The Varsitarian

HABANG ipinagdiriwang natin ang pagkakaroon ng Wikang Pambansa, kailangan din nating malaman na ang wikang Filipino ay isang wikang papausbong pa lamang at hindi dapat idikta bilang wikang dapat gamitin ng bawat Filipino.

Bago pa man naging Filipino ang Wikang Pambansa, mayroon ng sariling wika ang bawat rehiyon na ginagamit simula’t sapul. Ito ang kanilang wikang ginagamit sa kanilang pang-araw-araw na pumumuhay, at ang wikang nagbuklod sa kanila bilang isang komunidad at pamayanan.

Sa kasamaang palad, kagaya ng wikang “Pilipino” na halaw sa Tagalog, nilalamat na rin ang mga wikang pang-rehiyon dala ng globalisasyon. read more »

ARE FILIPINOS nuts for being crazy about basketball?

From being a mere Physical Education alternative for girls in the 1930s, basketball has evolved into national pastime, a staple of Philippine life.

Sports critics and aficionados define sports in this part of the world in three B’s: basketball, boxing and billiards. But basketball, through the years, has remained everybody’s darling. read more »

Rector Fr. Rolando de la Rosa, O.P. has tapped the Faculty of Arts and Letters to lead what he contemplates to be a university-wide English proficiency campaign. He has drafted Artlets to the experiment, arguing that students from the faculty should be the most articulate in the University.  read more »

THE FIRST thing to be said about the integration of sex education by the Department of Education’s Memorandum No. 26 in the curriculum from Grade 5 to senior high school is that it is overkill: the subject will be integrated in Science, Edukasyong Pantahanan at Pangkabuhayan (EPP), Health, Heograpiya, Kasaysayan, at Sibika, and Mathematics. The subject may as well be called Sex in Excess.

It is quite galling that at a time when Filipino students – going by world comparative scores in basic literacy and math skills – are just a step removed from cretins, the DepEd wishes to further burden them with a subject on the more titillating aspects about the birds and the bees beyond basic biology where their scores are similarly appalling. read more »

HERE’S good news to start the new academic year on a positive note - our beloved University clinched the 101st spot in the 2010 listing of Asia’s Top 200 Universities by the London-based Times Higher Education as gathered by the consultancy firm Quacquarelli Symonds (THE-QS).

Coming from a dismal 144th placing last year, UST’s new ranking is a testament to how much it has improved in such a short period of time. Currently, UST is now perched comfortably in the third spot among the four Philippine universities that often place in the list, overtaking De La Salle University-Manila (at 106), but still lagging behind Ateneo de Manila and the University of the Philippines (UP), at 58 and 78, respectively. read more »

On May 10, some 50 million Filipinos will troop to polling places nationwide elect a new set of leaders. The 2010 elections will, for the first time, feature “automated” counting of ballots, yielding results in days, if not hours. While the 76,000 or so counting machines promise to make the chaotic electoral process a lot easier to navigate, the task of choosing the right candidates remains a formidable one.

Many candidates promise change, but in reality, some of them really come from the same mould as the officials they want to replace. Others vow to work wonders in ridding the government of corruption and ineptitude, clutching only at good intentions. Some don’t even have track records to speak of. Those who do have the experience are more experienced at wheeling and dealing and crafting shady deals. They insult our collective intelligence. read more »

MEDIA have their own way of destroying credibility. But each time these charges are proven false, the “free” press loses some credibility of its own.

This was the case of the Western press’ relentless coverage of sexual abuse cases in America and Europe involving Catholic clergy. Indeed, the damage done to innocent children victimized by predator-priests is a shame and the Church should exert all effort prevent further abuses.

The recent coverage of influential media outlets like the New York Times, the Associated Press, and others, as many observers have pointed out, had more to do with undermining the Church’s moral authority on issues like homosexuality, premarital sex, priestly celibacy, contraception, and abortion, than protecting innocent children. read more »

SO NEAR, and yet so far.

As the days before “E-day” slowly run out, so do the chances of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to prove to the public that the first automated elections will be a success.

Months before the elections, the public continues to be bombarded with bad news hinting of problems of the automated “ballot box”— fluctuating signals, ballots becoming invalid, the presence of signal jammers near the precincts (which will allegedly affect the transmission of election returns), not to mention the problem of overcrowding, with as much as 1,000 people expected in a precinct. All this and more would probably make voting an arduous task.  read more »

THE FATE of the most dreaded man in the country today lies in the hands of a Thomasian.

Former Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan, Jr., who was alleged to have masterminded the murder of 57 people, including 31 journalists, in Maguindanao last November 23 is facing multiple murder charges before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) with Thomasian Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes holding the gavel.

The same is true to the whole Ampatuan clan and around 200 others who are undergoing investigation at the Department of Justice over a panel of prosecutors led by State prosecutor Roseanne Balauag. read more »

A STUDY by former Arts and Letters dean Armando de Jesus shows the Catholic Church losing her hold on the young. With one out of three Thomasians surveyed saying that “there is nothing wrong with using birth control pills” and that “euthanasia is justifiable if the person has a disease that cannot be cured,” the Church has become much like a cassette tape on repeat mode, playing the “pro-life” manta over and over, but getting no hearing— not even in the so-called “Pontifical” University of Santo Tomas, “the Catholic University of the Philippines.” read more »