The addition of 2 years to basic education, according to Ridon, will add to the already heavy burden of parents in putting their kids through school. Ridon mentioned that the 2-year addition would cause a rise in dropouts due to the inability to sustain the expenses needed in schooling. He also mentioned that this scheme ultimately aims to create thousands of high school age OFWs.

“Through its edited curriculum that would include courses like welding and foreign languages, the 12 year basic education cycle is meant to equip high school graduates with the skills needed to leave their families, work abroad and be servants of foreign corporations,” Ridon stressed.

Morever, the Aquino administration also addresses the education crisis in the tertiary level by cutting the State Universities and Colleges (SUC) budget by billions. Noy mentioned that the cut is meant to push the schools to be self-sustaining by looking for income-generating projects, most popular of which are tuition hikes.

“The Aquino administration’s decision to slash the SUC budget is tantamount to state abandonment of education. By doing this, they are espousing the idea that education is something that needs to be bought,” Ridon added.

Ridon mentioned that the `dagdag’ the youth needs is greater state subsidy to education and the `bawas’ needed is the cut back on the commercialization of social services, especially in education.

“This `dagdag taon-bawas budget’ move is a clear statement—providing quality and accessible education for the youth is not part of Noy’s agenda.”Ridon concluded.

 Share now!

 Share now!

This was the statement Terry Ridon, national chairperson of the League of Filipino Students as student and youth groups slammed the Department of National Defense and the Armed Forces of the Philippines in renewing its calls to revive a ‘militarist and rejected statute’ that had already been replaced by a citizen-driven law – the NSTP law.

“The NSTP, in almost a decade’s implementation, had been very effective in pursuing its statutory purpose of allowing college students to choose how best to train themselves and render public service. If it ain’t broke, why fix it?”

He dispelled the good intentions of the new ROTC law which would now supposedly focus on disaster response and community service.

“These supposed good intentions by the AFP are now being implemented by the citizen-driven CWTS and LTS components of the NSTP, and both had been very effective in doing so during the entire implementation of the NSTP law. The AFP’s pitch falls squarely on program redundancy.”

He said that if the real concern of the DND and the AFP is the rapid deployment of citizenry in the event of calamities, the NSTP law provides that all colleges students who underwent the NSTP’s civilian-driven components shall automatically be part of a reserve citizens volunteer corps, which may be deployed during emergency situations.

“The thrust of the NSTP is for the youth to recognize the supremacy of the people, and its capacity of effecting genuine change. A return to the old ROTC law is a step backward towards institutionalizing military supremacy in the minds of the youth.”

Ridon said that colleges and universities have not forgotten the complaints of students that had previously led to the mandatory ROTC’s abolition, such as allegations of corruption, physical and mental abuses, hazing, harassment of known student activists and leaders, among others.

“These are problems that would surely return, because it is the ROTC as an institution that is the problem, and not merely the persons running it.”

Ridon said that no matter how ‘nicely packaged’ the new ROTC law shall be, it would be no different from the previously junked law.

“We dread the day that another Mark Chua would lay dead because of the ROTC.”

LFS vowed to oppose it in the next few months, and plans to lobby for the ROTC law’s rejection in both houses of Congress.

 Share now!

This was the statement Terry Ridon, national chairperson of the League of Filipino Students as student and youth groups launched their petition drive to oppose the MRT/LRT fare hikes at the very busy MRT Cubao Terminal Station, where most train riders embark and disembark.

“It is untrue that only commuters from Metro Manila benefit from the MRT/LRT, as the railways are even used by people whose homes are in nearby provinces but work in the Metro.”

He said the MRT has afforded students studying in UP Diliman to take the daily commute from their homes as far as Cavite and Laguna to the Diliman campus. He added that students of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines living in Rizal had been regularly using the LRT II from Santolan to Pureza station, the nearest station to the PUP Sta. Mesa campus.

He also said that the DOTC is mistaking the nature of government subsidies when it continues to harp on the unfairness of government subsidies to the MRT and LRT.

“The DOTC is pitting the people against each other, as everyone, including those in the provinces is entitled to the use of our public railway systems, in the same manner as all of us have rights in the use of public hospitals and public schools.”

He described the DOTC’s logic as fit for ’street sophistry’ or in the vernacular – pilosopong pang-kalye, instead of serious policy-making.

The LFS vowed to continue hold petition-signing drives in MRT and LRT stations this week and stage picket protests in DOTC, LRT and MRT offices next week.

 Share now!

“What in the term ’social service’ does the DOTC not understand?”

This was how Terry Ridon, national chairperson of the League of Filipino Students described the planned fare increases in the MRT and the LRT which the Department of Transportation and Communication is dead-set to impose in the soonest possible time.

