2010 eleCtionS

Illustration: Miguel Punzalan . Page Design: Paolo Balajadia
A Philippine Collegian
special issue
on the
2010 elections
Opisyal
na lingguhang pahayagan ng mga mag-aaral ng
2-year pre-college
program nears
implementation
Unibersidad
ng
T
o
12 m
o B
o9 8 L
7 G
Pilipinas - Diliman
Webbed alliances
T
o
o5 m
o16
7o B
L
1o 8 G
7
Send in the clowns
Biyernes
Biyernes, 18 Set 2009
07 Mayo 2010
Philippine Collegian
1 in every 5 colleges in the country to increase tuition
Marjohara Tucay
O
ne in every five higher
education institutions
(HEI) in the country
will increase tuition by up to 30
percent for the next academic
year (AY).
Of the total 1,726 colleges
and universities in the country,
more than 20 percent or 382
HEIs submitted proposals to increase tuition and other fees for
AY 2010-2011, according to data
from the Commission on Higher
Education (CHEd).
Almost 20 percent of the
applicants or 339 HEIs intend
to increase tuition in all levels,
including two public colleges –
the Guimaras State College in
Region VI and Trinidad Municipal College in Region VII, which
will increase tuition by ten and
three percent, respectively.
The average percentage in-
crease for private HEIs stands
at 8.7 percent, while the rate for
public HEIs stands at 6.5 percent
(see sidebar).
CHEd will not order a tuition moratorium for the next
AY, instead it will release an appeal for schools to postpone tuition increases, CHEd Executive
Director Julito Vitriolo said. “Sa
mga estudyanteng hindi kakayanin ang increase, maaari silang
kumuha ng government assis-
Agra hounded by protests
after releasing 2 Ampatuans
Pauline Gidget Estella
I
n protest actions held at
the Department of Justice
on April 21 and 23, media
groups, people’s organizations
and relatives of the Maguindanao massacre called for acting
Justice Secretary Alberto Agra
to scrap his April 16 resolution
dropping the murder charges
against two members of the Ampatuan clan.
“It is lamentable that on this
fifth month since the massacre, the
Justice Secretary has chosen to absolve [Zaldy and Akmad Ampatuan], the two principal suspects,”
said Renato Reyes, Jr., secretary
general of Bagong Alyansang
Makabayan (BAYAN).
“What’s worse is that the DOJ
secretary appears to enjoy the
support of the President,” Reyes
added, arguing that “Agra cleared
the [two] Ampatuans in exchange
for rigging the 2004 elections” in
favor of Gloria Arroyo.
The families of the victims
also filed before the Integrated
Bar of the Philippines a disbarment complaint against Agra on
April 22. “Complainants respectfully pray that Respondent Atty.
Agra be disbarred for deceit, and
gross misconduct in office, for the
highly irregular manner in which
he issued his 16 April 2010 resolution,” the complaint read.
“There was no proof of conspiracy and there was a proof of
an alibi,” Agra said in an April 16
statement. He cited plane tickets
and cellphone records showing
that Zaldy and Akmad Ampatuan
were not in Maguindanao when
the massacre took place last year.
However, the resolution issued
by Agra “has no legal basis,” said
Atty. Harry Roque, legal counsel of
the relatives of the Maguindanao
massacre victims. He challenged
the “weak alibi defense” cited by
Agra, adding that the case is already “within the jurisdiction of
the court, so the DOJ should not
have intervened.”
As of press time, Agra is currently reviewing the DOJ resolution which released the two Ampatuans. There are also 194 other
supporters and members of the
Ampatuan clan awaiting trial.
A total of 58 individuals, including 37 journalists, were killed
in the Maguindanao massacre,
dubbed the “worst election-related
violence in history.”
On November 23, the day of
the massacre, Buluan Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu sent his relatives, accompanied by lawyers and
journalists, in a six-vehicle convoy
to file his certificate of candidacy.
Mangudadatu was supposed to
run against Datu Unsay Mayor
Andal Ampatuan, Jr. in the gubernatorial race.
However, armed men report-
edly working for Ampatuan, Jr.
stopped the convoy and killed
all of its members. According to
witnesses’ accounts, Datu Unsay
Mayor Andal Ampatuan, Jr. himself was present in the site when
the massacre took place.
Culture of impunity
Agra’s resolution shows that a
person can get away with killing
58 people as long as “he is under
the good graces of the President,”
said Rowena Paraan of the National Union of Journalists of the
Philippines.
In the 2004 elections, Congress
denied the petition to open the election returns in Maguindanao, where
Arroyo got 100 percent of the votes
in almost all municipalities.
“Hindi naman makagagawa
ng ganyang hakbang si Agra kung
hindi utos ng isang nakatataas sa
kanya. Hangganga hindi pinapatalsik ni [Arroyo] si Agra,mananatili
ang paniniwala naming may basbas ng presidente ang resolution ,”
said Editha Tiamson, wife of Daniel Tiamson, one of the massacre
victims.
“Since the beginning, the
Ampatuans were given special
treatment by Malacañang. First, it
took the government long before
they arrested them, then dropped
the rebellion charges, and now
dropped Zaldy and Akmad from
the list of accused,” said Reyes,
Cont on pg 3
Grieving
qMonette Salaysay, wife of Maguindanao Massacre victim Napoleon Salaysay, cries for justice at a protest action in front of the Department of Justice building on April 21. Appearing in the media for first time, kins of
victims hit acting Justice Secretary Alberto Agra's order to drop murder charges against two prime Ampatuan
suspects. Om Narayan A. Velasco
tance o kaya ay private scholarships,” he added.
The presence of CHEd as
a regulatory body has become
“merely tokenistic” as it cannot
enforce tuition moratoriums
even during an economic crisis,
said UP Student Regent Charisse
Bernadine Bañez.
Hindi naman sagot ang
scholarship sa taon-taong pagtaas ng matrikula kung hindi
mahigpit at makatotohanang
regulasyon ng CHEd sa mga pamantasan,” Bañez added.
CHEd declined to release
the names of the schools which
applied for tuition increase as
the proposals have yet to be approved. As of press time, four
applications had been disapproved due to lack of supporting data.
According to CHEd Memorandum Order 13 of 1998, tertiary schools intending to increase
tuition should submit a letter of
intent, along with a document
proving that consultations were
made with students regarding
the increase, and a certificate of
intended compliance which will
state where the increase will be
utilized.
For HEIs run by stock companies, increases should be utilized in the following manner:
70 percent for salary upgrades
and benefits; 20 percent for fa-
T
he Commission on Higher
Education (CHEd) is set
to implement the two-year
precollege program, which will
divide a current five-year course
into two levels: the two-year prebaccalaureate program, followed
by a three-year specialization
course, starting AY 2011-2012.
“We are now at the final
planning stages of the two-year
pre-college program and most
curricular revisions are almost
complete,” CHEd Executive Director Julito Vitriolo said.
If proven effective in fiveyear courses, CHEd will also
implement the pre-college program in four year courses, in
effect adding another year of
schooling, Vitriolo explained.
“Hindi biro at hindi murang
magpaaral sa Pilipinas, lalo na’t
kakaunti ang public colleges sa
bansa. Dagdag na pagpapahirap
ito sa mga pamilyang hindi na
halos mapagkasya ang kita para sa
araw-araw na gastusin,” UP Student Regent Charisse Bañez said.
The curricular revision is also
not an assurance that the quality
of education in the country will
improve as the “low standards”
of
the current school system is
Visit
rooted in the low public spending for education, Bañez said.
Global standard?
The implementation of the
two-year pre-college program is
the first phase of the “multi-track
UP graduates slam
commercialization,
admin repression
Rites of passage
cility development; and 10 percent for stock profit. Meanwhile,
non-stock, non-profit schools
should divide the remaining 10
percent for salaries and facilities, Vitriolo explained.
Schools can easily get away
with “bogus consultations” such
as one school in the Cordilleras
that scheduled the consultation
day in time with the Panagbenga
Festival, wherein most students
are out of the campus, said Vanessa Faye Bolibol, secretarygeneral of the National Union of
Students of the Philippines.
“Isang paper tiger na lamang
ang CHEd na nagproproseso ng
mga dokumento ng mga [HEI]
ngunit hindi naman nakakayang
pigilan o parusahan ang mga ito
kung nakagagawa ng paglabag,”
said Bolibol. q
Distribution of schools based
on type of proposed increase
Increase in all year levels
Total
10% and below
241
11-20%
48
21-30%
7
Above 30%
7
Increase for 1st year
and new students
Increase for other fees
only
Increase for graduate
schools only
15
27
1
Source: Commission on Higher
Education
2-year pre-college program
nears implementation
Marjohara Tucay
Biyernes
07 Mayo 2010
Philippine Collegian
tertiary education system” proposed by the Presidential Task
Force on Education in 2008.
For the first phase of implementation, the pre-college
program will affect students
taking up five-year courses
covered by the Philippine Regulatory Commission such as
accountancy, architecture and
engineering.
“We plan to implement the
curricular reform for courses in
the Philippines to attain greater
international recognition,” said
Vitriolo.
The Philippines has the
shortest duration for basic education in Asia, spanning only 14
to 15 years, as compared with
the global standard of 16 to 17
years, Vitriolo added.
“Sa halip na gayahin ng Pilipinas ang bilang ng mga taon ng
pag-aaral sa ibang bansa, ang nararapat gayahin ng Pilipinas ay ang
public spending ng ibang bansa sa
sektor ng edukasyon,” said Vanessa Faye Bolibol, secretary-general
of the National Union of Students
of the Philippines.
