UST student paper calls for resignation of Alumni officials

The Varsitarian, the official student publication of the University of Sto. Tomas, has issued a statement calling for the resignation of alumni association officials.

The move came after the  UST Alumni Association Inc. (UAAI) gave the “Thomasian Alumni Awards for Government Service” to Esther Margaux “Mocha” Uson, the controversial assistant secretary of the Presidential Communications Operations Office.

"A mere cursory survey of Uson’s work should have alerted any ordinary alumnus that she’s too controversial for UST’s usually prudential and Catholic tastes," the paper said.

"But for the entire UAAI leadership to have ignored her dubious track record and the controversy it had elicited (“We don’t mind if awardee is controversial or not,” said [UAAI President Henry] Tenedero) is sheer incompetence, irresponsibility, stupidity, and even corruption."

The paper explained that "corruption of values" pertains to the "casual disregard of all evidence of monstrous, is evil conduct."

The paper noted the statements issued by Uson in the past against Catholic teachings and leaders.

"In the first place, why would they even bestow a “government service award”—the only award given during the “homecoming”, for that matter—in the midst of a controversial administration that purveys anti-Catholic statements and programs?," the paper said.

"Worse they gave it to Uson, who does not only turn a blind-eye on Duterte’s human rights abuses but also viciously attacks the Catholic Church. In her column in the Philippine Star, she asked if the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) was “anti-Christ” for speaking against extrajudicial killings and the Marcos burial in the Libingan ng mga Bayani," it added. — BAP, GMA News