.

“If you ask the faculty to do research, they will have a hard time because they are overloaded,” he said, noting that other universities like La Salle assign just 12 units of teaching to their faculty members, giving more time for research.

UST Faculty Union President George Lim, in a previous Varsitarian story, said the maximum load of tenured faculty members is 24 units, which will be reduced to 21 units by 2017.

De Viana said UST should encourage its students and faculty members to conduct significant researches and publish books. THEODORE JASON PATRICK K. ORTIZ

THE NEW Central Laboratories Building is expected to be fully operational by the end of October, an official of the Facilities Management Office has bared..

Engineer Lawrence Pangan said contractors of the new laboratory building met the Sept. 14target date of completion, adding that the schedule was “wellfollowed” by workers.

“Hindi naging mahirap siyempre with the help of schedules and engineering system, sinusunod naman palagi. There’s always a standard operating procedure for engineering,” Pangan said in an interview with the Varsitarian.

However, Pangan said some equipment inside the building have yet to be installed, which could cause the delay in the opening of laboratories for use by students.

“Yung structure tapos [na], [pero] meron tayong furnished materials like aircons and elevators na doon tayo hindi sigurado dahil magkakabit pa sila,” Pangan said.

Pangan admitted that the date of delivery by the supplier of the equipment from abroad would take a “little longer.” “[On] Sept. 14, may isang passenger cart na gagana. `Yung the rest na tatlo, we have to wait for the end of September or early October para makabit [at] gumana `yung elevators, [and other equipment],” Pangan said.

Pangan expressed confidence on the structural quality of the building, saying the design of Ron Tiburcio, chairman of the Department of Civil Engineering, was ‘very sufficient’.

“Computed ang mga loads niyan. Nakita ko naman kung paano tinayo [ang building] in piles and everything, very sufficient `yung design ni Engineer Tiburcio kaya tatagal ‘to,” Pangan said.

Worried over the effect of laboratory chemicals on the integrity of the 89-year-old Main Building, a National Cultural Treasure, the University decided to move all laboratories to a new Central Laboratories Building.

The Main Building houses almost all the laboratory rooms of UST, on the second, third and fourth floors.

Pangan said the transfer would help prolong the life of the Main Building and prevent its structure from further deteriorating. “[It will help] kasi hindi na maaapektuhan `yung Pledge PAGE 12

Students urge justice for Davao blast victims

Hasaan Journal, naglunsad ng ikatlong aklat NAGLUNSAD ng panibagong aklat na may kalakip na online edition ang Hasaan Journal ng Departamento ng Filipino sa kanilang ikatlong anibersaryo ng paglalatha.

Nagmula ang pangalan ng naturang research journal sa “Hasaan Conference” na isang pagpupulong na dinadaluhan ng mga dalubhasa sa wikang Filipino.

Isang taunang interdisiplinaryong refereed journal sa Filipino ang Hasaan na may mga artikulong nakatuon sa pananaliksik na may kinalaman sa wikang Filipino.

May dalawang bahagi ang journal; ang mga interdisiplinaryong artikulong nakasulat sa wikang Filipino at ang mga mahahalagang ambag ng mga Tomasinong iskolar sa iba’t ibang larang at kung papaano nila pinagyayaman ang wikang Filipino sa mga ito.

“Ang pagtampok sa saysay, kabuluhan at lalim ng disiplinang Filipino na tumatawid sa mga iba pang disiplinang akademiko at

pagtanghal sa mga Tomasinong mananaliksik ang tunay na halaga ng journal” ani Winnielyn Fajilan, punong patnugot ng journal.

Nabanggit ni Fajilan na mapapansin na nakasulat ang karamihan sa mga sulatin at publikasyon sa wikang Ingles na nagiging dahilan ng mababang pagtingin ng mga Filipino sa kanilang sariling wika.

“Ang pagsulat ng pananaliksik gamit ang sariling wika natin ang magpapatunay na may kakayahan ang ating wika upang maging daluyong sa mataas na antas ng karunungan,” ani Fajilan.

Sinasabing nangangailangan ng malalim na karunungan sa isang particular na larangan at kakayahan sa wikang Filipino ang mga contributor ng journal upang mailapit angkarunungan sa pangkaraniwang tao.

Isang halimbawa ang sa larangan ng Pagtutuos, Medisina at Pilosopiya.

Proseso ng paglathala Tumatanggap ang Hasaan ng mga artikulong pampananaliksik na nakasulat at napapalalim ng wikang Filipino mula sa sinumang may interes sa anumang larang.

Pagpapasyahan ng lupon ng mga patnugot kung mailalathalaang isang entry batay sa pamantayan ng publikasiyon.

Ikinokonsulta ang mga ito sa mga eksperto na tinatawag na “referee” upang masusing pagaralan bago pagdedesisyunan kung tahasang tatanggapin o kung mayroong mga karagdagang rebisyon.

Mahalagang hindi magkakilala ang eksperto at ang nagpasa ng papel upang magarantiya na sa saysay lamang ng teksto umiikot ang talakayan.

Ito ang dahilan kung bakit tinatawag ang Hasaan bilang isang double-blind referee journal.

Journal PAHINA 5

STUDENT activists called for justice following the recent Davao City blast that claimed the lives of 15 people and left 70 injured.

In a protest staged last Sept. 6, students from UST, University of the Philippines, National Teachers College and Araullo High School marched on España Boulevard and took part in a candle-lighting ceremony to honor the victims of recent violent incidents in the country.

Kevin Castro, spokesman of the National Union of Students of the Philippines, echoed President Rodrigo Duterte’s view that the incident was an act of terrorism against the Filipino people. “[N]gayon pinapatampok natin ‘yung issue ng Davao City blast dahil kailangan ma-highlight na ito ay isang terror attack [at] pananakot sa mga Pilipino. [Dapat] mapanagot talaga kung sinong gumawa ng pagpapasabog na ito at mabigyan ng hustisya ang mga pagkamatay,” Castro said in an interview with the Varsitarian.

The student activists also condemned the alleged shooting inside the Philippine Army’s Fort Magsaysay camp in Nueva Ecija province last Sept. 3, which reportedly left four farmers dead due to a land distribution dispute.

Castro urged the President to respond to the needs of farmers by implementing the proper redistribution of lands under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

Castro urged Filipinos to remain critical of President Duterte’s administration despite its “progressive aspects.”

A protest march by militant youth groups will be held on Sept. 21 from España to Mendiola in commemoration of the 44th anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law. HANNAH RHOCELLHYNNIA H. CRUZ AND CHRISTIAN DE LANO M. DEIPARINE

4 Opinion

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016

Editorial

Beware of the return of Martial Law WE DON’T want to demonize President Duterte early in his term, but this year’s observance of the 44th anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law is taking part amid a state of emergency he himself has declared over what he himself (again) has proclaimed as a state of lawlessness in the country. His own twin declarations should belie the claim of his losing running mate last May 10 and his lackey in the Senate in the latter’s effort to stop the legislative inquiry on alleged extra-judicial killings of drug suspects— that under the three-month-old administration, the Philippines had become secure and peaceful “like Singapore.” Although Singapore has had a history of strongman rule, we don’t think it would be comfortable being remotely linked to extrajudicial killings. In any case, what peace is that troll from Taguig talking about?

Not that Duterte doesn’t want to be associated with Ferdinand Marcos and Martial Law. He himself has shown partiality toward the strongman’s son, “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, in the latter’s election protest to contest the vicepresidential victory of Leni Robredo. And he has divided the nation by pressing for the burial of the strongman’s remains at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. And during the campaign, he had threatened to declare a revolutionary government even if elected constitutionally!

Parallels are uncanny. On Sept. 21, 1972, Marcos declared Martial Law on national TV, citing the “increasing threat of communism in the country.” At once, he unleashed the military and constabulary to close down the media and arrest and detain 8,000 persons. Marcos said he was launching a “new society” and getting rid of the “oligarchs.” In their place he favored his relatives, cronies and warlords and ushered in a “kleptocracy.” Duterte in contrast has cited the threat of the Philippines becoming a “narcopolis” in pressing for a draconian anti-drug campaign that is feared to have now have gunned down some 3,000 persons and just about everyone except for the big drug dealers and top police officers that Duterte himself has identified and which the Philippine National Police under him hasn’t remotely fired a shot at, much less nabbed. He has made a new establishment out of his own police and military supporters, his own cronies and lapdogs. In fact Duterte has done much better than Marcos: he has included trolls in the new status quo.

The only difference between Marcos and Editorial PAGE 5

FOUNDED JAN. 16, 1928 KATHRYN JEDI V. BAYLON Editor in Chief BERNADETTE A. PAMINTUAN Managing Editor DARYL ANGELO P. BAYBADO Associate Editor ALHEX ADREA M. PERALTA News Editor PAUL XAVIER JAEHWA C. BERNARDO Online Editor DELFIN RAY M. DIOQUINO Sports Editor LEA MAT P. VICENCIO Special Reports Editor MARIA CORAZON A. INAY Feautures Editor JOHN GABRIEL M. AGCAOILI Witness Editor AMIERIELLE ANNE A. BULAN Circle Editor KIRSTEN M. JAMILLA Art Director ALVIN JOSEPH KASIBAN Chief Photographer News Mia Arra C. Camacho, Hannah Rhocellhynnia H. Cruz, Christian de Lano M. Deiparine, Roy Abrahmn D.R. Narra, Theodore Jason Patrick K. Ortiz, Maria Crisanta M. Paloma Sports Jan Carlo Anolin, Carlo A. Casingcasing, Philip Martin L. Matel, Randell Angelo B. Ritumalta, Ivan Ruiz L. Suing Special Reports Ma. Angela Christa Coloma, John Paul P. Corpuz, Ma. Consuelo D.P. Marquez, Neil Jayson N. Servallos Features Daniella T. Cobarde, Ma. Czarina A. Fernandez, Alyssa Carmina A. Gonzales Literary Nikko Miguel M. Garcia, Cedric Allen P. Sta. Cruz Filipino Jolau V. Ocampo, Winona S. Sadia Witness Sigrid B. Garcia Science and TechnologyKarl Ben L. Arlegui, Dan Albert D. Besinal, Edris Dominic C. Pua, Julius Roman M. Tolop Circle Klimier Nicole B. Adriano, Audrie Julienne D. Bernas, Chelsey Mei Nadine B. Brazal Art Chinny Mae F. Basinang, Shaina Mae L. Santander Photography Deejae S. Dumlao, Miah Terrenz Provido, Maria Charisse Ann G. Refuerzo, Ma. Alyssa Adrienne T. Samonte, Basilio H. Sepe, Jamillah N. Sta. Rosa FELIPE F. SALVOSA II Assistant Publications Adviser JOSELITO B. ZULUETA Publications Adviser

Letters/comments/suggestions/contributions are welcome in the Varsitarian. Only letters with signatures and corresponding contact details will be entertained. Original manuscript contributions must be typewritten, double-spaced, on regular bond paper, and should include a signed certification bearing the author’s name, address, year, and college. The identity of a writer may be withheld upon request. The editors will not be responsible for the loss of materials. Contributions must be sent to THE VARSITARIAN office, Rm. 105, Tan Yan Kee Student Center, University of Santo Tomas, España, Manila.

Pagsasalin, ibalik sa puso ng Artlets “IDAMPI sa kilay mo ang halik na ito!/ Sa aking paglayo ngayon sa piling mo,/ at hayaan akong mangako sa iyo—“ ang matalinhagang salin ni Roberto Añonuevo, direktorheneral ng Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) sa mga katagang “Take this kiss upon the brow!/ And, in parting from you now,/ Thus much let me avow—” ni Edgar Allan Poe. H u m a h a g o d , bumabaon sa kaibuturan ng mambabasang Filipino ang mga salita sa pambansang wika kung ang eleganteng salin din lamang ng “A Dream Within a Dream” ang pagtutuunan ng pansin.

Nadarama ang tindi ng emosiyon; ng lungkot at pangungulila, sa pagbitiw ng mas pamilyar na lengguwahe sa mambabasa…

Sa kasalukuyang binabalak na pagbabalik ng kursong Pagsasalin sa Fakultad ng Sining at Panitik, inaasahang mapayayabong muli ang larangan na animo nabaon

Sa pagsasalin ng mga banyagang katha, napayayaman nito ang lokal at pandaigdigang panitikan. na sa limot.