He said that the planned increases are a reflection of the general economic framework of public-private partnerships set by Pres. Benigno Simeon Aquino III in his State of the Nation Address.

“The values and ideology set by public=private partnerships will change the way government social services like the MRT/LRT shall be run – less of a public service, more of a profit-driven enterprise.”

He said such pro-big business values and policies in government services are dangerous as it would mean that government shall now reject the indispensability of full government subsidies in making social services accessible to our people.

“Just as education, healthcare and agrarian reform deserve full subsidies from government, so does government-run public transport system like the MRT and LRT.”

He said allowing fare increases to happen and accepting the DOTC’s justification that such services are undeserving of subsidies would further justify the decreasing of subsidies even in traditionally subsidy-dependent services like education and healthcare.

“Given the DOTC’s justification that it is unfair for all taxpayers to subsidize the daily personal benefit of a few MRT/LRT riders, such flawed logic may thus be used by government to allow public hospitals to charge more than its present rates from indigent patients, and for state universities and colleges to demand higher tuition from poor but deserving students.”

He said that under such an economic framework set by the President, social services are not now safeguarded as matter of public right, but a mere privilege available only to those who can pay.

“And if such is the ‘daand matuwid’ that is promised by the new administration, it might soon be no different from the discredited regime it replaced.”

The LFS vowed to hold petition-signing drives in MRT and LRT stations and picket protests in DOTC, LRT and MRT offices next week.

 Share now!

Ridon described the SONA as more of a ‘State of Negosyo Address’, for catering more to the interests of big business interests and foreign investors instead of addressing the people’s legitimate demands such as access to education, healthcare, land reform, better wages, among others.

Public school assets for use by private firms?

“Public schools might go the way of the University of the Philippines, which lands along Commonwealth Avenue are being used by Ayala Technohub for leasing to call centers, instead of being used for school buildings or university support services such as student and faculty housing,” said Ridon, who served as UP Student Regent in 2007.

He insisted that public school lands and other property must serve the goals of increasing access to education and improving quality of instruction instead of private, ‘profit-driven’ interests as envisioned by Aquino.

Private schools free to continue to increase fees

Ridon also said Aquino’s commitment to public-private partnerships affirms the privileged role of private schools in the determination of tuition and other fees with minimal government regulation.

“We take this policy as a complete rejection by Aquino of the students’ demand to fully regulate tuition and other fee increases. We foresee more tuition and other fee increases in the next six years, no different from Arroyo’s time,” he said.

Excuse to decrease government spending in education

He said the new policy might be used as an excuse by the Aquino government to lower subsidies to public schools, especially the country’s budget-deprived 111 state colleges and universities.

“In past appropriations hearings, UP had always been threatened by Congress that its budget would be significantly slashed due to the profits it received from allowing the lease of its assets to private corporations,” Ridon said.

He explained that student groups reject cuts in the budget of state colleges and universities (SCUs) as leads to tuition and other fee increases even in supposed ’schools of last resort’ for poor college students, as previously experienced by UP and the Philippine Normal University, whose tuition rates increased by at least 300 percent.

Same policies, different president

Ridon said student groups cannot hide their absolute disappointment in Pres. Aquino’s SONA.

“Many students expected much more from Pres. Aquino, and it seems their hopes for real changes in education had been dampened,” Ridon said.

He said that despite Aquino’s anti-corruption rhetoric, the absence of any policy declarations to benefit the students cannot be overlooked.

“Pres. Aquino is slowly unraveling himself as no different from Mrs. Arroyo in belittling student issues in wanting greater access to education by increasing subsidies and regulating tuition,”

He vowed that the LFS would continue challenging the President to act upon their demands, but warned that they would go around schools in the next few days to expose the ‘pro-commercialization’ framework of the Aquino government.

 Share now!

Today, a leader of Bayan Muna in Aklan, Fernando Baldomero had been murdered by suspected elements of the military.

During the Arroyo administration, such execution-style killings had been repeated all over the country against activist leaders and supporters.

Ridon said that Aquino never concretely addressed human rights and political killings in his policy statements in the last few days, with much Palace attention being devoted to the problem of ‘wang-wangs’.

Human rights organizations and student groups like the LFS had laid the blame for the political killings on the continued operation of the AFP’s counter-insurgency plan, Oplan Bantay Laya II, which allegedly targets for liquidation or disappearance leaders and members of people’s organizations, NGOs, student councils, lawyers, professionals, all of whom have been critical of policies of the Arroyo administration.

“It is most disturbing that after the euphoria of the people in their aspirations for genuine change, such atrocities continue under the new government. We call on Pres. Aquino to abandon Oplan Bantay Laya II now,” Ridon said.

