This was the statement of Vencer Crisostomo, Spokesperson of Kilos Na! Laban sa Budget Cut as thousands of students from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines massed up to protest the continuing privatization of State Universities and Colleges (SUC).

Led by Kilos Na! Laban sa Budget Cut (a broad alliance of students, teachers, workers, parents, legislators, individuals and organizations against budget cuts on education and other social services) the Sentral na Konseho ng Mag-aaral- PUP and the Sandigan ng Mag-aaral para sa Sambayanan (Samasa), the students protested the 1.1 billion SUC budget cut, saying that this is part of Aquino’s bigger plan: to privatize education and other social services.

“This is a long standing program even of past regimes: continuing to sell the country’s resources and public infrastructures to private and foreign interests. Today, thousands of students protest Aquino’s move to maintain this program and the comprehensive state policy to privatize social services. To us students, this would mean putting a price on our education: education ceasing to exist as a right.”, said Cheysser Soriano, SKM Chairperson.

As the protest continues inside the PUP campus, the biggest businessmen from around the world came to the Marriot Hotel in Pasay for the launching of Aquino’s Private-Public Partnership program. The program aims to ‘strengthen the ties’ of the government and the private sector by opening the economy further for private ventures.

“We denounce with utmost disgust Noynoy’s program that blatantly sells our country to corporate interests. At this rate, it won’t be long until UP and PUP are run by foreign corporations. It’s clear to us that we don’t have to go abroad for these huge foreign corporations to exploit us. Right here in our homeland, they treat social services as commodities, subject them to the market’s whims making them all the more inaccessible to majority of Filipinos. And their number one agent? The President.” said Vencer Crisostomo.

The students vow to escalate protests as the senate vote on the national budget nears. ###

 Share now!

 Share now!

Students Welcome Opening of Classes With Protest Against Tuition Fee Increase

Students led by the League of Filipino Students (LFS), Kabataan Partylist (KP) and Student Christian Movement of the Philippines (SCMP) stormed the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Regional Office-7 around 10:30 AM to protest against the Commission’s inactivity in the face of unabated tuition fee increases in private as well as in state colleges and universities throughout the country, many without even undergoing genuine consultation with students, parents and other stakeholders.

Aside from the tuition fee, schools also charge anomalous and exorbitant miscellaneous fees such as Internet fee and Energy fee which are supposed to be covered by the tuition fees students pay.

The students condemned CHED’s degeneration into a mere rubber stamp for school owners’ tuition increase and its feeble attempts at preventing colleges and universities from raising tuition and other fees.

Recently, CHED approved 339 Higher Education Institutions to increase their tuition fees for this school year 2010-2011. In Central Visayas alone, 18 schools will increase their tuition by no less than 3%. The percentage of increase for this year in the entire region is 12.37%.

After being denied entry, the students barricaded themselves in front of the Regional Office’s gate and demanded a dialogue with CHED Regional Director Amelia Biglete only to be told that the Director was absent. Undaunted, the protesters called on the ranking official of the office to face them and listen to their demands, eventually gaining entry into the CHED compound where they continued their program.

“When School Administrators apply for a tuition fee increase, they are welcomed with a ‘red carpet entrance’ into the CHED Office,” says Kyle Tumbiga, Coordinator of LFS-Cebu, “But when students come to petition for a freeze on tuition , they lock us out.”

After a brief standoff, Assistant Regional Director Candelario Aytona agreed to listen to the students’ demands but could only say that he would pass it on to the National Office. Despite the prodding of the students he would not assure them that the CHED would immediately act on their demands.

“Aytona’s statements show that there is no guarantee that our demands will even be acted upon by CHED, so we will not stop our protests until CHED takes a concrete action against tuition fee increase,” warns Tumbiga.

He proposes that in light of the continued effects of the Global Financial Crisis compounded by the economic dislocation brought about by the El Nino phenomenon, CHED should proactively put a stop to the yearly increase in tuition fees by imposing a moratorium on tuition hikes similar to the House Bill sponsored by Kabataan Party-list Representative Raymond Palatino which was unfortunately not acted upon by the outgoing Congress.

He also called on the incoming Aquino Administration to fulfill its campaign promise to concentrate on education by providing the highest budgetary priority to education, as mandated by the Constitution.