Ayon kay Roberto Ampil, dating tagapangulo ng Departamento ng Filipino sa Unibersidad, nananatiling nakabinbin ang mungkahing ibalik ang programa ng pagsasalin sa fakultad.

Taong 1971 nang huli itong buksan para sa mga Artlet kasabay ng Asian Studies, Behavioral Science, Communication Arts, Economics, Journalism, Literature, Philosophy, Political Science at Sociology.

Itinigil ito noong 1980s bunsod ng kawalan ng mga mag-aaral na nagresulta sa

kakapusan ng pondo.

Inasahan itong ibalik sa kasalukuyang taon alinsunod sa prediksiyon ng dekano ng fakultad na si Michael Anthony Vasco na aabutin ng tatlo hanggang apat na taon ang proseso nito simula 2012.

“Bago magdagdag ng programa, bukod sa istruktura ng kurikulum nito, tinitingnan din ang kakayahan ng fakultad sa pagpapanatili naturang programa,” wika ni Vasco sa panayam noon sa Varsitarian.

Isang ladderized program ang orihinal na

pagbabalangkas nito na iniayos ng mananaliksik at dati ring tagapangulo ng Departamento ng Filipino na si Imelda de Castro.

Sa mahabang panahon nitong pagkawala, isinasaalang-alang hindi lamang ang bilang ng mga mag-aaral kundi pati na rin ang mga magtuturo dito at ilang teknikalidad sa Commision on Higher Education.

Sa paglulunsad ng K to 12, positibo naman ang nakararami na maibabalik ang malaking bilang ng mga mag-aaral na magiging interesado sa naturang programa.

Kung tuluyan na ngang maisasakatuparan ang matagal na nitong naunsiyaming pagbabalik, magiging isa itong malaking katuparan sa bahagi ng panitikang Tomasino at malawakang kaalaman sa pananaliksik.

Samantala, binabalak din ng Center for Creative Dagitab PAGE 5

Emotionalism and the fall of reason THOSE who fanatically support President Duterte seem to forget to which they owe their civilization.

They tend to overlook the virtues of the past that shaped our present situation.

Charity, modesty, mutual respect and reasoning are ignored by these people.

A rational person, like Socrates, may forgive Filipinos who believe in the failure of our justice system, since one believes according to his or her experience and knowledge.

But no reasonable man would ever tolerate the use of emotion in enforcing personal beliefs on the justice system as well as insulting others just because their views differ with his own, The Commission of Human Rights and the Catholic Church, are being attacked on social media simply because they protest abuses taking place under the guise of a draconian campaign against drug trafficking.

To the mind of Duterte’s fanatics, those who protest abuses under the anti-crime campaign are junkies and traffickers themselves.

Duterte supporters are tired of reason, which have failed to fill their own hunger and quench their own thirst for personal justice.

The John Wayne or “siga” attitude of President Duterte and his curses and knee-jerk and xenophobic statements so impress his fans that like apes, they copy him This makes them determined to hit anyone or anything who objects at their beliefs with passion, but without reason.

“Patayin niyo na rin ‘yang mga walang kwentang obispong yan.

Bayaran ‘yang mga ‘yan,” someone on social media said.

How can someone just write a statement like that based solely on emotion, neglecting the need to carefully analyze the situation?

Whether it is a joke or not, that statement is like a

piece of a mirror that reflects the imminent mindset of this Filipino generation—a mindset that would make the blood-stained and politically-wrecked Roman Empire look like Barney’s playground.

The Catholic Church which has, for more than 300 years, instilled in this country the love for God and neighbor, is being persecuted for its stand against the rising number of extrajudicial killings.

Good is now bad; bad is now good.

The country with more than 80 million Catholics has taken turn for the worse.

The “special” supporters of Duterte in the country blame the bishops and the rest of the clergy for putting the welfare of

Filipinos on “a mythical figure called God.” Church officials or, as one Facebook user commented on a post, “sex maniacs of the oldest, political institution in the world,” are accused of abetting the suffering of Filipinos for protesting extra-judicial killings.

They seemed to have failed to consider that most of the victims of the killings were poor.

In any case, they seem to have overlooked that in their fanaticism, they have treated Duterte as a “messiah.” They appear to have replaced the Catholic God with an idol of their own.

One might wonder how these supporters of the Duterte think. Well, they don’t. They do things out of emotion. They are tired of reason, which have failed to fill their own hunger and quench their own thirst for personal justice.

Because Duterte’s blind supporters have been bereft of reason and mental balance, they have been called “Dutertards.”

But I protest and proclaim that would be unfair to retardates.

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016

Diaz posts Olympic triumph—against all odds Editorial

The recent Rio Olympics should show that a Filipino— or rather, a Filipina—can compete with the best athletes of the world. It also shows that Philippine sports policyplanning and programming remains problematic.

How else could one explain that it took two decades for the Philippines to land again in the Olympic medal tally?

It is not as if we have not seen a Filipino win in the international stage, but we have not seen a Filipino victory in the Olympics for exactly two decades until Hidilyn Diaz brought home the silver in weightlifting.

Ironically, Diaz was already planning to quit her Olympic dreams and pursue a career in the United States, partly from the pain of losing in her first two Olympic stints and mostly, for the lack of support from Philippine sports officialdom.

The lack of support for Filipino athletes has also been evident in chess, which the Philippines used to dominate.

Boards FROM PAGE 2 Normal University, Joseph Liao of UP Diliman, Mariz Chloie Magayanes of University of Perpetual Help SystemLaguna, Arabelle Manzano of FEU, Maria Samantha Mirani of Our Lady of Fatima University-Valenzuela, Chiaki Pelayo of Angeles University Foundation and Margie Duenas Viado of Central Luzon State University.

Thomasians Mark Lawrence Gale, Ma. Vea Antoinette Olarte and Rency Silvestre shared the ninth spot, scoring 83.80 percent.

They were joined by Azlie Celine Antonio of Holy Angel University, Zayra Blanche Correos of Xavier University, Victoria Angela Mendoza, Faye Biliran Zipagan and Rodrigo

Dagitab FROM PAGE 4

Writing and Literary Studies ang paglulunsad ng isang sentrong pangunahing nakatuon sa pagsasalin.

Sinasabing higit na nailalapit sa puso at kamalayan ng nakararaming Filipino ang mga akdang pampanitikan at lathalaing akademiko kapag naisasalin ang mga ito sa katutubong wika. Naisasantabi ang pagkakaiba-iba ng kultura, paniniwala at kinagisnan sa sandaling nailapat ang isang banyagang salita sa sariling dila.

Isang taon na rin ang nakalilipas nang ganapin ang Asean Literary Symposium sa Ateneo de Manila University na nilahukan ng mga dalubwika at tagasalin. Nilayon ng pagpupulong na patibayin ang ugnayan ng mga bansa sa timog-silangang Asya sa pamamagitan ng pagsasalin ng kani-kanilang mga akdang pampanitikan.

Ipinahayag ng mga Filipinong delegado ang kanilang pagkadismaya sa kultura ng pagsasalin sa bansa kung saan nauuwi lamang sa mga textbook ang mga isinaling akda sa Filpino, imbes na naililimbag nang maayos

Government, big business, and commercialism are to blame as to why it took the Philippines two decades to land again in the Olympics medal tally Millennials will surely remember Eugene Torre as a staple in discussions during their elementary years and probably, that was the last time we heard of the Filipino chess grandmaster who had just won a bronze in the World Chess Olympiad recently at 64 years old.

Unfortunately, a prodigy like Wesley So, who was hailed as the new hope for Philippine chess, now dons the tricolors of the United States.

So moved to the United States in 2014 and he’s now No. 7 in the world rankings.

His changing of federation

can be traced to his dispute with local sports officials over his winnings and the dwindling allowance of Filipino chess players.

Hidilyn and some Filipino grandmasters, including Torre, who received a P40,000 monthly allowance before, got only P9,600 monthly support last year.

It is deplorable that such as weightlifting and chess don’t get as much as state and private support because compared to basketball and volleyball, they provide relative less entertainment.

As a result, they draw less commercial support.

Cruz of UP Diliman, Jake Cornelio Diaus of University of the Cordilleras, AlyssaMarie Navato of Arellano University-Manila, Marian Ramarama of Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, Raffy Jones Sanchez of UP-Visayas in Cebu City, Chinky Claudine Sedurifa of University of San Carlos, John Bert Tutisura of UP-Visayas in IloIlo City, and Julio Zayco of Colegio San Agustin in Bacolod City.

The national passing rate jumped to 50.46 percent (3,690 passers out of 7,312 takers) from last year’s 46.15 percent (2,061 passers out of 4,466 takers).

Five out of 13 Thomasian examinees passed the August 2016 licensure examinations for psychologists, yielding a 38.46-percent passing rate.

This was lower than last year’s 42.86 percent, wherein three out of four examinees from

UST passed.

The national passing rate for the psychologist licensure exams rose to 52.50 percent from last year’s 47.37 percent.

at napababantog sa mga Filipinong mambabasa.

Para kay Marne Kilates, tanyag na makata at tagasalin, sa kabila ng hindi gaanong katanyagan ng larangan ng pagsasalin sa bansa, nararapat pa ring sanayin ang mga Filipinong iskolar sa pagsasaalangalang ng wordplay sa pagsasalin ng mga tula o iba pang akdang banyaga.

Idiniin naman ni Mario Miclat, propesor ng Philippine Studies sa Unibersidad ng Pilipinas, na ang hindi pagpapahalaga sa pambansang wika at pagtingin dito bilang isang mas nakabababang wika kumpara sa Ingles ang ugat ng suliranin sa ating kulturang pampanitikan.

Bukod pa rito, ang pagsasalin, ani makatang si Rebecca Añonuevo, na magsisilbing tulay sa matibay na pagsasamahan ng mga Asyanong bansa at magiging daan sa integrasiyon ng mga nagkakaisang lahi sa rehiyon.

Sa kasalukuyan, namamayagpag ang mga banyagang akdang isinalin sa Filipino sa pambansang paglalathala.

Limang klasiko ang muling naisalin ng KWF Aklat ng Bayan kasabay ng pagdiriwang ng kanilang ika-25 taon.

Kabilang dito ang “Haring Lear” (King Lear ni William

Shakespeare), “Paglalakbay sa Pusod ng Daigdig” (A Journey to the Center of the Earth ni Jules Verne), “Ang Kuwintas at Iba Pang Kuwento” (koleksiyon ng mga katha ni Guy de Maupassant), “Peter Pan” at “Frankenstein.”

Sa pagsasalin ng mga banyagang katha, hindi lamang retorika ang napayayabong.

Napayayaman nito ang lokal at pandaigdigang panitikan. Binibigyan nito ng koneksiyon ang iba’t ibang kultura na may iba’t ibang wika at naipasisilip sa mambabasa ang mga magkakalayong tagpuan.

Higit sa lahat, lumalawak ang kultura ng pagbabasa.

Maging sa akademya, mas masinsinang napagaaralan ang mga lumang konsepto na nakasulat sa ibang wika.

Mas naiintindihan ito ng nakararami kapag itinuturo sa inang wika. Gayundin, mas naipaliliwanag nang mabuti ang mga komplikadong konsepto at teknikal na pagpapakahulugan kung mas naaarok ang mga ito ng mga mamamayan sa pagsasalin sa wika at kulturang malapit sa kanilang puso.

Sa ganitong pamamaraan, imposibleng mamatay ang wika. Patuloy ang paglawak at pagyaman nito kasabay ng pagiging imortal ng mga panitikang kaniyang isinasalin.

Medical technology Two Thomasians landed in the top 10 of the recent medical technology licensure exams, despite UST registering a slightly lower passing rate.

UST recorded a 93.77-percent passing rate with 286 passing the test out of 305 examinees, down from last year’s 95.36-percent passing rate in which 329 passed out of 345 examinees, results from PRC showed.

Thomasian Sushmita Mae Rose Contreras ranked sixth overall with a score of 90 percent, sharing the spot with TJ Jaula of Far Eastern University and Mark Arlo Segundo of the University of the Immaculate Concepcion-

When Gilas Pilipinas announced its Final 12 for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament, it was a TV event.

The same goes with Filipino volleybelles selected to compete in the FIVB Women’s Club World Championship in October: they received “surprise golden tickets,” like the children who won golden passes to Charlie’s Chocolate Factory.

The Philippine SuperLiga knew that giving the golden tickets to the players separately would draw publicity and, most important, profit.

