Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Kirby, parents pay COMTEQ a visit

After a successful P3million liver transplant operation

Accompanied by his parents, Kirby Hizon, the one-year old baby who was found last year to be suffering from biliary atresia, visited COMTEQ Computer College after undergoing a successful P3-million liver transplant operation in Taiwan late last year.

Kirby’s liver transplant operation was made possible through a community-wide fund raising campaign initiated by the local chapter of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines in October 2003.

COMTEQ students, led by the student council headed by Allan Dale Calisaan, immediately supported the campaign’s Alyansa ni Kirby program by soliciting funds from the Freeport gates, and by actively participating in the benefit concert dubbed Youth Rock for Kirby.  Child star Dindin Llarena and the city’s local bands offered their services in the concert for free.

Both activities were spearheaded by the local chapter of the NUJP and the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority which was headed by then chairman and administrator, Felicito C. Payumo.  Proceeds from the fund raising activities were kept in a bank account being supervised by the LIFT Babies Foundation, a foundation established to help biliary atresia patients.

The campaign was later supported by schools, duty free shops, supermarkets, banks and Mercury Drug outlets.

During the concert, numerous COMTEQ students donated their time and effort in manning computer equipment, creating the computer graphics presentation, collecting donations and acting as ushers.  A band composed of COMTEQ students and instructors even took part in the concert.

When donations for Kirby seemed slow, Mr. Saturnino Dumlao and Mr. Florentino Paller, both NSTP instructors pitched in.  They coordinated the coin collection activities of their students at the Rizal and Magsaysay gates of the SBMA, and included collection activities as part of the NSTP course.

Student trainees at the COMTEQ I.T. Center, on the other hand, created a website for Save Baby Kirby Campaign that made contributions even from abroad possible.  The website also kept all donors and contributors to the project updated on the developments of the campaign.

ABS-CBN later supported the campaign and generated much of the needed funds for the operation through its television programs, Maala-ala Mo Kaya and TV Patrol .  The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office also pitched in a P1-million donation to the project.

Kirby was born with a rare liver disease called biliary atresia which could have caused his death within two years of birth had he not undergone the liver transplant operation.  Biliary atresia is a condition wherein the bile ducts are absent or unable to convey bile out of the liver, causing the liver to fail and the baby to die within two years after birth.

Kirby was operated on in Taiwan in August last year with his father, Erickson Ongkiko as the liver donor.

Kirby’s parents, who accompanied Kirby to COMTEQ thanked the students for their valuable contribution to the whole project which gave their first born child another lease in life.

Friday, January 21, 2005

Bataan schools lead in COMTEQ Challenge

Bataan leads Zambales and Olongapo City, after six weeks of competition in the new weekly television quiz show, COMTEQ Challenge.

Of the six weekly winners, three hail from the Bataan province.  They are Marvin Estrella from Camacho National High School, who won the maiden episode of the quiz show; Emelyn Marcos of Hermosa National High School and May Ann Dabu from Balsik National High School, who won the third the sixth episodes, respectively.

The Zambales province grabbed second place behind the performances of Shiela Kathlyn Kabaltika of the Subic National High School and Mirjana Engeli Campos from San Guillermo National High School won in the fourth and fifth weekly quiz shows, respectively.

Second weekly winner, Jocelyn Co, however, is an early favorite to reach the finals after winning the second COMTEQ Challenge episode hands down.  Co, who comes from the Regional Science High School, has also participated in many quiz competitions, including the LG Quiz on Channel 7.

The weekly winners will meet in the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds of the quiz show.  The winners in the semifinals will vie for the championship round come March this year.

Aside from cash and gift packages from various sponsors, the weekly winners won a scholarship certificate for one semester at COMTEQ Computer College.  The grand champion will receive P15,000 in cash and full scholarship in any four-year course at COMTEQ Computer College.

The first ever local tv quiz show airs every Sunday at 10:00 in the morning at STV-6.  Negotiations are also underway for another cable company to broadcast the show in Bataan.

The quiz show, which seeks to acknowledge and reward academic excellence among the youth in the areas of Bataan, Zambales and Olongapo City, is being co-presented by the Regional Office of the Department of Education and the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority.

COMTEQ earns government’s final stamp of approval

The Commission on Higher Education, which granted COMTEQ the permit to offer bachelor degree courses in 1999, has finally recognized the courses after a three-member team of inspectors validated the school’s continued and satisfactory compliance with government standards during a visit of the school last January 13, 2005.

School officials said they are proud that the school passed the much-delayed validation even under the most stringent of conditions imposed by the CHED inspectors.

It took no less than CHED Regional Director Dr. Felizardo Y. Francisco who facilitated the validation after finding out that the inspection is “long overdue.”

“Now that we have secured the recognition, we can now focus our efforts at continually improving our services to our students,” Edelwaldo B. Joaquin told the COMTEQ staff after the inspection.

COMTEQ Computer College remains one of the very few schools in the whole country with its own website and an excellent information technology infrastructure comparable only with those of the bigger colleges in Metro Manila.

Like those of the big colleges in Manila, COMTEQ has a server that hosts its own website.  Like the world’s biggest free e-mail providers including Yahoo and Google, COMTEQ also has the capability of providing all its students with free e-mail accounts which the students can access from anywhere in the world.

The only difference is that COMTEQ’s website and its systems were set up and are being maintained by the students themselves, and not by professional web developers and systems administrators, Michelle Manal, college dean, said.

“We have students undergoing on-the-job-training who are competent enough to handle these jobs,” she added.

Joaquin, however, lamented the fact that many students are still not aware of these privileges, and ordered the staff to conduct an information drive to encourage students to avail of the free e-mail service and to maximize the use of the website.

Manal also said that the website is now undergoing major changes, including the integration of the e-learning system “to make it responsive to the needs of our students.”

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