USA Little Theater stages Babaye...
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Excellent Campus Journalism for the Common Good the Official student newspaper of the UNIVERSITY OF san agustin iloilo city, philippines
VOL. 55 NO. 6
FEBRUARY 16 - march 31, 2008
San Ag welcomes Jun Lozada By PIETROS VAL PATRICIO
MARCH 14, 2008 has marked another historic moment for the University of San Agustin as ZTE-NBN star witness Rodolfo Noel “Jun” Lozada, Jr. visited the university grounds for a courtesy call in Iloilo City before the end of the second semester. Lozada was welcomed by the Augustinian community during his arrival from the airport at around 7:00 AM in the morning. He was greeted with a welcome breakfast hosted the administrators and later shook hands with students around the campus before proceeding with the “march for truth” starting from the university’s front gate along Gen. Luna St. up to the auditorium of the De Paul College in Jaro district where he held his speech on the government’s controversial National Broadband Network (NBN) agreement with China’s ZTE Corporation. Among those present during the event were various social sectors from the entire Iloilo province. The Augustinian delegation was headed by the Student Council and the Prefect of Students accompanied by several faculty members and students predominantly from the College of Arts and Sciences. With its black banners crying for truth and public
integrity, the university is demanding from the Arroyo administration “ZTE Deal: The Truth Must Be Known.” According to media reports, Lozada was granted a permit from the city government to march and hold a speech in the city despite countless threats. He was accompanied by members of Bayan Panay and Youth Act Now along with the active participation of local nongovernment organizations. His short stint in Iloilo was said to be his first trip by plane since his arrival in the country from Honk Kong in early February. Earlier on February 28, the university has also partaken during the nationwide “interfaith rally” where, together with the St. Vincent Ferrer Seminary, it was lauded by activist speakers for its ‘official stand’ on the ZTE controversy and full support from their respective administrations during the peaceful demonstrations. National outrage calling for an end to corruption and withdrawal of public trust from Pres. Gloria MacapagalArroyo broke out all over the country since the groundbreaking testimonies of Jun Lozada on the anomalous deal at the Philippine Senate earlier this year.
NOTHING CONQUERS EXCEPT TRUTH. Inspired with the words of St. Augustine, the Augustinian family joins the Filipino nation in its search for truth in the ZTE deal.
Renowned political writer lectures at San Agustin By PIETROS VAL PATRICIO
PRESIDENT’S Conference Room One of the country’s foremost political writers recently came back at the University of San Agustin to conduct a unifying lecture among some of Western Visayas’ leading politicallyconcerned poets and fictionists. On February 14, as part of the Alternative Classes, Dr. E. San Juan, Jr. flew in to Iloilo City to hold his second open forum seminar on literature in the University entitled “Poetics and Politics: Textualizing Human Rights” coinciding with the launching of his new book Salud Algabre at iba pang mga bagong tula, a collection of poems in Filipino covering the country’s current social issues published by the
San Juan, Jr.
USA Publishing House. The unifying event was attended by leading writers from all over the region whose literary works are geared towards social justice and advocacy. Insights were given on present trends of globalization such as the exodus of 3,600 Filipinos out of the country everyday due to poverty, failure of good leadership and political strife. San Juan also expressed the present status of the Philippines as a neo-colony of its former colonizer, the United States. A true believer of Marxism, he also stressed that “the values of humanity are generally lost and neglected” when it comes to mainstream capitalism where mankind would fall pray to excessive trade and
profit making. People only work to earn money for survival means rather than intellectual pursuits and therefore become mere objects of consumerism. These are one of the reasons why educational institutions have become the last retreat for intellectual values in our society these days. The event was noted to be the “first of its kind” in the country as the forum was conducted in five languages, namely in Hiligaynon, Kinaray-a, Aklanon, Filipino and English. Western Visayas has also been classified as one of the country’s most linguistically diverse regions being home to various indigenous tongues. The round table discussion was made possible through the efforts of the Fray Luis Creative Writing Institute together with the Martin de Rada Human Rights Bureau. Dr. E. San Juan, Jr., a Filipino resident in the US who graduated at UP Diliman and later pursued postgraduate studies at Harvard University, has been a Fulbright Professor of American Studies at a Catholic university in Belgium and a visiting professor of literature and cultural studies at the National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan. He is an award-winning author whose countless books on sociopolitical criticism have been previously translated in Russian, German, Spanish, French, and Mandarin among others. He also directs the Philippines Cultural Studies Center in Connecticut and helps with the Philippine Forum in New York City.
First Augustinian Fulbright to address 2008 graduates Dr. Ernesto S. De La Cruz, the first Augustinian Fulbright Scholar, will address the Class of 2008 during the 100th Commencement Exercises on April 5, 2008. He was born in Sibalom, Antique on May 8, 1929. He initially studied at San Jose Elementary School, and then while in Grade 5, transferred to Sibalom Elementary School where he finished his elementary education in 1940. After graduation at the Antique High School, now Antique National School, in 1949, he proceeded to the Colegio de San Agustin in Iloilo City where he earned his B.S. Education Major in English and History in 1952. He worked as a classroom teacher and head of Related Subjects Department of the Antique National Agricultural School (ANAS) in San Remigio, Antique from 1952 to 1958. He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 1958. He left for the United States and studied at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) where he earned his Certificate in the Teaching of English as a Second Language as a Fulbright Scholar in 1959, Master of Arts in education as a Rotary Scholar in 1960 and Doctor of Education as an Asia Foundation Fellow in 1961. He returned to the Philippines and served as Dean of the Graduate School of Iloilo Normal College from 1963 to 1964 and Dean of the Graduate School of Education of Aklan College from 1964 to 1969.
He went back to the United States and worked as a Graduate Library Assistant at the University of Missouri in Columbia while pursuing his Master of Arts in Library and Information Science. From 1971 to 1972, he served as Associate Professor in Library Science at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. He transferred to California and worked at the Oxnard Public Library as Coordinator of Library Services from 1973 to 1976 and Assistant Library Director from 1976 to 1989. He led the formation of the Antique Association of Southern California based in Los Angeles and served as its first president from 1973 to 1983. From 1969 up to the present, Dr. De La Cruz has continuously supported the education of deserving poor Antqiueño students through his scholarship project. He has also been sending books to Antique schools. He was honored as one of the most Distinguished Alumni of the Antique National School in 1976, received the Bugal kang Antique Award in 1978, Dungganon nga Antiqueño nga award in 2004 (Tops Antique, Inc.) and Antiqueño Ako Award in 2004 (The Rotary Club of Antique). His retirement projects are Bridging Gaps and Giving Back to the Community. He resides alternately in San Jose, Antique, Philippines and in Oxnard, California, U.S.A.