Of course, it could be argued that if the chess and weightlifting teams were supported by bluechip companies, they would have earned too television coverage.

But falling short of the commercialism so ingrained in basketball and volleyball and TV networks, our national players should enjoy state Downtown PAGE 9 Davao.

UST’s Clarenz Sarit Concepcion placed eighth with a score of 89.70 percent.

Cagayan State UniversityAndrews Campus, Cebu Doctors’ University and Saint Louis University remained the top-performing schools, joined by the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos.

All four schools got 100-percent passing rates.

Siliman University’s Roselle Louise Publico topped the exams with a score of 91.10 percent.

The national passing rate declined to 80.84 percent, with 4,144 passing the test out of 5,126 examinees. Last year’s passing rate was 83.64 percent, with 4,048 passing the test out of 4,840 examinees.

MIA ARRA C. CAMACHO, HANNAH RHOCELLHYNNIA H. CRUZ and THEODORE JASON PATRICK K. ORTIZ

Journal MULA SA PAHINA 3

“Ang double blind referee journal ang siyang pinakamataas na uri ng publikasyon sa akademiya,” ani Fajilan.

Ibinabalik ang papel sa mga patnugot at sisinupin ang mga payo ng eksperto bago ibalik sa manunulat upang maayos. Sa muling pagpasa ng artikulo, pagdedesisyunan kung ilalathalaito o hindi.

Magugunitang ginawaran ng Rektor ang Hasaan journal ng titulong, “opisyal na Filipino journal” ng Unibersidad noong 2014. KARL BEN L. ARLEGUI

Bar exams FROM PAGE 2

produce topnotchers this year, Divina said.

“The numbers are improving and the gap between the top law schools and UST [gets] closer and closer, and our goal is the same, [to] try to be the top law school and produce topnotchers,” Divina said.

Last year, Civil Law obtained a 66.38-percent passing rate or 77 successful examinees out of 116, placing eighth in the roster of topperforming schools.

FROM PAGE 4 Duterte is that the former hasn’t blamed the communists even if there are strong evidence showing the traffic of prohibited drugs originates in China. He cannot do that because as a student of Maoist diehard and Communist Party of the Philippines leader Jose Maria Sison at the Lyceum in the 1960’s, he has a romance with socialist totalitarianism and is pro-Beijing. He may have cursed Pope Francis and Obama and called them names, but he won’t do that with China and its communist bosses and Vladimir Putin who’s nostalgic about the old communist Soviet Union.

He wouldn’t curse China and Putin because they’re totalitarian like him and like thieves, there should be honor among despots or wanna-be despots.

China has become the Philippines’ gravest threat to its territorial sovereignty because of its encroachments on and reclamation of large parts of the West Philippine Sea, but Duterte and his jester at the foreign ministry who calls himself perfect haven’t used the ruling of the International Court favoring the Philippine protest to counter the Chinese threat.

It is due to totalitarian hangover and delusion that no wonder, Filipinos like Duterte have pressed for state burial honors for Marcos!

Marcos apologists perpetually tell everyone that it is “time to move on.” But do they really know what to move on from? Those who want to move on from the horrors of Martial Law did not even live through its horrors or having lived through them, have suddenly turned amnesiacs and intellectual vegetables!

The Marcos regime. was associated for wholesale abuse of rights.

Thousands of people were tortured and summarily executed; many simply disappeared.

Cronyism and nepotism were institutionalized.

Roguery and corruption became the order of the day. The youth extol Imelda Marcos, crediting her for building monuments that were

The last Thomasian to enter the top 10 was Christian Louie Gonzales, who placed fifth with a score of 84.09 percent in 2011.

Divina introduced “premock” bar exams as well as standardized case and course outlines for all the students to prepare for this year’s Bar Exams. He said these were firsts in the history of law schools in the country.

The “pre-mock” bar exams were “intense” lecture series held last July. A special bar lecture series will be held in the third week of October. “[We conducted this] series [to improve] further our bar passing percentage,”

Opinion 5 built through behest loans from government corporations and through international aid that went to private pockets.

Generations of taxpayers are still paying for the debts! Several people even have the effrontery to challenge accounts of abuses by Martial Law survivors.

Under the Duterte administration, the Philippine state’s Official Gazette (OG) in its Facebook page paid tribute recently to the late dictator on his 99th birthday and tried to revise history by claiming, “Marcos stepped down from the presidency to avoid bloodshed during the uprising that came to be known as ‘People Power.’”

The Facebook post was promptly taken down after widespread social media protest, but not before Ramon Cualoping, assistant secretary of the Presidential Communications Operations Office, betrayed his illiteracy.

He said the OG was “not in the business of revising history” and it was merely reporting on what was “documented in the official records.”

The moral debasement of Filipinos is worsening. The Catholicdominated nation has now abandoned the teachings of the Church.

Many openly support extra-judicial killings and seem reluctant to take the Duterte and the PNP to task how so-called vigilante squads seem to operate unchallenged.

Some have called for the restoration of the death penalty despite the Church’s opposition to capital punishment because it is cruel and inhuman. During the last administration, the reproductive health (RH) law was passed that basically restored the Marcos 1973 Constitution, the only charter in history to enshrine family planning and institutionalize the state contraception of poor couples. Meanwhile, Duterte’s proclamation of a “state of lawlessness” may be paving the way for the restoration of Martial Law. We should heed what the American philosopher—and lapsed Catholic—George Santayana has warned: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Divina said.

The mock bar exams will be held two weeks before the start the Bar Exams, with the questions to be provided by a third-party outfit.

Case digests of 490 cases penned by Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco, chairman of the Bar Exams, were given to Thomasian barristers.

Peer coaching will still be implemented.

Divina urged Thomasian bar examinees to “study as if everything depends on study [and] pray as if everything depends on prayer.”

This year marks the 115th edition of the Bar Exams.

MARIA CRISANTA M. PALOMA

6 Filipino

IKA-26 NG SETYEMBRE, 2016

Múmo sa pagitan ng mga daliri BAHAGYANG tumalbog ang siksik na tiyan ni Mario nang tamad na tamad niya itong idinantay sa harapan ng lababo. Nahuli na naman siyang kumain.

Dismayado ang kaniyang mukha habang nanlalambot na tinitigan ang patungpatong na pinagkainan ng buong pamilya.

Hindi hiniwalay ang mga buto ng manok, kutsara’t tinidor at mga masesebong pinggan na pinagkapitan na ng natuyong sabaw ng kaldereta.

Dinagdagan pa ng mga baso sa gawing kaliwa ng lababo, pitsel na may tira pang isang basong iced tea at dalawang bandehado kung saan natuyo na ang mga latak na kanin at sabaw. Mabuti at ang kaniyang ate na lamang ang inutusang mag-impis ng rice cooker at kalderong pinaglutuan ng ulam.

Pinaliliguan ng kaniyang nanay ang bunso niyang kapatid habang lumabas na ng bahay ang kaniyang tatay, batid niyang dadalawin ang mga kumpare nito. Siya na lamang ang naiwan sa kusina habang binabanlawan at sinasalansan ang mga kubyertos.

Buong bakasiyon na niya itong paulitulit na ginagawa. Sawang-sawa na siya.

Hindi na niya rin lubos akalain na maging sa araw ng Linggo, hindi siya patatawarin sa gawaing-bahay.

Ilang sandali pa, pinunasan na niya ang lababo gamit ang basahang nangingitim na sa kalumaan. Iniwanan niyang bukas ang salaan na lalagyan ng mga pinagligpitan at tumakbo palabas ng bahay.

Basa nang kaunti ang laylayan ng kamiseta ni Mario dahil dito niya tinuyo ang kaniyang basang mga kamay bago lumabas sa tarangkahan.

Sa ilalim ng orkidyas na itinanim ng kaniyang nanay, nakaupo sa bangketa ang kaniyang matalik na kaibigang si Anton.

Nakukuba na ito habang abala sa paglalaro ng Pokemon Go. Tanghali na subalit halatang bagong ligo si Anton sa basa nitong buhok at kalatkalat na pulbos sa dibdib. Maaaninag sa suot nitong maluwag na t-shirt na may cartoon character ang kapayatan nito lalo na nang sumiksik si Mario upang

makinood sa usong laro.

“Tapos ka nang magligpit ‘no?” tanong ni Anton habang patuloy sa paglalaro.

Walang imik si Mario. Yamot na kinamot niya ang kaniyang ulo at ikinunot ang noo habang bahagyang nakapikit ang mata dahil sa tumatalbog na sikat ng araw sa aspalto. Inilingan niya ang inalok ng kaniyang kalaro na Skyf lakes na mukhang siya ring tanging tanghalian nito.

“Tara sa bahay, maglaro na tayo ng Diner Dash!” anyaya ni Anton.

Basa ang semento sa tapat ng bahay nina Anton dahil sa sinampay na mga basang damit. Bumaba sila ng hagdan upang makapasok sa kanilang bahay. Sa may gawing kaliwa, nakapuwesto ang kanilang telebisyon. Nasa isang sulok ang tatay ni Anton na nakataas ang isang paa sa inuupuan at mag-isang kumakain.

Kinakamay nito ang adobong manok na nakalagay sa supot.

Sa munting sala, salitan sila paglalaro sa tablet ang magkaibigan.

Manghang-mangha si Mario at naisip na sana kasimbilis niyang maghugas ng pinggan ang babaeng karakter sa Diner Dash. Sana simbilis lang ng isang pitik at naligpitan na ang mga hugasin na pinggan pagkatapos kumain.

Ilang sandali pa at napasigaw sa tuwa sina Mario at Anton dahil natapos nila ang isang level ng laro.

Napatingala si Anton sa kaniyang pagkakayuko sa tablet nang marinig niya ang boses ng kaniyang nanay mula sa eskinita.

“Antoooon! Hugasan mo na ang pinagkainan natin. Kaninang-kaninan na ‘yan!”

Humangos si Anton sa lababo upang sundin ang kaniyang nanay. Halata ni Mario na takot itong mapagalitan at mapahiya sa harap niya.

Hindi pa tapos ni Mario sa isang level ng Diner Dash, tumabi na muli si Anton sa kaniya, basa pa ang kamay at hinihintay siyang matapos.

Hininto ni Mario ang paglalaro.

Inihaba niya ang kaniyang ang leeg at pinagmasdan ang bakanteng mesa at tuyong lababo. Tatlong plastik na plato, dalawang baso, dalawang tinidor at isang kutsara ang nakasalansan sa salaan…

“Tapos ka na agad?” pagtataka niya sa bilis ng kaibigan. Tumango siya habang hinablot sa kaniya ang tablet. “You Lose!”’ mensahe ng Diner Dash. “Bakit ang bilis mong magligpit?” usisa ni Mario na may halong

ng inaasahan, Skyf lakes ang merienda ng magkaibigan. Kinahapunan, pagpasok ni Mario sa kanilang bahay, hinahanda na naman ang limang plato, pares ng kutsara’t tinidor, mga bandehado ng ulam, isang pitsel ng iced tea at limang baso sa mesa. Pinaupo siya ng kaniyang nanay na bitbit na ang nilutong adobo mula sa kusina.

Isa, dalawa, tatlo…

Binilang niya ang bawat plato at kubyertos na sasabunan niya pagkatapos ng hapunan. Natunaw na agad ang Skyf lakes na kinain nila ni Anton kanina. Kumalam ang kaniyang sikmura at sa pagkakataong iyon, mas ginusto niyang dumoble ang kaniyang mga hugasin.

“Kain na po tayo,” wika niya sa harap ng hapagkainan.

JOL AU V. OCA MPO at WI NONA S. SA DI A

pagkakagulat.

“Eh kaunti lang ang kinain namin eh,” sagot ni Anton na malapit nang ipanalo ang nilalaro.

Tu l a d

Pagtanaw ang dulo ng EDSA Marahan kong ipinanhik Aking mga nangangatog na binti sa Ibabaw ng mga sanga ng akasya na tumatanaw sa Kampo Krame.

Ibig ko noong lumundag, Lumusong at sumisid Sa kailaliman ng dilaw na karagatan ng tao, Mga estudyante, raliyista’t madre, Na may hawak na mga kandilang Dumadaig sinag ng araw.

O ang mga rosas na ipinapasa Ng mga dilag, Animo mayroong mahika Na nakapagpatunaw ng pusong mala-bakal Ng sandatahang lakas.

Tangan ko rin ang puting rosaryo na iniwan sa akin ni Itay bago siya makibaka kontra sa diktador.

