Posts tagged with youth sector

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March 1, 2011

Youth protest against price hikes (February 28, 2011)

Manila youth protest against tuition hikes and other price hikes

Some four to five hundred students from various schools and universities, and out of school youths from different communities in Metro Manila trooped to Mendiola this afternoon to demand that the government take action to protect the youth and the people from another wave of tuition hikes that’s happening alongside spiraling prices of basic commodities, public utilities and social services, from train fares to electricity rates. These are happening in the context of massive unemployment and poverty and stunted minimim wages.

Manila youth protest against tuition hikes and other price hikes Kabataan Party-List Rep. Palatino at Manila youth rally Kabataan Party-List Rep. Palatino at Manila youth rally Kabataan Party-List Rep. Palatino at Manila youth rally Manila youth protest against tuition hikes and other price hikes Manila youth protest against tuition hikes and other price hikes Manila youth protest against tuition hikes and other price hikes

WHAT CAN THE PRESIDENT DO
The usual hecklers and Malacañang apologists claim that the President has no power to control prices, as these are at the mercy of “free market” forces. Remedial solutions, however, are well within the powers of the President. With regard to tuition increases, for example, the President only has to order the Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education to exercise their regulatory powers and regulate the implementation of tuition hikes in schools and universities across the country, if not impose a moratorium altogether. The Price Act (Republic Act 7581) allows him to put a price cap on basic necessities. He can suspend the collection of VAT especially on oil products and electricity. He can order the audit of profits and stocks of oil companies to stop its overpricing (by as much as P8.00 per liter) by private profiteers. He can withdraw the implementation of fare hikes in Metro Manila’s mass transit railways, and the toll hikes in the highways as these are well within the regulatory powers of the Government on public utilities and services.

Truly, a government that willingly refuses to wield its police power to provide the people relief from the onslaught of price hikes has no business telling them they can’t expect any wage hike. With P404.00 a day as minimum wage in Metro Manila, how do you expect a family of six to survive when the cost of living for such a family in the capital is P957.00 a day? (Un-updated estimate of cost of living, might be beyond P1,000.00 today).

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June 16, 2010

First day of school

More than two hundred youths from different universities and communities in Metro Manila marched yesterday, June 15, 2010, to the gates of Malacanang to protest the worsening crisis in education

Yesterday was the first day of classes for most schools, colleges and universities in the country. As millions flocked to their respective campuses, more than 8 million of our fellow Filipino youths and children will not even get to step inside a classroom. This marks one of the highest number of out-of-school youth in our nation’s modern history.

In Gloria Arroyo’s nine years in office, the nation has experienced budget cuts in education, tuition and other fee increases left and right and as mentioned, the highest out-of-school and drop-out rates in years.

Despite the constitutional guarantee that education is a right of each and every Filipino, going to school has increasingly been such a financial burden to millions of Filipino families, if they can get in a school at all. Even public elementary and high schools, with up to 61,343 in classroom shortage and 54,060 in teacher shortage, cannot accommodate all Filipino children, nor can they provide the kind and quality of education needed for national development. The Department of Education itself declared that there are as many as 5.6 million out-of-school children.

The students were able to squeeze past through the barbed wire barricades of Mendiola and march to Gate 7 of the Presidential Palace

The nation’s public universities, on the other hand, has been suffering budget cuts almost every year forcing them to extract tuition and other fees from their students and forcing them to sell resources which would otherwise have served their constituents. The Philippines actually has the lowest percentage of youths studying in state universities. In other countries, state universities and colleges accommodate majority of college-age youths. In the Philippines, we force them to either enroll in private institutions with steep tuition rates, or to not enter college at all.

While our parents’ wages have been stunted for decades, the government has allowed tuition rates in private schools and public universities to escalate. It has in fact almost doubled since Gloria Arroyo became President. In 2001, the national average cost per unit in colleges and universities was at P257.41. In 2010, it has almost doubled to P501.22. In Metro Manila where most of the country’s colleges and universities are located, it is worse. From P439.59 per unit in 2001 it has ballooned to P980.54 per unit in 2010. These don’t even take into account the long list miscellaneous fees being implemented by schools, which hide the real cost of education.

