Carry Our Struggles Through to the End
On the March 24 Protest Action
Militancy and collective action are the only potent weapon of the students against the rule of the class interests of a few in the academe. Our fellow University of the Philippines (UP) iskolars ng bayan’s halting of the March 24 Board of Regents (BOR) meeting is a testament to this time-tested maxim.
The victory of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) students in their fight against the almost 2000 percent tuition fee increase proves the same.
No Student Representation
The Sandigan Para sa Mag-aaral at Sambayanan – Party Alliance (SAMASA-PA) UP Visayas Miagao stands in solidarity with our fellow iskolars ng bayan who stood their ground against the holding of a BOR meeting set to tackle and legitimize anti-student policies such as the systemwide imposition of PE lab fees, the athletics fees increase, and the UP Los Baños (UPLB) Large Lecture Class scheme.
In UPV, the threat of UP High School Cebu closure, the proposed P100 and P250 lab fees for PE courses, and the P55 to P100 Athletic fees hike continues to hang like a sword over the heads of the students. By disenfranchising the lower classes from entering the University, and diminishing their capability to rise above poverty, the fees hikes limit access to education only to those who can afford.
We therefore cannot allow these matters to be deliberated while the students’ lone voice in the BOR remains barred from her rightful seat. Student Regent (SR) Charisse Bañez was unseated for enrolling late even as the UPLB administration under Chancellor Luis Velasco has granted the residencies of two other students who filed their applications later than SR Bañez.
SR Bañez’s unjust ouster is the first time after Martial Law that the students are left with no representation in the BOR, the highest decsion-making body in the University. SR Bañez’s unceremonious removal from the BOR only paves the way for the railroading of these anti-student policies.
The examinations period did not stop UPV Miagao students from holding a picket simultaneous with the protests in Quezon Hall, Diliman and the rest of the UP system.
Hence, the SAMASA-PA did not let the examinations period stop the holding of a mass action in UPV Miagao simultaneous with the protests in Quezon Hall, Diliman and the rest of the UP system. Far from being “business as usual,” the whole UP system is up in arms over UP President Emerlinda Roman admin’s despotic governance and creeping privatization of the University.
We stand firm with our fellow iskolars ng bayan in asserting that there will be no BOR meetings until student representation is ensured.
No Tea Party
The throwing of paintballs by infuriated UP students at Chancellor Velasco for his significant role in the conspiracy to unseat SR Bañez and the PUP students’ burning of dilapidated chairs against the 2000 percent tuition increase as forms of symbolic protests have drawn attacks from more affluent individuals and certain youth formations that pretend to represent more peaceful and moderate forms of engagement with the admin.
Even as the UP and PUP protests resulted in tangible gains for the students, these pseudo-progressive grouplets who have done nothing about the issues tackled by the protesters now have the temerity to accuse the protests as “animalistic,” “barbaric,” “shameful,” and “uncivilized,” among others.
Lest these opportunist grouplets forget, it was the admin’s refusal to engage the students in genuine consultations, disregard for democratic processes, and outright repression that led to the present impasse. Our fellow iskolars ng bayan in the March 24 protest were never remiss in calling for consultations, writing petitions, and holding negotiations with admin even as we pursued more militant forms of action.
We are being pushed to the wall with increasingly devious schemes that commercialize the University and repress those who vigorously oppose such machinations. The self-righteous howls from these gangs not only mimics the Roman administration’s line but also deflects attention from the admin’s shameless machinations and barbaric policies that further limits democratic access to UP education.
Students of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, the largest state university in the country, threw from their classrooms dilapidated chairs to dramatize their opposition to the almost 2000 percent tuition increase.
That the symbolic form of protests violated the sensibilities of these pseudo-progressives belies their supposed advocacies for change. Genuine change is never a walk in the park for those who benefit from the status quo will never give up easily. Working for meaningful change is no tea party. Such a change is struggled for.
A Tactical Victory
Roman and her Malacañang-appointed cronies may have twisted legal technicalities and the administrative apparatuses of the University to their favor. They may have the full backing of the government by virtue of their blind obedience to the Arroyo regime’s program of abandoning its responsibility to subsidize education. But a student mass that is united and committed to militantly stand for its interests is a force to reckon with.
The March 24 protest action continues the militant tradition of the hundreds of thousands who took to the streets for social transformation during the First Quarter Storm of the 70s. It is a tactical victory that successfully thwarted the railroading of anti-student and anti-people policies in the University.
Our fight will not end until the very social conditions that generate commercialization and repression in the campus can be rooted out. Only by linking our fight with that of the people – the workers, the peasants, and other toiling masses – and raising the level of our struggles can we achieve our long-term aim for a truly nationalist, scientific, and mass-oriented education.
Long live the militant and collective actions of the students and the people. Carry our struggles through to the end! ■
Note: This is a statement emailed to me by the Sandigan para sa Mag-aaral at Sambayanan – Party Alliance (SAMASA-PA), a nationalist and democratic alliance of seven mass organizations in the University of the Philippines Visayas Miagao Campus.
“Working for meaningful change is no tea party. Such a change is struggled for.” – i super agree. that says it all.
Indeed, what we are fighting for is always for the interest of the people, and not just thinking about our personal benefit. that’s what genuine service is. anyway, a superb post.
kuya, repost ko ni sa facebook ha? O:
sure. :)
Note: This is a statement emailed to me by the Sandigan para sa Mag-aaral at Sambayanan……
IF I KNOW KAW LANG MAN NA NAG-SULAT (not to mention all the other red statements littering the campus!)
hahaha… that would be giving me too much credit. i honestly still do other things.
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