26 JANUARY 2009. VOLUME 40. NUMBER 16. 12 PAGES

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Ramos-Horta shares optimism on the attainment of peace

Engineering student is RP’s 10th Chess Grandmaster

See page 3

DLSU hosts ASEAN business educators’ conference

112

Museum opens third term exhibit

2401 (twen´te fôr´,o, wun) is a landmark number along Taft Avenue. It is the location ID of De La Salle University, home to outstanding faculty and students, and birthplace of luminaries in business, public service, education, the arts, and science. And 2401 is the name of the official newsletter of DLSU, featuring developments and stories of interest about the University.

During his lecture titled “Is long lasting peace an attainable dream?” at the Teresa Yuchengco Auditorium of De La Salle University last January 15, Ramos-Horta said political disputes could actually be resolved much more easily than personal wounds.

Sharing his many years of experience fighting for the independence of Timor-Leste, he gave a simple piece of advise: “Do not disregard what is in the minds and the hearts of people who have been traumatized by violence.”

He stressed that every individual is responsible in the attainment of peace, and urged leaders to practice

compassion and humility. He also decried the continuing production of

mass weapons, noting how Asia has become the most “nuclearized” part of the world. “No amount of weapons can prevail over our ideals,” he said.

Ramos-Horta is a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, together with

Bishop Carlos Belo, the religious leader of East Timor, for his

significant contributions to the independence of

Timor-Leste. He

served as the exiled spokesman for the East Timorese resistance during the years of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor from 1975 to 1999, during which time he also served as the Permanent Representative to the UN of the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (Fretilin).

For the Bridges program, Ramos-Horta became the fourth guest speaker to visit the University, following Nobel Laureates Prof. Robert Mundell (1999 Nobel Prize winner for Economics) and Prof. David Jonathan Gross (2004 Nobel Prize winner for Physics), as well as former World Bank President James Wolfensohn.

During the program, he was conferred a Doctor of Humanities (honoris causa) degree by DLSU President and Chancellor Br. Armin Luistro FSC and DLSU Board of Trustees Chair Joaquin Quintos IV.

The Bridges lecture series, hosted through the International Peace Foundation, was organized together with Far Eastern University, and with the support of Washington Sycip, founder of the SGV Group and of the Asian Institute of Management, as the Philippine honorary chairman of Bridges, and Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, chair and CEO of the Ayala Corporation, as the program’s Philippine chairman.

Despite many conflicts in many parts of the world, Timor-Leste President and 1996 Nobel Laureate for Peace José Ramos-Horta expressed optimism that “peace is attainable in our lifetime.”

RAmoS-HoRtA SHARES optimiSm oN tHE AttAiNmENt of pEAcE

GSB Dean Dr. Philip Juico, who served as chairman of the AGBEP Network, in his welcome remarks noted that the conference also underscored the role of technology as it gave the participants the opportunity to interact with resource speakers from two remote sites through video conferencing.

Also welcoming the participants were AUN Executive Director Dr. Piniti Ratanankul, DLSU President and Chancellor Br. Armin Luistro FSC, and DLSU Vice Chancellor for Lasallian Mission and External Relations Br. Bernard Oca FSC.

Composed of the faculties of business and economics of the ASEAN University Network member universities, AGBEP seeks to promote and strengthen a relationship among academicians, scholars, and students in the areas of business and economics; to help uplift the quality level of graduate programs related to business and economics of AUN member universities; and to

internationalize graduate business/economics programs of AUN member universities at the regional and global levels.

The two-day deans’ conference was only one of the many activities of AGBEP. The network also hosts bilateral meetings that include programs on student and faculty exchange as well as joint research and publication.

Former ASEAN Deputy Secretary-General and DLSU Professor Emeritus Dr. Wilfrido Villacorta delivered a presentation on the topic “ASEAN Regional Integration and Inter-Regional Cooperation,” sharing a historical background on the regional cooperation as well as the vision of an East Asian community.

The participants were also able to interact with Diana Bartelli Carlin of the University of Kansas, who serves as chair of the NAFSA Bologna Task Force, who delivered in real-time a presentation on “The European Experience, Bologna

Process, and What ASEAN Can Learn” from the United States. NAFSA, an association of international educators, promotes the exchange of scholars to and from the United States.