 Share now!

“Pres. Aquino must exact complete justice for the deaths of two Filipinos, US-employed interpreter Gregan Cardeño and AFP Captain Javier Ignacio, in the course of US-RP military exercises. A rejection of the VFA must be in order,” This was the statement of Terry Ridon, national chairperson of the League of Filipino Students, as hundreds of students and youth joined the lightning protest in front of the US Embassy against the Visiting Forces Agreement and US intervention in Philippine affairs.

Ridon said that the continued implementation of the VFA was an affront to the country’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity, due to the permanent presence of US troops, the establishment of encampments in different parts of the country, and the engagement in military operations of US personnel.

He also said US troops are given preferential status in the Philippine criminal justice system under the VFA, as seen in the eventual acquittal of L/Cpl. Daniel Smith

Recently, the Philippine Supreme Court issued a writ of habeas data to US and RP military officials to shed light on the murders of Cardeño and Ignacio allegedly in the course of US-RP military exercises. The US and Philippine military had denied any wrongdoing.

The VFA is a treaty that was signed by former President Joseph Estrada but had been met with staunch criticism and protests since its ratification. To this day, different groups continue to challenge the constitutionality of the VFA, for not being considered as a treaty by the other contracting state, the United States, and violating sovereignty provisions.

“Mr. President, there can be no genuine change without a rejection of US military intervention in Philippine soil. We cannot forever be under the beck and call of the Americans.”###

Photo courtesy by: Danny Pata

 Share now!

PRESS RELEASE
July 1, 2010

Students Hold P-Noy to Inaugural Promise

LFS to Noy: Immediately Commit Emergency Funds to Education

“Dear Mr. President, our first order of business is the immediate commitment of emergency funds to education.” This was the statement of Terry Ridon, National Chairperson of the League of Filipino Students, as President Noynoy Aquino’s inaugural address made special mention of the problems of the education system, particularly the lack of facilities, classrooms and the poor quality of education.

In his address, President Aquino said clearly, “Hindi natin ipagpapaliban ang mga pangangailangan ng ating mga estudyante, kaya’t sisikapin nating punan ang kakulangan sa ating mga silid-aralan.” The new president also vowed to provide quality education and employment for the youth.

As to the amount of the funds needed, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers pegged the budget shortage to 91-M pesos insofar as basic education is concerned. According to Ridon, a former Regent of the University of the Philippines, the shortage in state college and universities (SCUs) amounts to much more, as the previous government had allocated zero capital outlay for SCUs in recent years.

Ridon said that among the beneficiaries of the emergency fund should include the Polytechnic University of the Philippines that had refused qualified but poor-and-deserving enrollees due to the scarcity of government funding and the lack of resources.

In the long-term, Ridon also hopes that the new President performs on his election promise to spend 6% of GDP to education, at par with international standards on education spending.

“Such full funding and budget prioritization would surely address many aspects of the education crisis, particularly education access and the mounting dropouts at all levels,” Ridon said.###

 Share now!

No Motherhood Statements Please!
Education, land reform should be in Noy’s inaugural address

“Aquino’s commitment to education and land reform must be present in his eight-minute address to the nation,” This was the statement of Terry Ridon, National Chairperson of the League of Filipino Students, as he urged the incoming president to make a firm commitment for greater subsidies to education at all levels and the immediate redistribution of agricultural land to poor farmers.

Ridon said that Aquino should do away with ‘motherhood statements’ that are common in inaugural speeches of past presidents, insisting that the youth are more concerned with policy directions that Aquino would take, consistent with his promises of change and ‘daang matuwid’.

For student groups like the LFS, a higher budget for education akin to the international standard of 6% of GDP in terms of education spending top their demands to the new administration.

“The new president must clearly prioritize the education of the youth, and he may start by committing an emergency fund to education in his first one hundred days.”

He said that such emergency fund would immediately avert the terrible conditions of facilities and instruction in many schools, such as the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.

On the other hand, Ridon urged President-elect Aquino to act decisively on land reform and ‘betray his class’, something that his mother failed to do when she was president, as the late president failed to fully distribute their own landholding, the Hacienda Luisita, to their sugar workers.

“Noynoy has a clear shot at undoing the shortcomings of her mother in working for genuine agrarian reform. He should commit to the distribution of Luisita in his inaugural address.”

Ridon said that by riding on the popular yearning of the people for change after nine years under Arroyo, Aquino must act swiftly to enact immediately enforceable changes in policy and governance, or else he would lose popular support.

“We will be vigilant, and we will watch you, Mr. President.”

 Share now!