The Philippines allots about
three percent of its gross domestic product to education annually,
as compared to most countries in
Asia which spend more than six
percent. q
Visit
http://www.
philippinecollegian.
net
Pauline Gidget Estella
S
qFresh graduates and students from UP Diliman march in a lightning rally during the University's 99th Commencement Exercises. The group called for a stop to tuition and other fees increases in schools and for their
fellow youth to serve the nation. Om Narayan A. Velasco
Panawagan ng mga magsasaka sa Korte
Ibasura ang TRO sa Hacienda Luisita’
Marjohara Tucay
M
ahigit 500 magsasaka
ang nagmartsa tungong Korte Suprema
(SC) noong Abril 23 upang ipanawagan ang pagbasura sa inilabas nitong temporary restraining
order (TRO) noong 2006 na pumigil sa pamamahagi ng lupa sa
Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI).
“Nananawagan kami sa Korte Suprema na kagyat nang
ibasura ang TRO na pumipigil
sa pamamahagi ng lupa at patuloy na nagpapahirap sa mahigit
10,000 magsasaka at manggagawang bukid sa Hacienda Luisita,”
ani Danilo Ramos, pambansang
tagapangulo ng Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas.
Kasalukuyang pinamamahalaan ng pamilya Cojuangco ang
mahigit 6,400 ektaryang HLI, na
sumasakop sa sampung barangay sa una at ikalawang distrito
ng Tarlac.
Nabili ng nasabing pamilya
ang hasyenda noong 1957 gamit ang pautang ng gobyerno,
kasama ang Central Azucarera de Tarlac, na pangalawa sa
pinakamalaking kabyawan o
sugar mill sa bansa.
Huling bahagi ang kilos protesta sa SC ng isang linggong “lakbayan” ng mga magsasakang mula
sa Gitnang Luzon na nagmartsa
tungong Metro Manila upang
manawagan sa gobyerno na magpatupad ng tunay na repormang
agraryo, paliwanag ni Ramos.
Napigil na pamamahagi
Sa ilalim ng pamumuno
ng dating Pangulong Corazon
Cojuangco-Aquino, naisabatas
ang Comprehensive Agrarian
Reform Program (CARP), kung
saan napasailalim ang Hacienda
Luisita noong 1989.
Layunin ng CARP na ipamahagi ang malalaking lupaing
sakahan sa mga magsasaka sa
pamamagitan ng pagbawi o pagbili ng gobyerno.
Subalit hindi naipamahagi
ang lupa sa HLI sa mga magsasaka dahil sa stock distribution
option (SDO) ng CARP na ipinatupad sa hasyenda.
Sa ilalim ng SDO, ginawang
korporasyon ang hasyenda at
sa halip na ipamahagi ang lupa
sa mga magsasaka, mga stock o
karapatang makihati sa kita ng
hasyenda ang ipinamimigay.
Pinawalang-bisa ng isang
utos na inilabas ng Department
of Agrarian Reform (DAR) at
Presidential Agrarian Reform
Council noong 2005 ang SDO
agreement sa pagitan ng pamunuan ng HLI at mga magsasaka nito.
Pinag-utos din ng DAR na
agad ipamahagi ang mahigit
6,400 ektaryang lupain ng HLI
sa mga magsasaka.
Ayon sa DAR, hindi sumunod ang pamunuan ng HLI sa
SDO agreement na nagsasaad na
33 porsyento ng kita ng hasyenda ay nararapat mapunta sa mga
manggagawang bukid.
“Umabot sa panahong P9.50
na lamang kada linggo ang sinasahod ng marami sa amin
sa pagtatanim ng tubo dahil
binawasan ng pamunuan ang
araw ng paggawa,” ani Lito Bais,
tagapangulo ng United Luisita
Workers Union.
Gayunman, hindi naipatupad ang utos ng DAR matapos
maglabas ng TRO ang SC sa kahilingan ng pamilya Cojuangco.
Kawalang hustisya
Bilang pagtutol sa patuloy na
pag-iral ng SDO, nagdaos ng piket
ang mahigit limang libong magsasaka ng HLI noong Nobyembre
2004.
Pagsapit ng Nobyembre
16, marahas na binuwag ang piket
ng mga militar sa pamamagitan
ng pamamaril na ikinamatay ng
pito sa mga magsasaka.
“Limang taon na mula nang
maganap ang massacre sa Hacienda Luisita, pero hanggang
ngayon, wala pa ring pagbabago
sa sitwasyon naming mga manggagawang bukid,” ani Rico Oles,
isang manggagawang bukid na
kabilang sa nasabing piket.
Sa kabila ng panawagan ng
mga magsasaka para sa tunay na
repormang agraryo, ipinasa ng
House of Representatives noong
2009 ang CARP Extension with
Reforms Act (CARPER), na
nagdagdag ng limang taon sa
implentasyon ng 20-taong programang agraryo.
Patuloy na pinaiiral ng
CARPER ang mga probisyon ng
CARP na matagal nang tinutulan
ng mga magsasaka ng Hacienda
Luisita gaya ng SDO at land use
conversion, ani Ramos.
‘Bulaang pangako’
Wala ring tiwala ang mga
magsasaka ng Hacienda Luisita sa pangako ni Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, na
kasalukuyang tumatakbo bilang
pangulo, na ipapamahagi niya ang
lupa ng kanyang pamilya sa mga
magsasaka pagsapit ng 2014.
“Ilang
dekada
nang
ninakawan ng kabuhayan ang
mamamayan
ng
Hacienda
Lusita ng pamilya CojuangcoAquino at walang mangyayari
roon, manalo man siya o matalo” ani Felix Lacpil, tagapangulo
ng Alyansa ng Manggagawang
Bukid ng Asyenda Luisita.
Tanging sa pagtanggal sa
mga huwad na programang tulad ng CARPER at pagpapatupad ng Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB) makakamit
ng mga magsasaka ang lupa, ani
Ramos. Libreng maipamamahagi ang lupa sa ilalim ng GARB,
dagdag niya.
“Ang isyu ng magsasaka ay
isyu ng sambayanan…Hindi
makapagsisilbi ng tapat ang mga
kandidatong may bahid ng dugo
ang mga kamay at tanging pansariling interes lamang ang pinaiiral,” paliwanag ni Ramos. q
tudents across the UP system staged protest actions
in graduation rites from
April 18 to 25, condemning the
continuing “commercialization
of education” and the “undemocratic decisions” of the Board of
Regents (BOR) during the past
academic year.
Over 8,000 UP students are
expected to graduate this April,
with more than 4,200 graduating from UP Diliman (UPD)
and more than 1,000 each in UP
Manila and UP Baguio.
The 2010 graduates are the
last batch of UP students not affected by the 300 percent tuition
and other fees increases, which
was first implemented in 2007,
increasing the standard tuition
from P300 to P1,000 per unit.
In the UP Mindanao graduation rites on April 21, students
staged the first graduation protest since the unit was established
in 1995. The graduates slammed
the “crude maneuverings” of
the BOR in removing Charisse
Bañez as Student Regent (SR)
and called for the scrapping of
proposals to increase tuition or
laboratory fees.
The BOR removed Bañez as
SR on January 29, despite a lack
of quorum, on the grounds that
she was not currently enrolled.
Bañez applied for residency as
early as January 28, but to date,
UP Los Baños Chancellor Luis
Velasco has not yet acted on her
application.
On April 18, UP Visayas
Cebu (UPVC) students also held
the first graduation protest action in the unit since its establishment in 1918. The protesters
held placards stating “No to [Roman’s] second term,” and urged
the administration to reject
proposals to close down UPVC
High school.
In UP Manila, meanwhile,
several UPM faculty members
also joined the graduates’ April
22 protest action to “show frustration [at] the unceremonious
removal” of Dr. Jose Gonzales
as Philippine General Hospital
(PGH) director.
The BOR removed Gonzales
as PGH director last February
25 and installed Dr. Enrique Domingo in the position. Gonzales
was appointed PGH director
after the majority of BOR members, including Bañez, voted in
his favor on December 18.
However, the BOR nullified
the results of the December 18
voting on the directorship and replaced Gonzales with Domingo.
Curtailing protests
In UP Diliman, students held
a lightning rally during the April
25 university graduation rites,
charging UP President Emerlinda Roman’s administration
for an academic year marked by
“blatant repression.”
In the April 12 University
Council meeting, proposals
were raised to cancel the university graduation because it will
only double expenses and might
pose security risks, said Faculty
Regent Judy Taguiwalo. The proposals cited the March 24 BOR
meeting rally where students
threw paint balls at UPLB Chancellor Luis Velasco.
Also, the Colleges of Engineering and Law did not join the
university graduation because of
“possible security threats,” adding that a college graduation
would already suffice.In the case
of the College of Engineering,
preparations were already made
for a separate college graduation
for the centennial year of the
college, said Ralph Geronimo,
chairperson-elect of the College
of Engineering Student Council.
The UP Diliman graduation
ceremony lasted for only two
hours, shorter than the previous years’ rites which lasted for
at least four hours. There was no
commencement speaker, who
was supposed to be UP President Emerlinda Roman.
It was clear that the administration is trying to curtail the
protests during the commencement rites, according to a statement by the Katipunan ng mga
Sangguniang Mag-aaral sa UP
(KASAMA sa UP).
“It is downright deplorable
for the administration of the
university which has prized itself as a citadel of truth and bastion of democracy to evade the
discussion of legitimate issues
forwarded by protesting students, faculty and employees,”
the statement read.
During college graduation
rites, lightning rallies were also
held in the College of Arts and
Letters on April 22, the College
of Social Work and Community
Development on April 24 and
the College of Mass Communication (CMC) on April 25.
This year, the graduation rites
throughout the UP system have
been an opportunity for “vocal
opposition and condemnation
of the injustices of the past year,”
according to the KASAMA sa
UP statement. “This opportunity for widespread protest is not
a favor granted us by the UP administration — it is the right of a
student body too long stifled by
the oppressive Roman administration,” said the alliance. q
Ampatuan from pg 2
adding that Ampatuan, Jr. was even
allowed to hold a press conference
in Camp Bagong Diwa on April 20.