Dr. Louie Divinagracia, agriculturist and member of the International Society of Southeast Asian Agricultural Sciences, chairholder of the distinguished Professorial Chair in Entrepreneurship, and director of the MBA and DBA programs of DLSU, likewise delivered a talk via video conferencing. He shared a paper on “The Competitive Environment of ASEAN Agribusiness.”

The second day of the meeting focused on the change of deans and school members, progress report on student and faculty exchange, and school/country reports by AGBEP members. Juico also announced the turnover of AGBEP chairmanship to Dr. Myrna Austria, dean of DLSU College of Business and Economics.

DLSU HoStS ASEAN bUSiNESS EDUcAtoRS’ coNfERENcEDe La Salle University, through the Ramon V. del Rosario Sr. Graduate School of Business (GSB), hosted the ninth ASEAN Graduate Business/Economics Programs (AGBEP) last January 15-16 at the Century Park Hotel in Manila, gathering 30 heads of business schools of 10 leading universities in the region to tackle recent global developments and issues affecting the business programs of higher education institutions.

Dueñas is the f irst faculty from ULS to come to DLSU under the academic linkage program between the two institutions established in November 2005.

The partnership between ULS and DLSU aims to promote cooperation in teaching, research, and community service through an international exchange of students, staff, and knowledge. In particular, collaboration may be carried out in the areas of student, faculty, and technical and administrative staff exchange; exchange of academic

materials; joint research and publication; joint organization of conferences, seminars, and other academic meetings; joint

organization of special technical and administrative programs; and joint production and delivery of courses and programs.

Dueñas holds a masters degree in Global Marketing and diploma in Marketing Management from Staffordshire University in England. He also has various trainings in international marketing, teaching in virtual environments, entrepreneurship, and strategic competitive management from ULS, Georgetown University, Sabana University-

Colombia, and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

His research interests include marketing strategies, small and medium

enterprises, and cross-cultural business relationships.

DLSU wELcomES UNivERSiDAD DE LA SALLE coLombiA viSitiNg pRofESSoRDe La Salle University welcomed Jose Alberto Dueñas Guarnizo, marketing area coordinator of Universidad de La Salle in Colombia (ULS), as visiting professor for this trimester. He is teaching an undergraduate course in International Business and a graduate course on Global Markets under the Business Management Department.

This special day historically marks the

transfer of St. La Salle’s relics to the chapel of the Generalate in Rome in 1937. The relics were earlier kept at Rouen for 187 years, where he spent his final days, and at Lembecqlez-Hal in Belgium for another 31 years.

Proclaimed as a saint in 1900 and made Patron Saint of all those who work in the field of education, he inspired others how to teach and care for young people, how to meet failure and frailty with compassion, how to affirm, strengthen, and heal.

Born to a rich family, St. La Salle chose to renounce a privileged life and instead created a religious congregation and school that would provide opportunities for growth for children of the less privileged.

He was a pioneer in founding training colleges for teachers, reform schools for delinquents, technical schools, and secondary schools for modern languages, arts, and sciences.

His work quickly spread throughout France and, after his death, continued to expand across the globe. Currently, there are De La Salle schools in 80 different countries.

Every year, on January 26, the Lasallian community in the Philippines commemorates the life of St. John Baptist de La Salle. The feast day of our Founder actually falls on April 7, during the summer break. To let members of the community join in the celebrations of St. La Salle’s life and legacy, we thus mark January 26 as the most opportune time to do so.

Source: www.lasalle2.org

tHE tRANSfER of RELicS of St. LA SALLE

January 26:

After being chosen for the fellowship conducted by the Philippine-American Educational Foundation last December 2007, De Castro left for Arizona State University where he will teach a course on International Relations of Southeast Asia while conducting a six-month research titled “China’s Emergence, the ASEAN States, and US Influence in Southeast Asia.”

Furthermore, De Castro will attend academic conferences on his research topic, deliver lectures in various think-tanks in Washington D.C., and observe how American universities manage their degree programs on International Studies.