Iniisa-isa ko ang bawat raliyista na naglalakad sa EDSA-baka sakaling makita ko muli siya.

JOLAU V. OCAMPO

Usapang Uste MULA SA PAHINA 2

Taong 1996 nang makamtan niya ang Doctorate of Science sa International Association of University Presidents (IAUP), isang organisasiyon na binubuo ng mga pinuno ng ilang institusiyon para sa mas mataas na edukasiyon mula sa iba’t ibang panig ng mundo. Napili nito si Lerma dahil sa kaniyang natatanging kahusayan sa disiplina ng agham, partikular na sa parmasya, teknolohiyang medikal, pisikang teoretikal at pananaliksik.

Bukod pa rito, sumulat din siya ng mga aklat tungkol sa parmasya na tinangkilik at kinilala ng Unibersidad, tulad ng “Drug and Cosmetic Quality Control with Instrumentation,” na unang inilimbag sa UST Publishing House noong 1996.

Sa kaniyang talumpati ng pagtanggap sa nabanggit na parangal, kinilala ni Lerma ang pagiging kasangkapan ng Unibersidad sa kaniyang kagalingan. Aniya, ang kapuripuring kalidad ng edukasiyon mula rito ang kaniyang naging gabay sa iba’t ibang larang na kaniyang pinagtagumpayan.

Layunin ng IAUP na pagtibayin ang kalidad ng edukasiyon sa mga institusiyong kabilang dito at palawakin ang kaalaman at kakayahan ng mga ito.

Samantala, bukod sa pagtanggap ng titulong Doctorate of Science, pinarangalan din

si Lerma sa The Outstanding Thomasian Alumni (TOTAL) Awards sa parehong taon para sa kategorya ng edukasiyon. Isa ito sa mga pinakamalalaking pagkilalang ibinibigay ng Unibersidad sa mga nagtapos dito na patuloy ang pagkinang sa kani-kanilang mga napiling larang.

Tumanggap din si Lerma ng parangal mula sa Department of Science and Technology, sa kooperasiyon ng Natural Research Council of the Philippines, bilang top researcher noong 1995 dahil sa kaniyang husay at pagkamabusisi sa pananaliksik.

Nagtapos siya ng mga kursong parmasya, matematika, pisika at teknolohiyang medikal.

Nakamit din niya ang pagkilalang meritissimus sa kaniyang pagkadalubhasa sa kaniyang doktorado.

Sa loob ng 45 na taon, nanilbihan siya bilang dalubguro ng matematika, parmasya at pisika at kalaunan, naging dekana sa loob ng 15 taon. WINONA S. SA DI A

Tomasalitaan Salupinit (pang-uri) – mainit ang ulo, sinusumpong.

Hal: Nakakunot ang noo at salupinit na Marco ang sumalubong sa akin, kaiba sa karaniwang masiyahin at makuwento niyang pag-uugali.

Mga sanggunian The Varsitarian: Tomo LXVI Blg. 5, Oktubre 7, 1994; 19941998, p.538 The Varsitarian: Tomo LXIX Blg. 4, Setyembre 12, 1996; 19941998, p.778

Sci-Tech 7

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016

What’s down there?

The ecology of the disputed areas in the West PH Sea

By DAN ALBERT D. BESINAL TENSIONS are still high as the issue on the highly-disputed territories of the West Philippine Sea are still under debate.

With the Philippines having recently won the ruling of the Arbitral Tribunal over jurisdiction on the territories, just how are Filipinos going to protect the resources present in them?

According to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), China has been the country with the most number of claims in lands in the West Philippine Sea. China’s primary argument is its “timehonored” claim under the Nine Dash Line.

The map also “supports” its other claims over territories in the West Philippine Sea such as, the Spratly Islands, the Macclesfield Island and the Scarborough Shoal.

Unfortunately, the reclamation activities done on the aforementioned islands were said to have caused severe damage to their marine environment.

‘Environmentally unfriendly’ reclamation Various reports say China was planning to turn areas of the territories into artificial islands and military bases similar to the seven artificial islands constructed

by Chinese engineers in the Spratly.

Aida Beniza, assistant protected area superintendent of the DENR for Rizal, said this is not recommended as these are areas susceptible to environmental degradation.

Beniza referenced reports from the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative’s

American indicated the Philippines had “environmental claim” over the islands “because it has had the most success and experience with maintaining marine ecosystems.” The Tribunal has also called Chinese authorities responsible for the loss of endangered species at the disputed islands after permitting unsustainable fishing practices.

It added that the Philippine government is “highly experienced in dealing with marine ecosystems and management” and its Marine Protected Area (MPA) has shown progress in conservation.

However, officials from the DENR clarified that the agency will only be able to actively participate in conservation activities once the islands become accessible to Filipinos.

Rizal’s provincial environment and natural resources officer Isidro Mercado explained that the DENR’s roles to the islands will extend only to the protection, management, development and conservation of the remaining sources in the area.

“There are existing projects that can be use[d] to manage the coastal areas found in the West Philippine Sea. [We also have] coastal and marine resource management projects for coral reefs,” he said. “[However,] China’s building efforts are beyond our jurisdiction.”

A five year project by DENR was launched last May called, “Strengthening the Marine Protected Areas to Conserve Marine Key Biodiversity Areas,” with the goal to boost ongoing efforts in Philippines “ready” for conservation protecting the richest coastal and marine biodiversities found in the country. tasks The project is consistent with policies An article from Scientific (AMTI) and its exclusive photos that showed current developments on the Mischief reef, the Fiery Cross Reef, the Johnson South Reef, the Cuarteron Reef, the Hughes Reef all in the Spratly Islands.

“If China builds a runway in the area, these expansions would be a certain threat to biodiversity,” she said.

A case study from Malaysian researcher Chai Kian Hoon said that actions such as land reclamation, dredging and conversion of land can cause major problems to the coastal ecosystem and environment. These actions are often related to industrial and housing purposes, aquaculture and agriculture activities, tourist resorts and sand mining.

“Considering that China causes significant damage to the area’s biodiversity, we can’t entirely deny that they also provided means to expand and make progress. However their ways are not environmentally oriented,” Engr.

Marilyn Paceril, a planning officer from DENR, said.

The AMTI added that China’s activities have already caused irreversible environmental impacts to the surrounding area.

“Hundreds of millions of tons of sand and coral have been dredged from the seabed and dumped atop fragile coral reefs that are vital components of the maritime ecology. Marine experts expect that the work has already caused disastrous and essentially irreversible environmental impacts,” AMTI said on its website.

on biodiversity conservation and gives contribution on achieving the goals and targets on MPAs, and on adapting to climate change and the ecosystem approach to fisheries management.

DENR has already stressed the need to focus on conservation efforts to adapt to climate change and protect the country’s marine ecosystems against threats, which could reach P3-billion to P5-billion annually.

The agency has already been earmarked with a P500-million fund from the 2016 National Budget .

Its coastal and marine division is focused on implementing a coastal and marine “environment management framework” that would provide guidelines for reviewing standards and policies, as well as to monitor the compliance of DENR to international commutments and local development plans.

Politics amid ecology The Arbitral Tribunal has considered the Nine-Dash-Line map inadmissible since “there was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources within the sea areas” falling within the map.

Thus, the Arbitral Tribunal has Sea PAGE 12

Giant clams and corals, harvested from Bajo de Masinloc (Panatag or Scarborough Shoal) off the coast of Zambales province, are stacked on the deck and hold of a Chinese ship (inset), as a small Chinese boat scrapes the coral reef bed..

Photo courtesy of INQUIRER.NET

PH

Incident command system intensifies earthquake drills

FROM PAGE 3

IN THE last three years, drills in the University were not simply gauged on how fast the building was cleared of occupants. With the introduction of the Incident Command System (ICS) in handling emergencies such as earthquakes, fires, bomb threats and others, evacuation became only a part of the entire picture.

ICS is a standardized approach to the command, control, and coordination of emergency response. It is aimed at making all members of the Thomasian community aware of their roles in an emergency situation so that resources and manpower can be fully utilized and maximized.

“Now, we are being assessed as to how fast we are able to organize ourselves when we reach the assembly area, how fast we are able to conduct the head count, and how fast we are able to set-up the local incident and the university incident command post,” Juliano Parena Jr., Emergency Medical Services Chief of the Fire Emergency Paramedic Assistance Group, told the Varsitarian.

Earthquake drills in the University consist of three phases.

The first phase is a 45-second rumbling sound that signals an ongoing earthquake. All occupants of the building are supposed to perform the duck, cover and hold method.

The second phase is an announcement to be ready for an evacuation.

Students should, at this moment, quickly visualize their exit routes and where the assigned assembly areas are. Safety marshals shall also be in their positions.

The third phase, which is the sound of a continuous siren, signals the start of the evacuation.

Upon reaching the assigned assembly area, the students, faculty, heads of offices and other personnel shall now begin the head count so as to be able to report to the local incident commander who in turn relays the information to the university incident command system.

The University ICS then starts its own protocol to ensure if patients are being taken care of and that there are no more people left inside the buildings.

Parena suggested that there should be an office tasked to develop the protocols and not just a committee that meets when needed.

“There should also be regular force of emergency response teams which are on standby 24/7 and ready to respond to any emergency in the University. It is time to make safety a matter that is to be taken seriously and not just an item that will be discussed when needed,” he said.

spirit of a real Thomasian,” Dagohoy added.

UST Alumni Association, Inc. Chairman John Simon said the Thomasians present made a commitment for a “bright future for the next generation.”

“Maaring magkatotoo o hindi [ang pangarap namin para sa kabataan].

Ang pangarap ay magiging pangarap lamang kung hindi magtutulungan,” Simon said.

Members of the Thomasian community signed the document of commitment and cooperation “to create the most caring, compassionate and egalitarian society that shall ensure the promotion of an economically, socially, [and] environmentally sustainable future for our present and forthcoming generation.”

The document aims to improve the following areas by 2021: energy, power and environment; business trade and economic competitiveness; tourism; science and technology; education; communication; culture and arts; political reform and governance; transportation and infrastructure; social justice; equality and human rights; national health; fitness and wellness; and national security and peace and order.

Drills are performed constantly and are practiced basically to help one achieve a level that would make his/ her response an automatic reaction on the stimulus.

“Earthquake drills are helpful for me, especially since we are very much prone to this kind of disaster. I may not have experienced an extreme kind of earthquake shock yet, but I know that I can use the things I learned from the repetitive earthquake drills that I’ve had,” Kalee Velasco, a Faculty of Pharmacy student said in an interview.

According to the Metropolitan Manila Earthquake Impact Reduction Study, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake from the West Valley Fault may result in the collapse of 170,000 residential houses and the death of 34,000 people.

114,000 individuals will be injured while 340,000 houses will be partly damaged.

Of the 34,000 people projected casualties within an hour of the earthquake, 90 percent will be killed from the pressure of collapsed structures. Some of them will initially survive but will die if they are not immediately rescued.

“I think proper dissemination and orientation of exit routes must be implemented in order to show that safety is indeed a top priority of the University,” said Eden Lagmay, the Red Cross Youth Council committee head of public health.

Main Building In 1920, Dominican priest Fr. Roque Ruaño, O.P., a licensed engineer and professor in the Faculty of Engineering experimented and combined the two types of foundation namely spaced footing and isolated footing for the main building.

Plans were completed by 1923. But some fine tuning still had to be made following the Great Kantō earthquake of September 1, 1923 which flattened Tokyo and Yokohama.

Eventually, construction began in 1924. It was composed of forty smaller edifices joined together with loose concretethat will rock independently in case of earthquake. The Main Building is the first earthquakeresistant building in the Philippines. “[The Main Building] is also the oldest building in the University which has been exposed so long under the elements and exposure can sometimes weaken a structure,” Parena said.

The Main Building serves as the academic home of the university’s Faculty of Civil Law, College of Science, and the Faculty of Pharmacy. EDRIS DOMINIC C. PUA

Thomasian legislators were also present to sign their declaration of commitment to the vision.

They included Masbate Rep. Elisa TingcungcoKho and Iligan City Rep. Frederick Siao.

The document was proposed by the Thomasian Alumni Leaders Association and Aktiboto, the voters’ education program led by the UST Commission on Elections.

Launching of Talas The Thomasian Alliance of Legislators, Alumni and Students (Talas) was also launched to promote Thomasian core values in Congress.

