There are those who say that the fight against budget cuts and the grossly insufficient government budget on our public schools, universities, hospitals and other social services is a campaign only of state university and public school students, teachers and staff, of medical professionals and employees in public hospitals, and of those who avail much of the government’s social services. They are the ones who can easily understand the need to go on strike in order to assert greater state subsidy for our schools and hospitals.

What is in it for us students in private schools? In our immediate interest, there is apparently nothing that concerns us. But you see, the reduction of state subsidy in state universities provides our private schools, which already control more than 70 percent of the country’s higher education system, greater leverage to control the “higher education” market. As it is, college education has already become a commodity to be availed of by those who can afford it and for private gain, not a right and a social service for national development as it should be. It is this situation of greater privatization, where young Filipinos and their families are left with very few alternatives but to surrender to the whims of the private sector, where tuition and other fees are exorbitant and largely deregulated, if not abandon any dreams of entering college altogether. This manifests in staggering figures admitted by the government’s education agencies—eighty percent (80%) of Filipino youth are not able to enter college or even technical-vocational schools. The point is, if tuition increases in private universities is something that concerns us, the fight of our state universities against budget cuts is also our fight. We need a strong public higher education system to serve as a counter-weight against private school owners’ free hand in dictating the control and orientation of our higher education system. The moment we allow our state universities to deteriorate or increase their rates, we can be certain that our private schools will have an easier time raising our tuition.

Then again, we have to raise this motivation, which tends to be a little selfish, to a higher level of social consciousness. Regardless if you can pay for tuition or not. It doesn’t matter. You don’t have to be an “iskolar ng bayan” to join the strikes. It doesn’t even matter if you’re already a well-paid professional, or if you belong to a family who can afford personal doctors. The fight for a pro-people budget is still ours to embrace as our own. Whatever background we have, or wherever we come from, we have one common desire–to live in a community and a society that is progressive, prosperous and peaceful. We are all bothered by one reality that assaults our senses every single day–massive poverty among our fellow Filipinos. Millions who cannot afford college education and proper health care. And we are all animated by our one common desire to end this tragic situation. We need our public schools, our state universities and our public hospitals to serve their public purpose towards national development.

It is on this premise why we have to join ranks with our “iskolars ng bayan”, our public health workers and other sectors of society, form the broadest unity under the banner of fighting for a just and humane future for the Filipino people. The Aquino administration’s budget will not lead us to the path that we all desire. It is a budget that is no different from budgets of Arroyo or any past administrations. These are budgets geared and oriented towards privatization, bureaucratic corruption, and peonage and perpetual servitude to local and multinational creditors and investors.

Thus, the fight for greater state subsidy for social services, for a pro-people national budget, is a fight of all Filipinos who dream of a nation where greatest majority enjoy the benefits of genuine democracy and progress. Let us support and join the strikes on September 19-23!