Conceived in 2005, the ASEAN Research Fellowship was initiated by the State Department as part of the overall US diplomatic program to enhance Washington’s relations with ASEAN.

US StAtE DEpARtmENt NAmES DLSU fAcULty AS ASEAN RESEARcH fELLowInternational Studies Department Associate Professor Dr. Renato De Castro was recently named fellow for this year’s United States State Department’s Association of Southeast Asian Nation’s (ASEAN) Research Fellowship.

In the book, which consists of 16 chapters, the author discusses the rationale and foundations of Filipino philosophy, the fragments of the people’s philosophy of life, and the sources and characteristics of Filipino thought and values.

With his new book, Timbreza continues to contribute in the articulation and formalization of Filipino philosophy and the propagation and intellectualization of the Filipino Language.

University Fellow Dr. Florentino Timbreza of the Philosophy Department has come out with his newest publication, Filipino Philosophy Today, courtesy of National Book Store. The book chronicles the author’s corpus of voluminous articles and researches over a span of four decades of teaching Filipino philosophy.

fAcULty RELEASES NEw book oN fiLipiNo pHiLoSopHy

Pandaraya: a ContemPorary FiliPino term For Sin?

Confronted as we are today by the deplorably pervasive yet seemingly acceptable

corruption in different areas and various levels of personal and social life, we may

begin to wonder whether, ethically and religiously, our sense of what is wrong has been

terribly dulled. What ombudsman former Simeon marcelo had said when he was still in

office is indicative of this situation. “right now,” he once remarked, “there seems to

be no outrage and repulsion when [general public] see a blatant violation of law, and the

absence of commitment and passion to work against it.”1 and commenting on how widespread

corruption is destructive in several ways, eric Batalla says, “Perhaps, most important,

institutionalized corruption damages the national psyche. it miseducates and tells

people that there is nothing wrong in being corrupt. Wealth and power have become the

prime measures of individual Filipino success.”2 or, could it also be that the way we

understand “sin” as Catholics is no longer relevant? Customarily understood as the

violation of divine laws, many Catholics are generally unaware that sin, “ the believer’s

word for things not right in our world,”3 has been and can be interpreted differently

depending on the historical and cultural context in order to be effectively understood.

Sin interpreted in various historical and cultural ways

this is certainly true, for instance, of the various theologies and doctrine of

“sin” articulated within Western Christianity which Filipinos inherited

from missionaries from europe and north america. there sin has been

interpreted as the violation of divine, natural or ecclesiastical

law (the legal perspective), as infidelity to one’s personal

relationship with God (the personalist perspective),

and as selfishness that creates sinful structures

(the social perspective). But even the Bible itself

contains different contextual interpretations of sin.

thus “sin” is “rebellion” when interpreted in the

context of God’s authority over humankind. it is an

“abomination” if the perspective is that of God’s

holiness. Within the framework of the covenant, sin

is perceived as “infidelity” and “adultery.” in the

light of divine wisdom, sin is surely “foolishness.”4

moreover, we rightly reminded that the bible employs

an array of cultural images to depict sin: missing the

target, wandering from the right path, straying from

the fold, a hard heart, stiff neck, blindness and deafness,

overstepping of a line and failure to reach it, a beast

By Dr. José de Mesa

1 As cited in CyberDyaryo at http://www.cyberdyaryo.com/features/f2002_1204_01.html

2 Eric C. Batalla of the Political Science Department of De La Salle University-Manila, “De-Institutionalizing Corruption in the Philippines” at <http://www.tag.org.ph/references/PDF files/batalla.pdf>, 8-9.

3 Timothy E. O’Connell, Principles for a Catholic Morality (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1990), 80.

4 See William E. May, “Sin,” in Joseph A. Komonchak, Mary Collins and Dermot Lane, eds., The New Dictionary of Theology (Pasay City: St. Paul Publications, 1991), 954-957; “Sin,” in Xavier Léon-Dufour, ed., Dictionary of

Biblical Theology (2nd ed., Pasay City: Paulines, 1988), 550-551. It is worth recalling, for instance, the various specific and more concrete terms, which we today lump together under an umbrella concept like “sin” and which are

found in Mark 7:21-22: evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.

