Victor Villanueva

January 4, 2012

December 14, 2012

Every year, on the week before Christmas break in the university begins, the law school student body holds its annual college week. Part of the week-long series of activities is a variety show and performance competition among students dubbed “Civil Law Got Talent.” It is a fairly new ‘tradition’, started just three years ago.

Things kicked off with a “salu-salo” of assorted food brought in by the different batches in law school.

There were seven group performances this year. Three from the freshmen, two from the second-years, and one each from the third and fourth-years.

Read the rest of this entry »

0 comments

January 3, 2012

December 13, 2012

If there’s one thing I’ve noticed in my almost-two year stay in the University of Santo Tomas, it is that its students seem to have a major fascination with beauty pageants. All colleges seem to hold one, the winners of which are sent to the much-celebrated university-wide pageant. Well, all colleges except for Civil Law have been holding pageants–until this year. It’s amusingly crazy. Some college departments even have their own.

Last December 13, the “Mr. and Ms. Civil Law” pageant was held, with a handful of contestants from the different blocks in law school.

Res Ipsa Loquitur: 2011 Mr. and Ms. Civil Law Personality Pageant

Read the rest of this entry »

0 comments

January 2, 2012

Mendiola Camp-out Against the Crisis, Day 1 (December 6, 2011)

We are calling on all Filipinos, fed up with the status quo and united in a common hope for a better present and future without the suffering that we witness everyday, to launch actions, strikes, walk-outs and to join a historic nationwide camp-out protest this December.

We can no longer stand a twisted social set-up that robs the majority of our people of a decent life and basic social services. We can no longer stand a social system that produces immense wealth for foreign interests and a few as the people, who toil all their lives, are increasingly pushed deeper into hunger, poverty and injustice.

We continuously attempted to make those in power heed our call for change. But they refuse to listen, and instead, constantly barrage us with lies, cover-up stunts, insults and threats of force. Like thieves, they railroad unjust measures, they rule with impunity and dare to call it democracy.

Sawang-sawa na tayo.

December 6 is Day One. It is time to send a message to those in power: We will no longer put up with lies, corruption, abuse, exploitation and injustice. Together, we will stand for freedom, justice, equality and genuine change. We can no longer sit idly by as our people – our youth! – face a dim future.

Inspired by upheavals from the Arab Spring to the European Strikes to the Occupy Movements, tens of thousands will strike and walk-out from our campuses, communities, workplaces and camp-out at Mendiola to rock the nation with days of outrage and protest. Similar actions are set to take place across the regions.

Armed with burning optimism, courage and determination, we shall strike, march and camp-out. We will be peaceful but militant in our actions and let our calls strike fear into the hearts of powers that be. Bring tents. Take with you family, friends, and fellow Filipinos who want genuine social change. See you.

Something has to be done. Let us stand up and make the statement that we want genuine change.

0 comments

September 16, 2011

Strike against the Aquino budget!

There are those who say that the fight against budget cuts and the grossly insufficient government budget on our public schools, universities, hospitals and other social services is a campaign only of state university and public school students, teachers and staff, of medical professionals and employees in public hospitals, and of those who avail much of the government’s social services. They are the ones who can easily understand the need to go on strike in order to assert greater state subsidy for our schools and hospitals.

What is in it for us students in private schools? In our immediate interest, there is apparently nothing that concerns us. But you see, the reduction of state subsidy in state universities provides our private schools, which already control more than 70 percent of the country’s higher education system, greater leverage to control the “higher education” market. As it is, college education has already become a commodity to be availed of by those who can afford it and for private gain, not a right and a social service for national development as it should be. It is this situation of greater privatization, where young Filipinos and their families are left with very few alternatives but to surrender to the whims of the private sector, where tuition and other fees are exorbitant and largely deregulated, if not abandon any dreams of entering college altogether. This manifests in staggering figures admitted by the government’s education agencies—eighty percent (80%) of Filipino youth are not able to enter college or even technical-vocational schools. The point is, if tuition increases in private universities is something that concerns us, the fight of our state universities against budget cuts is also our fight. We need a strong public higher education system to serve as a counter-weight against private school owners’ free hand in dictating the control and orientation of our higher education system. The moment we allow our state universities to deteriorate or increase their rates, we can be certain that our private schools will have an easier time raising our tuition.

Read the rest of this entry »

0 comments

September 15, 2011

September 8, 2011

Class president Aquino (yes, we have our own President Aquino in class) discusses our collective proposed schedule of exams. It usually doesn’t get approved or followed a hundred percent.

Kabataan Party-List Rep. Raymond Palatino at a

Earlier, Kabataan Party-List Rep. Mong Palatino gave a talk at a students rights forum in UST, hosted by the Central Student Council. That week, the student councils of UST launched its renewed campaign for the approval of the long-stalled “UST Students Code”.

0 comments

September 2, 2011

UST law school class picture taking at the Arch of the Centuries

UST law school classmates in front of Benavides statue

What used to be two “working students” sections when we were freshmen is now one “working” class. From eight sections in our first year, we’re down to four. It appears to me like a systemic trimming down of number of students after first year. It probably is.

1 comments

September 6, 2011

Photos: UST Law students at the Thomasian Welcome Walk 2011

The Thomasian Welcome Walk is a sort of ritual for all freshmen students of the University of Santo Tomas where all the first-years pass through the “Arch of the Centuries” towards the Main Building to dramatize their entrance into the university. (And yes, you guessed it, there’s another ritual where seniors who are about to graduate pass through going out of the Arch.) It finally pushed through last August 5 after three postponements due to inclement weather.

I wasn’t able to join this tradition last year, my first year in UST. I thought, I might as well join this year’s law freshmen.

After the passing-through ritual (and it did take three hours I think, since there are more than 13,000 freshmen in UST), there was a pep rally of sorts and a concert that lasted half the night.

0 comments

Video: UST Law students at the Thomasian Welcome Walk 2011

4 comments

May 15, 2011

Macau w/ Family (Part 1)

April 16, 2011. We only had three days to spend in Macau. Our second day was reserved for the standard city tour. To give you an idea of how small Macau is, Macau’s land area is smaller than Makati’s, or Manila’s. It’s just about the size of Pasig City. Needless to say, it is a very small “Special Administrative Region” of China.

Our first stop for the half-day tour of Macau was the A-ma temple. (I know, in any standard city tour in any East Asian city, there’s always a temple visit and they’re all pretty much the same). The tour included this in the itinerary not because it was an extraordinary sight or spectacle, but because it was a way of introducing tourists to a brief history of Macau.

It is apparently because of this temple why Macau got its name. When Portuguese sailors arrived in this territory many centuries ago, they asked for the name of the peninsula. The locals thought they were referring to the temple, so they answered “A-Ma Gau”.