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June 6, 2010

On rules prescribed by the Catholic university of the Philippines

Upon enrollment at a law school of a Catholic university in Manila, I was made to sign a conforme prescribing the kind of conduct and discipline the university imposes on all its students.

At the onset, I was taken aback. Not only because I had come from a relatively more liberal environment in the University of the Philippines, but I simply found it repulsive that there are specific prohibitions on what I’ve always thought were personal and political rights.

I understand the concept of “academic freedom” on the side of educational institutions and that they are granted institutional liberty to define what to teach and how to teach concepts and even character and values, but when institutions use this liberty to invade the realm of personal conduct and even appearance in guise of character-building, I think it is wrong.

Aside from prescriptions on personal and inter-personal conduct, there are also vague prescriptions on political actions such as rallies and strikes. In the list of policy guidelines, it is noted that in order to achieve and maintain “peace and order,” students must refrain from “joining boycotts, assemblies, parades or marches, or other gatherings that tend to create unnecessary noise and/or disturbance.” Another provision desists students from “instigating or leading illegal strikes/rallies or similar concerted activities resulting in the stoppage or disruption of classes.”

These provisions virtually bans all rallies, because all rallies create “disturbance”. It is in the very nature of such demonstrations. These provisions were used consistently to suspend and expel student activists in the university.

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May 21, 2010

On Kabataan Partylist’s “unsightly” graffitis

A few days ago, an anonymous reader left a comment expressing disappointment over graffitis spray-painted across the city during the election campaign period by members of Kabataan Partylist. These are the graffitis that read “Edukasyon Karapatan!” and “Tutulan ang Tuition Increase!” among others. The comment also asked me to condemn such forms of expression and dissuade our members from executing them.

Like any other form of protest, from rallies to boycotts and walk-outs, graffitis are meant to defy prevailing conditions. They create disturbance precisely because they draw attention to social issues and call people to actively get involved in such protest campaigns, without having to go through mainstream and “legal” limitations.

Graffitis may be unsightly, but they were not meant to be beautiful in the first place. Its very aesthetic, which some have descibed to be “unsightly”, connotes stealth and speed precisely because it is illicit. Protest graffitis are not murals or paintings that take many hours to complete and costly paints and colors to beautify. Youth activists, or any activist for that matter, do not have such luxuries.

The illegality of graffiti is all but expected in a society where the people who rule implement various regulations that seeks (desperately) to maintain the status quo. In a country where such status quo means an impoverished majority, a majority unable to afford tertiary education, graffitis that affirm the people’s right to social services and human development are nothing more but forms of legitimate resistance to the ruling order. Illegal, of course, but definitely legitimate.

Worried about the cost of the paints the government will have to use to cover the graffitis? Why paint over them then? It will simply affirm the guilt and the responsibility on their part. What’s so repulsive with a bridge post or a wall that screams for the people’s right to education?

I will not discourage our members from freely expressing our calls and our slogans through graffitis. And even more, I encourage people to explore similar creative forms of protest. No apologies from us.

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March 27, 2010

Our freedom and our rights were not won with diplomacy

Anuman ang sabihin ng mga kontra-aktibista, wala nang ibang magpapatunay sa kawastuhan ng linya at pamamaraaan na tinahak ng mga estudyanteng nag-protesta laban sa tuition hike kung hindi ang mismong pag-atras at pagsuko ng CHED (Commission on Higher Education) at ng PUP (Polytechnic University of the Philippines) administration sa kanilang maitim na balak, at ang hindi pagkakatuloy sa paga-apruba ng mga bagong bayarin sa UP (University of the Philippines) nang dahil sa kolektibong pagkilos ng mga kabataan. The campaigns wouldn’t have been successful any other way.

To be clear, Kabataan Partylist, together with its founding organizations like the National Union of Students of the Philippines and its student leaders, have long pursued lobbying for greater state subsidy for education and holding dialogues against any attempt to hike tuition and other fees. We have always been ever mindful and aware, however, that it is militant and collective action that is decisive in winning our democratic fights. The government never granted us our rights on a silver platter, after all, especially when it is equally determined to pursue its selfish agenda, without any genuine intention to listen to the demands of its constituents. True enough, students had to barricade Quezon Hall, bring down the gates of CHED’s main office and throw paint bombs at its glass doors for these offices to bow down to the democratic interests of the people they were supposed to serve.