This is “an affirmation of the
culture of impunity under Arroyo’s term. It is sending a message that the killing of journalists,
the assault on media practitioners,
can continue unpunished,” said
Luis Teodoro, Deputy Director of
the Center for Media Freedom and
Responsibility. q
Biyernes
Biyernes, 18 Set 2009
07 Mayo 2010
Philippine Collegian
Directorship row takes toll on PGH services
Paolo C.
Balajadia
Sa ating pagtatapos
N
arito na ang pagtatapos ng taon
para sa Unibersidad.
Kasabay ng pamumukadkad ng mga sunflower sa gilid ng University Avenue, buong-buo ang mga
ngiti ng mga nagsipagtapos noong huling linggo ng Abril. Masaya ang lahat
sa tagumpay na nakamit, at mistulang
napakalayo na sa nakaraan ang mga
paghihirap na pinagdaanan. Kahit ang
naganap na lightning rally, pilit ibinabalik sa atin ang mga isyu at suliranin
na matagal na nating pinalipas at kinalimutan, ay ilang minutong patalastas
na lamang sa buong pagdiriwang.
Masayang-masaya tayo dahil sa
wakas, lalabas na tayo sa loob ng pamantasan patungo sa tinitignan natin
bilang “tunay na mundo.” Halong pagkasabik at takot ang nararamdaman
natin sa bagay na ito, na parang wala
tayo kamuwang-muwang sa bagong
tatahaking landas. Salamat sa espasyo
ng akademyang nagkupkop sa atin sa
apat na taon, na animo’y hiwalay sa
mga problema at krisis na kinakaharap
ng bansa.
Madalas, hindi lang natin sila nakikita at naririnig, o pilit natin silang
itinutulak palabas sa ating mga isip.
Bakit pa nga ba natin sila hahayaang
makagulo sa ating mga pag-aaral, sa
ating pang araw-araw na buhay, sa
ating mga pangarap kung saan maayos
ang lahat?
Kampante tayo, bilang mga magaaral ng pinakadakilang Unibersidad
ng Pilipinas. Iniisip nating tiyak na
ang ating kinabukasan sa pagtatapos
ng ating pag-aaral. Nakatitiyak tayong
mas lamang tayo sa libu-libong ibang
magsisipagtapos, at hindi na natin
problema kung saan sila pupulutin.
Ang totoo, hindi na talaga natin
kailangan pang tumingin sa malayo
para makita at maramdaman ang mga
kontradiksyong ito. Hindi natin alam,
mayroon tayong mga kaklase na hindi
na sigurado kung makakapag-enrol pa
sa susunod na taon dahil sa taas ng kanilang kailangang bayaran. Hindi natin
alam, napakaraming mga nagtapos na
sa UP ang napilitang magtrabaho sa
iba’t ibang kumpanya na labas sa kanilang pinag-aralan, dahil sa kawalan
ng maayos na trabaho sa bansa. O mas
mahirap pang tanggapin, hindi dahil
galing ka sa UP ay siguradong may trabaho ka paglabas mo sa pamantasan.
Sa huli, maaari nating itanong sa
ating mga sarili: ano nga ba ang mga
natutunan natin sa loob ng pamantasan? Bilang binansagang mga pag-asa
ng bayan, sapat na ba ito para makapagbigay ng ambag tungo sa isang makabuluhang pagbabago? O tila hinubog
lamang tayo ng edukasyong ito upang
umayon sa sistemang alam natin ay
matagal nang dapat palitan?Narito na
ang pagtatapos ng taon para sa Unibersidad, panahon ng pagtatapos ng
maraming bagay para sa ating mga
estudyante. Ngunit sa yugto ding ito,
hindi umaalis ang panahon ng pakikipagtuos natin sa mas malalaking mga
bagay. q
Marjohara Tucay
A
s the Philippine General Hospital
(PGH) enters its third month with
two sitting directors, the internal
conflict in the hospital has started to affect services in the country’s premier government health facility.
Doctors are filing en masse for leave
of absence (LOA) while hospital employees are forming picket lines at the main
entrance. In one instance, even the supply
of blood for transfusion was politicized,
said Dr. Gerardo Legaspi, a neurosurgeon
who joined the protests.
“Now we have a sense of urgency in
PGH, constituents – students, faculty
and employees are all clamoring for justice and the resolution of this prolonged
problem,” ousted PGH Director Jose
Gonzales said.
Newly-installed PGH Director Rolando Enrique Domingo claims, however,
that “the operations of the hospital have
not been hampered… except for minor
incidents [wrought] by the barricades to
patients and employees.”
Dispute over the directorship sprung
from the nullification of a December 18
vote by the UP Board of Regents (BOR)
which established Gonzales in a 5-4 vote
as the new PGH director.
The selection of Gonzales was nullified in the BOR’s February 25 meet after
the board removed one of the regents
who voted for him, Charisse Bañez, as
the Student Regent. Another vote was
cast, wherein Domingo, the former PGH
deputy director for administration, won
by a vote of 6-0, with three other regents
abstaining.
However, the UP Manila University
Council, the highest academic policy
making body in UP Manila, adapted
on April 13 the UP College of Medicine
(UPCM) resolution calling for the BOR
All set
to uphold the December 18 decision and
reinstate Gonzales as director.
“Now that the whole UP Manila is
calling for [Domingo] to step down, what
else is he waiting for?” Gonzales said.
Mass leave
On March 29, over 60 PGH doctors
and medical residents announced that
they would be filing a “mass LOA” in protest of the “unjust procedure” that ousted
Gonzales as director. The All-UP Workers Union-Manila (AUPWU) also set up
a picket line at the hospital entrance to
support the mass LOA.
“Our [LOA] will protect us from following orders from a de facto PGH director,”
the protesting doctors said in a statement.
They will continue serving for emergency and life threatening cases but “may
delay elective surgeries and non-life
threatening illnesses for a limited time,”
the doctors explained.
Civil Service Commission (CSC)
Director Cardito Callangan warned the
doctors that filing a mass LOA is prohibCont on pg 14
UP Baguio nominee
is next SR
Marc Jayson Cayabyab
I
qCounsel for the Morong 43 prepare their argument at the Commission on Human Rights'
third hearing of the case on April 22. Last May 1, 38 of the 43 detained health workers
were finally transferred from Camp Capinpin in Tanay to a civilian detention facility at Camp
Bagong Diwa in Bicutan. Om Narayan A. Velasco
38 detained health workers,
out of military custody
Dianne Marah Sayaman
A
fter almost three months in military custody, 38 of the 43 health
workers arrested in Morong, Rizal
were transferred on May 1 to a civilian
detention facility at Camp Bagong Diwa
in Bicutan, Taguig.
The health workers, dubbed the Morong 43, have been detained at Camp
Capinpin in Tanay since their arrest on
February 6. They were relocated due to
an April 30 order from Branch 78 of the
Morong Regional Trial Court.
The Morong 43 were attending a
health seminar in a farmhouse owned by
Dr. Melicia Velmonte when around 300
military and police personnel arrived and
arrested them for alleged illegal possession of firearms.
“This is a victory of the strong campaign for the release of the Morong 43,
and only shows the lack of valid reason
for the arrest and the questionable legality
of the detention,” said Dr. Geneve Rivera,
secretary-general of the Health Alliance
for Democracy.
A fasting activity was held by families and supporters of the detained health
workers from April 17 to May 2 to call for
the immediate release of the Morong 43.
However, five of the detained health
workers are to remain in Camp Capinpin,
after an unexpected change in legal counsels. The new counsels, Cyrus Jurado and
Hilda Sacay-Clave, claimed to represent
the five detainees and requested to keep
the five detainees in Camp Capinpin.
These five detainees earlier signed affidavits confessing they are members of
the New People’s Army, according to the
military.
The two lawyers violated the proper
substitution of lawyers and the right of
the detainees to independent counsels,
said Atty. Julius Garcia Matibag, one of
the original legal counsels of the Morong
43.
“The military could have supplied the
two lawyers, since the five are in custody
and could not possibly have met them,”
Matibag added.
Delayed transfer
The legal counsel of the 43 health
workers and their families originally
wanted the detainees to be moved to the
Philippine National Police (PNP) Camp
Crame in Quezon City. Despite court
orders on April 7 and 23 to transfer detainees to Camp Crame, the PNP twice
refused to accept the health workers into
the facility.
Cont on pg 14
n a consensus vote on April 6, UP
Baguio nominee Cori Alessa Co was
chosen as the next UP Student Regent
(SR) by the General Assembly of Student
Councils (GASC).
A general assembly of university and
college councils across the UP units selects the SR from the nominees approved
by the University Committee, composed
of University and College Student Council members across the UP system, according to the Codified Rules for Student
Regent Selection (CRSRS). The GASC
this year was held at UP Baguio.
Co was selected over SR nominees
Jaqueline Eroles from UP Diliman and Julie Ann Bedrio from UP Visayas Miag-ao.
Ordaude Alub, SR nominee from UP Los
Baños, was disqualified due to his failure
to meet the deadline of requirements.
Co is the incumbent chairperson of
the University Student Council in UP
Baguio and the national chairperson of
the Katipunan ng mga Sangguniang Magaaral sa UP.
The GASC reaffirmed the students’
need for representation in the Board of
Regents (BOR), the university’s highest
policy-making body.
“The OSR should be vigilant in campaigning against anti-student and antipeople policies. It should not be bounded
by administrative pressures. It should rather be able to strike a balance or join forces
for tactical gains and uncompromised interests,” Co wrote in her vision paper.
“Not an issue”
However, there is a possibility that
the BOR may not confirm the new and
duly-selected SR, because the GASC was
presided over by Bañez, who is not recognized by the BOR as the incumbent SR,
said Co.
