Victorious PUP Students Say Protests ‘Symptom of Bigger Problem’ in Philippine Education

Victorious PUP Students Say Protests ‘Symptom of Bigger Problem’ in Philippine Education

By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Originally published at Bulatlat.com on March 31, 2010

A student demands better education. (Photo by Janess Ann J. Ellao / bulatlat.com)

MANILA — Mrs. Mia Soriano went to the Manila Police District on Monday to bring food and clothes for her daughter Cheysser, one of the five students who were detained there after they were charged with robbery by officials of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.
Cheysser was among those accused of burning 13 armchairs inside the school during a protest on campus last week against a proposed tuition increase.

Mrs. Soriano, however, was greeted by the news that PUP president Dr. Dante Guevarra had withdrawn the robbery charges against the five and that they were now free. “I am very happy especially because I saw the outcome of their struggle,” Mrs. Soriano told Bulatlat, adding that she is proud that her daughter represented the voices of thousands of students who did not want a tuition hike in PUP.

Mrs. Soriano said she never knew that her daughter was an activist. She remembered her arriving home with a husky voice. “Did you sing in a concert?” she would tease her daughter.

“I know that I would not spend my whole life in jail,” Cheysser told Bulatlat, adding that she is thankful to the youths and students who showed their support for them.

Mrs. Soariano said she was deeply saddened with what happened to her daughter but added that she believes in what her daughter is fighting for. “I have turned nights into days just to provide quality education for my children and this is what they did to them,” Mrs. Soriano said.

Cheysser was also thankful that the PUP administration seemed to have been enlightened about the issue. “We think that we will have a stronger chance of winning if the PUP administration will join us in the struggle to fight for a bigger budget for PUP,” she said.

Not Harassment?

Guevarra went to the MPD personally to see the students. He told journalists there that the five students should not fear expulsion because the school is not even considering it. If the students are expelled, he said, “they will become a social problem, which I do not want to happen.” He said the filing of robbery charges was not a form of political harassment.

The freed PUP 5. (Photo by Janess Ann J. Ellao / bulatlat.com)

Lawyer Julius Garcia Matibag said that the withdrawal of the charges notwithstanding, the chances of the case against the PUP 5 being dropped if it reached the courts was very likely. “There is no intent to gain on the part of the students,” he said, referring to the 13 armchairs that the students allegedly brought out of the campus.
Matibag added that there was also no element of violence and intimidation, as the school guards allowed the students to bring out the 13 armchairs. The armchairs, all already damaged, were brought out in a jeepney that was allowed to pass through the PUP gate. The students had intended to use the chairs in more protests to symbolize, they said, the state of education in the Philippines.
“This matter is pure harassment from Guevarra since the students detained were leaders who led the protests in PUP,” Matibag said.
“This was one of Dr. Dante Guevarra’s desperate moves to get back at us,” said Abriel Mansilungan, one of the PUP 5, referring to the robbery charges. “I am not ashamed or regretful that I am here. I am proud that despite all this, we still won,” he told Bulatlat while he was still in police custody.

But Mansilungan said stopping the tuition hike is just a small victory, as they would continue to be vigilant. “Even if they said that there would be no tuition hike, we are monitoring other fees such miscellaneous fees, as it may be increased.”

Support


The youngest of the PUP 5, Piem Canela, 18, said students were happy to know that there many supported their cause. “A professor came to visit us yesterday to boost our morale,” he said at the police precinct, adding that he also appreciated when a group of professors in PUP recently held a press conference to denounce what Guevarra had done to them.

“This only means that Doc G (Dr. Guevarra) is already isolated. It is not true that the PUP community is against the students who protested against the tuition hike,” Canela told Bulatlat.

On Friday March 26, presidential bet Bro. Eddie Villanueva visited the PUP 5 at the MPD. He called on Guevarra, PUP president, whom he addressed as a friend, to withdraw the case because it would only shame him.
“We have already paid the price during the martial law years. This kind of arrest and false charges should not be happening at the present,” Villanueva, an alumnus of PUP, told journalists.


Real Condition

“We knew we were winning because the tuition hike in PUP has become an issue nationwide,” Cheysser Soriano said, adding that continuing the case against the PUP 5 will only expose the real condition of education in the country.

Ken Ramos, chairman of Anakbayan and fifth nominee of the Kabataan Partylist, said “the root of the problem is the lack of budget for education.”

Ramos said that the National Youth Action Day for Education held on Monday was called upon by Kabataan Partylist to show that the PUP protest was only a manifestation of a bigger problem in the education system. He said there are other schools who face the same situation but have not been covered by the media.

Fellow students and supporters of the PUP 5. (Photo by Janess Ann J. Ellao / bulatlat.com)

Einstein Recedes, national chairman of the National Union of Students of the Philippines, said only 2.7 percent of the gross domestic product is allotted for education when the United Nations recommends at least 6 percent of GDP.

In the national budget, he said, only 14 percent is allotted for education. “This means that only P6.80 is allotted for every student studying in SUCs per day. This is very small because international standards recommends at lest 20 percent of the composition of the national budget.”

Ramos said Kabataan Partylist and its member organizations are challenging all politicians running this May Elections to initiate reforms in the education system. He also blamed the present administration for the continuing deterioration of the education.

The PUP administration had earlier planned to increase the tuition in the state university from the present P12 per unit to P200, or nearly 1,700 percent increase.

“No matter what angle you try to look at it, tuition increase in state universities is never reasonable,” said Ferrin Louise Umagat, 19, one of the students who protested in PUP, told Bulatlat.

PUP president Dr. Dante Guevarra and PUP students at the Manila Police District. (Photo by Janess Ann J. Ellao / bulatlat.com)

The protest actions of the students bore fruit when Emmanuel Angeles of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) said last March 24 that there would be no increase in PUP’s tuition yet. Angeles is also the president of the Board of Regents of the said university.

Judy Anne Fabito, 19, one of the PUP 5 and a B.S. Chemistry student, said one of the most affected colleges of the proposed tuition hike in PUP is the College of Science. She said that laboratory fees would have increased from P60 to P500.

“If the earlier batches of PUP students did not fight for our P12 per unit tuition — when there was an earlier plan to increase it — then I would not have been able to avail of the cheap tuition. That is why I am fighting for the rights of the incoming first year students to education,” Fabito said.

Kabataan Partylist secretary general Vencer Crisostomo said an investigation should be pursued against people who have been trying to rob students of their future by pushing for a tuition hike. (Bulatlat.com)

(Reprinted with permission from Bulatlat.com)