April 30, 2008. This was more than two weeks ago. Since I need to catch up on a long backlog, I’ll just re-post a ‘press release’ I wrote and sent to some newspapers and news networks. This was one of the first things I did as the student council’s official ‘media liaison’ or public information officer. Just a disclaimer, until then, I didn’t have any previous experience writing sending press releases, so I found this task problematic. But I’ve gotten the hang of it now, I guess.
The University Student Council (USC) of the University of the Philippines (UP) today held a press conference and forum at Vinzons Hall, the university’s main student union building, regarding the rice crisis the country is currently facing. Together with representatives from residents of the UP’s residential communities and transport groups in campus and a representative from the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), the student council demanded that the government take immediate, sustainable and pro-people solutions to the crisis.
According to its statement, the student council demanded that the government “increase its support to the National Food Authority (NFA) in its procurement of palay, dismantle the rice cartels and impose a crack down on illegal acts of price manipulation, implement a moratorium on the land-use conversion of agricultural land, and increase its investment in the agricultural sector.”
law student, national democracy activist, film school graduate, photography hobbyist