A number of Ateneans are spending good money in a battle of advertisements on whether the Ateneo spirit dictates that an alumnus should leave the Marcos administration or sink with it.

All the ads proceed on the unstated premise (which is as dubious as it is arrogant) that an Ateneo education is a special gift that gives the possessors that uncanny power known as Lux in domino (the light of the lord).

The Ateneo alumni’s childish mutual name-calling tells us something quite different: in the words of a now-infamous alumnus, an Ateneo education turns out to be "no big deal."
 
 

DONALD VILLABLANCA