“The GASC shall deliberate on the
nominees, with the incumbent SR as the
Presiding Officer,” according to Section 2,
Article 8 of the CRSRS.
As a "safeguard," said incumbent SR
Charisse Bañez, the document confirming Co as the new SR-select was signed by
all the delegates to the GASC, instead of
Bañez alone.
Cont on pg 14
Biyernes
07 Mayo 2010
Philippine Collegian
Despite lack of approval from UC and BOR
UPLB set to implement large lecture class policy
Pauline Gidget Estella
D
espite massive opposition from students and
faculty, and the lack of
approval from the University
Council (UC) and Board of Regents (BOR), the Large Lecture
Class Scheme (LLCS) will begin
to be implemented in UP Los
Baños on the first semester of
AY 2010-2011.
Under the full scale implementation of LLCS, all general
education (GE) classes will be
composed of 160 to 250 students, more than five times the
size of regular classes with 30
to 40 students. The scheme was
first implemented in a trial basis
in AY 2007-2008 in select courses, primarily Math and Science
courses, to determine whether
the scheme is effective in teaching the courses in UPLB.
“In our analysis, hindi na
kailangan ng approval ng BOR
at [UC] ang [LLCS],” UPLB
Chancellor Luis Velasco told the
Collegian.
Velasco said he had consulted Vice President for Academic
Affairs Amelia Guevara on January 21, 2009, asking if the UPLB
administration needs the approval of the UPLB UC before
it can implement the LLCS. The
UC is composed of the Chancellor and all faculty members from
assistant professor to university
professors.
Guevara forwarded the matter to UP President Emerlinda
Roman on February 3, 2009, asking if the implementation of the
LLCS is “a decision of the unit
offering the course, [depending]
on the availability of big rooms,
equipment [and] good faculty.”
Under the standard procedure, changes in the curriculum
must be approved at several levels, from the department to the
BOR. However, Guevara said that
a change in class size does not
need to go through this process.
The UPLB administration
interpreted the “unit” referred to
by Guevara as the entire UPLB
campus instead of a single department, said Faculty Regent
Judy Taguiwalo. Hence, since the
UPLB Council of Deans signed a
February 23 statement supporting LLCS, the administration is
said to have adopted the LLCS,
she explained.
The Institute of Chemistry
held large classes for General
Chemistry I without seeking
the approval of the UC, Guevara
said.
A day after, Roman issued
a hand-written response stating
that she “agrees with VP Guevara” opinion that the decision
to hold large classes is a decision
of the unit offering the course.
However, 95 UPLB faculty
members then wrote to Velasco
on February 18 this year, appealing for the “immediate suspension” of the full-scale implementation of LLCS because it may lead
to the “deterioration of the quality
of education” offered in UPLB.
‘Anti-student’
The letter from the UPLB
faculty challenged the UPLB
administration’s authority to implement the LLCS without passing through UC deliberations.
“The notation of [Guevara]
based on her own thinking…
cannot replace the deliberations
of this policy by the council of
all professors of UPLB,” said
Faculty Regent Judy Taguiwalo.
Also, “if any university exists for its students, it should pay
attention to the 6,000 or so students who have expressed their
disapproval of mega-large classes,” the faculty members further
said in the letter.
Last January 29, more than
1,500 UPLB students walked out
of their classes to protest against
the LLCS. More than 3,500 students and faculty also signed the
manifesto of unity calling for the
scrapping of the scheme.
There was also an “inconsistency” between the findings
stated in Velasco’s January 4
memorandum and the student
evaluation report based on the
trial implementation, the faculty
members said in the letter.
“Class size does not affect
student performance, while in
some courses, an [improvement]
in student performance was
noted,” according to Velasco’s
January 4 memorandum, which
ordered the full scale implementation of LLCS starting the first
semester of AY 2010-2011.
But according to the November 2009 student evaluation
report, only 16 percent of the respondents recommended large
classes, while 52 percent said
they do not recommend large
classes, citing reasons such as
“inability to concentrate on the
lesson” and “lesser class partici-
pation.” About 32 percent were
undecided.
“We are afraid that the full
scale and arbitrary implementation of large classes might erode
the quality of education,” said
the All UP Academic Employees
Union (AUPAEU) – UPLB chapter in a March 22 letter to Roman.
The LLCS is “not conducive
to learning because of the loss
of interaction in lecture, low
attention span of students and
[increased chances] of sleeping
or cheating during exams,” the
letter read.
‘Anti-faculty’
Indeed, aside from being
“anti-student,” the LLCS is also
“anti-faculty” because it may
lead to the non-renewal of the
contract of faculty members,
said Student Regent Charisse
Bañez.
As of March 24, seven faculty members have not been
renewed, in spite of Roman’s
January 18 position that “non renewal of appointment of faculty
will only consider performance
and not as a result of [LLCS implementation].”
The LLCS “is not merely
an administrative matter, it is
very much an academic matter infringing on the academic
freedom of the faculty on how
to teach a particular course as
well as involving questions on
the quality of instruction,” said
Taguiwalo.
Under the LLCS, teachers
will carry “excessively heavy
teaching loads,” according to
the letter from AUPAEU-UPLB.
Also, the LLCS will “stifle the
creativity of junior faculty and
their potentials will not be developed,” the union added.
While the students and the
faculty support the UPLB administration’s aim of accepting
more students, “the LLCS is not
the way to increase the absorptive capacity of the university,”
said Leo Fuentes, chairperson
of UPLB-based political party
Samahan ng Kabataan para sa
Bayan. q
slots for students of a specific
college, said Vice Chancellor for
Student Affairs Elizabeth Enriquez.
Meanwhile, two other dormitories are set for completion
by AY 2011-2012, the Acacia
Residence Hall, to be funded by
the tuition increase earnings,
and a dormitory for law students
to be donated by the law alumni,
Enriquez added.
“Sa kasalukuyan, dahil maliit
ang badyet ng UP at walang inilalaang pondo sa student services, nagkakanya-kanya na ang
mga kolehiyo sa pagpapatayo ng
mga dormitory,” University Student Council Vice Chairperon
Jaqueline Eroles said.
At present, the ten dormitories in UP Diliman can only accommodate around 2,600, or 11
percent of over 22,000 students.
With the opening of the Centennial Dormitory and the planned
construction of two other dormitories, UP aims to raise the
number of dormitory slots up to
4,000, or 20 percent of the total
school population.
tory, UP partnered with private
groups Philippine InvestmentManagement, Inc., the UP Engineering and Research Development Foundation (UPERDFI),
and the UP Alumni Engineers.
The private groups donated
P40 million, equivalent to the
cost of constructing two dormitory buildings, on the condition
that UP will also finance the
construction of two other “counterpart” buildings.
The Board of Regents (BOR)
allotted P43.9 million for the
project.
The finished Centennial
Dormitory, located in a 2,500square meter lot along the corner of Jacinto and C.P. Garcia
Avenue, will have a 576-person
capacity.
The Centennial Dormitory
will run under a “third party
management group” selected
through bidding. A private
agency has already been chosen and is currently undergoing
post-qualification processes, Enriquez said.
“Dahil walang badyet sa
pagpapatayo ng mga dormitory,
pumapasok sa mga kontrata ang
Centennial dorm to open for AY 2010-2011
Marjohara Tucay
S
tarting this June, the UP
Centennial Dormitory, a
project funded by donations
from the College of Engineering
(CE) alumni and university savings, will begin operations by accepting 288 male occupants, half
of whom should be engineering
students.
Two of the four five-storey
buildings of the Centennial Dormitory will open this coming
semester, while construction of
the remaining buildings is set to
finish before the year ends. Only
male students will be accepted
for the incoming academic year
because construction is still ongoing for the female quarters.
Engineering students must
comprise 50 percent of the occupants in the Centennial Dormitory, as specified by the project
donors, who are mainly engineering alumni.
This will be the first time a
dormitory will be “reserving”
Private management
To finance the construction of the Centennial Dormi-
Cont on pg 14
Dagsaan
qNagmartsa ang humigit-kumulang 20,000 kasapi ng sektor paggawa
patungong Liwasang Bonifacio sa Maynila upang makikiisa sa pagdiriwang
ng pandaigdigang Araw ng Paggawa noong Mayo 1. (Kaliwa) Matapos
ang martsa at ilang programa, sinunog naman ang effigy ni Arroyo bilang
pagrehistro ng galit sa mga palisiyang kontra-manggagawa na ipinatupad
sa ilalim ng kanyang administrasyon. (Ibaba) Chris Martin Imperial at
Airnel T. Abarra
Biyernes
Biyernes, 18 Set 2009
07 Mayo 2010
Philippine Collegian
Biyernes
07 Mayo 2010
Philippine Collegian
Sidebar: Party ideologies
Party
T
he political landscape in the Philippines is much like an entangled web, with
parties and alliances formed out of political convenience rather than principle.
There are over 130 political parties in the country, of which 37 are national in
scope. Yet, there is almost no distinction between them “in terms or principle, political
programs or public service,” says Bobby Tuazon, a political analyst from the Center for
People Empowerment in Governance, a public policy center. Meanwhile, at the local
level, parties merely ally with the dominating party at the national level.
The political web is one woven by the privileged class. “Philippine politics today is
designed to favor the elite class,” says Tuazon, adding that the elections “have always
been tilted for the rich and the powerful.”
Dominion over the political web, then, is a battle of the elite against the elite. The
competition during elections gives the illusion of democracy, when in reality, it is only
the elite scrambling amongst themselves for power. q
Ideology
Nacionalista
Party
Vanguard for freedom,
democracy, and independence.
Republican form of government,
federalism, and decentralization
of decision-making process, and
industrialization that encourages
freedom of competition, efficiency,
and productivity.
Liberal Party
“Individual freedom and
human rights, pluralism and
participatory democracy, equality
of opportunity and social justice,
rule of law and good governance,
international solidarity and
nationalism in all our political
actions”
The government should ensure
the social market operates freely
and efficiently. The citizen should
also be able to exercise real power
over the government and other
institutions that affect them.
