The Varsitarian

Montage Literary Magazine

Philippine Center of International PEN
The auric gift of the word

By Jenny Lynne G. Aguilar
In this nondescript section of Padre Faura St. in Malate, a plethora of worlds unfold in the books that line the shelves and stands inside literary titan F. Sionil Jose’s Solidaridad Bookshop the moment one steps in. The little shop’s significance in Philippine literary history immediately makes itself felt, swirling around [...]

A different kind of muse

By Raydon L. Reyes
There are muses that drive the artist into creating timelessness in each piece. Poets have Calliope whispering words to be immortalized on paper, musicians have Euterpe strumming the strings of lyrical souls, while Terpsichore reigns supreme in the world of dance. But in these modern times, smoking, imbibing alcohol and caffeine, and [...]

Stimulating your creativity

By Arian Anderson R. Rabino
DO DRUGS and other substances stimulate artists’ creativity? Dr. Rosalito de Guzman, chair of the Department of Psychology of the UST College of Science, believes so. “With the help of vices, artists become more attentive, energetic, and motivated for long hours of creative work,” he told the Varsitarian. De Guzman claims that there are [...]

Writing in other professions

By Levine Andro H. Lao
Can the tedious task of creative writing squeeze through the hectic schedules of professionals? Despite the demands of their respective careers, multi-awarded contemporary literary personalities Victor Emmanuel Carmelo “Vim” Nadera, Jr. and Jim Libiran still allot some of their time for writing, being convinced that it is very useful in their professions. Writing [...]

A writer’s workplace
Where words pour forth

By Kristine Jane R. Liu
It is their second home—a place where they can relax and find the serenity to think about anything they want. In that place, they are the masters, the lords of the characters of their creative pieces. The place is no other than the writer’s workroom. To others, the four-corner room painted in [...]

Amihan Magazine

A Varsitarian memoir

By FRANCISCO SIONIL JOSE
I enrolled at the University of Santo Tomas in 1944; the school then was in its old campus in Intramuros, close to the Santo Domingo Church. The main campus in España was the interment camp of Allied civilians, mostly Americans. After the first air raid by American carrier planes in September 1944, [...]

Numbers

By GLORIA GACHITORENA-GOLOY
THE PHONED-IN request for a feature for the Varsitarian’s 80th anniversary coffee-table book came in the afternoon of the 17th last December. Initially, I hedged: Gosh, that would be a 60-year looking back! I had not been doing much writing lately and I was not about to submit to one more hassle with deadline [...]

Thoughts from a V staffer
God is alive and well, thank you

By FRANCISCO S. TATAD
In the last half of the 19th century, the German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzche famously declared, “God is dead.” Not so, it turned out. By 1900, Nietzche, not God, was dead. Still, the 20th century tried to sustain his vision of the Ubermensch (superman) by doing everything to banish God and the [...]

One happy season

By CRISTINA PANTOJA-HIDALGO
AS A HIGH school senior in convent school, I dreamt of going to UP for college. My entire barkada had decided to go there. But my parents decided that I was going to UST. They had been taken in by all that propaganda about the atheists and communists in Diliman, which was part of [...]

Fun and loafing at the V

By PENNIE AZARCON-DE LA CRUZ
SO HOW did we, a rambunctious group of some 20 over-caffeinated staffers just biding our time before springing the Great Filipino Novel on the world (or so we thought), manage with two manual typewriters, one rotary dial phone, and a weekly stipend of P5 to P10 for reporters and from P40 [...]

Sports Magazine

Tigresses
Fierce comeback

AFTER an 11-year title-drought, the Tigresses finally got out of the cellar and fiercely clawed back to basketball supremacy by clinching the Season 69 UAAP Women’s Basketball crown in an emphatic fashion. Like assassins on a mission, head coach Peque Tans wards showed their fierceness, early and often, capping the eliminations with a 62-55 victory over [...]

UST Jins
Planting their heels on a golden dynasty

IGNORING the opening-day glitch that struck his male stringers, coach Dindo Simpao gathered his team in a huddle, stared at their faces, and gave the reminder: the goal was the gameplan. And for the heirs of a dynasty that has long conquered the law of averages, the response was emphatic, if not decisive, as the UST [...]

Female Tigersharks
Not exactly wet behind the ears

AGE DOES not matter. The UST Female Tigersharks roster of neophytes Edzen Dinglasan and Lianne Marquez and Season 68 Rookie of the Year (ROY) Josephine Pilapil, and junior player Apryl Herrera proved that the absence or lack of UAAP exposure was not a hindrance to UST's retention bid as they nailed their third consecutive UAAP championship.[...]

Lady Woodpushers
Victorious mental warriors

MENTAL toughness allowed the Lady Woodpushers to adjust to variously-paced matches to notch an impressive six-point margin of victory. They scored 31 points with Far Eastern University (FEU) a distant second with 25. In UST's wins, the opposition lasted about 35 moves before eventually losing. However, it was their performances in drawn-out matches, none bigger than [...]

Lady Paddlers
Rough start, strong finish

UST TABLE Tennis head coach Henberd Ortalla has a simple dogma for his wards: master the skills of handling the opponent's services and returning the ball with proper timing on defense. The result: the Lady Paddlers swept their second-round assignments on their way to their second straight title by drubbing perennial rival, Far Eastern University (FEU), [...]

Breaktime Magazine

IBM Philippines president James Velasquez
The Thomasian mind behind the IT giant

James Velasquez credits his success to the value he places on education. Although his parents had wanted to send him abroad to work for their family business at a young age, Velasquez asked them to let him finish college first. By prioritizing studies, Velasquez was able to secure his ambitions well.

Vanguard Thomasian filmmakers

GREAT films are made up of moving pictures with much of the strips drawn from the inspirations and lives of the filmmakers themselves.

Former Senator Francisco “Kit” Tatad
THOMASIAN STATESMAN

IT WAS the day Bastille crumbled before the democratic shudder of French nationalism when the emerging Zeus of post-war Philippine politics decided to unearth his journalistic promise from the mortal embers of obscurity.

TV director Wenn De Ramas
Experience is still the best

BEHIND the latest ABS-CBN teleserye, Walang Kapalit and other soap opera and movies that made an imprint in the mind and hearts of its televiewers is a former waiter turned film and television director. Wenn De Ramas shares the popularity and honor to direct primetime soap operas such as Mula Sa Puso (1997), Saan Ka Man Naroroon (1999), Sa Dulo Ng Walang Hanggan (2001), Bituin (2002), Buttercup (2003), Marina (2004), and Kampanerang Kuba (2005).

Artlets student Vera Lorraine Celestino
A Pinoy teenager speaks to the world

JUST LIKE international award-winning speaker Patricia Evangelista, Communication Arts junior Vera Lorraine Celestino had been a Philippine representative to the international Soroptimist's Violet Richardson Award for community service at the age of 17.

Let us know your insights, comments, views and suggestions.
Email us at info [at] varsitarian.net

Most Discussed