Centennial

Since I mentioned Jose Rizal in my previous two posts, I might as well add a third and get him out of my system. Because he's a Philippine national hero, his image and name appears all over the country, especially in monuments and street names, whether he actually went to the place or not. Here, we see a bust of him through the gates of Palma Hall in the Diliman campus of the University of the Philippines (U.P.). When I was in college and visiting friends here, Palma Hall was the home of the College of Arts and Letters. Now, according to U.P. Diliman's website, it is the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. We used to be able to pass through this gate too. I think it's permanently closed now, and only the gates at its sides are left open. My guess is it's to preserve Rizal's bust—you know what college kids can be like. U.P. was founded in June 18, 1908 and this year marked their centennial. Their official seal is composed of an eagle holding a shield with symbols for agriculture (inside the pyramid: a coconut tree, rows in a field, and something tied in a bundle), science (upper left: a book, an oil lamp with a flame, and a funny-looking flask which I remember from Chemistry lab), and engineering (upper right: a hammer, an anvil, and a wheel). At least, those are the symbols in this seal. Wikipedia has a picture of the seal on the gate of U.P.'s main library, and it sure looks different from this one. And it's the image on the library that was used when U.P. had its seal redrawn and registered in the Intellectual Property Office.