Partido
Demokratiko
Pilipino-Lakas
ng Bayan
Theism, humanism, enlightened
nationalism, democratic socialism,
and consultative and participatory
democracy.
Federal instead of a unitary
government. While claiming that
the market should ensure equitable
share in the national wealth, the
party aims to abolish income tax of
individuals and corporations.
Lakas-KAMPICMD
Good governance, globalization,
Democratic political structure and
people empowerment, sustainable graft-free government; globally
development, and social justice
competitive economic reforms.
Nationalist
People’s
Coalition
“Governance that improves the
quality of life of all Filipinos by
addressing poverty, spreading
prosperity and ensuring social
justice”
Human capital development,
good governance, enterprise
development, energy and
infrastructure development, fiscal
discipline, and security
Pwersa ng
Masang
Pilipino
Populism
The Filipinos instead of foreigners
should own economic, business,
and financial enterprises.
Liberal Party
After a disagreement regarding the Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act, the “liberal wing” of
the Nacionalista Party split off from NP and formed the Liberal Party (LP).
The Liberals are staunch supporters of the free market ideology, arguing that the
“government’s task is to ensure that the market operates freely and efficiently, by promoting competition and preventing monopoly.”
However, this economic policy has largely resulted to foreign control of the country’s resources. For instance, the Bell Trade Act was passed under the administration of
a known Liberal, former president Manuel Roxas. The Act gave Filipinos and Americans equal rights to the Philippine’s rich natural resources, despite the constitutional
right of the Philippines over its own resources.
In 2005, Liberal Party current standard bearer Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, then
the party’s leader and deputy speaker, filed House Bill (HB) 4251, which sought to
grant a mere P3 increase to workers’ wages. This bill countered the P125 across-theboard wage increase proposed by HB 345, which was filed by the late Anakpawis representative Crispin Beltran.
Lakas-Kampi-CMD
Lakas-Kampi-CMD, the current administration’s party, originated from the merging of the parties Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) of Jose De Venecia
Jr. and Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (KAMPI) of Gloria Arroyo in 2009.
In recent years, Lakas-Kampi-CMD members, the most prominent of which is Gloria Arroyo, figured in various scandals that rocked the nation. Arroyo was implicated
in the shady NBN-ZTE deal, the Hello Garci scandal and the Fertilizer Fund scam, to
name a few. Charter change (cha-cha) is also listed in the platform of Lakas-KampiCMD this May elections. Arroyo repeatedly tried to execute cha-cha during her term
in an effort to stay in power.
When Gloria Arroyo won in the 2004 elections, many politicians transferred to
Lakas-Kampi-CMD. “As soon as a new president gets elected under the name of his or
her political party, many of the politicians will gravitate toward that political coalition
or party,” says Tuazon. Today, 79 out of the 235 seats in Congress are held by LakasKampi-CMD members.
This elections, the Lakas-Kampi-CMD leadership is on the defensive as key members made their exodus to NP or LP, both of which surveys show have stronger chances
of winning than the administration party. Party switching has always been rampant
especially during election season, proving that the basis of allegiance in a party is its
winning power and not its principles.
Platforms
References:
nacionalista.com, liberalparty.com, lakaskampicmd.com, pdplaban.org
Carlos, C. (1997). Dynamics of political parties in the Philippines. Makati City, Philippines:
Konrad Adenauer Foundation
Dejillas, L. (1995). Party Ideologies in the Philippines. Makati City, Manila : Institute for
Development Research and Studies.
Nacionalista Party
The Nacionalista Party (NP) is the oldest political party in the country having been
formed in 1907 under the auspices of the Amercan colonial government. While the
party claims to have espoused “complete independence” from the American government, it voted into law bills that established Philippine dependence on the US. In 1934,
for instance, the Nacionalistas supported the Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act, which not only
allowed American supervision on the Philippine government, but also maintained the
US military forces in the country.
The party endured several splits due to disagreements and ideological differences.
In 1946, the right-wing section led by Manuel Roxas split off to form the Liberal Party.
In 1992, NP again split into two, with Salvador Laurel and Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr. competing against each other for presidency. Laurel was nominated by the
Nacionalista Party to run for president, forcing Cojuangco to form his own party, the
Nationalist People’s Coalition.
This elections, the Makabayan coalition and Nacionalista Party allied together,
with Bayan Muna representative Satur Ocampo and Gabriela representative Liza Maza
as guest senatorial candidates in the NP slate. The tactical alliance is based on NP’s acceptance of a joint platform with nationalist and democratic objectives. Whether NP
actually delivers remains to be seen.
Connections: The web of political parties
Liberal Party
1946
Nacionalista Party
1907
Merged during
1992 elections with
PDP - Laban
1992
Kabalikat ng
Mamamayang Pilipino
1998
Merged in
2009 with
Lakas-CMD
1992
Puwersa ng
Nationalist People’s Coalition Merged in 1992 with Masang Pilipino
1992
1992
Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan
At the height of the political unrest during the Marcos regime in 1986, the Partido
Demokratiko Pilipino (PDP), headed by Aquilino Pimentel Jr., and Lakas ng Bayan
(LABAN) of Benigno Aquino Jr., merged together to form the PDP-LABAN.
The PDP-LABAN was then the largest opposition group against the Marcos administration, choosing Corazon Aquino as the party’s candidate for presidency against
Marcos. It is now headed by Makati mayor Jejomar Binay.
In 1988, political bickering divided PDP-LABAN into two factions, between former
congressman Jose Cojuangco and then party president Pimentel. The Cojuangco wing
merged with the Lakas ng Bansa party, headed by then Speaker of the House Ramon
Mitra, to form the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP). According to Sen. Aquilino Pimentel, the LDP was formed to strengthen the political dynasty of the CojuangcoAquinos in government.
Since disloyalty to the party was punishable offense, PDP-LABAN expelled Mitra
and the others who led the creation of LDP. Yet political bickering continued resulting
to the gradual decline of PDP-LABAN’s membership.
Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino
The Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) is the political party of convicted plunderer and again presidential aspirant Joseph Estrada. It was formed in 1991 as Partido ng Masang Pilipino for the 1992 elections, when Estrada won as vice-president.
In that particular elections, PMP merged with NPC. For the 2010 elections, however,
NPC is allied with NP.
The PMP, as the name suggests, takes on a populist ideology. Most of its programs supposedly concentrate on addressing poverty issues such as agrarian reform
and industrialization. But Estrada failed to complete his supposed poverty-reduction
programs, implementing instead privatization and deregulation policies.
The PMP was clearly established solely for the candidacy of Estrada in the
1992 elections and was revived this year for the same purpose “Political parties are
basically election machineries that are ran by personalities,” says Tuazon.
Nationalist People’s Coalition
A breakaway from NP, the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) was formed by
business tycoons and political figures in 1992 after controversies arose in the selection of NP’s standard bearers. Headed by business tycoon Eduardo “Danding”
Cojuangco Jr., a faction separated from the main leadership in protest of the unfair
standards used in NP’s nomination process. Cojuangco and his cohorts then decided
to register as an official political party for the 1992 elections, naming their group
NPC.
Today, however, the NP and NPC are back together, resulting in the Commission
on Elections declaring the coalition as the dominant minority party. This is additional incentive for local candidates to shift their alliance to the NP-NPC coalition.
Indeed, NPC mirrors one characteristic of the Philippine political system -- opposition parties are formed not so much to present an alternative to the ruling party
but to “take over the next presidency,” says Tuazon. The rampant party switching
shows how party principes and other basis of allegiance are easily set aside for the
sake of political advantage.
T
Biyernes
Biyernes, 18 Set 2009
07 Mayo 2010
he camera zooms into a crowd
grooving happily to an upbeat
song. Maghawak-hawak tayo’y sumayaw , This is your show, this is your time
– flash the lyrics of the theme song of the
hit variety-game show Showtime. Surf the
channels and the nemesis network plays
the same show, christened with a different
name, given a fresh set of hosts and run by
a new format.
A combination of the typical variety show like Eat Bulaga and the talent
contest Tawag ng Tanghalan gives us the
variety-game show, the latest trend in
Philippine television. Today’s hit varietygame shows promise that its leading stars
will be ordinary folks with extraordinary
talents, giving these performers the attention they deserve.
During the weekends, the same promise of fame is recycled in talent shows like
Talentadong Pinoy and Pilipinas Got Talent, local copies of a popular international talent show. Before the news programs
dampen everyone’s spirit, viewers tune
in to watch performances of people who
could just be anybody on the street.
With such a premise, these varietygame shows and talent shows have earned
itself a loyal audience. The mechanics after all, are simple enough that the show
seems for real: please the judges and make
the crowd go wild.
Show-off
Like the vaudeville theater of the early
21st century, variety shows began as shows
with song and dance numbers coupled
with comedy sketches. In the Philippines,
the variety show gradually changed to in-
Philippine Collegian
some known local sensation in small
town fiestas, or regional contests. For
those who seek a larger audience and a
more lucrative racket, the opportunity
can be too hard to resist. The only expectation on contestants, after all, is to keep
the audience entertained.
While these shows might showcase the
creativity and ingenuity of the ordinary Filipino, they also portend a setup where the
value of entertainment is manufactured by
show business and television networks. All
kinds of acts –from simple recycling
to dangerous stunts– are presented
as entertaining, even labeled as
talents. Almost anyone who
has the guts, and is willing to
bear some shame, can pass
off as “talented” in these
kinds of shows.
To be entertaining,
everyone has to package herself as interesting and novel.
Every contestant
is expected to be
original—an irony,
since these shows
are often rehashed
from some foreign
TV show.
As everyone struggles to be original, the
participants resort to
performing the mundane
and absurd, regardless of
how they would be viewed by
their audience – as desperate individuals or voluntary victims of
humiliation and judgment.
