An Open Letter to U.P. President Alfredo E. Pascual

An open letter to UP President Alfredo E. Pascual

Dear Sir:

The baybayin characters on the Sablay of our graduates read as “upa”. This would connote that the iskolars ng bayan are for HIRE upon their graduation, when they are suppose to prioritize service to the nation. Baybayan characters are not the same as our Abakada alphabet where each letter is a basic sound or phoneme, either a vowel or a consonant. In baybayin, which is a syllabic writing system, each character is already a syllable. It seems that there was no in-depth study in using baybayin characters on emblems. Somebody just thought to translate the English letters “U” and “P” to the Pilipino abakada “U” and “Pa” and then to the baybayin characters of syllables “U” and “Pa”. This was reverse engineering at its worst and without any historical basis whatsoever, most definitely not worthy of a UP scholar.

In the military, we revere symbols, especially those made with the blood of our heroes. A well-known usage of the baybayin characters is that found in the flags and emblems of the Katipunan in the 1890s, which bear the baybayin script Ka Ka Ka the acronym for Kataas-taasan, Kagalang-galang Katipunan. They DO NOT stand for the first letter “K” but for the first Syllable “Ka” of the three words. We are often confused into thinking that the symbol is the same as the letter “Ka” in our Abakada. The Abakada is an indigenized Latin alphabet of the Tagalog language, created by Lope K. Santos in 1940. During the Philippine Revolution against Spain, THERE WAS NO Pilipino alphabet then and the baybayin character “Ka” stands for the FIRST SYLLABLE of Katipunan. Therefore, to “abbreviate” words using baybayin, the character of the first syllable of the word is used.

The baybayin characters on the Sablay are the acronym for Unibersidad ng Pilipinas. The first syllable of “Unibersidad’ and the baybayin script for “U” on the Sablay is correct. The first syllable for “Pilipinas” is “pi” but in the Sablay the character there is for “pa”. A tuldik must be placed on the “pa” character to change it to “pi”.

Since 1990, when the Sablay was first used, we have been parading our graduates for the world to see, carrying the word “UPa”, a tagalog word for “Hire”. Sadly, this does not speak well of UP.

Eliseo M. Rio Jr. (UP Vanguard ’65)

On Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales and former army comptroller Carlos Garcia

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales
Source: http://tinyurl.com/ckomqqd

 By Lorenzo Ed Valenciano

BAD BAD BAD............HAS SHE GONE BONKERS? OR EXPERIENCING THE ONSET OF DEMENTIA? The ombudsman, Conchita C Morales, affirms the former army comptroller, Carlos Garcia, is not deserving of a jail sentence due to procedural flaws, despite the following voluntary information the latter had offered: a) he is willing to give back 1/2 of the loot b) his wife herself admitted [in court] the corrupt practices of her husband; and c) acknowledged that he fled the country with the loot.

My simple logic along with possibly 99% of those who followed the case are wringing our heads and gnashing our teeth in disbelief, to say the least. Does this mean that the neatly-coiffed ombudsman is favoring the argument re procedural flaws over outright admission of guilt? Can somebody please explain to me in simple language why the neatly-coiffed and well dressed lady justice is thinking this way? What is the message behind this guffaw? Could it be: SIGUE LANG SIGUE LANG. MAGNAKAW ng MAGNAKAW. MAG AMIN SA BANDANG HULI. ISAULI ANG KALAHATI NG NINAKAW MO. UNG KALAHATI, I-INVEST MO SA BANGKO AT MAG INTEREST NG SOBRA SOBRA. [wag mong kalimutan ang commission ko, ha].

Former Philippine Army General Carlos Garcia

  

 

 BUT HAVING SAID THE FOREGOING, if there is a legal issue behind the well-coiffed/dressed justice's decision, I guess I will have no choice but to kowtow to that]. PS: I wish the CJ would look as presentable as Ms Morales. CJ needs a consultant. Calling the stylist friend of Kris, and ex of PNoy (her name escapes me now). The CJ needs help - your help! LOL


(Source for photo of former Philippine Army General  Carlos Garcia: http://tinyurl.com/d9yrot8)

Diliman Diary's 2013 heartthrobs (First of a series)

With summer temperatures reaching a blistering 39 degrees Celsius in the Diliman area alone; the Diliman Diary decided to look around the metropolis and find good examples of how to dress to beat the summer heat. We decided to marry fashionability with appeal, and came up with the start of a new series: Diliman Diary's 2013 hearthrobs.

Patricia Buhat: An everyday sensibility with extraordinary appeal.

Luis Hontiveros: Charisma personified. Luis is the nephew of Risa Hontiveros whos running for senator and like her is photogenic and reached out to viewers and readers beyond the camera lens.

Jaimie Barameda: Coolness on a hot summer's day. Jaimie shows how to keep one's equanimity despite soaring temperatures. with The secret? A detached good humor coupled a sexy attitude.