It was probably the largest anti-Arroyo youth mobilization I’ve been to. Thousands of students from dozens of high schools, colleges and universities in Metro Manila, including several hundreds from UP Diliman, converged at Plaza Miranda and marched together towards Mendiola to air the youth’s collective and justified grievances against the Arroyo administration.

My day started mildly with an interview together with Airah at the Office of Student Affairs as a requirement for recognition of STAND-UP. Then we went back to Math Building to speak with students who have themselves walked out, and invited them to join the protest at Palma Hall and at Mendiola.

Before noon, dozens of students marched from the Math Building and the National Institute of Geological Sciences Building to join the hundreds of other students at Palma Hall lobby for a brief program before we all boarded jeepneys to Espana, Manila.

From Espana, the UP Diliman contingent were joined by hundreds of students from nearby high schools and colleges, and students from the University of Santo Tomas (UST) and the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP). Together, we marched along Quezon Boulevard, amidst some cheers and confetti from pedestrians and residents along the road, all the way to Plaza Miranda where the main program of the protest was held.

For around two hours we all chanted and listened to impassioned speeches from representatives of schools and universities, even from the largely bourgeoisie Ateneo de Manila, to sectoral representatives from Bayan Muna, Kabataang Pinoy Party and other mass organizations. At half past four, we all started to march in thousands to Mendiola.

By the time we all got to Morayta in front of Far Eastern University (FEU), the police unleashed their fire truck water canons and tried to disperse the thousands-strong warm bodies by pushing us back. It was agitating. It was the first time I volunteered to to join the front-liners to break through the police barricade. I’ve never felt so angry and agitated in a rally before. As we were linking arms, pushing and shoving against the policemen who were pushing us back, I wanted to burst and scream. All we had were our unarmed selves, our principles and our justified calls. And to that, the Arroyo administration answers back, not with long-term and genuine pro-people solutions, but intensified forms of repression and military intelligence operations against the youth in campuses across the country.

I’ve never felt more resolved in my involvement in the youth movement.

(Fine, to appease those who fear I might default on my studies, I’ve never been more resolved in pursuing law studies having realized how this administration has continually used the legal system and its technicalities to oppress and repress dissent, and maintain its hold on to power. I’ve never been more resolved realizing that the high cost of law studies, even in UP, has made it even more exclusive to those who can afford it, and are fortunate enough to have connections, to the detriment of the people who need legal education the most).

Agitated as we were, we decided to march back towards Espana and held a noise barrage amidst cheers from motorists and pedestrians. We were joined by contingents from COURAGE and MIGRANTE.

This President is a dead duck after 2010. If you still believe she will willfully hand over the administration to the next leader, you better think again. To survive beyond 2010 and all the cases that will definitely come her way, this President will simply not step down, unless it is certain the next administration will protect her. Such she knows we will not allow either in the next elections, (if there will be a national election two years from now). Friends, there’s no other way but to oust this corrupt and fascist administration. There’s no better time than now. Pinning our hopes on genuine change in 2010 is almost plain naivete.

And while she and her family spends our money, amassing billions of pesos from her family’s monopoly on government contracts and other such kickbacks, millions of Filipinos continue to fall below the poverty line amidst a worsening economic crises that has affected and has cut through all classes and sectors in society (except her family and cohorts, of course).

Kabataan, hindi na tayo pag-asa ng bayan. Inaasahan na tayo ng sambayanan.

[Pictures from Jonna Baldres]

Tags: corruption, economic crises, Gloria Arroyo, Manila, political dissent, political repression, rally, STAND UP, Youth Act Now, youth sector

[Photos above, and some below, are from here (Tim Medrano) and here (Jonna Baldres)]

Last Thursday, July 10, 2008, thousands of students across the country walked out of their classes to protest the Arroyo administration’s willfull refusal at implementing genuine reforms and changes in government policies that would alleviate the lives of millions of Filipino youth and their families in light of soaring prices of oil, food and other basic commodities, and a worsening crisis in the education sector.

In the University of the Philippines, where students, especially those in their first and second years, are beset with a tuition increase and new laboratory fees, half a thousand students joined the simultaneous programs held at various points in campus which culminated in a demonstration at Palma Hall at noon.

In the morning, I was at the program in the College of Arts & Letters (CAL) atrium, with Airah, a colleague in the University Student Council, the CAL Student Council and members of other mass organizations inviting students to join the nationwide walkout. Before it hit noon, we held a snake rally around CAL and marched to Palma Hall to join hundreds of other UP students in a demonstration at Palma Hall Steps. We then marched to the University Avenue, where another brief program was held while we barricaded the road. By past two in the afternoon, more than a dozen jeepneys packed with UP students proceeded to Espana in Manila to join other Metro Manila students in protest.