Almost anyone who has the guts, and is willing
to bear some shame, can pass off as “talented”
in these kinds of shows.
clude contests and other segments. Lately,
the variety show has evolved to such forms
that the song and dance numbers are integrated with the competition portion of the
show itself, hence, the variety-game show.
Variety-game shows showcase amateur performers or performing groups,
giving them the time and space they need
to display their talents to a live but unseen
audience, the viewing public inside their
homes. To gauge the best performance, a
panel of judges provides expert opinion
on every act.
While the contestants may come from
humble origins, the judges are usually professional entertainers, TV directors or actors with enough celebrity status to counter the supposed amateur status of the
performances. In a sense, these celebrities’
presence also signifies the attempt of these
shows to place the amateur performers on
equal footing with privileged actors.
Reversing the roles of the ordinary
person and the celebrity (from spectator
to performer and vice-versa) implies the
possibility for common people to achieve
the power and status of television stars.
Simultaneously, the show cements the authority held by these idols over their viewing public. The ritual of judging, after all,
reveals the arbitrary standards of certain
individuals and entities that qualify what
is entertaining and what fails.
In a seemingly innocent fashion, these
shows lend the spotlight to the public, giving them the chance to claim at least two
minutes worth of fame and keeping them
hopeful on achieving their own rags-toriches success stories.
Freak show
Frequently joining these shows are
amateur performers who are usually
Show and tell
Besides weird performances, these
shows also capitalize on personal stories
of the participants, who usually belong to
the lower-income classes. Contestants are
often introduced along with their stories
of adversity – poverty, coming from some
remote province, and low self-esteems.
Their personal stories of struggle become
central to their performances, an informal
criterion in the judgment of their acts.
With their lives on exhibit in national television, these participants become
spectacles in their ordinariness, in the
portrayal and public viewing of their everyday struggles to feed a family or find
a decent job. While these scenarios are
very real situations for the contestants,
the viewer sees the ordinary life of the
performer as a story detached from his
own. Real life experience is reduced and
commodified for leisure.
The real talents at play in these kinds
of shows are the networks’ expertise to
turn people’s dreams and special abilities
into a show that rakes in high viewership
and profits through advertisements. For
the sake of contestants who provide the
entertainment, and the public who eagerly watches, the networks sell off these
shows as living proof of Filipino talent.
To earn applause and approval, one
needs only to shock or strike a sentimental chord with the crowd and judges.
When the curtains close and the verdict
is out, the best performance belongs to
the networks which have successfully
twisted the people’s reality and made it
a spectacle, sedating an audience against
feeling the brunt of their own miseries
through watching other people perform
their own poverty and desperation. q
AR TICLE : Di an ne
Ma ra h Sa ya ma n
ILLUS TR AT ION : Ru
th Da nie lle Al ipo
sa
PAGE DESI GN : Pa
tri cia Ba sm ay or
Biyernes
07 Mayo 2010
Philippine Collegian
A
t an open field in Taguig, with
the night sky above us, the music pulses from underneath our
Chuck Taylors. It reaches up past our base
chakras, beats against our diaphragm and
reaches our ears. We sing along to yesterday’s melody, infecting each other with our
collective nostalgia. Our eyes drink the
scene, tattooing everything under our eyelids. We don’t want to forget.
The Eraserheads takes the stage for the
last time. The audience pulls out their cameras—cell phone, point-and-click, or bulky
digital single lens reflex (DSLR)— and start
snapping pictures, like some huge, blinking, multi-eyed creature, hungry for still
frames.
For something purportedly capable
of stealing people’s souls, the camera
has gone a long way. From the daguerreotype of 1837 to the
current evolution of
the digital camera,
we now exist in what
may be the most visually
documented
period of human history. Most cellular phones
and handheld gadgets are now designed
with a camera. Disposable film cameras
and cheap digital point-and-click cameras are available for the casual photographer, while professionals have
heavy-duty DSLR cameras with high
powered zoom lenses. Digital editing software like Photoshop
has also made it possible
for almost everyone with
the means to produce
professional-looking
photographs.
This
technology, once thought
of as a threat to the
art of painting, has
since been used to
document images
to further scientific
studies, make powerful visual statements,
create moving pictures,
and show off our latest
hairstyles and funny faces
on the internet.
Even before this widespread democratization of
camera technology, we have all
become witnesses and victims of a
visual onslaught. Mass media has bombarded our televisions and billboards
with images of beautiful smiling models,
portraying an ideal look and lifestyle that
we, as cultural consumers have been programmed to aspire for. Reality TV weaves
the illusion that everyone is entitled to
more than 15 minutes of fame, and the
current camera craze has afforded us to
become widely-photographed celebrities—if only within our own social circles.
The rise of visual culture
is making voyeurs and exhibitionists of us, teaching us
to look while making us want
to be looked at.
We may have not seen it
with our own eyes, but once EDSA
was lined with people standing shoulder-toshoulder, chanting together, and clamoring
for the ouster of the tyrant. For what seems
to be the first time in this nation’s forgetful history, the people are united toward a
ARTICLE: Mixkaela Villalon
ILLUSTRATION: JANO GONZALES
PAGE DESIGN: PATRICIA BASMAYOR
common goal:
liberation.
Army tanks
attempt to barricade
them. Armed soldiers
face the crowd uncertainly. There is a sea of
people as far as their eyes
can
see. Directly in front of them,
two nuns get on their knees and pray the
rosary.
Taken in context, this particular
scene was nothing out of the ordinary.
But a photographer pointed his camera and took the picture. The image
By framing the mundane, photography is documentation. Every photograph
is proof of existence. It is a testament that
particular periods of history, places, cultures, and people were once real, and that
there was a photographer there to capture
and preserve the moment. The photographs we take of ourselves are not only
lighthearted exercises in vanity, but also
evidence of present trends, behaviors,
and relationships.
However, while photographs preserve
a slice of the present, it also highlights
impermanence and foreshadows endings.
The picturesque photographs of Mount
Mayon’s perfect cone shape portended a
future when it is no longer perfect. The
people in photos taken in the late 1800’s
have long passed away. Even the youthful photos we take of ourselves speak of
a future when we are no longer as vibrant,
or no longer as happy. Photography’s
charm in taking and preserving snapshot
moments comes from our recognition
that nothing in life is static.
In a handful of weeks, there will be
a new president. New people will take up
seats of power vacated by people who were
not all that different from them. The country will be under new management. It is
promised to be new start for a nation who
has toiled and suffered decades of rotten
social order.
The Now is fast becoming Yesterday,
and in due time, things will be forgotten.
The past nine years will be consigned to
the history books for future generations
to read—a full two paragraphs, perhaps,
of the country’s second woman president’s
tumulus term.
Meanwhile, there are reels of unprinted film negatives, snapshots of people met
along the way. There are street children in
grubby clothing flashing smiles and gang
signs, fishermen offering a glass of tuba to a
friend and mass leader shot by mysterious
assailants, the rough hands of a father selling shabu so his sons can go to school, and
endless images of protest rallies that flooded
the streets nearly every month. These images will never be featured in history books.
The photograph is a personal memoir.
The rise of visual culture is making voyeurs and
exhibitionists of us, teaching us to look while
making us want to be looked at.
has become one of the most popular and
poignant ones of the first People Power.
Photography is the art of framing the
mundane. The scenes we see every day are
the same scenes a hundred other people
see. To take a picture of a particular scene,
however, is to pick it out from a myriad of
other sights and frame it within the space
and medium of the photograph. Through
this act, the photographer draws attention to something that may be ordinary
and proclaims it as extraordinary,
worthy of a second glance.
In picking out particular
scenes to photograph, the
photographer makes a choice.
Behind every image that we
see is the photographer’s conscious decision to show off a
particular sight. If so, looking at
a photograph must not only mean
being seduced by aesthetics and composition, it also requires the careful interrogation of the photographer’s intention.
It shows people, places, and events as they
unfold, and it also traces the trajectory of
the photographer’s travels. It derives its
power and relevance specifically from its
personal and intimate nature.
Because of this, the photograph will
always stand in contrast of any officially
written narrative, such as history. While
history notes remarkable people, places,
or events to create a cohesive grand narrative, photography points its lens at the
smaller, but no less relevant details that
history may miss.
In this respect, the photograph is always rebellious. By immortalizing fleeting moments, it declares its defiance
against the rush of time. But by training
one’s lenses at the least seen and hardly
looked-at images in society does photography go against the grain and become an
art form. Only then can photography be
revolutionary. q
Biyernes
Biyernes, 18 Set 2009
07 Mayo 2010
T
he first of May is the day when
workers commemorate the historic struggle of the working
class throughout the world, when the
loudest voices calling for decent wages
can be heard, and when the demands
of a long-ignored sector echo through
the halls of power. With only P382 to bring home to
their families each day, workers in Metro
Manila find it difficult to survive as the
daily cost of living for a family of six currently stands at a high P920. Burdened by
the soaring prices of basic commodities
and stagnant wages, workers scramble to
make ends meet. The sad irony is that Labor Day has
also become a day of jubilation for the
owner. As workers parade to call for a
P125 wage increase, the government
spews out the same announcement it
makes every year — no wage hike on
Labor Day. Wage erosion
The demand for P125 across-theboard wage increase was first put forward in 1999, a time when the country
was still reeling from the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. Back then, a family of six—the average Filipino family—needed P379.51
a day to survive. However, a minimum
Philippine Collegian
wage earner at that time was only taking home an average of P193.67 a day. The workers were specifically calling for a P125 wage increase as it would
have brought the real value of the minimum wage at that time to its 1989 levels, the year when the Wage Rationalization Act (WRA) was enacted. The WRA, which provided for the
establishment of regional wage boards
(RWBs), practically abolished the national minimum wage, resulting to a
decline in real wages and purchasing
power of workers over the years.
