CSC now a university

By Edna A. Bagadiong

VIRAC, Catanduanes, Nov. 19 (PIA) -- The masonry work for the modification of over 40 years old signage of Catanduanes State Colleges starts Friday, November 16, 2012. The CSC signage is located right at the center and atop the iconic Administration Building .

The historic ‘renaming’ of the signage of the building, which is famous for its facade with windbreaker architecture fit for a typhoon-prone island, also synchronizes with the full page publication today of Republic Act 10229, which converts CSC to Catanduanes State University, in the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Philippines Star newspapers.

As stipulated in Sec. 28 of RA 10229 signed by President Aquino on Oct. 19, the law “shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its publication in two newspapers of general circulation.”

Congressman Cesar V. Sarmiento authored House Bill No. 4170 which calls for the conversion of CSC into a University.

In the masonry work, the word “Colleges” will be replaced with “ University."

Several students were elated upon seeing the masonry works grinding to a full start.

The ‘Catanduanes State College’ signage is made of pure concrete slab, fixed with high-grade steel bars on an equally solid concrete railing of the building’s rooftop.

The letters are 27.5 inches in length, 16 inches in width, 3.3 inches in thickness.

The university’s Buildings and Grounds Services undertakes the masonry and civil works, with the assistance of the Technical Working Group of the Planning Services.

It can be recalled that Congressman Cesar Sarmiento proudly announced during a meeting with the CSC Community last October 23 when President Aquino signed R.A. 10229, a law converting the CSC into a university.

This development for the province is a worth rejoicing for every Catandunganon, the 20-year dream has finally come into reality.

Likewise, Governor Joseph Cua himself a member of then CSC BOD and as permanent representative of Sen. Edgardo Angara, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education Culture and Sports also expressed his high hopes on the conversion of the CSC into Catanduanes State University.

A committee was also created to draft the Implementing Rules and Regulation which will be forwarded to the legal committee of the Commission on Higher Education and to be published in the National Daily's.

Fifteen days after the said publication, The new Catanduanes State University is set to formally celebrate her conversion on December 4 this year.(EAB/GSR-CSU/PIA5)


Albayano’s ‘100 Kislap’ named best fiction, Nat’l Book Award

LEGAZPI CITY, Nov. 19 (PIA/PGA) -- "100 Kislap" by Bikolano writer Abdon M. Balde Jr. was awarded the 2011 National Book Award for Best Book of Fiction by the National Book Development Board and the Manila Critics Circle during its 31st National Book Awards ceremonies held November 17 at the Old Senate Session Hall of the National Museum of the Philippines, City of Manila.

Balde hails from Busac, Oas, Albay. He is Albay’s Poet Laureate and provincial government consultant for Cultural Affairs. He is the current chairman of the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas and also a board member of the Filipinas Copywrite Licensing Society.

The award is Balde’s fourth.

The book, 100 Kislap, is a collection of 100 short-short fiction, each story not more than 150 words.

These are stories of love and passion, betrayal and revenge, crime and retribution, myths and legends, realism, absurdity, fantasy, and many, many more.

The citation reads, “After writing novels and lengthy stories, Balde has shown remarkable discipline in writing a hundred stories each of which does not exceed 150 words. By doing so, he reluctantly promoted the writing of "dagli" in the Philippines, a tradition at the turn of the 20th century that was restrained and suppressed by critics who were supporting the short story genre of the Americans.

In 100 Kislap, Balde heightened the effect of the dagli with his exemplary use of humor and irony. Balde’s example is proof that literary works need not be long and boring.

His third book, “Mayong,” a collection of the legends surrounding Mayon Volcano told in the present-day settings, won National Book Award for the year 2003, “for its engrossing narrative set in the Bikol Region—written in mellifluous Tagalog or Filipino—one that merges deathless legend and fantastic lore with the romance of present-day realities, in the process weaving a well-told tale of the crossover between the natural and the supernatural.”

His novel, “Hunyango sa Bato,” won the 2004 National Book Award and the Juan C. Laya Prize for Best Novel in Vernacular Language and was cited as “ a novel daring in style, topic, and characterization, a novel unafraid to challenge what were previously thought to be unbreakable rules of writing and language, a novel forcing the reader to remember past events that still mold the present, a chameleon-like novel showing only one true color.”

Another collection of short stories, “Calvary Road,” won the 2005 National Book Award and the Juan C. Laya Prize for Best Book of Fiction.

The citation read, “There are 32, count them, 32 very short stories, pinioned by the textured covers of Cavalry Road. There is painful truth, delicious uncertainty and confident craft in these tales. Its scope is ambitious and its scale is impressive. It is a narrative road to be trekked in bits and pieces, to be savored one story at a time. Balde’s invitation is not one to be ignored.”

Balde was also conferred the 2010 Ani ng Dangal Award by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the 2009 South East Asian Writers Award by the Crown Prince of Thailand and the 2009 Bikol Regional Artist Award for Literary Arts by Mayor Jesse Robredo.

He has won the 2003 Rokyaw Ibalong Award for Most Outstanding Bikolano in Literature and a Palanca Award for Short Story in the same year. (MAL/Albay’s Poet Laureate-PGA/PIA5)