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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Panorama
October 5, 1975
Semen in the gutter
And what help, I ask, do the readers get from learning the truth, deep or otherwise, about S.E.M.E.N.? (See Pano., Sept. 7). Just take a look at their picture, page 18. Would you believe they are college students, in U.P. at that? Where it not for the accompanying article and the caption under the picture, I could swear they were all members f the Kabataang Makabayan – those pot-smoking activists, communist subversives in the Old Society. The way they look! They remind me of a bunch of teenage toughies and canto boys. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of them are hooked on drugs. All the while I thought we have rid our schools, especially our state university, of those untidy, foul-smelling hippy-types and swaggering bullies. – JACINTO BARCE, Daraga, Albay
Panorama
October 12, 1975
The deep truth
It is heartening to note that your publication has taken cognizance of an organization of which nce I was a member during my students days at the Unviersity of the Philippines.
Indeed it is quite timely that the deep truth about SEMEN be known not only to the U.P. studentry, but also to the general public. So it is towards bringing forward the truth about its founding that I should like to make mention that SEMEN was founded in 1969 and not in 1968 as you mentioned in your article. To be exact, it was founded in the first semester of the school year 1969-1970 by four business students: Nonoy Quimbo, a product manager with Pepsi, Ed Tarog, now a product manager of Procter and Gamble, Romulo Weri, now a ranking manager of Mobil Oil and Rolly Ramirez, who’s now in La Suerte Trading and Industrial Corp.
I am sure Cesar Evangelista who is a friend of mine as well as a batchmate in entering SEMEN wold agree that he could not have possibly founded said organization in 1968 as during that year, he was still with the College of Arts and Sciences. SEMEN started in the College of Business Administration of U.P. – ENRICO DE LARA, Manila
Prejudiced Comment
To reader Jacinto Barce of Daraga, Albay, regarding the article on SEMEN (Pano. Sept. 7), being UP student myself, though not a member of SEMEN, I cannot help but feel indignant over the remarks he made regarding the members of the Society of the Emancipated Men (see Pano. Oct. 15). It is clear that he is prejudiced when he said: “The way they look? Would you believe they are college students, in UP at that?... I wouldn’t be surprised if many of them are hooked on drugs. All the while, I thought we have rid our schools especially our state university of those untidy, foul-smelling, hippy-types and swaggering bullies.”
It seems he has misconception of what it is to be a college student especially at UP – where the emphasis is placed not on how students look, but on what they think, say and do as scholars of the people and as the vanguards of change in an emerging society.
I hope future comments shall be made with reservation and utmost objectivity, for one cannot judge a book simply by its cover. It is not fair. – ED
Panorama
October 26, 1975
The truth about SEMEN is not so deep after all (See Pano Sept. 7, 1975). To conclude that an organization is more popular than another solely because it has more members is absurd. One has to consider other paramount factors. Numbers alone may be both misleading and deceiving.
Did you ever wonder, Jimmy and Issa, why the membership of Pan Xenia is low? Did you ever meditate and ask why all Pan Xenians can easily become Semenites and so few Semenites can become Pan Xenians? And are you in a position to guage the extent of involvement of the frat members in both organizations – off and on-campus?
Utterances of the Semen type, when uncalled for, can only emanate from one suffers from inferiority complex.
Finally, Pan Xenia is a Latin term and not a Greek letter as alluded. – DAVID L.O. KHO, Quezon City
I’d like to comment on Jacinto Barce’s letter degrading members of SEMEN. I was really surprised because I didn’t expect that a person in his right mind could arrive to such unwise statement just by looking at the group’s picture.
Do the SEMEN members have to wear ternos or barongs in discharging their good purposes? Let it be emphasized that those students of UP grouped together not to join Ernie Estrada’s fashion mannequin but to help in maintaining unequalled progress attained by the launching of the New Society. – TENG G. HERNANDEZ, Quezon City