Until now, the government has
been relying on the RWBs to consider
and address issues related to wage increases. According to Elmer Labog,
chairperson of militant labor center
Kilusang Mayo Uno, the creation of
RWBs has “spawned very measly and
sparse wage hikes.” From 1989 to 2010,
wage increases in various regions have
amounted to an average of only P172.
An average of 14 wage orders has been
issued since 1989, majority of which
were single-digit increases. A decade of denial
As a response, progressive legislators in the 11th and 12th Congresses
filed several bills providing for a P125
wage increase in the private sector. The
bills, however, did not prosper under a
House leadership influenced by powerful businessmen wary of shouldering
the additional costs of wage increases. The late Anakpawis Rep. and labor
leader Crispin Beltran refiled the bill in
the 13th Congress. After several mobilization and lobbying efforts, Congress
approved the bill by a vote of 151-0. The workers’ victory, however, was
only short-lived as the bill was not immediately transmitted to the Senate—a
violation of the Rules of the House—
and was recalled months after. This was
after big businessmen and members of
Arroyo’s economic team recommended
to Malacañang to veto the wage hike
bill, arguing that it would shake the
K u w e n to n g B a l e r
economy and force firms to close. The fate suffered by the 125 legislated
wage increase proposal highlights the
fact that our country’s economic managers have been toeing the same line as the
businessmen that continue to block attempts at policy interventions on wage
increases.
When the wage increase proposal
was gaining ground in the Lower House,
for instance, the National Economic and
Development Authority (NEDA) quickly
argued that small and medium enterprises, which comprise the majority of businesses in the country, could not afford the
increase and would be forced to throw
workers out of their jobs. Businessmen and economic managers also perpetually raise the specter of
inflation when a wage increase is in the
offing. Known as the theory of “costpush” inflation, it states that wage hikes
lead to inflation because the increase in
labor costs for corporations force them to
jack up prices.
K a k a n g g ata
K
It’s all about the money
Pitting wage increases against lay-offs
and price increases has been an underhanded tactic employed by profit-driven
businessmen in order to justify their
voracious appetite for profit, says IBON
Foundation research head Sonny Africa.
The sad irony is that Labor Day has also become
a day of jubilation for the owner.
The P125 wage increase would not lead to
lay-offs and price increases if only corporations could afford to give up a portion
of their profits, he asserts. Corporations notorious of giving out
measly wages are actually companies who
consistently belong to the country’s top 10
corporations and have parent companies
and links with multinational companies
abroad. An example is Nestle Philippines,
which recorded a net income of P7.121
billon in 2006 and is among the country’s
top companies. Minimum wage workers
in Nestle’s Cabuyao factory, however, take
home only P298 per work day.
Moreover, the government cannot
say that wage hikes would cause the closure of factories, particularly of small and
medium enterprises, the Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research
(EILER) says. The main threat to domestic
industries, the labor research center says,
is not wage increase, but its own policies
that favor foreign corporations, who receive import privileges, tax holidays, and
other incentives, and allow them to monopolize vital industries. Legislating and enacting an across the
board wage increase is then a choice for the
government to choose whether it would uphold the rights of its workers to decent wages or protect the continuous accumulation
of excess profits of corporations. “Hindi dapat pagbanggain ang sahod at trabaho o ang
sahod at presyo ng bilihin – dapat sabay-sabay inaasikaso ng gobyerno ang disenteng
sahod, sapat na trabaho, at tamang presyo
ng bilihin,” Africa says. The bitter truth is that the government, while it cannot deny that th ere is a
need for a substantial wage increase, has
been tolerating the greed of businesses. It
continues to uphold the belief that capital
accumulation and the continuous profiteering of big corporations will keep the
economy rolling. A rising tide, however,
does not raise all the boats. In the current
context wherein economic growth figures
are skewed toward the wealthy, workers
are actually left drowning in a sea of economic despair. q
Biyernes
07 Mayo 2010
Philippine Collegian
ARTICLE:: Mateo Manansala
ILLUSTRATION: Nico Villarete
PAGE DESIGN:: Patricia Basmayor
atatapos lamang ng ikatlong Palihang Rogelio Sicat sa Baler, Aurora,
isang lugar kung saan malugod na
binabati ng mga dalampasigang nasa paanan ng kabundukan ng Sierra Madre ang
mga alon mula sa karagatang Pasipiko. Isa
ako sa 15 na fellow na naging kalahok sa
limang araw na palihan, at sa aming pagbabalik dito sa Maynila, bitbit ko ang mga
yamang nakuha mula sa Baler.
Para sa taong ito, binubuo ang mga
kalahok ng mga iba’t ibang manunulat ng
tula at kuwento sa wikang Filipino. Ayon
sa mga direktor ng palihan, may mga nagpadala pa ng kanilang aplikasyon mula sa
lalawigan ng Visayas at Mindanao – patunay na hindi lamang nakasiksik sa Katagalugan ang ating pambansang wika at na
buhay at dumadaloy ito maging sa malalayong panig ng bansa.
Naging masaya at makabuluhan ang
buong palihan. Isa-isang isinalang ang
mga akdang kinatha ng bawat kalahok, at
mabusising hinimay-himay ang mga ito
ng mga kasamang propesor, manunulat,
at kapwa kalahok. Malaman ang naging
palitan ng mga diskurso at kuro-kuro, habang nagsasalitan ang tono ng tuwid na
pagpuna at mahinahong paggabay – isang
mahalagang balanse sa isang palihan para
sa mga kalahok na nasa simula pa lamang
ng kanilang pagsusulat.
Nagkaroon din ng sapat na panahon
at espasyo upang malibot at makilala ang
Baler. Makasaysayan ang bayan, bilang
lugar ng huling kwartel ng mga Kastila
sa Pilipinas, at lugar ng kapanganakan ni
Manuel Quezon. Makapal at hitik pa rin
ang kakahuyan sa mga bundok nito, isang
malaking pagkakaiba sa kalbo at sunog sa
araw nang parte ng Sierra Madre sa Nueva Ecija. Ibang payapang pakiramdam
din ang dulot ng naglalakihang mga alon
sa dalampasigang nasa kabilang dako at
hindi nahihimlayan ng mga silahis ng lumulubog na araw.
sa higit 50 na aplikante. Natanggap ako,
at sa paglipas ng panahon, unti-unti kong
naintindihan ang mga maaaring kahinatnan sa pagsusulat sa Filipino, na isa itong
trabaho na maliit ang kita, na isa itong
propesyon na hindi lubos nauunawaan
ng karamihan.
Nitong mga huling taon, nabalitaan
ko ang kawalan ng enrollees sa aming
departamento sa kolehiyo, ang Depar-
Sa paglipas ng panahon, unti-unti kong
naintindihan ang mga maaaring kahinatnan sa
pagsusulat sa Filipino
Sa loob ng limang araw na iyon, mistulang napakalayo namin sa mga suliranin
at usapin na nakapalibot sa panitikan ng
Pilipinas, at sa mga problema ng bansa sa
kalakhan. Sa piling ng mga taong kapwa
piniling magsulat sa Filipino, para bang
napakalago at napakalusog ng panitikan
sa Filipino. Na parang hindi ito apektado
at nilalamon ng pinaiiral na globalisasyon
– mga pinalalaganap na kalakaran, palisiya at kulturang isinasantabi ang ating
wika sa isang posisyong pinalalabas itong
mas mababa ang antas at wala nang saysay sa kasalukuyan.
Naalala ko ang unang taon ko sa UP
noong 2004, kung kailan ako sumubok
makapasok bilang mag-aaral ng malikhaing pagsulat sa Filipino. Mahigpit ang
naging labanan sa pagsusulit, kung saan
limitado lamang ang slot na maibibigay
A
tamento ng Filipino at Panitikan ng
Pilipinas. Sa panahong ang tanging mga
kaakit-akit na kurso para sa kabataan ay
iyong malaki ang nakukuhang pagkilala
at malaki ang potensyal para kumita at
maging mariwasa sa hinaharap, sino pa
ba ang pipiling pag-aralan ang ating panitikan at wika? Sino pa ba ang mangangahas na magsulat?
Sumakay ako ng taxi pauwi mula sa
pinagbabaang bus terminal sa EDSA. Bitbit ko ang dalawang supot ng blue marlin
at tuna belly na nabili ko sa kalahating
presyo sa Baler kumpara sa presyo dito
sa Maynila. Higit sa lahat, naiuwi ko ang
mga kuwento at karanasan kasama ang
mga kapwa kalahok, propesor, manunulat, at mga kaibigan na nagpapatuloy sa
paghubog sa kanilang larangan, gaano
man ito katagal abutin. q
personal column
****
N
ostalgia hangs heavy in the air
this summer, a languid undertone
to the bustle of graduations, the
heat of El Niño, the frenzy of the upcoming 2010 elections. Over a decade of formal
schooling is ended at last, but for me, the
excitement is tempered with apprehension
— for the first time in my life, I don’t know
what’s next.
Perhaps that’s the reason for this
sudden, crushing wistfulness. What’s
sadness, after all, but regret that things
must change?
W
aloud what my plans are, and where I’ll go
after graduation.
Over the past year, the crucible of
Kulê has forced us to spend most of
our time with each other. It’s reached a
point where we’ve adapted each other’s
mannerisms, and can even practically
predict each other’s behavior. But still,
you can’t predict where I’ll be a month
from now.
You all venture guesses, each different
from the last. The sheer variety of options
only underscores my dilemma.
hat’s sadness, after all, but regret that
things must change?
*For Kulê: M, M, M, G, R.
Here it is, the “last column” all of us
are waiting to write. It’s become traditional for those who leave Kulê to leave their
mark as well: a name carved on the table,
a drawing inked on the wall, a quote in
chalk on a locker. Or a column about the
people, the office, Mang Romy; whatever
combination of factors comprise Kulê in
someone’s mind.
