THE official title of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) is "The Pontifical and Royal Catholic University of the Philippines." Six years from now, UST will celebrate its 400 years of existence in the Philippines. UST was founded on April 28, 1611, by the third Archbishop of Manila, Msgr. Miguel de Benavides.

GO, Bayani, go! Do not let them get you down. Although hot pink is not my favorite color, I think those wire barriers along Epifanio de los Santos highway are great. It has nothing to do with one’s being poor or rich (leave class struggle out of this). I feel safer driving down that main thoroughfare, knowing I will not be smashed to smithereens by a careening, wayward bus. Size hardly matters now, thanks to Chairman Fernando of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA); the reckless "kings of the road" are now obliged to comply.

NAPOLEON called China a sleeping giant, warning of the time when she would awaken. Nevertheless, not long after him, an ambassador of the British Crown, who said to a Chinese emperor that his country would benefit greatly from economic development, was told that China neither desired nor needed economic development.

AFTER a highly successful round of "cricket diplomacy" in New Delhi where Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharaff ostensibly went to enjoy the match between Pakistan and India, but came away with an agreement which Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described as an "irreversible" path toward eventual peace between the two countries, President Musharaff paid a three-day visit to Manila.

FREEDOM of speech is a fundamental value. It is our good fortune to have such a fundamental right constitutionally guaranteed.

HER Majesty, Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard, is the Queen of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, having acceded to the throne in 1980. Her Majesty is the daughter of the late Queen Juliana and the late Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, Prince of Lippe-Biesterfeld. When she was a young girl, the Dutch royal family fled the German invasion of the Netherlands in World War II, moving to Britain in May, 1940, and then to Ottawa, Canada. They returned home in 1945.

(Editor’s note: Total gun ban favors the criminal elements who conceal assorted weapons noted in this article.)

98 percent of residents in Metro Manila are affected by air pollution and 50 percent want to move to a less polluted place, according to the latest results released from an Asian air pollution survey by global market research company Synovate.

(Speech by President Hu Jintao of China at the Joint Session of the Congress of the Philippines, 27 April 2005.)

FIFTY years after the first Asian-African Conference was held in Bandung, Indonesia, the same rhetoric in the same fashion and flourish were heard again during the recent Asian-African Summit in the same venue.

DOÑA Aurora Aragon Quezon embodied the many criteria Dr. Jose Rizal set for his ideal Filipina woman – one of clean conduct, of firm conviction, who knows what is right and wrong, who inspires respect from men, with a kind and sympathetic heart, who inspires men to pursue lofty goals, and who teaches her family and people to love God and country. She spent her life promoting these ideals and because of these, the Catholic Church named her "The Real Catholic Filipina" while her countrymen called her the "Mother of the Masses."

JESUS said to His disciples, "As the Father loves Me, so I also love you. Remain in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love.