Talas was formed with the following objectives: • attaining the vision for the youth in 2021; • promoting civic consciousness and love of country in the Thomasian community; • p r o v i d i n g Thomasian legislators the academic, moral and technical support to enable them to craft laws that are relevant to the socioeconomic needs of the times and are rooted on the dignity of the human person; • regularly updating the Thomasian community on the legislative agenda of the emerging Thomasian bloc in Congress; and • bringing to life the Thomasian core values of competence, compassion and commitment through programs and projects that will benefit Filipino society.

ROY ABRAHMN D.R. NARRA

8 Circle

Editor: Amierielle Anne A. Bulan

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016

Alumni artists face the challenges of paper & print DESPITE the challenges of painting and digital art, printmaking continues to be in a state of creative ferment, as shown in Papers and Layers, the exhibit of the Association of Pinoyprintmakers (A/P) running until Sept. 25 at the Bulwagang Carlos Francisco, Cultural Center of the Philippines.

The exhibit focused on printmaking techniques such as serigraph, silkscreen print, monoprint, woodblock and intaglio.

Benjie Torrado-Cabrera, alumnus of the old UST College of Architecture and Fine Arts and president of A/P, said paper as a medium posed several challenges that tested the flexibility of artists.

“Part of growing as an artist is adapting to your material and following wherever it takes you,” Cabrera told the Varsitarian.

His work, “Portal To My Teacher’s Mansion,” is a relief engraving of biomorphic formations in intersecting lines and geometrical figures on a structured, pyramid-like folded paper.

Complementing his work is a suspended two-dimensional scroll displayed behind the structured paper with the same design.

Displayed at the center of the exhibit is Fine Arts alumnus Salvador “Buddy” Ching’s “Biyahe,” an installation of two Balikbayan boxes with digitally

printed images of Filipinos in native and indigenous costumes such as baro’t saya, terno, and barong Tagalog.

Veteran Thomasian artist and former Philippine Women’s University Fine Arts dean Raul Isidro’s “Relfection I and Reflection II” are a twoframed monoprint of random blue and yellow lines on a red ink background. Monoprint is a difficult printmaking technique where images and lines can only be made once unlike most printmaking techniques where there can be multiple originals.

UST Graduate School professor Rhoda Recto injected Oriental themes in her print interpretation of the classical Chinese poem “Wang Wei’s Bamboo Grove,” a threedimensional structure relief print where protruding bambooshaped surfaces of printing plates or blocks are inked.

For Recto, printmaking involves a more difficult process compared to painting or sketching because of its “tediousness” as paper is “very perishable and hard to control.”

Thomasian painter and master printmaker Fil de la Cruz’s “Dialogo ng mga Maskara” is an ink-

Cabrera with his structured folded paper work “Portal to my Teacher’s Mansion”

on-paper monochrome artwork displaying scattered masks of a woman’s face concealed behind an illustration of interweaving hands and leaves.

Inspired by his recent trip to Malaysia, Janos de la Cruz, Fil’s son who finished fine arts in UST, portrayed culture shock and isolation in “Jalan-Jalan Sa Maynila Hanggang Penang.”

His work is a collage of printed Oriental-themed icons such as dragons and kanji characters along with collaged layers of old comic strips and newspaper clippings.

Contemporary artist Mars Bugaoan, well-known Artists PAGE 14

“Biyahe” by Ching

Pioneering work in digital art of Tence Ruiz surveyed

Teatro Tomasino mounts Ustetika-winning play JOSE Tence Ruiz may have become the toast of the art world since his sculptural installation “Shoal” became the first official Philippine work to be exhibited at the 2015 Venice Biennale after half a century, but not too many people know that he is one of the pioneers of digital art in Southeast Asia.

The knowledge gap about his prolific oeuvre is now somehow filled through Takwil: Pixelated Anxiety, a 20-year inventory exhibit of his digitally printed art at the Main Gallery of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts last August.

Dating from 1996 to present, Ruiz’s works are along his social-realist aesthetics and depicted social concerns such as terrorism, gun trafficking, abductions of overseas Filipino workers, Manila’s traffic jams, and corruption.

Perhaps because he was a newspaper illustrator and political cartoonist in Manila and Singapore before turning to art full time, the UST Fine Arts alumnus and former faculty member has always tackled socio-

“Bisperas”

“CSI: Chimoy si Imbisibol: Kusina”

economic and global concerns in his works.

But Ruiz said he had also experimented with mediums, mixing media for instance as when he put digital images on canvas, paper and vinyl to emphasize the digital print’s underrated permanence.

“We live in the digital age, yet people

Ruiz PAGE 14

FOR ITS 39th season opener, Teatro Tomasino staged Kanlungan, a twin bill featuring “Deadline,” the firstprize winner in the one-act play category of the Varsitarian’s Gawad Ustetika, UST’s annual student awards for literature, and Virgin Labfest’s comedy “Kafatiran.”

Written by AB Communication Arts alumna Reena Medina, “Deadline” tackles the critical approach of society in dealing with mental health problems.

The play tells the story of how three suicidal teenagers overcome their depression after a series of conversations on a rooftop, the play’s central setting.

“Kafatiran,” written by University of the Philippines graduate and stage actor Dingdong Novenario, presents a fresh angle on the lives of the Katipunan soldiers during the Philippine Revolution.

Set in 1896 at a Katipunan hideout, the story revolves around a secret subgroup of three closeted gay Katipunan soldiers and their

night of initiation of a closeted incoming member.

Ironically, when the Spaniards discover the Katipunan, the three gays attain the self-freedom they have been longing for.

The two stories of friendship and self-acceptance were chained to generate a perfect mix of what ought to be a place for “kanlungan,” which in Filipino means sanctuary. It was bridged together by five-year Teatro Tomasino member and Faculty of Medicine and Surgery student Frank Escuadro.

The play was staged Aug. 31 to Sept. 2 at the Tan Yan Kee auditorium.

Teatro Tomasino was founded in 1977 by facul;ty members Myrna Hilario and Piedad Guinto Rosales. It has produced a roster of distinguished alumni who had made distinguished achievements in film and theater arts such as actors Piolo Pascual and John Lapuz and film director Wenn V. Deramas. K. N. B. ADRIANO

Editor: Maria Corazon A. Inay

Features 9

SEPTEMBER 25, 2016

A Thomasian’s commitment to mold student leaders EVEN at age 69, Henry Tenedero is nowhere near retiring in molding better student leaders.

Tenedero became active in several University-wide organizations at the height of Martial Law in the country.

“I entered the University in 1976 where I became active in student organizations, the highlight of which was when I became the Student Organizations Coordinating Council (SOCC) President,” he said in an interview with the Varsitarian.

Currently, Tenedero is a go to speaker and trainer of the SOCC and the Central Student Council He founded the Junior Catholic Education Association of the Philippines which was composed of student leaders of Catholic Education Association of the Philippines member schools during his term as SOCC president in 1981.

One of his fondest college memory was when he delivered the “Message of the Youth” during St. John Paul II’s first apostolic visit in the University in 1981.

“I was under strict instruvtion not to go near the Pope for security reasons but after delivering my speech, he motioned for me to come near him,” he said. “My intention was only to kiss his hands but he gently pulled and hugged me.”

It was a very touching moment in his life that he cherishes until now, specially since the Pope is now a saint. That same moment became one of the Varsitarian’s banner photos which earned the moniker,

Tenedero

CA alumna converts her love for boardgames into business THIS CAFÉ on Matalino Street in Central Diliman, Quezon City is the perfect getaway for board game fans.

The House of Geek is co-owned by Communication Arts alumna Jennifer Garcia.

It offers a wide-array of board and card games like the popular Monopoly, Cards Against Humanity, SushiGo, and Love Letters.

The idea for a board game cafe began after a night of playing Dungeons and Dragons, a role-playing game. It could be turned into a business, she said.

“When we opened the business, we just started getting more and more board games but the older ones are really ours,” she told the Varsitarian.

The walls of the cafe are

painted grey and are decorated with framed sci-fi film posters.

It also has an industrial interior with exposed, suspended ceilings.

The cafe has two wooden shelves that house their collection of board games.

One of the more popular board games is Avalon, a tabletop game composed of five or more players where they must accomplish at least three out of five.

There’s also Miniatures, where the players assemble and paint metal figures then engage in a game resembling Carcassonne, a tile-based German-style board game where the miniature painted figures are called ‘meeples’ and move according to the number indicated by the dice rolled.

The cafe specializes in waffle sandwiches.

Their version of the chicken sandwich is a chicken dressed with honey mustard then accompanied with cucumber, lettuce and tomato.

For their beverage, their beer shake is their best-seller and is

made from the combination of beer and milkshake.

Soon they plan to create and promote a board gamer community and expand even more their collection of board games. DANIELLA T. COBARDE AND ALYSSA A. GONZALES

“Henry kissed the Pope.”

Promoting education beyond academics Tenedero also founded a global education advocacy called “Beyond Curriculum: Lead, Teach and Learn,” which aims to champion a holistic and well-rounded education beyond the four walls of the classroom.

“Our mission is to value the different learning styles, intelligences and most specially, the importance of emotional intelligence in what we do,” he said Their advocacy extends not just so schools and learning institutions, but also to local government units.

“If you are empowered to know that your constituents have [multiple] intelligences, then you can draw academic and non-academic plans that will enhance them,” Tenedero said.

Continuous service to the University Even up to this date, Tenedero is still actively affiliated with the University, currently serving as the executive director of UST Alumni Association and as the president of the Thomasian Alumni Leaders Association (Tala) For Tenedero, serving the Thomasian community is a way of giving back to the University.

“I will still serve the Thomasian community while I am still physically, mentally and emotionally capable because it gives me happiness.”

Downtown

Palanca

FROM PAGE 5

FROM PAGE 11

support and emoluments.

After all, Filipinos have paid their taxes and the government should use them properly.

Sporting here in the country has been a big irony that even the biggest sponsored sport, basketball, can’t even conquer the world’s best.

It is true that basketball remains the most favored of all Philippine sports but we have to get realistic that the country is just far behind when it comes to international competitive basketball.

Gilas can’t even get past China to book a ticket to Rio yet China only serves as a practice to nations like the United States, Serbia, France and Spain. It is in events like weightlifting, chess, taekwondo, judo, athletics, boxing and the likes that the Philippines has a chance to thrive in the international stage.

But if we continue with our misplaced priorities in sports, it is much like wanting to hit the homerun with a golf club even when there are baseball bats available.

such as “Alamat ng Gagamba,” “Alamat ng Buwaya,” and “Alamat ng Sampalok.”

Matias, also a publisher at Black Ink Comics, has released graphic novels such as Animen, The Reaper, Vergil the Warrior Angel, Hands of the Dragon, My Midnight, Pepe: The Lost Years of Rizal, Fairies Wheel and Daughters of an Ancient Fairy.

He has also written plays for ABS-CBN’s drama series “Maalaala Mo Kaya.”

In the Palanca awards, he won first prize for Maikling Kuwentong Pambata, for “Alamat ng Duha” (2011), and honorable mention in teleplay, for “Loida: Taxi Driver” (1991).

Meanwhile, alumnus Louie Jon Sanchez placed second in tula (poetry in Filipino) for his collection, “Tempus Per Annum at Iba Pang Tula.”

Sanchez said his poems were part of a larger collection titled “Kapiling,” which centered on the uncertainties that define the modern era, such as terrorism.

Thomasian alumni and faculty in this year’s Palanca jury included Eros Atalia and Michael Coroza.

Awarding ceremonies were held at the Peninsula Manila last September 2.

Shtick

to my mouth and felt the steam hit my face as I bit onto it.

Naturally, Lolo asked: “Did you learn anything good at school today?” It was his favorite question. And he ask it every day.

I looked at him thoughtfully, picking at my monay. Pinching off a piece and placing it in my mouth, I chewed and looked at him, the old man who had given up what should have been a time that was meant for adventure all to ensure that someday, I would be able to have my own.

He grew old and I watched, waited and thought, “Perhaps one day.”

FROM PAGE 11

Garcia

Lolo laughed his deep, throaty laughter. He ducked under my arm as I spun around and grabbed the milk from the refrigerator and the sugar from the counter.

Sitting down, I looked at Lolo, hands clasped around the mug, eyes dancing and mouth curled into a genuine smile of contentment. I giggled as he ripped open the brown paper bag and took two monay right away.

