Reference: Mai Uichanco, Deputy Secretary-General, 09277619716

Students from state colleges and universities and private schools declared September 22 as a day of planking against budget cuts on education, health and basic social services. Despite the resounding opposition of certain legislators regarding hazards of planking, what is more hazardous to the youth is the continuous neglect of the Aquino government in providing substantial budget for basic social services. The students from the University of the Philippines Diliman, Manila, Miag-ao campus in Visayas and Mindanao, students from EARIST planked around noon at Mendiola as part of their respective strikes against Aquino’s budget cuts. Campuses in Lanao, Mindanao State University main campus, Iligan Institute of Technology and other campuses also set to stage simultaneous planking protests around 4:30 pm.###

UPDATE (As of 9:30 pm)
    

 Share now!

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!

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!

 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!

The following is an appeal made by the LFS along with other student organizations and alliances to demand an increase in government budget to education:

An Appeal to Congress to Increase the Budget of State Colleges and Universities, Particularly Its Capital Outlay

I. Whereas, among the public infrastructure severely damaged by the onslaught of Typhoon Ondoy are state colleges and universities in Metro Manila, Southern Tagalog, and Central Luzon, including the Marikina Polytechnic College

II. Whereas, among the public infrastructure severely damaged by the onslaught of Typhoon Pepeng are state colleges and universities in Northern Luzon, Cagayan Valley and the Cordillera Administrative Region

III. Whereas, State Colleges and Universities have pending budget proposals for already delayed construction of new buildings and acquisition of equipment, the effects of which include the overcrowding of dilapidated classrooms, laboratories and support facilities, and the deprivation of further knowledge production and transfer through the building of new facilities and the acquisition of new equipment

IV. Whereas, the proposed 2010 overall budget for SUCs have been reduced by P3.19 billion, from P21.23 billion in 2009 to a proposed P21.034 billion in 2010

V. Whereas, the content of the SUC budget reductions include providing zero capital outlay and a severe reduction of the SUCs Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE)

VI. Whereas, a clear example such budget reduction is the University of the Philippines, the proposed 2010 budget of which had been reduced by P2.09 billion for 2010, from P7.38 billion in 2009 to a proposed P5.29 billion for 2010.

VII. Whereas, the continuous infusion of government funding to SUCs, particularly on capital outlay, is in pursuance of the universally-accepted right to education and the constitutional provision mandating government to make higher education accessible to all Filipino youth

VIII. Whereas, the continuing deprivation of adequate funding for SUCs, including that of capital outlay, had been the primary causa for SUCs to embark on tuition and other fee increases, and other income-generating measures, operating similarly as private higher educational institutions

IX. Whereas, by embarking on tuition and other fee increases, and other income-generating measures due to the lack of adequate government funding, the universally-accepted right to education and the constitutional mandate for government to make higher education accessible to all shall be infringed

X. Whereas, while it had been a long-standing executive policy to encourage income-generation amid decreasing government funding for SUCs, Congress, in the exercise of its checking powers, may increase the funding for SUCs in order to arrest the infringement of the universally-accepted right to education and the constitutional mandate on government to make higher education accessible to all.

IN LIGHT OF ALL THESE, the following national student unions and organizations – National Union of Students of the Philippines, College Editors Guild of the Philippines League of Filipinos Students, ANAKBAYAN, Student Christian Movement, respectfully appeal to the legislators to increase the budget of all State Colleges and Universities, particularly their Capital Outlay.

————————–
Click on the thumbnails to view the full images

 Share now!

 Share now!

Members of militant youth group League of Filipino Students (LFS) held a lightning rally in front of the United States Embassy in Manila today in protest of “continued US intervention in the Philippines.” Ridon said, “The LFS had always been correct when it demanded the expulsion of US troops then, and this was clear proof that the Philippine government merely kowtows to US interests. The same is true until now, with the Visiting Forces Agreement.”

According to Ridon, the policies being implemented in the country today serve US interests at the expense of the Filipino people.

“After a decade since it was ratified, we ask what the people has gotten out of the VFA. The supposed aid that is being given by the US troops in Mindanao serve nothing but a smokescreen to their intervention in the country. It is nothing if it costs us our freedom,” said Ridon.

The VFA is Proof of RP’s Continuing Puppetry to the US
“The presence of US troops in the Philippines undermines the supposed sovereignty and independence of the country, even more so if that presence is permanent,” said Terry Ridon, secretary general of the LFS.
This was the statement of the LFS during the Anti-VFA protest rally on September 16th, the anniversary of the 1991 Senate abrogation RP-US Bases Agreement. Such abrogation expelled US troops from the Philippines and dismantled all its military bases, including Subic Bay Naval Base and Clark Airfield.

“The continued implementation of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and other unequal treaties with the US have taken away the victories of decades worth of Filipino struggle against US intervention such as the dismantling of US Bases in 1991,” said Ridon.

US Imperialism is the Stumbling Block for RP’s Economic Development
“Our country shall never develop as long as we serve the economic and military interests of the US, as long as we have a government that is subservient to foreign demands,” added Ridon. ###

__________________________
Click 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!

 Share now!