To celebrate its 90th anniversary (1928-2018), the Varsitarian, the influential student publication of the University of Santo Tomas (UST), will be holding “Valik Varsi,” the grand alumni homecoming, on Jan. 20, 5:30 p.m., at the Buenaventura Garcia Paredes O.P. Alumni Center Building (former UST Gym), España, Manila.
Prominent V alumni expected to attend are National Artists for Literature F. Sionil Jose, Bienvenido Lumbera, and Cirilo Bautista; visual artists Danny Dalena and Remy Boquiren; former New York Times correspondent Alice Collet-Villadolid; ABS-CBN corporate-communications former head Bong Osorio and current head Kane Choa; PLDT senior VP and treasurer Jun Florencio; Inquirer columnists Rina Jimenez-David and Rafael Castillo; Jullie Yap Daza; former presidential adviser Ronald Llamas; Philippine High School for the Arts director Vim Nadera; poet-musician and broadcast personality Lourd de Veyra; “Respeto” writer-director Alberto “Treb” Monteras; former UST rector and Commission on Higher Education chairman Fr. Rolando V. de la Rosa, OP; Corazon Yamsuan, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle’s spokesperson; and Sister Regina Kuizon, RGS, head of the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines.
Hosting the event will be multiawarded actor and former V editor in chief Bernardo Bernardo, who has recently returned to UST as senior visiting fellow of its Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies.
To render numbers will be the UST Singers, twice given the Choir of the World (Pavarotti Prize) title, and the UST Symphony Orchestra.
Established in 1928 by lexicographer-writer Jose Villa Panganiban, who would later become director of the National Language Institute (today’s Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino), 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, scholars, and artists.
V alumni include National Artist for the Visual Arts J. Elizalde Navarro; Archbishop Artemio Casas; Asean secretary general Narciso Reyes; Sorsogon governor Juan Frivaldo; Philippine Medical Association president Vicente Rosales Sr.; UST rector Fr. Norberto Castillo, OP; UST vice rector Virgilio Ojoy, OP; Sister Delia Coronel, CICM (the first Catholic nun to be kidnapped by Moro rebels and VP for research of the Mindanao State University in Marawi); press freedom icon Jose Burgos Jr.; communist underground newspaper editor Rosalinda Galang; communist movement historian Alfredo Saulo; Sen. Francisco Tatad; Jesus Sison, Joe Guevara, and Teodoro Valencia; Paz Latorena; Celso Carunungan; Felix Bautista; Doris Trinidad; Eric Gamalinda; Gloria Garchitorena-Goloy; Leticia Buhay; Ophelia Dimalanta; Rogelio Sicat; Rita Gaddi; and Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo.
Varsitarian columnists and contributors through the decades have included Inquirer founder Eugenia Duran Apostol, Chief Justice Andres Narvasa, Manila Mayor Arsenio Lacson, and Vice President Emmanuel Pelaez. –CONTRIBUTED
Visit the Varsitarian office at Room 105, Tan Yan Kee Student Center, UST, Manila. Call Bernadette Pamintuan at 4061611 local 8235 or 0920-947-6829; e-mail varsitarian@ust.edu.ph.
