The College of Education celebrated the Buwan ng Wika through a week-long celebration dubbed as Linggo ng Lahing Pilipino, despite the change in venues due to heavy rains last August 22-27.

Headed by the College of Education Student Council (CESC) and Educ’s Filipino Department, a cultural fashion show-contest was held along with an acoustic band competition, food fair, Filipino games, a week-long poem-making contest, quiz bee, and a public speaking contest for the first year students.

CESC President Romel Bautista explained why they decided to have a week-long celebration, saying, “It’s our biggest way of reminding Educ students we have a rich culture wherein we all came from and that we have to keep the pride of being a Filipino.”

Celebrating the Filipino Culture

Bisti: Rampa ng mga Kultura, is a cultural fashion show featuring different national attires patterned after the different festivals of the Philippines.

The contestants for the fashion show came from the different programs and organizations of the college: Elementary Education Society for Pahiyas Festival, COMACH and Red Cross Youth Council for Pintados Festival, Pax Romana for Moriones Festival, the Guild of Thomasian Speducators fashioned their costume after the Sinulog Festival, Philippine Association of Nutritionists chose Flores de Mayo as their theme, Rythimyx Dance Troupe and Rotaract for Masskara Festival, Library and Information Science Students Association for the Higantes Festival, Philippine Association of Food Technologists for Kadayawan sa Dabaw, and Student-Teacher Association of UST for the Babaylan Festival.

Among the nine contestants, Carlo Preza and Mary Jane Mauro from the Library and Information Science Students Association won the competition. They also got the chance to walk on the ramp of Pintig Tomasino 2011: Viaje, which happened Friday of the same week.

PaSIKLABand, an acoustic competition

Another competition spearheaded by the CESC was PaSIKLABand, an acoustic band competition, held at the Albertus Magnus Auditorium last August 23, 2011.

Eleven participating bands composed of members mainly from the College of Education, with some imports from the other colleges and faculties, were asked to perform two Orginal Pilipino Music (OPM) songs.

“We keep on saying that we are Filipinos yet we do not give high regard to Filipino music and the local artists. This event was organized to re-introduce to the students the beautiful music that we have here in the country,” says Jerald Lester Dinglasa, PaSIKLABand project head and CESC PRO.

Beating the other participants with their 96% score, Minorea won with their version of “Kailan” and “Para sa Akin”, a bossa nova ballad popularized by local singing sensation Sitti Navarro.

Also worth noting is Band 202’s original composition: “Atletang Tomasino,” which depicts the life and the struggles of being a student-athlete of the university. The song was perfect with its catchy melody and frank, yet heart-warming, lyrics.

CESC Vice President Ryan Bulosan said, “We are very proud sa mga talents ng Educ students. And that’s what we aim to do as the student council, ang ilabas ang galing nila, empowering them to be the best that they can be.”

A festive end

August 27 marked the end of the Linggo ng Lahing Filipino, despite the heavy rains. Supposedly held at the Grade School Playground, it was then transferred to the 3^rd floor of the Albertus Magnus building, due to the incapacity of the former to hold the activities of that day.

Different Filipino games were played by the students coming from the different programs of the college. It featured the Palarong Kalye theme and had different local games such as patintero. In SaraPinoy, small booths were set up by students selling local delicacies such as ice candies, arroz caldo, adobo, and grilled viands, which also served as a class fund-raising activity for the 15 blocks who participated.

After all the games and fun, students from the Library and Information Science emerged victorious. Following them are Nutrition and Dietetics at 1^st place, and Elementary Education students settled at 2^nd. 

By Janine Raña and Raymond Naguit