First of two parts

FIELD NOTES. What is going on in the world? We ask our faculty members to make sense of what we need to know, understand, and reflect upon. They agree to share insights and observations about their respective fields or special interests. Field Notes serves as a window to different worlds where we all belong.

crouching at the door, and an attack or evasion or

neglect of divine calling.5

Since theology recognizes history and

culture as contexts which must be seriously

considered and often regards them as the

starting point for understanding the different

elements and aspects of the Christian faith,

it only makes sense that we take Filipino

history and culture as constitutive elements

in interpreting what sin is.6 Widespread and

the now deeply rooted corruption in the country

can neither be denied nor ignored. this is why

Jesuit anthropologist, albert alejo,

insists that we talk at the present time

about daya because, for him, “this is

where we have to live out our faith.” 7 So

how can we as Filipinos talk today about

sin relevantly and effectively to re-

awaken a right sense of it? i suggest that

we reinterpret and speak about sin in terms

of pandaraya.

Corruption within and without as “Pandaraya” 8

the root word daya in the vernacular

refers to any deceitful action (gawang

panlilinlang); it is obscuring or distorting

the truth in order to deceive (pagtatago

o pagpilipit sa katotohanan sa layuning

magligaw). Hence, a person is regarded

as madaya if his or her behavior and words

deliberately present falsehood as truth,

making another believe what is really not

the situation and so leads the other astray

out of self-interest. So any action or means

intended to deliberately deceive for self

advantage is considered pandaraya. in

other words, it is a malicious and deliberate

shortchanging of the other.

Pandaraya is corruption without: dirty

play and “fixed” games in sports competitions

like basketball; when something is purchased,

but the quality or amount or weight of what

was bought is short of what has been paid for;

building contractors have been known for

using inferior quality of materials for the

construction to increase profit at the expense

of the safety of their clients; government

officials engaged in kick-backs and using

people’s money for their own interests; when

election results of the official tally of votes

are altered as in the infamous “dagdag-bawas”

scheme; workers not getting justly paid for

their labor9 and among workers who shortchange

those who hired them for particular tasks.

Clearly, those engaging in pandaraya benefit

to the detriment of those they have deceived or

cheated.

Pandaraya is corruption within: Pandaraya

is not just an ambiguous external act; it arises

from within (loob). there is an awareness that

it is wrong (mali) and evil (masama) and the

intention to engage in it. it is interesting

to note that small kids at play, who have not

yet had any instruction on what is right and

wrong, intuit pandaraya as wrong. engaging in

pandaraya results in a guilty awareness of it:

one knows he/she/they are madaya.10 Pandaraya,

being a chosen attitude and a deliberate act,

assumes that one is free to do so or to avoid

it. Pandaraya for Filipinos is intentional

and malicious. no one gets involved in it,

as it were, passively or accidentally. Walang

napapadaya! in this lies the gravity of

pandaraya. it is bad enough when we shortchange

or mislead others involuntarily. People are

hurt, but they are not as angered as when they

know that the action which affected them has

been a calculated one. in this case, “their

attitude is not just sorrowful... our victims

face us indignantly. For they know we have

violated them with something powerfully and

peculiarly personal. We have willingly hurt

them. We have done it in purpose.” 11 Unlike

kasalanan which can be involuntary, pandaraya

or daya is inexcusable. in the local imagination

5 Cornelius Platinga, Jr., Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin (Leicester: Apollos, 1995), 5.

6 Vatican II in Gaudium et Spes, art. 58 states that “the discoveries of different cultures to spread and explain the message of Christ to all nations, to probe it and more deeply understand it, and to give it better expression in liturgical

celebrations and in the life of the diversified community of the faithful.” All quotations from the Second Vatican Council are taken from Walter Abbott, S.J., ed., The Documents of Vatican II (New York: America Press, 1966).

7 Albert Alejo, S.J., “Daya at Laya: Pagmumuni sa Etika ng Pagkakatotoo,” Tinig Loyola II:2 (February, 2001), 4. Translation mine.