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Tags: CAL, economic crises, Gloria Arroyo, Morayta, Oil Deregulation Law, rally, STAND UP, tuition increase, University Student Council

There has to come a time when I should move on from the overwhelmed phase and just push through with the tasks required of being a law student. But let me just say it again, and rant for the last time (I hope), that the amount of material we have to read every day is just overwhelming. A few days ago, I got myself my copy of 700-pages long worth of reading materials to be discussed for two subjects within just two meetings. Is it even possible? I spent almost an hour sorting them out and stapling them. I didn’t finish reading them before class. I ended up making a blunder in front of our Constitutional Law 1 professor.

A few days ago, in Criminal Law 1 class, it was a lazy afternoon after lunch break and I was so sleepy from reading the night before, that I didn’t realize I snoozed of for a few minutes. It wasn’t until my seatmate nudged me that my recitation card was picked and the professor has been looking at me and has called my name twice already. Fortunately, I was able to pull the recitation off. But still, that was embarrassing.

At least, going through the experience with a set of wonderful blockmates saves it. Everyone, especially the very diligent ones, is very helpful to others, (like me, hehe), who are sometimes left behind with the lessons because of, well, various reasons. And all the lunch-outs, night-outs and karaoke indeed do a lot to boost one’s morale after a depressing performance in class.

There’s now so little time to do any other leisurely things, since I also have my tasks in the University Student Council, and my other affiliations, among my priorities. Which, explain why I haven’t been blogging, nor blog-hopping, or anything else leisurely for that matter.

Tags: academics, UP Law

[Drafting this statement was such a grueling ordeal in the University Student Council (USC) with all the contentions and whatnot. But here it is. The original had a discussion on how President Arroyo must be accountable for the education crises and a call for her ouster, but it was unfortunately disapproved by a simple majority within the USC]

The Centennial Iskolar ng Bayan in the Thick of Crises

Last June 20, 2008, the story of a freshman Chemistry major who dropped out on the third day of his classes found its way in the pages of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. The Letter to the Editor was written by a professor in the UP Math Department who was dismayed to find out that his student dropped out because he was assigned to bracket C of the restructured Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Program (STFAP), which in consequence would require him to pay P600 per unit.

Sadly, our fellow Iskolar ng Bayan’s situation has become more common in UP since the Board of Regents approved the 300% tuition and other fee increases (TOFI) last 2006, despite the lack of comprehensive consultation from the students and the absence of the Student and Faculty Regents in the meeting.

More alarming, however, is how common our fellow Iskolar ng Bayan’s plight is in this country. According to the CHED, 11 million Filipinos aged 6-24 years old or just over one-third of those in that age bracket have stopped going to school. The Commission adds that for this school year alone, approximately a million school-going Filipinos have had to drop out.

Should we be surprised? After all, as the prices of basic goods like rice, bread, canned goods, vegetables, meat, fish, petroleum products, transportation, and electricity skyrocket to record-highs, the Filipino family’s budget for sustaining their children’s education has virtually disappeared.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO), families in developing countries, such as the Philippines, spend 60% of their budget on food alone. Moreover, the IBON Foundation cites that the poorest 30% of the Philippine population spends even more than that. When the cost of staple foods rises, therefore, the poor are the first to suffer. So when both the cost of staple foods and education simultaneously increase, it is nothing but a recipe for disaster for the 65 million Filipinos living below the P112/day poverty line.

Dole-outs in the form of rice and other subsidies do nothing to address the real causes of spiraling poverty and diminishing access to education in the Philippines. Many groups have insisted that a P125 across-the-board wage hike and the scrapping of VAT are realistic measures the government can take to provide instant relief to those hardest hit by the prevailing economic crisis.

Last year, the government allotted a miserable 2.66% of the GNP for education – once again, nowhere near the minimum of six percent set by UNESCO Delors Commission for developing countries. Since 1998, when the education budget peaked at 3.8%, the government has continuously and deliberately decreased public spending on education in line with its commitment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and its Structural Adjustment Program (SAP). The IMF’s SAP encourages governments with massive foreign debt to reduce spending on social services so as to increase allocation for debt servicing. Certainly, a look at the Philippine budget in the last eight years clearly illustrates how compliant the government has been to the SAP: giving more than half of the pie to pay off debts and leaving so little to care for the physical and mental well-being of the Filipino people.

Since 2001, President Arroyo with her administration has done nothing substantial to re-appropriate government spending and genuinely prioritize education. On the contrary, she has aggressively pushed for the full realization of the SAP through the Long Term Higher Education Development Plan (LTHEDP), which aims to make 70% of all State Universities fiscally autonomous by raising their tuition fees to private-school-level by 2010. She has also refused to do anything to alleviate the impact of oil price hikes and instead continues to implement E-VAT to the further detriment of Filipinos.

In light of all these, we demand for: the immediate rollback of the tuition increase amidst a worsening economic crisis; the junking of the UP’s most recent tuition policy (automatic tuition increase based on inflation, tuition increase to augment government subsidy, restructured STFAP), without prejudice to further investigation of the STFAP, and; the increase of state subsidy for education. These are but some of the many genuine steps towards providing economic relief to all iskolars ng bayan. These are crucial steps so that families today and in the future no longer have to choose between spending for food or spending for education.