Nais kong ibalik ang tanong sa mga kontra-aktibista. Ano ba ang sinasabi ninyong mas mapayapa at mas epektibong paraan na hindi namin ginawa? Ginawa niyo ba ito?

Napakabilis ng pagkondena ng mga kontra-aktibista sa “marahas” na paraan na ginawa ng mga estudyante. Nasaan ang inyong pagkondena sa tuition increase na kung tutuusin ay mas marahas dahil sa pagkakait nito ng magandang kinabukasan sa libo-libong kabataan? Ni hindi ko narinig ni nakita miski sa isang Facebook status message ang pagtutol ninyo dito.

Is it that easy to forget, that throughout history, the freedom of nations, the rights of the people were never won with mere diplomacy. All of them were fought for by the people through street protests and bloody revolutions.

Today, five student leaders of PUP remain detained under the custody of the police for charges of of “robbery” filed against them by the shamed PUP administration. These students were among the hundreds who tried to bring to the gates of CHED their dilapidated desks as a sign of protest against the state’s abandonment of education. Samantala, patuloy pa rin ang sistematikong pagnanakaw sa kaban ng bayan, ang pagakakait sa mamamayan ng karapatan sa serbisyong panlipunan, at ang pinakamadugas na magnanakaw ay nasa Malacanang.

(Students will still gather and hold a protest action on March 29, 2010 at the Board of Regents meeting of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines at a posh bayside hotel in Manila, to ensure that CHED and the PUP administration hold true to their word that they will not increase tuition in the nation’s largest state university.)

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October 2, 2009

A temporary relief for state universities & colleges

Last Wednesday, the sub-committee hearing the budget of state universities and colleges (SUC’s) unanimously committed to restore the budget to its 2009 level. It means to say that the proposed P3 billion budget cut by the President and the Department of Budget & Management is rejected at the sub-committee level, and the budget for the country’s 110 SUC’s would be back to around P24 billion.

Kabataan Rep. Mong Palatino remarked that this is imperative, as the proposed budget has barely any allocation for SUC’s capital outlay. How then can SUC’s affected by the recent calamities rebuild their schools?

A few days earlier, the DBM released a statement defending the budget cut in response to several protests launched by the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP). They claimed that the proposed P21 billion budget is sufficient to sustain the services of SUC’s, as they are anyway allowed to generate their own income. What they didn’t say is that this forced income generating policy is done at the expense of students, through tuition and other fee increases. The statement only proves that our analysis as correct, that budget cuts and tuition increases are state policies that harm the future of the youth and the nation.

The motion to restore the P24 billion budget drew cheers from the attending university officials and employees. One state university president, however, remarked that though he was elated by the motion of the congressmen, he feared that it may be another disappointment. Apparently, congressmen, the politicians that they are, have for the past years committed to similar promises of budget increases, only to disappoint SUC’s once the General Appropriations Act is passed. Hopefully, the attending congressmen stay true to their word and maintain the P24 billion commitment–insufficient as it is, is better than the P21 billion budget proposed by the Executive.

It must be stressed, however, that this relief is temporary, as though the sub-committee approved the increase, the same must also be approved by the Committee on Appropriations and the House of Representatives in plenary session. It also has to get the approval of the Senate. Needless to say, it is too soon to be glad about the development.

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Tulong Kabataan‘s relief effort for the victims of tropical storm Ondoy is still ongoing! You may drop off your donations at any of the donation centers in schools across the Metro. You may also donate via Paypal. Or you may go to our headquarters at 118-B Scout Rallos St., Quezon City for volunteer work. The HQ is near GMA Network’s main offices along Timog Avenue.

With your help, Tulong Kabataan was able to hold soup kitchens in some communities a few days ago. Yesterday, we joined Makabayan’s clean-up effort at Tumana, Marikina. Hand in hand, volunteers helped the residents fill up two garbage trucks of debris. Today, there will be a medical mission in Malate. This weekend, if the weather permits, we will push through with the centralization of all relief goods collected from the donation centers and do repacking and distribution to several affected communities.

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September 30, 2009

We make the university, they make the crisis

Today the House of Representatives will start hearing the 2010 budgets of country’s state universities and colleges (SUC’s). We are of course, for the increase of the budgets of public institutions of higher learning.