8 “Daya” means cheating, committing fraud; trickery, deceit. José Villa Panganiban, Diksunaryo-Tesauro Pilipino-Ingles (Lungsod Quezon: Manlapaz Publishing Co., 1973). The 1914 Diccionario Tagalo-Hispano (Madrid:

Ediciones Cultura Hispanica, 1965) of Pedro Serrano Laktaw gave daya the meaning of engaño. Pandaraya is the deliberate act of perpetrating daya.

9 We note the protest of the prophet Jeremiah against this practice: “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice; who makes his neighbors work for nothing, and does not give them their wages;

who says, ‘I will build myself a spacious house with large upper rooms,” and who cuts out windows for it, paneling with with cedar, and painting it with vermillion.” (Jer. 22:13).

10 “What makes sin really sin is guilt. Guilt is the free decision to evil, evil with regard to God and man.” Cf. Schoonenberg, “Sin,” 89.

11 Cornelius Platinga, Jr., Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin (Leicester: Apollos, 1995), 2-3.

and parlance, napadaya (unintentionally made

to commit daya ) is not possible. How can it be

otherwise, if it is intentionally malicious?

People know it is evil; it is wrong. in religious

terms, it is “sin.”

Pandaraya is destructive and harmful to

both victim and perpetrator, the former being

deceived, shortchanged and unjustly treated,

while the latter is corrupted by profit and

power (dinaya ang sarili at naging madaya),

becoming in character what he has been doing.

But pandaraya incorporates not only the sense

of what is wrong (ang mali) and evil (ang

masama). it also includes the idea represented

by hamartia, the main term for “sin” in the

new testament because it fails to honor the

Filipino relational standard of utang na loob,

our debt of human solidarity to one another.

Because of a common loob or humanity, the utang

na loob we owe one another is that of respecting,

enhancing and, if need be, defending each

other’s personhood. Pandaraya is a refusal to

render what we owe each other as human persons

with a common loob, which according to Christian

tradition is God-given and made in the image

and likeness of God. in short, hindi na tayo

makatao: we have become less human because of

pandaraya. From the Filipino cultural point of

view, we can even press for a higher standard,

that of kagandahang-loob, the supreme human

value for Filipinos, and one that has quite a

Christian ring to it. in situations when one

is confronted with a choice between what is

beneficial to self and what brings well-being to

the other, Filipinos know from experience that

pagpaparaya is a virtue that can overcome evil.

to my mind, all the above elements may be

a distinct advantage in using pandaraya as

a contextual interpretation of what “sin” is,

13 not to mention the fact that “gawa mong di

matuwid” (unrighteous deed) is considered

by the Pasiong Mahal, the popular local

narrative of the passion of Jesus, as “daya

nang demoniong ganid” (the daya of the

ravenous devil).13 So what corrupts

is from within, not something from the

outside. in the words of the gospel according

to mark, “it is what comes out of a person that

defiles. For it is within, from the human heart,

that evil intentions come: fornication, theft,

murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit,

licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. all

these evil things come from within, and they

defile the person.” (mk. 7:20-23).

So when one looks for an embracing theme

for what is concretely evil and dehumanizing

in contemporary Filipino society and may be

expressive of what “sin” is in the Filipino

setting, one which suggests itself is pandaraya.

to commit it is to lack integrity, to be

disrespectful of human dignity and destructive

of well-being. Pandaraya is being untruthful in

terms of what is genuinely human, and unfaithful

in terms of justice-filled relationships. it

also undoes the life-giving, ruining what

gladdens the heart. life-giving relationships

are eroded or even destroyed by pandaraya,

eroding trust which is essential not only

in personal relationships, but in building

community among people and ordering a society

worthy of human beings. religiously, pandaraya

is a betrayal of who we really are, of our loob,

which the Filipino culture acknowledges as

somehow reflective of God. But even if we see

possibilities with pandaraya, we are at present

accustomed to refer to “sin” as “kasalanan.”

University Fellow Dr. José de Mesa is full professor of the Theology and Religious Studies Department of De La Salle University.

