Unforbidden

The student council has proven to be a vital institution for protecting the interests of its constituency. Its authority to confront the most repressive of administration policies has been fought for and won by the students since the Martial Law. Recently, the UP admin wants to reverse history – by forbidding legitimate student leaders to run for candidacy in the council elections.

Our Student Regent (SR), who has filed to run for the next leader of the university student council (USC), was denied candidacy by the University electoral board (USEB) and the College of Law Secretary. Their argument was that SR Terry Ridon only had 12 units of academic load last semester, which is less than the 17-unit normal load prescribed by the college – and is a requirement for a candidate in the council elections.

Legally, the USEB and the College of Law Secretary’s reasoning is already invalid. Ridon, as a student regent, is actually encouraged by student Codified Rules for SRs to file a leave of absence during his entire term as SR to ensure the accomplishment of his responsibilities. The mere fact that Ridon still pursued an academic load for the past and the current semester (and having a good academic standing at that), amidst his tasks of leading and visiting students in all units of the UP system, is already more than meritorious to recognize his qualification. The USEB and the College Sec staunchly denies to recognize this fact – even if precedents of former SRs who also filed to run for an elective position in the USC and who were even on a leave on their first semester were allowed to run by their college secretaries.

But more than technical inconsistency, this incident is a dangerous prelude to what the UP admin can actually inflict on the student council, and for that matter, on the cores of our campus democracy.

What they are so afraid of is a student leader who has consistently been at the opposition to their gravest policies of attack to the Iskolars ng Bayan and the people, like the tuition and other fee increases (ToFI). What they want to deny is a USC that will trust and lead in the students’ collective action in pursuit for a more democratic, nationalist, and mass-oriented university.

In the UP’s centenary, the administration is geared for the grandest implementation of neoliberal policies that will further the rising cost of education, and the disorientation of the university. A malicious technical blockade to disallow a student leader, who has proven the capacity and will to spearhead the studentry in this most significant fights, is the least we cannot forgive.

Always, in the face of greatest threats to our rights, and as what Iskolars ng Bayan have historically upheld, vigilance and collective action are the decisive force in forbidding such schemes of the administration. And with these, we shall keep our student council a vanguard – beholden and devoted only to the genuine interests of the Iskolars ng Bayan and the people.

Iskolars ng Bayan:

Uphold genuine student leadership!

Protect our student institutiuons!

Denounce admin intervention in the USC elections!

STAND UP
Student Alliance for the Advancement of Democratic Rights in UP
Contact: 09167807554, stand.up.eb0708@ gmail.com

(Feb. 08, 10am, 2 hours before the deadline of filing for candidacy)