This year marks the 400 years of the University of Santo Tomas. With this, a year long celebration was prepared by the whole community in celebration of its Quadricentennial Year. Last Jan 27-28, 2011 was the Opening of the Quadricentennial Celebration. I did make it a point that I’ll be part of this once in a lifetime experience. Let me share you some of my experiences in this Q Event.
January 27, 2011 – Thursday
06:30pm – Unveiling of the Quattromondial Monument
I went there on my own and fortunately I met Jz and Sir Jaime infront of the UST Chapel. We went to the Quadricentennial Park to witness the event. Sir Jaime was telling us that the monument was modeled by Piolo Pascual and Charlene Gonzales-Mulach. At first I was hesitant to believe but then everyone was talking about it so in the end Sir Jaime was right. Piolo and Charlene was there in the event as they unveil the Quattromondial Monument. “Quattro” means 4 and then “Mundial” is spanish for “worldwide”. This was a 10 meter high monument and was made by a well known glass artist Ramon Orlina. The 4 persons (one of them is Piolo and the other one is Charlene. The other 2 was said to be Charlene’s daughter and son but I’m not sure about it) depicts UST’s core values of excellence, spirituality, tradition and erudition.
I was also with Roan and Trisha during that time and planned to meet the rest of the World Youth day delegates which I forgot to blog about.. Next time maybe. Anyway, After the unveiling of monument we met Ben along the way and of course took a picture with him too.
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Trisha and I decided to look around and see the fascinating display of lights inside the campus. We started taking pictures with the fountain of course then we’re off to the bazaar to check out some commemorative souvenirs and other stuffs. Along the way, we SMS Aisce to meet us somewhere so we went to UST Chapel to meet her. After that, Trisha met up with her friend Ailemma and introduced her to everyone. It was such a nice feeling knowing new and beautiful people who in one way or another is connected to you. Hehe! ^_^ Then after some time, Kuya Mik and Ate Pache arrived.
07:00pm – Q Grand Program
This was a star studded program where they invited Thomasian celebrities starting with Mr. Foon (the guy who is famous for his line “meh ganon“) and introduced the oldest Thomasian alive in the Philippines. She is Ms. Amadea Medina who is 103 years old and graduated Magna Cum Laude in the College of Education. If I heard it right, she has a major in Home Economics? She was also featured in Inquirer.
Another good thing that UST did was they setup a number of Wide Screens around the Campus. Therefore, the UST field is not that congested not like what we usually have during Paskuhan and other events. The nearest in our place was infront of the Main Building where everyone was sitting in Plaza Mayor laughing their hearts out. Some of the celebrities I knew who were there was Aiko Melendez, Sarah Geronimo, RJ Jimenez, John Lapuz, Albert Martinez, Candy Pangilinan and Gary Valenciano. Sorry if I don’t remember everyone.
While they were performing, we were having photoshoots. Hahaha! There was a display of College logos along Plaza Mayor so we searched for our respective colleges and took a picture with it. Too bad I forgot to take a picture with the College of Science. Boo! Hahaha!
Canon Law |
Philosophy |
Ecclesiastical Faculties |
Arts & Letters |
UST Highschool |
Commerce |
Engineering |
Music |
09:00pm – Dinner Time
We were so hungry so we ordered dinner in Jollibee and then ate inside the UST Main Bldg. Inside the Main Building, there was also an exhibit of UST pictures who won the recently concluded photo contest for the UST Quadricentennial Celebration.
In an hours time, Trisha had to go so we went out to see what’s happening. We went infront of the UST Chapel since we heard that the fireworks will be coming from the UST Seminary. Hahaha! Since Ate Pache and Kuya Mik went to meet with Fr. Clark, Roan and I stayed in UST Chapel since we saw Fr. Aligan as well as the Batch ’84 and ’64 Alumni! It was fun hearing how they feel about the whole celebration.
After some time, we saw Fr. Boy too followed by Fr. Caloiski. It was funny we saw each other without notice. We were almost complete. By the way, I’m talking about the WYD Delegates again. Fr. Aligan, Fr. Boy and Fr. Caloiski was with us during the WYD 2005. So Fr. Aligan texted Bianca who was just living nearby to come and visit UST. I was also contacting Xtian during that time but there was network traffic.
True enough, the fireworks came from the UST Seminary and we were just right below the fireworks. I had the opportunity to video it but I don’t know if I can share it to you now. Maybe I’ll just follow it since it’ll be hard to upload. It lasted for around 4mins at it was GRAND! Way better than all the Paskuhan I’ve been to as well as during the Baccalaureate Masses I’ve been to.
January 28, 2011 – Friday
05:00pm – Pontiff Mass
The Papal Legate celebrated the Pontiff Mass in the UST Field last friday. It was such a grand celebration where 400 priests attended the Eucharistic Celebration (i don’t know if my numbers were correct). According to my priest friends, they have a souvenir stall in commemoration of UST’s 400 years!
During the celebration, there was a moment were we lit the candle lights and you’ll see a magnificent view of the candle lights. It was called “Lumina Pandit” (where I first heard and saw when I read the writings in the walls of the Library! hehe.) a Latin word for “spreading the light“.
08:00pm – UST Grand Alumni Homecoming Dinner
While they had their dinner in Plaza Mayor which costs Php1575 I think, I together with the other Thomasian Volunteers alumni went to Tan Yan Kee building to have our Mini Thomasian Volunteer reunion! We had the privilege to spend it there together with the new Thomasian Volunteers as well as the higher batch Alumni. Fr. Dennis was also there to greet us and be with our celebration. This was also the first time where Andrew saw me mingling with the other Thomasian volunteers and saw my old pictures that were stored in the Campus Ministry’s albums.
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We had a great time playing and exchanging stories. The mini exhibit that Kuya Albert made for us was so touching! We even had our TV Pins that night. It was really great and we enjoyed everything. We had our salo salo in the conference room and then waited for the fireworks infront of the Main Bldg.
11:45 pm – Fireworks
The Thomasian Volunteers gathered infront of the Main Building very near to the Security Bank and waited for the Fireworks. The fireworks display was as beautiful as the one we had the night before. However, this time it was in-sync with the music and the Main Building was literally glowing. It was really beautiful even Andrew had fun watching the fireworks!
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After that, Fr. Deng met us and we had pictures with the Alumni too. It was really a Grand Celebration for UST! So proud to be one.. I hope the values of UST will still remain until it reaches its 500 years. I don’t know if I’ll be alive by that time.
Congratulations University of Santo Tomas!!! I’m proud to be a Thomasian!!!
Photo Credits:
Roan Gomez & Michael Belleza
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