As UPLB was abuzz with preparations for the 88th Loyalty Day (LD) and Alumni Homecoming festivities on Oct. 1 to 8, power-packed typhoon Milenyo wreaked havoc on the campus on Sept. 28, toppling trees and power lines, damaging infrastructure and precious laboratory facilities, uprooting experimental plants, forcing rampaging waters into some buildings and leaving sticky mud in its wake, turning books and documents into pulp. -http://www.uplb.edu.ph/news/uplb-news/661
What a sad way to end September of year 2006. The Philippines was hit by a raging typhoon. The nation was heavily devastated, and for added effects, UPLB was also damaged. I have experienced it all. I were a New Freshman then. I saw how the storm wiped everything that blocks its way. Many trees were swept away in despair. Many lives were taken abruptly. The typhoon was so strong it destroyed the Hanging Bridge that used to link Macopa St. and the College of Engineering and Agro-Industrial Technology. Students, faculties, and residents used the said bridge to save time and energy when they have to go from Math Building to CEAT and vice versa.
The typhoon has gone out of our country's responsibility and what left is UPLB mourning for it's lost beauty. It's now the administration's job. It needs to take charge for the rehabilitation of the campus. Removing all the cut trees, fixing the transmission lines, helping the families of the people who lost lives, and fixing the broken bridge of course. The administration said that they will fix it as soon as possible, but what happened now? Nothing has changed about the bridge itself. The only thing I noticed is that the trees around it just grew bigger maybe hiding a backward system behind it. A system of cultural malaise. The plan of it's rehabilitaion has been an old chest nut for UPLB students, but what really bogged me is the lack of action. I see no efforts. I have gone through two UPLB Administrations but still nothing has changed for my two or three years of stay here in the university.
What we,students need is change. Not only in the campus' appearance but in ourselves, too. This photo-blog will serve as: my a final requirement; an expression of self,an opinion; and a demand to the leaders of the university. Oo, alam ko, mas magaling maglinis ang isang walis kaysa sa isang kapirasong tingting! sisimulan ko lang.
Disclaimer: i am not blaming the adminstration, nor typhoon Milenyo, nor anyone for the system of malaise within our society. i guess it's inevitable in the society we are in. :D
Ren Carlo R. Fallar
2006-55817
BSCS
POSC 1 - X