“CHED should prepare itself for a much bigger protest if it continues to be deaf to the cries of the students and parents,” Tumbiga said, “We are also calling on our fellow students to join us in opposing these threats to our right to quality education.”

 Share now!

Gain Victories through Protest and Dialogue with CHED

Militant students from several universities and colleges in Iloilo today greeted the opening of classes with an indignation protest in front of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Region 6 Office.

“The students are indignant about the worsening education situation in the country. The people’s right to quality yet accessible education suffered the worst attacks under the Arroyo regime,” said KABATAAN Partytlist Panay Regional Coordinator Lean Redino Porquia.

More than 50 students massed up in Jaro Plaza by 4PM and from there marched to the CHED Region 6 Office with their streamers, placards, and a huge school card bearing outgoing president Arroyo’s failing grade for her educational policies and programs.

Student leaders dialogued with new CHED Region 6 Director Virginia Resurreccion as the protesters continued the picket and held a die-in on the CHED Region 6 Office parking lot.

“Arroyo’s policies directly encouraged less education spending, budget cuts and austerity measures in state universities, and tuition and other fees increases in both public and private schools. This year alone, 399 tertiary colleges and universities nationwide are raising their tuition. 24 higher educational institutions are having tuition increases in Region 6,” Porquia added.

Concrete Victories through Collective Action

The indignation rally and dialogue with Director Resurreccion yielded concrete victories for the student sector in the province of Iloilo and the whole of Region 6 with CHED agreeing to the following student demands:

• CHED committed to issue a memorandum making the payment of Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) fees non-mandatory for students.
• CHED committed to create a monitoring body that will investigate the implementation of the tuition hikes in the 24 tertiary educational institutions in Region 6 that raised tuition in the present school year.
• CHED committed to include progressive student groups in this monitoring body.

“Through our protest we proved once more the potency of collective action,” said Leo Carlo Andrew, West Visayas State University (WVSU) – University Student Council (USC) Vice Chairperson and National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) Iloilo member.

“We were able to expose that the government agency supposedly tasked with protecting the students’ right to education as nothing more than a rubberstamp that only takes note of fee increases by universities,” added Andrew.

“CHED should exercise its regulating powers. CHED should not leave it to school owners to indiscriminately hike tuition and other fees. Repressive policies like the CHED Memo 13 that allows unregulated tuition increases should be junked. Education is a right and not a privilege for the financially capable few.”

KABATAAN Partylist Panay and the Iloilo chapters of the Anakbayan, the League of Filipino Students (LFS), the National Union of Students (NUSP), and the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) led today’s protest.

 Share now!

League of Filipino Students – San Francisco State University

From across the Pacific, the League of Filipino Students at San Francisco State University stand along side our sisters and brothers in the Philippines fighting for their basic human right to an education. Students from different corners of the globe in Austria, Spain, the Philippines and the United States have been rising up and protesting the rapidly increasing fees hikes as politicians continue to gut resources from education.

Voicing their outrage against the proposed 1666% increase in tuition, students led a protest at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) on March 18th, throwing broken chairs and desks from the fourth floor, highlighting the Philippine government’s neglect. Five student leaders from the Student Council, League of Filipino Students, and Kabataan Partylist were harassed and arrested by police charged for robbery of school property on March 24th during the walk out protest of hundreds of students.

PUP, like our California State University (CSU) system, boasts about being the most accessible colleges, affordable to lower income students and working class people. With these outrageous increases however, many students can no longer afford to receive a higher education.

With over $583 million in cuts to CSUs comes 80% increases in student fees and a lower quality of education. March 4th was a statewide mobilization for education bringing together K-12, community colleges, CSUs, and UCs to demand for education to be a top priority. What kind of future for our children is there if education is inaccessible?

For students in the Philippines who have been able to finish college, they are still unable to find jobs after they graduate. This points to the deeper issue of the government’s blatant disregard for providing basic living needs for the people.

As the government tries to increase the price for education, it continues to spend money on a military, which has been documented by organizations such Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Karapatan, as a repeated human rights violator.

Since this current administration has been in office, there have been well-over 1,000 cases of extra-judicial killings. In relation to this, the United States continues to pour tens of millions of dollars to the Philippines to support its armed forces, while students in America are having to pay more for their education while getting less back each semester.