As Iskolars ng Bayan, we must analyze these social and economic issues besieging our country beyond the comfortable confines of the academe. We cannot afford to ignore the widespread hardship, which the majority of the Filipino people are barely enduring, because sooner rather than later it will affect us all – and the UP Chemistry freshman’s story will be too commonplace to be on the news.

Roll back 300% tuition increase!
Junk UP’s newest tuition policy!
Push for a comprehensive review of the STFAP!
Increase government spending on education!
Reform the Philippine educational system!

Tags: campus issues, statement, tuition increase, university policy, University Student Council, UP Administration

A few weeks ago, the Arroyo administration declared a tuition increase moratorium on all State Colleges and Universities (SCUs) and discouraged Private Higher Education Institutions (PHEIs) from increasing tuition and other fees. According to Malacanang, this is providing relief to the Filipino people, given the current economic conditions that the country is facing. All these declarations have been found as a mere propaganda ploy by the Arroyo government.

Rising prices of oil, rice, transportation, among others, are part of the undeniable factors that burden the iskolars ng bayan and their parents. Notwithstanding all these, the students are burdened further by the relentless laboratory fee increase proposals such as those in the Colleges of Engineering and Mass Communication, despite the already implemented tuition increase in the University of the Philippines. More so, President Arroyo and her cohorts in the UP Administration found it fit to declare UP exempt from such a moratorium, as evident in UP President Roman’s Inquirer.net video, as though the UP and its constituency are exempt from the extraordinary challenges faced by the average Filipino family in these most trying of times.

In all these, the iskolars ng bayan need to understand that such pronouncements all ring hollow in the face of the seeming insurmountable problems facing the Philippine education system, in which the UP are among those that are being used as guinea pigs for commercialization schemes. We need to understand that the structural problems in higher education are rooted in the failure of government to appreciate the central role of state higher education in national industrialization and genuine economic development. Instead, the present government and the UP Administration slavishly embraces the entire neo-liberal economic policy imposed by multinational financial agencies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund where the abandonment of social services, like state higher education, is among its basic tenets. Such a policy has been crystallized as policy by government through its Long Term Higher Educational Development Plan (LTHEDP).

It is quite clear that the solutions being offered by the Arroyo regime are sham tricks and bogus pretense that deceive the youth and the Filipino people to make it seem that serious steps are being undertaken to resolve the crisis of the educational system. These are mere smokescreens to hide the fact that it is the government itself that has actually aggravated the already chronic economic crisis faced by the country.

Thus, it is imperative for the iskolars ng bayan to unite today and stake their constitutional claim to their right to education, by standing firmly for the rollback of the UP tuition increase, and the eventual junking of the UP tuition increase policy itself.

Rollback the 300% tuition increase, Stop laboratory fee increases! Junk the Tuition Policy, Fight for Greater State Subsidy for UP and Education! Oust GMA! Struggle for a Nationalist, Scientific, and Mass-oriented Education!

Tags: campus issues, economic crises, editorial, Oblation, tuition increase, University Student Council

We released the first issue of Oblation last week. Oblation is the official newsletter of the University Student Council (USC). As chairperson of the USC’s public information office, I am in charge of coming up with the monthly newsletter. The first issue is just four pages, but couple the task with my having to adjust with the overwhelming amount of readings in law school and, and a few unforseen problems, it had been quite stressful.

I’d like to take this opportunity to publicly thank my mass media committee members, editorial staff and the contributors!

Anyway, if you weren’t able to grab a copy, do download the PDF version.

Tags: campus issues, economic crises, newsletter, Oblation, tuition increase, University Student Council

“The rollback?”

No action! I mean it’s pretty obvious. In fact we could have increased tuition this year because the approval of the board last year allowed for adjustment of tuition based on inflation… I really don’t know why they’re saying rollback when it’s not part of [President Arroyo’s] directive.

Tags: education, tuition increase, UP Centennial, UP President

Before I stepped into the UP College of Law, I’ve had quite an adequate number of warnings and advices from friends, acquaintances and brods who were already in law school or were already lawyers. After a week into school, even though I had expected everything, I am still overwhelmed. I am confronted with a day’s worth of readings and cases more than I ever read in one semester. The readings list for just one subject suggests that I will have to read more than I ever read in my four years as an undergraduate in BA Film. Not that my undergraduate course was readings-intensive in the first place. Nevertheless, I feel like I’m going to have to study like I’ve never studied before. I have been warned well. What I’m getting myself into isn’t a joke.

I’ve been enjoying it so far. Funny, or perhaps I’m speaking too soon, all the initial readings actually caught my interest. The thought of having a professional grasp of this field excites me in how I can pursue, well, romanticized as it sounds, the pursuit of truth and justice in things I believe in. I can’t yet quite adequately answer the question as to why I’m doing this, but it may be borne out of a personal feeling of frustration at a legal system that is largely at the hands of those with the economic and political capital, to protect the status quo. Finally, I thought. I’m going to learn how to engage controllers in a level where I shall not be dismissed as a mere young idealist who know nothing about laws and whatnot.

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Tags: blockmates, UP Law