12 The English term “sin” is derived from the Middle English sinne, from the Old English synn; akin to Old High German, sunta. See Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (Springfield, Massachusetts, 1976).

13 René B. Javellana, S.J., ed., Casaysayan nang Pasiong Mahal ni Jesucristong Panginoon Natin na Sucat Ipag-alab nang Puso nang Sinomang Babasa (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1988), 112, 219.

14 Albert E. Alejo, S.J., Tao Po! Tuloy!: Isang Landas ng Pag-unawa sa Loob ng Tao (Quezon City: Office of Research and Publications, Ateneo de Manila University, 1990), 29-33.

“it is what comes out of a person that defiles. For it is within, from the

human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery,

avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. all

these evil things come from within, and they defile the person.” (mk. 7:20-23)

mUSEUm fEAtURES gENRES of viSUAL NARRAtivESDe La Salle University’s The Museum features this third term an exhibition titled “HISTORICAL, FICTIONAL, and METAPHORICAL: Genres of Visual Narratives in Philippine Art.”

Through history, fiction, and metaphor, the exhibition seeks to engage the viewers in a dialogue and transform them into participants who can relate to the stories in the artworks. Visual clues help the viewers explore narrative art and see how stories are expressed by the artists.

The exhibition aims to help the viewers learn, get inspiration, and preserve memories and culture by understanding the various experiences of people through different genres.

Featured works from the Wili and Doreen Fernandez collection are by Virgilio Aviado, Manuel Baldemor, Benedicto Cabrera, Orlando Castillo, Araceli Dans, Carlos “Botong” Francisco, Anita Magsaysay-Ho, Manuel Rodriguez, Sr., Manuel Rodriguez, Jr., Vin Toledo, and Pepito Frianeza.

From the DLSU Art Gallery collections, the featured artists are Angelito Antonio, Federico Aguilar-Alcuaz, Norma Belleza, Jemo Bitancor, Jose Blanco, Wenceslao Garcia, Jose Joya, Isabelo Quiles, and Roger San Miguel.

LASALLiANS pARticipAtE iN ANNUAL mARkEtiNg tiLtBesting hundreds of aspirants from various universities in the Philippines, five Lasallians were chosen as part of the top 25 Marketing Management Trainees by the MarkProf Foundation last December 6 at the Asia Pacific College auditorium.

This year’s batch of top honorees include Rona Raissa Angeles (CAM-MMG), Joel Concepcion (ACM), Ricky Limlingan (AE-BSA), Ranier Macatangay (AE-MFI), and Elinor Malicdem (ISE-MMG).

Aspirants went through a series of group case analyses and individual idea tests to make it through the elimination stages. Once selected to be in the top 25, they were to accomplish various oral and written examinations which determined their individual class ranking. Each trainee was also expected to meet the grade cut-off.

A Marketing Plan Competition was launched which clustered

the participants into groups. In working to improve social enterprises, the groups which handled Rags 2 Riches and Manna from Heaven, won first place. Concepcion, who graduated third in the batch, was one of those who worked on Manna from Heaven.

Third place went to Team Spark, which presented a proposal to Pag-asa sa Paglaya Multi-Purpose Cooperative. Malicdem was part of this team.

The MarkProf Bootcamp, which aims to “develop tomorrow’s leaders today” by mentoring the potential marketing

giants, is an annual tilt hosted by the MarkProf Foundation that started in 2004. Its founders are Ding Salvador, managing consultant of Lamoiyan Corporation, and Josiah Go, best-selling author and former president of the Philippine Marketing Association.

The event held at Century Park Hotel in Manila last December 11 was also hosted by the Association of Certified Public Accountants in Commerce and Industry (ACPACI), together with Philippine Duplicators, Inc.

Conrad Jonathan Lee, Dexter Yu Galan, and Liana Katrina Igna comprised the winning team which bested seven other teams from schools such as Ateneo de Davao University and University of San Carlos.

Prior to the finals, 216 students from 46 colleges and universities nationwide took the qualifying examination last

October 25 covering various fields of study such as Financial Accounting, Management Accounting, Finance, Marketing, Management, Information technology, Business Law, Taxation, and Economics.

