Volume LXXXVIIII, No. 6 • February 1, 2017 THE OFFICIAL STUDENT PUBLICATION OF THE UNIVERSIT Y OF SANTO TOMAS Manila, Philippines
UNENDING MERCY. Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle opens the fourth World Apostolic Congress on Mercy last Jan. 16
NO TO CONDOMS FOR HS STUDENTS “
Distributing condoms to students might send the wrong message.
”
UST Junior High School Principal Marishirl Tropicales
In Figures 8,000 Filipino youth with HIV/ AIDS
By ROY ABRAHMN D.R. NARRA and MARIA CRISANTA M. PALOMA ADMINISTRATORS of two high schools in the University are opposed to the government’s plan to distribute condoms to high school students as a means to curb the rising number of cases of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) among the youth. UST Education High School (EHS) Principal Loreto Sauz said condom distribution could send the message to teenagers that it would be alright to engage in sexual activities as long as they used condoms. “I am not in favor of the government distributing condoms to high school students. This might give them the wrong idea that as long as they are using condom, it’s already allowed to have sex,” Sauz said in an e-mail
to the Varsitarian. Sauz said EHS won’t follow orders from the government if condom distribution would be made mandatory to all public and private institutions, adding that there are alternative programs in educating the youth about sex. UST Junior High School Principal Marishirl Tropicales echoed Sauz’s sentiments, warning that condom distribution could encourage students to engage in premarital sex because of peer pressure or curiosity. “Distributing condoms to them might create a wrong message, which might lead to unwise decisions and actions especially because they are still minors,” she added. Tropicales said the school supports the stand of the Church against the government’s Condoms PAGE 10
Plant named after Dagohoy
The Mycetia dagohoyana is named after Rev. Fr. Herminio Dagohoy, O.P. PHOTO COURTESY OF GRECEBIO ALEJANDRO
MA. ALYSSA ADRIENNE T. SAMONTE
‘Federalism not the only solution’ By MA. ANGELA CHRISTA COLOMA and NEIL JAYSON N. SERVALLOS FEDERALISM advocates are advising the Duterte administration to pursue “comprehensive reforms” as changing the form of government alone will not end the country’s political problems. Benedikt Seemann, Philippine head of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Philippines, Germany’s Christian Democratic think-tank, called for a careful study as the process of shifting to a federal form of government would require multiple reforms in government, constant readjustments and constitutional amendments. Under a federal system, each of the 18 regions in the Philippines will be granted autonomy, inserting a new level of government between the Federalism PAGE 9
Ex-rector scores Duterte for calling drug killings ‘collateral damage’ FORMER UST Rector Fr. Rolando de la Rosa O.P. has criticized President Duterte for shrugging off the number of killings in the antidrug war, saying the dead must not merely be tagged as “collateral damage.” In his column published Anti-drug war PAGE 5
Thomasian bishop: ‘Build more places of mercy’
A FLOWERING plant has been named after Rector Fr. Herminio Dagohoy, O.P. Grecebio Alejandro, director of the Office for Graduate Research, and his team discovered a new species of Mycetia endemic to Agusan del Norte and named it Mycetia dagohoyana after the University rector. Alejandro said he wanted to pay tribute to Fr. Dagohoy who attended his talk at the national conference of the Association of Catholic Universities of the Philippines in Bohol last year. “After telling stories about my new species named after UST, Pope Francis and Dr. Francis
MALOLOS Bishop Jose Oliveros called for the construction of shelters and orphanages as an act of mercy to the homeless and abandoned. Oliveros, a Thomasian alumnus, stressed the need for more “places of mercy” following the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy. “We are called all the time to raise ourselves even more attentively on mercy, so that we may become more
Dagohoy PAGE 10
Mercy PAGE 5