Youth declare ‘vacation over,’ protest season on By Abigail Kwok INQUIRER.net First Posted 18:31:00 05/30/2008 MANILA, Philippines — For Joey dela Cruz, a junior Philippine Arts student at the University of the Philippines-Manila, the role of the youth is not just to participate in protest actions but to educate and create awareness through the arts. [...]
MESSAGE TO THE LEAGUE OF FILIPINO STUDENTS By Prof. Jose Maria Sison Founding Chairperson Kabataang Makabayan 31 May 2008 Dear Fellow Activists, Militant greetings of solidarity to the leadership at various levels, chapters and members of the League of Filipino Students! The schools are about to open this June. Expectations are high among the students [...]
YOUTH ACT NOW! (Youth for Accountability and Truth Now!) announced in a press conference today that it would be holding a National Youth Assembly at the UP Diliman tomorrow, May 30, to kick off the opening of classes.
The banner headline of the Philippine Daily Inquirer today caught me off-guard. “GMA: No to Tuition Hike.” What a spin that was!
It was simply that, a press gimmick. What makes her statement entirely preposterous is that in the first place, it is her administration’s long standing policy to direct state colleges and universities (SUC’s) to tighten their belts and increase fees and other self-generating income procedures (Long Term Higher Education Development Plan 2010). It was also her administration’s directive policy to lift the tuition increase cap on private educational institutions, hence opening the floodgates of incessant increases in tuition across the country. It’s because of her why tuition and other fees have been increasing rampantly the past years.
League of Filipino Students president Vencer Crisostomo said these “unnecessary, unfair and unjust fees” should be refunded to the students.
“There may be no increase in tuition, but questionable fees are being imposed. These should be investigated, scrapped and refunded,” Crisostomo said
Students from state universities University of the Philippines (UP), Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), and other state-run schools, want their tuition fees rolled back and miscellaneous fees which were collected this enrollment refunded in light of the president’s announcement that a tuition moratorium be implemented in state colleges and universities this semester.
The LFS chair said what is needed are “substantial reforms in the educational system,” include raising the government subsidy for education and moderating tuition hikes.
“The students and parents of today are being faced by high education costs due to a flawed policy of deregulation and state neglect. The government must reverse this, investigate in order to rollback tuition costs in private institutions, and increase state subsidy and lower tuition rates in state run schools,” Crisostomo said.
As President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is set to make a statement on tuition fees and other education woes today, members of the League of Filipino Students (LFS) led a protest action today calling for meaningful reforms in the education system.
The ILPS vows to perpetuate and avail of his legacy of revolutionary resoluteness and valiant struggle in the worldwide anti-imperialist and democratic movement of the people.
“Ka Bel taught us that another society, a society free from
exploitation, free from abuse, is possible, and that the struggle is
the path that the Filipino people must take,” said Vencer Crisostomo,
chair of the League of Filipino Students (LFS).