Also representing the University were Grade 8 student Myles Jilliane Althea Kate Frances Sophia Summers E. Alfonso and Grade 7 student Daphne Maeve F. Domingo, who each received Excellence Awards in the Level M category. The students were trained by the Mathematics learning area Supervising Teacher, Asst. Prof. Vincent V. Caparas, MaEd, and the Mathematics area pre-service teachers who are senior students of the Bachelor of Secondary Education, major in Mathematics program.

The WMO is “an international math competition that challenges the brightest elementary and middle-school students in the world with complex math problems focused on creativity and problem-solving skills.

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Dasas, who presented the paper entitled “(Re)Thinking Course Content Design and Development in the Next Normal,” conducted a systematic review “of contemporary instructional design literature and elaborates on the various course content design and development sources and influences.” In the same paper, he “explained the theoretical underpinning of instructional design and development vis-à-vis identified issues and challenges such as content validity, appropriate unpacking of competencies, and coherence and alignment of instructional elements,” and finally, Dasas “presented and elaborated on a framework for appraising course content using various evaluation standards such as construct validity, reliability, and utility. Insights from this paper have significant implications on inputs, processes, and outputs of course content design, development, and evaluation.”

Dasas, who recently finished his Doctor of Philosophy in Education, major in Curriculum Studies degree from the University of the Philippines – Diliman, argued that teacher agency is a “valuable lens to the practice of course content design, development, and evaluation.”

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Bureau of Customs District Collector John Simon, a batch 1977 graduate of the UST Education High School and a customs official with 31 years of government service, is the lone recipient of EcoWaste Coalition’s first “Environmental Justice Award” coinciding with the national observance of “Zero Waste Month” this January. The award was announced on January 19, 2021.

EcoWaste Coalition (EWC) President Eileen Sison, in a public post on EcoWaste Coalition’s Facebook page, said that Simon was recognized “for his exemplary leadership, unfaltering dedication, and focused action on protecting public health and the environment from hazardous wastes from overseas, particularly about the successful re-exportation in 2019-2020 of some 7,408 metric tons of illegal waste shipments from South Korea.”

Sison emphasized that “Simon’s decisive and unyielding action to uphold our country’s tariff and customs and environmental laws and the provisions of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal led to the completion of the re-exportation procedures last September 15 amid the COVID-19 challenges.”

The Basel Convention Ban Amendment prohibits the export of hazardous wastes from developed to developing countries.

In a press release, EcoWaste Coalition shared Simon’s statement that “Environmental justice demands that we assert our sovereign right not to be treated as dumping ground for wastes from abroad that can put the health of our people and that of our ecosystems in harm’s way.”

Simon, who is District Collector for Region 10, emphasized that “This job is too big for one agency to accomplish, so I reach out to all sectors, especially to the environment department and Congress to take on this challenge and strictly ban waste imports like what other Asian countries have done.”

For context, contaminated waste shipments, falsely declared as “plastic synthetic flakes,” arrived in Misamis Oriental in July and October 2018 without prior import clearance from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.  However, customs and environmental authorities found that it contained unsorted plastic materials, household garbage, used dextrose tubes, discarded electronics in the container shipments. 

According to EWC, authorities confirmed the shipments as “misdeclared, heterogenous and injurious to public health” and in blatant violation of Republic Act 10863, or the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act, and DENR Administrative Order 2013-22, which states that “no importation of heterogenous and unsorted plastic materials shall be allowed.”

 Following bilateral negotiations, the illegal waste shipments totaling 364 containers were returned to Pyeongtaek City in seven batches between January 13, 2019 to September 15, 2020.

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Nothing but gratitude

In his response, Prof. Ricardo Agbayani, MD, the first Dean of the old Institute of Physical Therapy, said that retirement is a “wonderful feeling of looking forward to a future of more leisure, less pressure from duties and responsibilities, and getting around to the many things I always said ‘I will do it someday.’ But I also feel a tinge of sadness leaving behind what has been such an important part of my life, the University of Santo Tomas.”

Agbayani heaped praises on the University, saying “I have been blessed. I have received graces. I was given so many opportunities in my whole life in this University. I had spent practically all my life in this University, my home for the past 48 years.”

Agbayani, who earned his pre-medical degree in the College of Science by being a working student, recounted his journey in UST, which began in 1971. He paid homage to those benefactors who helped him finish both degrees in UST, which led him to pursue his specialization in rehabilitation medicine. After training abroad, Agbayani became the Director and eventual first Dean of the Institute of Physical Therapy, the present-day College of Rehabilitation Sciences.

Agbayani thanked numerous people who made his career one to be extremely grateful for, from the administrators who mentored him, as well as his former students who are now leaders in the University. “I thank my students most especially, for you have made me what I am today.”