Taking my monay between my fingers, I raised it

10 Special Reports

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016

Editor: Lea Mat P. Vicencio

Bread

Schtick

By PAULA DANIKA BINSOL and CEDRIC ALLEN P. STA. CRUZ

FOR SOME reason, the heat felt particularly punishing today.

Walking through the front door, I was hit by the scent of eucalyptus and camphor, which only made things worse. Flinging my bag to one side, I walked into the kitchen to find Lolo hands covered in sudsy water, scrubbing away as vigorously as his arthritic joints would let him.

“Is it already four o’clock?” Lolo asked me, flashing a toothless grin, it seemed as if he had forgotten to put his dentures back in after lunch. “Are you hungry, hija?”

I shook my head and turned to our clock atop our refrigerator.

It was a heavy masterpiece; Lolo said it was a relic from his days in the war. Its battered old hands were ripe with age spots, where the gold had become dull and the creaking of its gears had become just as familiar as the creaking of Lolo’s joints. It was now ticking at me tiredly as its hands inched their way to the four o’clock station.

“Not quite four yet, Lolo,” I said to him. “But maybe if I leave now, the monay will be hot and fresh by the time I get there.”

I walked to the little jar on the kitchen counter where we kept our snack money, wearing its dust like a coat, save for the few spots where my fingerprints were visible from opening and closing it each day. Pulling out a soft and faded twenty-peso bill from Lolo’s apron, I shoved it in my pocket and put on my slippers to start my short walk to the corner bakery.

I used to love the walk to the bakery. It always was a grand charade. Lolo would walk into the room announcing that it was time to recharge our brains, and the five of us would race to his side as he began pulling money from his apron pockets, looking at each of us in turn. He would crinkle his head as if in deep thought, and turning to each one of us, he’d ask “What did you learn in school today?” The rest of those left behind would be entrusted with setting the table and making our favorite drinks, powdered hot chocolate for us and instant coffee for Lolo.

When my parents left Manila for better job prospects in Abu Dhabi, my grandfather decided to take us in instead of distributing us among our aunts and uncles. I did not realize it

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016 at the time, but Lolo was already old and gray when he told us that our bedrooms in Balic-Balic were ready. Now, It was just him and me, my four older brothers and sisters having moved to follow their jobs or families elsewhere. And with my parents still working, I was tasked to buy our daily monay.

I never understood how Lolo could be so content with just monay.

Toasted, the bread had differing hues of golden brown; it was soft and crumbly to the touch, the bread dust settling on top.

It was always warm, especially coming out of its brown paper bag as it was just beginning to moisten with the kind of dew that only heat could bring to bread. Hot against the fingertips, I always ended up bouncing it from one hand to the next in an odd game of catch so as to avoid getting burned by its crust.

It was pointless. The monay was as bland as my daily existence. Just like I went to class and took exams, I could count on sitting down to eat monay with Lolo. Every day, the monay is as tasteless as the last. Today, I was tired of it. I eyed Tito Meng and the brown paper bag he was filling with monay with disgust as I stood at the window, waiting. The sounds of the street were just beginning to get busy again and the dirt flew as a motorcycle flew by, circling my ankles and leaving faint stains of dust swirls on my white pencil skirt.

Yesterday, I told Lolo what was on my mind.

“When I get rich, we won’t have to eat monay anymore,” I said, pointedly. I was convinced that being wealthy was the answer to everything.

“Anak, I love monay. We always have monay,” Lolo said, his eyes twinkling. “Besides, it’s a good way for us to get our exercise.”

“Yes, because it’s so bland and difficult to swallow,” I retorted, almost disrespectfully. Lolo looked at me wide-eyed and in a split-second, as if forgetting himself, put his cupful of coffee down and took the monay in his hand. Turning it over a few times, he pinched a piece off and popping it into his mouth, began to chew. Lolo sighed and shook his head at me, the monay giving him the time to form an appropriate response to my insolence.

“You are rushing to grow up and leave me. Soon, you will be rich and you will never come back to Balic-Balic,” he said.

Instantly feeling guilty, I looked at Lolo hunched forward over his coffee, hands wrapped around the mug as if willing the warmth to enter his body and couldn’t help but notice his tired eyes. Lately, I had been busy and so our time together had been cut short, sometimes classes ended late and I skipped our snack time altogether.

Lolo sipped his coffee slowly. His hands shook slightly as he brought the rim of the cup to his cracked, dry lips.

His skin was wrinkled like prunes, his white hair was thinning quickly, so much so that his head looked like it had been patched by tiny tufts of fine white thread.

In truth, I bought monay because Lolo was around, but I shuddered to think of a time when I mixed my hot chocolate on my own and instead of doing our usual kitchen dance, as we moved around each other boiling water, passing the milk around and trying to find the sugar, I looked around and found myself dancing alone.

Bobis leads UST winners in Palanca Awards

Literary 11

Paying Tito Meng, I waved and took my brown bag of monay and tried to imagine a world without Lolo, without his toothless grin and his slow, turtle-like walk, and I couldn’t.

I heard the bells ringing for four o’clock and all at once, the children were pouring out into the street from the local public school. The hustle and bustle of the parents calling names and the children yelling out to classmates was invigorating. It gave the late afternoon its own life.

Their uniforms were dusty and worn with the thrill of the day’s adventures and yet, they were all still bouncing up and down with excitement, as if the sun had just risen to call all of us to a new day. Just to my right, I saw an old man gently take the hand of an elementary-school student who was just as jittery as the rest, calling to him and flinging her arms about him, she began babbling about her day.

I clutched the monay a little tighter, walking faster to make my way home. The sky was beginning to dim a little bit, as if the sun was beginning to nestle itself into a blanket.

Rounding the bend of the road, I unlocked the gate, calling out to my Lolo.

“I have the monay, Lolo!” and walked in to find him already beginning our simple kitchen dance. I took up my place next to him and began reaching for our mugs and plates, and the cacophony of the kitchen soon turned into a symphony of sound as the plates clattered against one another and the mugs clanged as they hung from my fingers. The crinkling of brown paper and the smell of the freshly-baked monay floated up from the table as Lolo opened the bag to make sure the bread wouldn’t get moist.

I jumped at the loud shrilling of our kettle, announcing to us that it was finished. Lolo went to bring it to the table and I, rushing to beat him back, grabbed a spoon and his favorite instant coffee, scooping some into his mug and dumping some powdered hot chocolate into mine.

Schtick PAGE 9

Permutations SWIFTLY or slowly, after every solution and reshuffle, I keep winding up to the good old first layer Of the Rubik’s cube thus and so, swiveling the edges and corners, solving it pseudo-ad infinitum.

Vis-à-vis, ceaseless from the seeming monotony, the mind and its fingers tinker with poetries Written in continuum, read with maneuverability, discerned through millions of permutations, Those of which that are much obliged to be spun, unpuzzled, lathered, rinsed, repeated—Rubik’s cubed.

NIKKO MIGUEL M. GARCIA

OUTSTANDING THOMASIAN. UST alumnus Segundo Matias receives the third prize for his essay “#PaperDolls” during the 66th Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature.

BASILIO H. SEPE

By NIKKO MIGUEL M. GARCIA and CEDRIC ALLEN P. STA. CRUZ AUSTRALIA-BASED Thomasian poetess Merlinda Bobis won second prize in the English poetry category of the 66th Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards in Literature. Her winning collection was titled “Accidents of Composition.”

Hailing from Bicol, Bobis acquired her undergraduate degree from Aquinas University in Legazpi

City. She later took her graduate studies in UST, acquiring her M.A. Literature in 1987.

An award-winning poet and playwright and performer proficient not only in English but likewise in Filipino and Bicol, Bobis had won the Palanca before: first prize for poetry for “Peopleness” (1987); second prize for tula for “Lupang di Hinirang: Kuwento at Sikreto” (1989); and honorable mention, one-act play, for “Ms. Serena Serenata” (1995).

Meanwhile, UST alumnus

Segundo Matias won third prize for the sanaysay (essay in Filipino) for his “#PaperDolls,” a piece that deals with the process of “accepting and finding one’s self.”

Matias said the essay focused less on making a stand and was written as an act of self-expression.

A publisher at Precious Pages Corp. and Lampara Publishing Co., Matias has published children’s books Palanca PAGE 9

12 Special Reports

Editor: Lea Mat P. Vicencio

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016

DND call for compulsory ROTC opposed THE DEPARTMENT of National Defense (DND) has called for the implementation of a mandatory Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program, saying it instills nationalistic values among college students.

DND seeks to make the program a compulsory college requirement anew, heeding President Duterte’s call to strengthen the ROTC program in his State of the Nation Address last July.

“We are taking our cue from the President himself. He believes that it is a good vehicle to instill love of country and patriotism and also it will instill a sense of good citizenship in our youth,” DND Public Affairs Office Director Arsenio Andolong said in an interview with the Varsitarian.

Col. Roland Rodil of the Armed Forces Retirees and Reservist Affairs Office said Duterte saw the ROTC program as vital in developing discipline.

“It is the government’s duty to develop the youth, to develop discipline, to build their character,” Rodil said.

Rodil added that higher education institutions should not oppose mandatory ROTC and should instead work with the proponents of the program to improve it.

“In case it becomes a law, they should not be first ones to protest against it. [They] are partners of the government in educating the youth.

[But] if they have any objections, they should raise it right now,” Rodil said.

ROTC was made mandatory by the National Defense Act of 1935, but this law was amended by Republic Act 9163 or the National Service Training Program (NSTP) Act of 2001, which provided students more options such as Civic Welfare Training Service (CWTS)

Tigers FROM PAGE 16 University of the East last Sept. 10.

Joco Macasaet and Jeepy Faundo, who rode the bench for three years as backups for Abdul, also had their moments in the past four games.

Scoreless in the past two seasons, Macasaet is now averaging 5.75 points and 6.5 rebounds. Faundo is norming 5.5 points and 6.5 boards, an improvement from his 0.9 point and 0.9 rebound average in the last three years.

Team captain Louie Vigil is having a versatile production of 13.5 points, 5.75 boards, and 3.75 assists.

Jamil Sheriff, who has always been deemed an offensive liability for the Tigers, is averaging 8 points and 3 assists, an improvement from his production the past four seasons.

“All of them will have their time to shine, though we still have a lot of improvement to do especially in developing their different aspects of play,” Sablan said.

Regie Basibas and rookie Oliver de Guzman are showing glimpses of their potential after anchoring the Tigers’ fourth-quarter surge in their 83-77 victory over the University of the Philippines last Sept. 17.

Basibas and de Guzman had 11 points apiece.

By the numbers But the Tigers have

Kabataan Partylist Rep. Sarah Elago said establishing reservist training grounds in educational institutions like UST would violate International Humanitarian Law. She said international humanitarian law states that “the civilian population and individual civilians shall enjoy general protection against the dangers arising from military operations.”

Elago has filed House Bill 2399, or the ROTC Abolition Act, which aims to scrap ROTC from the options of National Service Training courses and at the same time overhaul the NSTP program by adding other courses.

These options include community service, communitybased health and nutrition program, community immersion, disaster preparedness, ecological services and human rights education.

TRAINING. Thomasian cadets assemble on the field to form their platoons.

and Literacy (LTS).

Training

Service

‘Abuses and corruption’ Akbayan Youth Chairwoman Rafaela David claimed the problems in the reserve program were tethered to the ROTC program itself, describing it as “militarizing” universities.

“It is basically militarizing universities and that is precisely what we are against. It is not just the abuses, it is the system that promotes militarization in the campuses na gusto mong pigilan. Naniniwala tayo na ang unibersidad ay dapat espasyo para may kalayaan ang mga estudyante

been careless with the ball, averaging 25.5 turnovers in four outings, a far cry from their league-best 16.4 turnovers per game last year.

Top-seed De La Salle University exploited UST’s weakness as it forced the Tigers to 40 turnovers en route to a 100-64 win.

The Tigers 84.3 ppg is the league’s worst, with their zone defense easily abused by opposing teams. UST allowed only 64.9 ppg last year and its zone defense, which opens up uncontested perimeter shots, perhaps needs to be revisited.

But UST has become a better rebounding and passing team.

After a league-worst 40.6 rebounds per game (rpg) last season, the Tigers are now one of the top rebounding squads in the league with 46.3 rpg.

The Tigers are also sharing the ball more, dishing out 14.3 assists per game (apg), an improvement from their 11.9 apg last year.

at hindi dapat ito espasyo kung saan kinukulong sila at kumbaga they are forced to fit a certain mold—the mold of a cadet officer,” David told the Varsitarian.