Results on the national ranking revealed that Lee, Galan, Mabel Buted, and Jane Carol Chiu were among the 21 contenders who advanced to the grand finals under the Individual category. Chiu emerged as the first runner up.

LA SALLE tEAm topS AccoUNtiNg compEtitioNDe La Salle University was declared champion in the Team category grand finals of the 10th nationwide search for Outstanding Students in the Philippines, organized by the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA).

ENgiNEERiNg StUDENt iS Rp’S 10tH cHESS gRANDmAStER John Paul Gomez, a graduating Mechanical Engineering student and also the team captain of the De La Salle University Chess Team, earned the Grandmaster Title in the 38th Chess Olympiad last November in Germany. He is the country’s 10th Chess Grandmaster.

The University honored Gomez for his remarkable achievement last December 12 at the St. La Salle Building Board Room. Among those who attended the event was Rep. Prospero Pichay, Jr., National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) president.

Gomez expressed his gratitude towards his coach and his teammates. He likewise mentioned the support of DLSU Vice Chancellor Br. Bernie Oca FSC, former DLSU President and staunch supporter of chess Br. Roly Dizon FSC, Rep. Pichay, and his father for their unwavering support to him and to the game.

His previous achievement in the Philippine Grand Finals last July and his triumph in Germany, wherein he bested other competitors from various corners of the globe, were enough for him to earn the full International Grandmaster title.

is published bi-weekly by the Marketing Communication Office (L-163, intercom 144). Editorial deadline is 3 p.m. Tuesdays. Contributions should include the name, office and signature of the sender. Materials may be edited for clarity or space.

Johannes Leo Badillo, Operations Director; Ma. Ruby Carlos (carlosm@dlsu.edu.ph), Editor; AARichela dela Cruz, Anne Alina, Magsy Magbanua, Mark Pitoc, Writers; Peter Varona, Art Director; Ave Gaile Peraz, Ricky Binoya, Luis De Vera Graphic Artists; Virginia Umacob-Gases, Secretary; Raymond Menor, Office Assistant. 2401 may be accessed online through the URL: http://www.dlsu.edu.ph

University Fellow Dr. Tereso Tullao Jr. of the Economics Department was among the recipients of the prestigious Metrobank Foundation Award for Continuing Excellence and Service given last January 22 at the Metrobank Foundation Inc.’s headquarters in Makati City.

Tullao and two other full professors of DLSU, De La Salle University Vice Chancellor for Research Dr. Wyona Patalinghug and Counseling and Educational Psychology Professor Dr. Rose Marie Salazar-Clemeña, were cited for continuously contributing to their respective fields after already being honored by the foundation as Outstanding Teachers.

Tullao was named an Outstanding Teacher in 1993. Patalinghug received the same award the following year, while Clemeña was cited in 2000.

“Embodying a lifelong commitment to the pursuit of excellence, the ACES Awardees continue to make substantial contributions to their chosen discipline and have bequeathed a legacy of achievement to their peers and the community as a whole,” the citation read.

Also, DLSU was honored as one of the first batch of Metrobank Foundation Partner in Empowering and AdvoCating Excellence (PEACE). DLSU President and Chancellor Br. Armin Luistro FSC received the award in behalf of the

University, together with 11 other PEACE honorees, during the ceremony.

The awards were given in line with the 30th anniversary celebration of the Metrobank Foundation and the 25th anniversary of their annual Search for Outstanding Teachers. The presentation of the Metrobank Foundation Awardees for Continuing Excellence and Service was the highlight of the event.

The Search for Outstanding Teachers, annually organized by the Metrobank Foundation in partnership with the Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education, promotes a culture of excellence in education by recognizing the country’s best mentors who can be upheld as models not only for educators but for other community members as well.

CoNtiNUiNg ExCELLENCE iN tEAChiNg highLightED iN ACESDe La Salle University and three University Fellows received awards from the Metrobank Foundation, Inc. this year as part of the latter’s efforts to promote a culture of excellence in education in the Philippines.

DLSU is among the recipients of the Metrobank Foundation PEACE Award.

Salazar-Clemeña, Tullao, Patalinghug