The gift that teachers receive

In his remarks, the Very Rev. Fr. Herminio V. Dagohoy, O.P., PhD, Rector of the University, said that teachers receive gratitude from two sources: 1) “the students who look up to you as role models and whom you have inspired to be better versions of themselves”; and 2) “the university that acknowledges that an institution of higher learning is as good as its teaching force.”

“������Ƶ is known to be one of the best universities largely due to the tremendous role played by its faculty,” Fr. Dagohoy.

“There is really nothing wrong about endings. We just cannot help but feel a little sad when good things come to an end, but we must remember that as a saying goes, ‘There is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.’ [Likening it to our Christian faith], we see it as God’s promise, like His promise to Noah that He will not punish men the same way again.”

Closing his message, Fr. Dagohoy highlighted the journey that the faculty members went through: “Our trek from where the rainbow begins and where it ends is, indeed, very wonderful. We experience both success and failure in our journey, but in the end, we know that we have learned quite a lot and have become better persons. The pot of the gold at the end of the rainbow is a special kind of treasure that includes many things, among them happiness, contentment, gratitude, fulfilment, quality time with loved ones, with oneself, thanksgiving, and savoring the beauty of life. There is so much [more to life] than work.”

Forever Thomasian educators

Honored for their years of service were the following:

ARCHITECTURE

Assoc. Prof. Tobias A. Bonaobra, PhD

Mr. Enrico Cinco

Assoc. Prof. Ma. Rebecca Penafiel

ARTS AND LETTERS

Asst. Prof. Amanda V. Lachica

Assoc. Prof. Emmanuel J. Lopez, PhD

Assoc. Prof. Ferdinand M. Lopez

Assoc. Prof. Reynaldo A. Reyes

COMMERCE AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Atty. Alberto B. Dolosa

Assoc. Prof. Mercurio T. Elenzano, PhD

EDUCATION

Assoc. Prof. Eufemio G. Barcelon, PhD

Asst. Prof. Rosa S. Lumbrera

Asst. Prof. Beatriz B. Ribleza

EDUCATION HIGH SCHOOL

Mr. Cesar D. Jucutan

ENGINEERING

Assoc. Prof. Ma. Victoria E. Amon

Asst. Prof. Lourdes T. Baldelomar

Asst. Prof. Mary Rose Florence S. Cobar, PhD

Prof. Edna C. Quinto, PhD

FINE ARTS AND DESIGN

JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

Mr. Carlos S. Marnilego

Ms. Imelda Paula S. Rosales

LIBRARY

Ms. Ma. Theresa F. Estoya

MEDICINE AND SURGERY

Prof. Ricardo B. Agbayani, M.D.

Assoc. Prof. Alfred H. Belmonte, M.D.

Assoc. Prof. Rolando E. Cabatu, M.D.

Assoc. Prof. Poderoso B. Casuela, Jr., M.D.

Prof. Roy J. Cuison, M.D.

Prof. Ditas Christina D. Decena, M.D.

Assoc. Prof. Froilan A. De Leon, M.D.

Asst. Prof. Romeo R. Fernandez, M.D.

Prof. Reynaldo M. Javate, M.D.

Prof. Irma A. Lee, M.D.

Assoc. Prof. Aurea P. Llanera, M. D.

Prof. Ma. Philomena G. Lopez, M.D.

Prof. Remedios C. Ong, M.D.

Assoc. Prof. Ma. Noemi T. Salazar, M.D.

Assoc. Prof. Jerry H. Santos, M.D.

Prof. Jose D. Sollano, Jr., M.D.

Asst. Prof. Edgardo T. Tan, M.D.

NURSING

Asst. Prof. Christian S. Dicioco

PHARMACY

Asst. Prof. Rebecca G. David

Prof. Angelita S. Sarile, PhD

Asst. Prof. Ma. Teresa R. Suratos

PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND ATHLETICS

Asst. Prof. Edna Sanchez

RELIGION

Assoc. Prof. Abner C. Manaloto, PhD

SCIENCE

Prof. Ma. Alicia M. Aguinaldo, PhD

Assoc. Prof. Susana F. Baldia, PhD

Asst. Prof. Joyce G. Llana, PhD

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The One Peso Challenge involves filling up the PET bottle with one peso coins to gather funds that will be used to assist in providing shelter, medical assistance, education, mobility aid, and other welfare services for people from Tahanang Walang Hagdan (TWH). The bottles entrusted to UST were collected by ABS-CBN BMPM one week after the program launch.

At the program launch, UST Office of Public Affairs Director Assoc. Prof. Giovanna V. Fontanilla, Ph.D., gave the welcome remarks and ABS-CBN BMPM Head Ms. Rowena Paraan delivered an overview of the “Share Your Love” Project.

UST Education High School Principal Asst. Prof. Leonila Wilhelmina N. Baltazar, and the Student Councils of the UST Junior High School and the UST Senior High School attended the turnover ceremony to represent their schools.

Through the 10th anniversary campaign project “Bike @10” of BMPM in 2017, the collection of the PET bottles began for the benefit of persons with disability from TWH.

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