David said mandating military training would impede academic freedom as students would have no choice but to take up ROTC. “If you make it mandatory that already stunts their capacity to choose. In the existing system, at least they have the choice to enroll in ROTC, CWTS or LTS, but mandate ROTC and they won’t have the option to serve the country in other means,” David said.

Thomasian Mark Welson Chua, a former ROTC cadet, was

Pledge

FROM PAGE 7

FROM PAGE 3

PHILIP MARTIN L. MATEL

Science

Rector

FROM PAGE 13

FROM PAGE 1

Acupuncture, American Academy of Anti-Aging and Regenerative Medicine, and the American Academy of Functional Medicine before retiring in 2015.

Frando is working on two more books. Proceeds from the books will be given to the San Lorenzo Ruiz Charity in Bulacan.

important issues in the country and come up with arguments based on morality, science and history.

“We should be open, [s]ee the issues and come up with our own value judgment regarding this issue,” he said.

On Sept. 2, ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs reported that 1,327 people have been killed in drug-related incidents. The number of individuals killed in police operations reached 806, while 414 were killed by unknown suspects and 107 were found dead in crime scenes. ROY

THERESE

A.

International Humanitarian Law

Sea concluded in a meeting last July 12 that China’s “land reclamation” was a clear violation to the Philippines’ sovereign rights. It added the Mischief Reef and the Second Thomas Shoal were part of the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) as prescribed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The EEZ is one of the main provisions of the 1994 treaty, and is the maritime area over which a state has the right to exploit all of its natural resources. Coastal states have the right to limit the access of foreign nations to these areas.

Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, in a previous Varsitarian article, said that China has also violated the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the West Philippine Sea signed between China and Southeast Asian countries in 2002.

This document states that all parties should exercise “self-restraint in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability.”

KATHLEEN PALAPAR

murdered in 2001 for exposing anomalies in the ROTC unit in the University through the Varsitarian.

David said the reforms brought about by Mark Welson Chua’s death was a legacy of “democratization of universities.”

“If you suddenly bring the ROTC back, it is as if you are disregarding the victory of the past and that is also a disservice to the memory of Mark Chua,” David said.

The mandatory ROTC program was abolished in January 2002, a year after Mark Chua’s death in 2001.

ABRAHMN D.R. NARRA

structural component dahil wala nang kemikal na [tatanggapin ang]

‘ROTC can do what NSTP can do’ Supporters of the mandatory ROTC program argued that NSTP were merely parts of the reserve program, adding that civic welfare and literacy training could also be done by reserve cadets.

“We can easily duplicate the activities of civic welfare. The AFP or even the army, we are configured to do civic activities,” Col. Edgar Nigos of the UST Department of Military Science and Tactics said in an interview.

“We do humanitarian activities, disaster rehabilitation, relief, and during elections we are deputized to work with officials.

The military itself is configured to do non-military activities. In the same manner, ROTC is not solely drills and marching and parades,” he said. MA. ANGELA CHRISTA COLOMA and NEIL JAYSON N. SERVALLOS

structure,” he said.

In a previous report by the Varsitarian, Science Dean John Donnie Ramos said the vacated spaces in the Main Building would serve as administrative offices, online resource units, faculty rooms and

lecture halls.

Construction of the new building, led by Malate-based Construction Company Ironcon Builders and Development Corp., began on Sept. 21, 2015.

MIA ARRA C. CAMACHO

Editor: John Gabriel M. Agcaoili

Witness 13

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016

Catholic Church vows to protect drug users through rehab program THE CATHOLIC Church has vowed to heal and protect drug users who have turned themselves in through a campaign that seeks to provide family, health, and livelihood counseling.

Argentine priest Fr. Luciano Felloni of the Diocese of Novaliches launched in September a community-based rehabilitation program called ‘Healing not Killing,’ in cooperation with the police of Caloocan City. “[The drugs] are destroying the country.

Kaya naisip namin na you have to show full support to the government at may paraan ang Simbahan, `yung mapayaang paraan,” Felloni said in an interview with the Varsitarian.

The campaign will run daily for four to six months, depending on the progress of the rehabilitants. Psychiatrists and psychologists will be deployed to detoxify rehabilitants.

Forty-four drug users initially enlisted for the rehabilitation, but only 18 of them attended. Some have surrendered to the police, while others were reportedly killed.

Although the program is Churchsponsored, Felloni said all sectors of society could still contribute. He urged the faithful to go beyond social media and participate in the Church’s causes.

“It is not enough to support the campaign by liking [our page] on Facebook. Walang natutulong ang pag-like mo. You have to do concrete things,” Felloni said.

Felloni said anyone who enters the drug business—whether a pusher, a policeman, or a priest trying to help—would be in danger. But the greater danger lies in observing and doing nothing at all, he said.

“The greater danger is to face God at tatanungin ka: ‘Anong nagawa mo?’ At nganga ka at wala kang maisagot. For me that is more dangerous,” Felloni said.

Novaliches Bishop Antonio Tobias, who was present at the launch, backed Felloni’s effort. He has proposed the conversion of two Church properties in Quezon City into rehabilitation centers.

Partnership The Dangerous

Drugs

Board

Mother Teresa

has

VOLUNTARY SURRENDER. A drug user prepares to get his fingerprints taken by the police at the start of the Diocese of Novaliches’ rehabilitation program.

JOEL SEBASTIAN D. CRISTOBAL

also partnered with Christ’s Commission Fellowship—a non-denominational religious organization—for a similar rehabilitation project in Antipolo, Rizal.

Dubbed as “Sipag,” the 12-week Simula ng Bagong Pag-asa recovery program was conceptualized by former drug users.

“The relevance of [Sipag] is that was

different regions of Italy to a meal after the canonization, through the Office of the Papal Almoner.

serving Jesus.

“The life ministry of Mother Teresa was always centered on Jesus.

Kung ganoon ang prinsipyo niyo sa buhay, hindi kayo mapapagod. The more you will persevere because it is Jesus, Himself, you are serving,” he added.

Local celebration The sisters of the Missionaries of Charity in the Philippines, along with priests and lay faithful, gathered last Sept. 5 at the Immaculate Conception Parish in Tondo, Manila to celebrate Mother Teresa’s 19th death anniversary. They marked her feast day with a Holy Mass.

Fr. Jerome Reyes, the Mass celebrant, urged devotees to pattern their lives after the new saint.

“Mother Teresa lived her life beautifully for God. The challenge for us is to do the same,” he said.

Fr. Reyes also called on the faithful to adapt the beliefs of Mother Teresa on helping the less fortunate, saying that serving the poor is also

Miracle, criticism Mother Teresa’s canonization came after Marcilio Haddad Andrino, a Brazilian who suffered from a viral brain infection, was miraculously healed through the saint’s intercession.

Mother Teresa made three visits to the Philippines, opening charity homes and visiting the poor. She addressed the Thomasian community during her visits to UST in 1977 and 1984.

The canonization was met with some criticism however.

Critics revived old accusations that the saint had relished on the sufferings of the poor and denied them medical care and sanitation.

They also alleged that Mother Teresa got funds from corrupt

FROM PAGE 1

THROWBACK. A photo from the 1984 issue of the Varsitarian shows Mother Teresa being welcomed by Thomasian well-wishers.

designed for the Filipinos and their families.

Ang nag-design kasi nito is also mga drug dependents, so alam nila `yung struggles,” Sipag program coordinator Lawrence Tugawe said in an interview with the Varsitarian.

The rehabilitants would be turned over to the board upon completion of the program.

After a series of trainings, Sipag now has

personalities and used the money for her own benefit.

The Missionaries of Charity have rejected such claims.

In a statement, the US-based Catholic League addressed claims made by a doctor in the New York Times that the congregation had unhygienic practices. “[O]ver their decades of service, the mortality rate of those in the care of the nuns dropped precipitously; we would not expect such results if the care were substandard. Moreover, independent assessments of the quality of service, provided by Dr. Robin Fox, praised the sisters for their cleanliness,” it said.

The Catholic League said Mother Teresa earned her sainthood.

“If ever there were an altruist, it was Mother Teresa. She selflessly gave of herself for decades, helping the sick and dying, picking them up off the street, securing medicinal care, and comforting them in their closing days.

And she never asked for anything in return,” the group said.

“Those she ministered to were the most destitute of the destitute: children who survived abortions, the malnourished, lepers, AIDS patients, the physically and mentally handicapped, elderly cripples—she never turned anyone away. Indeed, she implored those who would abandon the dispossessed—this included hospitals—to ‘give them to me.’”

Mother Teresa’s critics were mostly militant atheists and radical socialists who saw her as a threat, the group pointed out.

“She was a threat to the worldview that holds that religion is inimical to freedom, and faith-based programs for the poor are an obstacle to statist prescriptions. Indeed, she represented a target that was so rich, so big, it was irresistible,” the Catholic League said.

SIGRID B. GARCIA and KATHLEEN THERESA A. PALAPAR

more than 3,000 volunteers in Rizal. Among the issues it would like to address are dysfunction in the family, drug abuse and reintegration in the community.

Sipag is expected to be rolled out nationwide through CCF’s satellite churches.

KATHLEEN THERESE A. PALAPAR AND JOEL SEBASTIAN D. CRISTOBAL

Science explains God's creation, US-based Filipina doctor writes in new book GOD’S CREATION can be explained by science and the medical field, a US-based Filipina doctor writes in a new book.

The book, titled “The Human Body: God’s Greatest Creation,” took two years for author Angelita Frando to complete. It discusses the anatomy of the human body in relation to God and His steps of creation, and the stories of saints.

“The purpose of this book is to give the reader an overview of how great God is and at the same time, the reason why He made human beings,” Frando told the Varsitarian.

Frando considers her faith and spirituality as her edge, as “not all doctors think of discussing spirituality with their patients.”

“I think medicine should not just be restricted with medication.

You can heal people just by listening to them. That’s what I learned in functional medicine. I wanted to

serve God using my profession. I wanted to prove that science can explain God’s creation,” she said.

Frando called on the faithful to read the Bible and the stories of saints.

“The Catholic faith is a very good religion. The Bible is a beautiful book; asset iyan sa atin,” Frando said.

The book, published by St. Paul’s Philippines, was launched last Sept. 16 at the SMX Convention Center.

Frando, a graduate of the University of the PhilippinesDiliman, migrated to the United States to practice medical acupuncture and functional medicine.

She obtained board certifications from the American Board of Family Medicine, American Academy of Medical Science PAGE 12

CREATIONISM. Author Angelita Frando launches her book titled “The Human Body: God’s Greatest Creation” last Sept. 16 at the SMX Convention Center.

14 Limelight

Art Director: Kirsten M. Jamilla

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016

CHINNY MAE F. BASINANG SHAINA MAE L. SANTANDER SELDON MAY T. TAGAO

Ruiz FROM PAGE 8 are still not convinced that digital art has the viability of permanence,” he said in an interview with the Varsitarian.

Ruiz depicted terrorist violence in “Statik,” which showed a stack of bent firearms that somehow formed into something similar to the “Winged Victory of Samothrace,” the famous classic marble sculpture of the Greek goddess Nike. The medium was electrostatic print on paper—the image formed on the paper was processed by electrostatic forces.

Ruiz used pixelation (the process of blurring parts of a digital image to break up into visible pixels) in “Revolution, Evolution, Pixelation”. It was a set of vinyl-printed pixelated photographs of President Ferdinand Marcos while declaring martial law in 1972 and of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile during the impeachment in 2011 of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

In “Bisperas,” a 1997 print-on-Mylar laminate work appropriating “The Last Supper” by Italian Renaissance artist Jacobo Tintoretto, Christ and his apostles were covered in an all-white banding with black shades covering their eyes, while five silhouettes of men holding a cross surrounded the four corners. The print was inspired by the prayers priests proclaim on the morning of Easter Sunday before the unveiling of the holy images in the church, thus the bandings of the apostles on the print.

For Ruiz, the exhibit was not primarily about digital art’s permanence as a medium but his “state of mind” which was able to connect reality and modern mediums.

Known for his murals portraying mammoth biomorphic images along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, Ruiz achieved international renown in 2015 when his art installation titled “Shoal,” paying homage to the decrepit Sierra Madre ship parked at the West Philippine Sea, was shown in the Philippine pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2015.