The League of Filipino Students at San Francisco State University stand in solidarity with the PUP students who continue to fight against tuition increases and cuts to education. We applaud them in their victory to stop the proposed 1666% increase and we hope that through our efforts here in United States, we can achieve the same goal. We demand for the release of Cheyser Soriano, Judy Anne Fabito, Pi Em Canela, Fennin Louise Umagat, and Abriel Mansilungan, the five students arrested for demanding basic services that the government tried to take away.

It is not a crime to fight for accessible education when it should be provided for all! The true crime is the lack of regard by the Philippine government for the majority of Filipinos who continuously are forced to leave their home country to find jobs elsewhere! The struggle for accessible and relevant education persists throughout the world and we will continue to fight to secure this basic human right!

Education for All!
Release the PUP 5!
Long Live International Solidarity!

—————————–

Photos by:
Kimberly dela Cruz
Alvin Joseph Tenedero
Victor Lorenzo Villanueva

Click on the thumbnails to view the full images

 Share now!

“Mrs. Arroyo did not do her homework very well. Who’s pussy-footing now?,” was Palatino’s tongue-in-cheek reaction.

“As with her previous SONAs, Arroyo used the Cinderella tales of youths and individuals who made accomplishments based on their own merit, claiming them as her own. Mylene Amerol-Macumbal and Jennifer Silbor’s stories are only isolated tales of success. Instead, the plights of many Jonathan Montemayors, Julie Albiors and Flores Biwangs represent the real picture of the education sector.,” Palatino said.

Palatino said that Arroyo used only the ‘safe’ numbers that could stupefy the crowd, that she failed to cite damning but accurate and relevant statistics.

The young solon was referring to the disheartening stories of Albior and Biwang, topnotchers in the 2006 National Achievement Test (NAT) who failed to enter college in the University of the Philippines due
to poverty.”

He also cited the story of twenty-year-old nursing student Montemayor who committed suicide last week after he was forced to stop his studies.

Palatino also said Arroyo’s 600,000 scholarships did not make an impact, as they were mere “token subsidies” rather than genuine solutions to education woes.

“The scholarships are actually a manifestation of the increasing cost of education. The government is dishing out scholarships because it cannot control fee hikes in schools. Instead, the government should regulate tuition and other fee increases of both private and public learning institutions. Bakit kailangan ding i-privatize ang state universities and colleges na sana’y nagbibigay ng mura o libreng edukasyon? Iilan lang naman ang makikinabang sa mga scholarship na ito,” he said.

Palatino also said that Arroyo should not be too proud of her ‘higher investment in technical education and skills training’ because ‘the orientation of tech-voc education in the country is export-oriented’.

“Para saan pa ang ipinagmamalaking investment ni Arroyo sa tech-voc kung inilalako rin lamang sila sa ibang bansa?” Palatino said.

Additional years of schooling slammed
Palatino also slammed the Presidential Task Force on Education’s proposal to reform the curriculum of professions seeking international recognition. The task force recommended that students who want to take engineering, architecture, accountancy, pharmacy and physical therapy should undergo 10 years of basic education, two years of pre-university, before three years of university.

“While adding another year will improve the quality of these courses as it is now a global trend, this does not necessarily mean an improvement on our part. Countries with more years of schooling have higher allocation and spending for education. Our budget for education, on the other hand, has been dwindling since 2001., Palatino said.

The Philippine government spent a measly 2.5 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product on public educational institutions in 2007. This pales in comparison to its neighboring countries Malaysia with 6.2 percent and Thailand with 4.2 percent. Laos even spent more at 3.0 percent. The minimum prescribed standard for education spending set by UNESCO is 6 percent of a country’s GDP. ##

 Share now!

Despite a brutal dispersal last week, about 100 youth and students returned to the US Embassy in Manila today to continue calling for the junking of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

Last February 25, six students were badly injured and others were hurt after police from the Western Police District used their shields to break up a student led march towards the Embassy.

“We are returning to the US Embassy today not because we want another clash with the Police, but because we demand the junking of the VFA, which is an agreement that undermines our country’s sovereignty and independence,” said Terry Ridon, spokesperson of the League of Filipino Students (LFS), which led today’s protest.