Unfortunately however, many of the appointed administrators of state universities are resigned, even subservient, to the government’s policy of reducing government support to SUC’s. This year, the total allocation for the country’s 110 state universities and its almost 1 million students was slashed by P3 billion pesos. This situation, for the past years, has lead to the rampant increases in tuition and other miscellaneous fees in SUC’s, fervently implemented by its administrators. These have, in turn, made tertiary education in the Philippines increasingly inaccessible to the vast majority of Filipino youth.

This phenomenon of state abandonment of public higher educational institutions is not confined to the Philippines. It is a challenge being faced by many state universities and colleges around the world as an effect of a global free market philosophy that forces governments to cut on social services such as higher education in order to “balance the budget” and finance debt servicing.

A few days ago, thousands of students from state-funded University of California (UC) and other state universities and colleges in California walked out of their classes and protested against the budget cuts and the consequent tuition increases that were to be implemented by the state government. In defense of the cuts, the state government hammers the justification that everyone has to tighten their belts in light of fiscal crises and growing budget deficits. It is a rhetoric that is echoed even by the Philippine government. These belt-tightening justifications are nevertheless rejected as crises of their own making and as hypocrisies because governments continue to provide huge sums on questionable allocations and continue providing huge tax incentives to large corporations. In the Philippines for example, the government annually allocates tens of billions of pesos in Presidential discretionary funds that are immune from auditing scrutiny.

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September 23, 2009

UC students walk-out against commercialization of California State U’s

Even state university students and faculty in California are walking out in protest to the present state government’s policy of privatizing state public higher education institutions, from UC Berkeley to California State University. Budget cuts, tuition hikes, limited admissions, corporate tie-ups, these are phrases that sound all too familiar to students from state universities in the Philippines. It is a reinforcement of the assertion that commercialization of public higher education is a product of a global free-market philosophy.

The budget cuts in California and in the Philippines take on very similar forms, as do their consequences. State policies (Higher Education Compact in California, Medium Term Higher Education Development Plan in the Philippines) declare that state universities should generate their own income from privatization and tuition hikes. Consequently, state funding is reduced as school administrators raise tuition and limit certain student services. It’s even worse in the University of California where salaries are also being slashed and enrollment/admissions are being limited.

In California as it is in the Philippines, despite gradual state abandonment of public higher education institutions, enrollment in state universities is increasing, students continue to flock to public institutions and their share in the total enrollment of all college students is growing larger by the year. The situation is more serious in California where public institutions enroll 79% of all college and university students. The share in the Philippines is 35% in 2008 (from only 10% in 1980). These figures should actually reinforce the policy of strengthening support to public higher education institutions instead of cutting subsidies.

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September 22, 2009

Budget cut in SUC’s means added burden to students

As the national government continues to cut down spending on the country’s 110 state universities and colleges (SUCs), students carry the burden of the steep cost of higher education, Kabataan Party-list Representative Raymond “Mong” Palatino said.

In the proposed national budget for 2010, allocation for SUCs will be slashed by 13 percent or a whopping P3.2 billion, thus forcing SUCs to generate income mostly from students.

Based on the 2010 National Expenditure Program, bulk of SUCs’ projected income of P10.2 billion will be sourced from tuition fees (P4.59 Billion) and other income from students (2.23 billion).

Palatino said “SUCs are being forced to rely less on government subsidy and more on internally-generated income in the form of tuition and other fees and privatization of assets. Unfortunately, the burden of financing tertiary education is placed on Filipino students, many of whom will be unable to afford it,” Palatino said.

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September 19, 2009

State abandonment of higher education

This table shows the share of state subsidy and internally-generated income in state universities and colleges’ (SUC) total operating budget through the years. What is evident is that SUC’s are being forced to rely less and less on government subsidy and more and more on internally-generated income (in the form of tuition and other student fees, privatization of assets, etc.).

One sector which has always suffered from the government’s policy of contracting spending for social services in favor of continued debt servicing is the sector of higher education. When I was still in UP, I had friends who abhorred militant activists and the “leftist” slogans. One of the state policies they continuously deny is existing is “state abandonment of education.”

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