To mark its 85th anniversary, the Varsitarian, the influential student publication of the University of Santo Tomas, will be holding Valik Varsi, the grand alumni homecoming, on Jan. 26, 2013, 6 p.m., at the Harbor Garden Tent, Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila, in Pasay City.
Among prominent Varsitarian alumni expected to attend are National Artists for Literature F. Sionil Jose and Bienvenido Lumbera; artists Danny Dalena and Remy Boquiren; former New York Times correspondent Alice Collet-Villadolid; ABS-CBN corporate-communications head Ramon Osorio; PLDT senior VP and treasurer Jun Florencio; former Sen. Francisco Tatad; Inquirer columnists Rina Jimenez-David and Neal Cruz; Manila Bulletin associate editor Jullie Yap Daza; presidential adviser Ronald Llamas; and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle’s spokesperson Corazon Yamsuan.
To render numbers will be the UST Singers, twice given the Choir of the World (Pavarotti Prize) title.
Established in 1928 by lexicographer-writer Jose Villa Panganiban, who would later become director of the National Language Institute, the Varsitarian is the only student paper to have an entry in the Cultural Center of the Philippines Encyclopedia of the Arts for having produced top writers and artists.
Its alumni include National Artist for the Visual Arts J. Elizalde Navarro; Mayor Arsenio Lacson; Vice President Emmanuel Pelaez; Archbishop Artemio Casas; Asean secretary general Narciso Reyes; Sorsogon Gov. Juan Frivaldo; Philippine Medical Association president Vicente Rosales Sr.; Commission on Higher Education Chair Fr. Rolando de la Rosa; UST rector Fr. Norberto Castillo; Sister Delia Coronel (the first Catholic nun to be kidnapped by Moro rebels and VP for research of the Mindanao State University); press freedom icon Jose Burgos Jr.; communist underground newspaper editor Rosalinda Galang; communist movement historian Alfredo Saulo; Paz Latorena; Celso Carunungan; Felix Bautista; Gloria Garchitorena; Leticia Buhay; Ophelia Dimalanta; Rogelio Sicat; Rita Gaddi; Cirilo Bautista; Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo; Bernardo Bernardo.
Its contributors through the decades have included Inquirer founding publisher Eugenia Duran Apostol and Chief Justice Andres Narvasa.
Visit the Varsitarian office at Room 105, Tan Yan Kee Student Center, UST, España, Manila. Call Maria Luisa Mamaradlo at 4061611 local 8235 or 0905-5084934; e-mail [email protected]; www.varsitarian.net.