It was the first time in 50 years for the Philippines to be officially invited back to the famous Italian art festival. In the 1964 Biennale, exhibited were the sculptures of Napoleon V. Abueva and the abstract paintings of Jose T. Joya, who had since become national artists. A. J. D. BERNAS

Artists FROM PAGE 8 for his monotype prints on heated plastic bags, showed different layers in making monotype cutouts on paper in “Untitled 1/1,” an etched triptych.

“The dissected layers involved in the process of printmaking portray how the artist evolved from scratch to experimenting and exploring the medium they used,” Bugaoan said.

Graphic designer Wesley Valenzuela, another Fine Arts alumnus, used acrylic and screen print for his black and white work titled “End of Man.” It is a digital print presenting dissonant images of eyes, skulls, gorillas, bat wings, fish bones, and human jaws attached together.

The Association of Pinoyprintmakers, formerly known as the Philippine Association of Printmakers, was founded in 1968 by Manuel Rodriguez Sr., generally acknowledged the Father of Philippine Printmaking. CHELSEY MEI NADINE B. BRAZAL

Editor: Delfin Ray M. Dioquino

Sports 15

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016

Lady Judokas, building own dynasty in UAAP

By RANDELL ANGELO B. RITUMALTA WINNERS of five of the Last six UAAP titles, the UST Lady Judokas hope to extend their dominant run as the new season opens in November.

Following a landslide victory over the University of the East for their second straight crown in Season 78, the team still has an intact lineup with team captain Tracy Honorio, reigning MVP Khrizzie Pabulayan, Rookie of the Year Miam Salvador and Lei Tolentino.

But head coach Gerard Arce is bothered by the new pointing system, even if UST had a stunning 62-point gap over UE in the previous season.

The previous point system, which awards 10 points for gold, five for silver and two for bronze is now reduced to seven, three, and one, respectively.

Ateneo de Manila University has been pushing for the rule change since Season 77.

“The expectations are high but our mindset is like we are hungry to win and to achieve more,” Arce told the Varsitarian in an interview.

The new rule will affect none of his players if they have the will to win, Arce said.

The six-year coach also said the team is under rigid training, focusing mostly on their Tachiwaza (throwing techniques), Newaza (ground techniques) and Kumikata (gripping methods).

The Judokas’ dojo, their training hall, proved to be a forge for champions as Arce noticed more players starting from scratch than when he had just taken over the team in 2011—the time they won the first chip of their three-peat.

Last season, the Lady Judokas bagged six gold medals, four silvers and three bronzes, including a three all-Thomasian championship matches.

With their dominance, team captain Honorio is confident of defending their title.

“We train everyday even on weekends.

We double our effort to make sure that we win the championship and of course Coach Arce is there to guide us along the way,” she said.

RANDELL ANGELO B. RITUMALTA ESTABLISHING A DYNASTY. Lady Judoka Lei Tolentino pins her opponent down the mat.

ALVIN JOSEPH KASIBAN

Gutierrez leaves indoor volley; forms beach duo with Rondina

JEM NICOLE Gutierrez will team up with Cherry Ann Rondina for the UST Lady Spikers in their bid for the UAAP beach volleyball title this season.

Gutierrez will replace Rica Jane Rivera, who will now play for the indoor volleyball team. The Lady Spikers slid to fifth after winning the championship the year before.

“This time I really need to trust myself more and I can say that I gained enough maturity because I have been through a lot the past few years,” Gutierrez told the Varsitarian in an interview.

Gutierrez proved to be an able substitute as third man on the sand courts when she took over the injured Rivera, a former Rookie of the Year awardee, and partnered with Rondina during their championship run in the 19th Nestea Beach volleyball tournament last May. The Nestea stint became an eyeopener for Lady Spikers head coach Jan Paul Doloiras to choose Gutierrez as the perfect tandem with Rondina, a former MVP. Although adjusting from indoor to outdoor volleyball became a tough challenge for her, Gutierrez said herchemistry with Rondina, a former MVP, had been fortified through the oneyear training she took under Doloiras.

“The lapses are inevitable and I cannot say that our tandem is perfect but our connection is there and working,” Gutierrez said.

Playing for the Golden Tigresses was a dream come true, but it also was her biggest downfall as she saw little to no playing time in her two years of stay.

But with the help of Doloiras and long-time UST beach volleyball coach Emil Lontoc, Gutierrez recovered from her biggest frustrations and ended up playing for the beach volleyball squad.

Doloiras said Gutierrez’ wavering mental strength was her weakness especially when she was still playing in theindoor league.

USTHS

Shuttlers

FROM PAGE 16

FROM PAGE 16

volleyball program because we do not always recruit players with the whole package. We always take pride of breeding our own,” he said.

In the past, though, other teams lured homegrown UST talents.

Among them were UAAP three-time MVP Alyssa Valdez, Aeriel Patnongon and Therese and Pauline Gaston who all chose to play for the Ateneo de Manila University Lady Eagles.

Kim Fajardo, Audrey Ching and Gyra Barroga decided to be part of the De La Salle University Lady Spikers while Jaja and Dindin Santiago turned the National University Lady Bulldogs into perennial contenders.

“We always say that it is okay for them to leave but deep inside we bleed.” Reyes said. CARLO A.

The Golden Shuttlers’ four titles were from their two backto-back titles in 2004 and 2005 against Far Eastern University and in 2009 and 2010 against Dela Salle University and Ateneo de Manila University, respectively.

The Lady Shuttlers claimed their lone championship against FEU. “Back then, the players take it upon themselves to do more than what we do in training,” Cajefe said.

“Nowadays, you have to order the players to do the extra work.”

Cajefe also took note of how new sports programs may have “spoiled” players.

“Back then, the players would shrug off any pain they feel and continue to play,” he said.

“It’s the attitude of the players that counts inside the court. No one, not even the coach, can teach that.” IVAN RUIZ L. SUING

Trees

Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) issued a permit to cut 231 trees and earthball 955 trees along the stretch of Lacson, allowing the DPWH and the Metro Manila Development Authority to proceed with the flyover project.

However, the tree-cutting might run afoul of programs such as the National Greening Program of the DENR. The greening program aims to plant 1.5 million trees nationwide within the span of six years, from 2011-2016.

DAN ALBERT D. BESINAL and JULIUS ROMAN M. TOLOP

CASINGCASING

FROM PAGE 1

Gutierrez

“She really wanted to win and that is something that she and the team have been holding onto. She is willing to take back the crown this Season 79,” the new tactician said.

Before leaving indoor volleyball, the 20-year-old Behavioral Science student savored her last chance when she played in the 13th Shakey’s V-League. JAN CARLO ANOLIN

warned, and will cause what he metaphorically described as the “gates of hell.”

In 2013, Garcia alerted the public to the flyover project in his letter to the government opposing the cutting down of 365 mature trees on Lacson Street.

Garcia hopes his appeal will be given consideration by the authorities anew.

In February 2015, the

Sports

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016

Despite depleted lineup, Tigers show grit THROUGH his first four games as head coach of the Growling Tigers, Boy Sablan has one thing to be thankful for—the grit his depleted team has been displaying so far.

Left with a roster of mostly second-stringers and benchwarmers, Sablan is facing a more difficult task than his predecessor Bong dela Cruz.

Dela Cruz had Kevin Ferrer, Ed Daquioag and Karim Abdul at his disposal.

The “Big Three” took the scoring load last season, averaging 46.9 points of the Tigers’ 73.9 points per game(ppg).

This year, the Tigers have found a new identity under Sablan.

“There is no superstar here.

Everybody has equal opportunities, there will be no player who would say, ‘I am the scorer’. I don’t like that. There is equal distribution for everyone,” he told the Varsitarian in a previous interview.

The Tigers, which is expected to have a sluggish season, are currently at fourth place tied with the Far Eastern University and the Ateneo de Manila University at 2-2.

But a number of Tigers have risen to the occasion.

Renzo Subido, who averaged a measly 2.1 ppg the past two years, is leading the scoring for the Tigers with 14 ppg. The minute guard had 26 points in their win against Tigers PAGE 12

ROAD TO VICTORY. Tigers head coach Boy Sablan mans the sidelines as he directs the team in their game against the University of the East.

JAMILLAH N. STA. ROSA

UST Shuttlers’ woes continue Female juniors optimistic about winning volleyball title UST is finding it difficult to recruit players in its badminton program, which explains why it has missed the semifinals in the last three UAAP seasons, its coach said.

Coach Noli Cajefe notes the limited offer coming from UST compared to benefits made available by other UAAP schools.

“Athletes and parents today only see the large amounts that are made by other UAAP schools,” Cajefe told the Varsitarian in an interview.

Former UAAP Season 73 rookie-MVP Peter Gabriel Magnaye was a big loss to the team when he left UST to play for the National University.

It took time before team captain Paul Pintig, who was supposed to play for the Far Eastern University, was convinced to join UST, said Cajefe, who noted the role parents played in their children’s decision-making.

The prospects are not exactly bright for UST this season given the disparity in skills of rookies and graduating players.

“My players skills won’t meet since one player will be graduating and the other would be already be gone,” Cajefe said.

National team member Ana Patricia Barredo exhausted her playing years and the Lady Shuttlers have since been trying to find an able replacement.

The lack of preseason tournaments is also a concern for Cajefe.

UST was unable to join the likes of the JVC Open Badminton Championships due to lack of funding, he said.

He said his players sometimes came in late for or even missed training sessions.

Glory days UST has four titles in the men’s division under its belt while the Lady Shuttlers have yet to follow their 2008 championship run.

Shuttlers PAGE 15

THE TIME is right for the UST girls high school volleyball team to win the UAAP title--or so they think.

The Junior Golden Tigresses twice fell short against a tough National University Lady Bullpups in the finals in 2014 and 2015.

But coach Emilio “Kung Fu” Reyes Jr. believes they can pull it off this time, especially after bagging the Shakey’s Girls’ V-League title last July.

“Compared to last year, I can now see the maturity andaggressiveness of the team to bag the title, specially in the eyes of our key players,” Reyes said in an interview with the Varsitarian.

UST got a boost with the recruitment of outside hitter Baby Love Barbon and middle blocker Janna Torres.

“We are ready for any surprises NU could pull off this year because of our deep lineup and positive experiences from recent tournaments,” the tactician said.

NU’s towering triumvirate of Faith Nisperos, Sheena Turing and Thea Gagate remain threats to the Junior Tigresses.

But Reyes believes Eya Laure, Imee Hernandez, Merry Rose Jauculan and Torres can compete with them when it comes to attacking and blocking.

They will also try to capitalize on their strong floor coverage with multi-titled libero Bernadett Pepito.

Reigning MVP Laure will still spearhead the squad together with Maji Mangulabnan who both showed an outstanding

performance in the recently concluded 13thShakey’s V-League Collegiate Conference this September.

Laure said this year’s campaign will no longer be what other people thought of the squad as a “one-man-team show,’ as the Junior Tigresses have a lot to choose from on their offense. “[The difference this year] is that we are confident and not complacent,” the five-foot-ten spiker told the Varsitarian.

Breeding ground Reyes took pride in developing young talents under UST’s volleyball program.

“We are known for our USTHS PAGE 15

Former UAAP Judo MVP seeks redemption TWO-TIME UAAP judo MVP Al Llamas was the gold medal favorite last season. But a surprising loss in the elimination round made him settle for bronze.

A quick throw by University of the East Red Warrior Khalid Macadadaya denied Llamas a slot in the championship round, where he was part in the last four years. Macadadaya, ironically, failed to reach the medal stages.

Despite the loss, Llamas reached the bronze medal stage after dominating the repechage round, where defeated athletes in the earlier rounds compete for chance to win bronze. “[I had] mixed emotions, and I’m disappointed. Imagine, a year of training and all of the preparation is lost after a match that did not even last longer than five minutes,” Llamas said in an interview with the Varsitarian.

“Everything went blank and it felt so heavy.”

Time for redemption Llamas reflected on his defeat for almost two months and with the help of his teammates, mentors and family members, he was able to

move forward.

That painful memory now fuels his drive for the gold medal this season.

“I need to lead the team back to the championship and I need to push my teammates so we would not have to rely on just one player,” Llamas said.

The 23-year-old Marketing Management student also said that a championship title this season is even more possible after his teammates collected a total of 20 medals in the Diliman Slam judo tournament held last June.

“Looking back, the bronze medal would be my favourite among my medals. It stands out among my other medals because of the life lessons that came with it.”

Llamas