Ridon explained that the VFA has allowed US Soldiers to station themselves indefinitely in the Philippines, making the country a base for its operations.

“Filipinos have a term for unwelcome visitors, bwisitas, and the US troops fit it perfectly. And though our country is known for its hospitality, we can’t be kind to criminals and rapists,” said Ridon.

The youth leader also slammed the President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for what he described as “the president’s continued subservience to US interests.”

“Despite the growing anti-VFA sentiment among the people, our government continues to allow the VFA and cover their eyes from the fact that our country is being held hostage by the US,” Ridon said.

The protesters vowed to continue holding protests at the US Embassy until the VFA is junked and the country pursues an “independent foreign policy.”

“Though the threat of a brutal dispersal remains, we can not remain quiet while we see our country raped and exploited by foreign troops and so we shall continue this campaign for the junking of the VFA and all other unfair agreements between the Philippines and the US, said Ridon. ###

____
Click on the thumbnails to view the full images

 Share now!

This was how the League of Filipino Students (LFS) described the decision of the Supreme Court to transfer the custody of convicted rapist Lance Corporal Daniel Smith from the US embassy to the Philippines while affirming the constitutionality of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

“While the court’s order to transfer Smith is commendable, this is a mere Pyrrhic victory for the Filipino people, as the Supreme Court reiterated once again the validity of an unpatriotic and militarist treaty. It is clear as day that although we do not have foreign military bases in the nature of the former American bases in Central Luzon, American security forces have established permanent-albeit-collapsible facilities in the southern Philippines, Zamboanga in particular. This should have been enough to merit a reversal of a prior Supreme Court ruling almost a decade ago,” said Terry Ridon, spokesperson of the LFS.

Ridon warned that, “Until the VFA is repealed and the US soldiers go back to the US for good, the country can expect similar atrocities from US soldiers in the future.”

The youth leader described the VFA as proof of our country’s colonial relationship to the US.

“That the government allowed Smith to be detained under US custody shows our government’s continuing subservience to its colonial master,” said Ridon.

The US government threatened to call off large-scale exercises with Manila until Smith was transferred to the detention center within the compound of the US in Manila Bay.

The LFS, along with other militant groups held a protest action at the US Embassy in Manila today to call for the repeal of the VFA and all “unequal treaties and agreements” with the US and other foreign powers.

“We shall continue to campaign for the expulsion of American security forces in the the Philippines in the next few months,” Ridon finally says. ###

—–
Click the thumbnails to view the images

 Share now!

“The Arroyo government’s sweet-talk on the stability of the economy has long been shattered. As all the countries of the world, we are likewise deep in recession, as a result of Mrs. Arroyo’s almost decade-long puppetry to the United States’ economic interests,” said Terry Ridon, spokesperson of the LFS.

“The the dim government projection of retrenchments in industry-wide in the hundreds of thousands, serve as a clear indication of the failure of government to truly implement an economic program that can properly insulate the country from economic fluctuations in the global market.,” added Ridon.

“Instead of pushing for fundamental economic reforms such as genuine land reform and embracing the concept of ‘national industrialization’, Mrs. Arroyo simply prostituted the country’s national resources and exported our human resources for short-term and artificial economic accolades, benefiting neither our people nor the economy,” he said.

“As such, the youth and our people have no other option but push and struggle for ‘genuine social change’, which is essentially a call for deep-seated economic and political reforms, such as the implementation of compulsory land acquisition in pursuit of genuine land reform, the increase of government subsidies for basic social services particularly agricultural support and infrastructure, among others,” said Ridon.

“Nonetheless, we remain unwavering in holding this government accountable for its criminal and political crimes against the people, particularly the plunder of the government purse through anomalous contracts, and the execution-style killings of almost thousands of political activists in the course of Mrs. Arroyo’s tyrannical reign. Inasmuch as we struggle for genuine social change, we are as active to continue the ‘final push’ in seeking Mrs. Arroyo’s ouster from office, especially if her lackeys in Congress decisively push term extensions through Cha-Cha in the guise of amendments of its economic provisions.” ###

Click the images to enlarge.

 Share now!

 Share now!