As I sit by a window in Vinzons 401,
considering what to write about, you
chastise me for the string of predictably
issue-based columns I’ve written for Kulê
over the past couple of years, urging me
to write something personal for once.
You accuse me of being too careful of my
privacy. Indeed, these past few days, all
of you have come up to me, sometimes
separately, sometimes together, to wonder
**For A.
Several weeks ago, you celebrated
your birthday; like me, you rejected the
traditional debut and opted for a more
casual outing with family and friends,
shrugging off the supposed significance
of turning eighteen.
Unlike me, you have the next several
years mapped out. You got into your
first choice of course and college; BS
Biology, UP Diliman. You say you plan
to graduate, then perhaps, continue into
medical school.
Is that what you want? Fortunately for
me, at least until I graduated, what I want
and what our parents want for me have
coincided. But it seems my luck is about
to end, and yours may not even extend as
far as graduation. I remember our talks
about the future, our family’s expectations.
On my part, there’s no pressure to be a bar
topnotcher, or an award-winning writer,
or a journalist at a prestigious institution
— that kind of insistence on a specific
dream isn’t our parents’ style. Instead, the
pressure is to succeed. And their standards
of success are not the same as ours.
These are contradictions that will not
easily be settled, but you and I have always
had each other to talk to, about anything.
And for that much, I’m glad.
***For T.
I listen to others, and they all have
advice to give. Look for a scholarship
suited to your skills, and go abroad. Take
up further studies in the university, bide
your time until law school. Apply for a
job at some prestigious media institution,
work your way up. Join a non-government
organization, engage in volunteer work.
None of it sounds quite right. In some
odd way, it feels like you’re the only one
who understands that.
I’m grateful that you’ve given me, not
advice, really, but a new perspective on
things. After all this, I still don’t know what’s
next. But you remind me of all the reasons
why I must resolve this: the struggle which
may not be won in our lifetime, the reasons
why we must keep fighting anyway. And
you in that battleground, while I balance
on the edge of some uncertain threshold
— the summer drawing to its inevitable
close, nostalgia swept away by the portents
of change. q
Send in your
opinions
and feedback
via SMS!
Type: KULE
<space> YOUR
MESSAGE
<space>
STUDENT
NUMBER (required),
NAME and COURSE
(optional) and send to
0927.300.5121. Non-UP
students must indicate any school,
organizational or sectoral affiliation.
WARNING: We don’t entertain
textmates.
Comments
benta ata ung c0mment ni 0907591,kung cno k man.gudlak seo..
bka d kna mgbasa ng kule.ahaha.lol.
kc naman eh..ang c0mment eh.haha
09-12511
May editors pa ba ang Kule?Ang
daming mga typo ng mga articles at
pati yung Errata published in Issue 28
kailangan ng Errata. Labo…02*205*
ang kpal tlga ng mga fec ng b0r! 603
JERALYN AMBON COMPUTER SIENCE
ibalik nyo ang Aling Minda: tinderang
gala please please please! Kahit isang
labas pa lang e sinusubaybayan ko na
(meh ganon!??) pibalik po, at sana
gawin nyong lingguhan! Ajejeje! 0904328
sagutan
to 09-07591:wawa ka naman.
Pinagtulungan ka nila.. Pero kebs! Mag
analyze kasi. Kaya sa mga susunod ba
mag ko comment, magsuri muna, k? At
least yung tinatawag nyong ‘ranty’ kule
articles e may analysis. Escapist mode
na kasi ang iba ngayon. 07-14052 CS
Pra ky 09-07591 re; ur comoent last
mar3 on morong 43. Tae k dn! Un
mbho p. ang isyu is not weder dey r
NPA or not. Ang isyu d2 ay HRVs. Bka
dmu alm,human ryts violations ng AFP.
Ingat k,ba ikulong k dn nla.Peru mg iingay pn kmi pra sau kht ala k kwenta
kung hulihin kman ng mga tuta ni ate
glo. Kung maingay cla,tanggalin mo
tenga m0! FYI,health workers cla pero
ndi na ata mgagamot ang mkitid mong
pg iisip. Mbuhay ang MORONG 43!
Jace,PUP Student,brother of Jaq Gonzales (Morong 43)
JOIN
KULE
FOR WRITERS
BRING 2 BLUEBOOKS AND A PEN
FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS
& LAYOUT ARTISTS
B R IN G
B LUE B OO K ,
P EN ,
& P O R T F OLIO O F W O R K S
FOR ILLUSTRATORS
BRING DRAWING MATERIALS
& PORTFOLIO OF WORKS
CONTACT 09153352021
JOIN
KULE
Biyernes
Biyernes, 18 Set 2009
07 Mayo 2010
We welcome questions, constructive criticism,
opinions, stands on relevant issues, and other
reactions. Letters may be edited for brevity or
clarity. Due to space constraints, letters must
have only 400 words or less. Send the letters
to kule0910@gmail.com.
Unfaltering Dissent
T
here may be times when we
are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be
a time when we fail to protest.”
—Elie Wiesel
The 2010 graduation ceremonies across the UP system are the
commencement of an academic year
marked by undemocratic decisions
and policies, blatant repressiveness,
and the continuing commercialization of education.
The year opened with the refusal
of the Board of Regents (BOR) to recognize duly-selected Student Regent
Charisse Bañez because of pending
disciplinary cases. This was followed
by other unfair and authoritarian
measures throughout the UP system.
In UP Diliman, tenure was unjustly denied to Professor Sarah Raymundo, who has been a vocal critic of
the administration’s policy of commercialization. In UP Cebu, despite
widespread protests, the administration is pushing for the closure of UP
Visayas Cebu High School. In UP
Los Baños, militarization is manifest
in the presence of soldiers and the
red-tagging of student activists on
campus, even as the administration
works to implement a contested large
lecture class scheme.
And throughout, despite pronouncements from the administration that there will be no tuition
increases, there have been increases
in tuition for graduate programs,
and the imposition of new or higher
laboratory fees. There are new dorms
being built which eschew democratic
access, charging high rates and including a student’s course in the criteria for admission. There have been
key appointments made by the BOR,
such as those of the UP Mindanao
Chancellor and the PGH Director,
despite questions about the formers’
financial transactions with the Commission on Audit, and the latter’s ties
to Malacañang.
It is not surprising, then, that the
UP administration has struck again,
one more time before this dismal
academic year draws to a close. This
time, with their usual disregard for
democratic principles and due process, they have targeted the annual
university graduation ceremony.
Several UP officials raised questions about the “relevance” of the
ceremonies. They argued that college
graduation exercises would suffice,
and that university-level ceremonies
would only double expenses. They argued that El Niño was a factor, pointing to the extreme heat was a reason
to cancel the university graduation.
Most of all, they argued that the
possibility of major protest actions
during the university graduation
would further tarnish the image of
UP.This was clearly a knee-jerk reaction to the debacle of the last BOR
meet, which drew the attention of the
national media to the problem of increasingly expensive and inaccessible
education — largely through the spectacle, denounced by the UP administration, of symbolic protest: UPLB
Chancellor Luis Velasco covered in
paint; the Oblation wrapped in black
cloth and draped with placards; graffiti
scrawled across the floor and walls of
the UP Diliman Quezon Hall.
In the face of the steps taken to
curtail any protests during graduation — the almost-cancellation of
the university ceremonies, the requests for additional security during
the exercises, the decision of our UP
President not present herself as a target for students during the rites — we
would like to remind Roman and her
administration of a few things.
It is downright deplorable for
the administration of the premiere
state university which has prized
itself as a citadel of truth and a bastion of democracy to evade the discussion and resolution of legitimate
and pressing issues forwarded by
protesting students, faculty and employees of the university.
Instead of facing these legitimate
questions head-on, the administration has focused on tagging those
who participate in protest actions as
barbaric, uncivilized, hooligans. We
reject this half-baked attempt to divide the ranks of the students.
In the end, it is the administration which committed the most barbaric and uncivilized acts, destroying
all tenets of democratic governance
and further marginalizing the rights
and welfare of their constituents in
the university simply to serve their
own motives.
The vested interest of the administration in teaching the UP student to
disdain protests is obvious: it would
foster the culture of impunity which
has allowed Roman and the Malacañang-appointed regents to treat their
positions in the BOR as license to implement whatever they wish, ignoring
the clamor of their constituents and
the interests of the university’s students, faculty, and other sectors.
However, they are taking the university in a direction we do not want
to go, and we must fight back.
Let us prove the fears of Roman
and her cronies justified. The 2010
graduation rites will be a site of vocal opposition, of principled dissent,
a condemnation of the injustices of
the past academic year. This opportunity for widespread protest is not a
favor granted us by the UP administration — it is the right of a student
body too long stifled by the oppressive Roman administration. q
UNIVERSITY GRADUATION
STATEMENT OF THE KATIPUNAN NG
MGA SANGGUNIANG MAG-AARAL
SA UP
Download Kule in PDF
kule0910.deviantart.com
Biyernes
07 Mayo 2010
Philippine Collegian
PGH from pg 4
ited by the commission’s 1987
memorandum circular on protests that could compromise the
delivery of basic services.
Despite the CSC’s warning, the number of doctors who
signified their intent to file an
LOA rose to over a hundred of
the total 650 medical faculty in a
week’s span.
In an April 12 letter to Domingo, UPCM Dean Alberto
Roxas said that he has not approved requests for “mass or
protest leave” by the medicine
faculty.
“Taking an LOA without the
dean’s permission may be taken
a point against untenured faculty
during their renewal for the college…This is a form of coercion.
Most of the faculty in PGH do
not receive any compensation,
now they are not even entitled to
an LOA,” Gonzales said.
‘Bloodied dispute’
“It is saddening that the political bickering has even affected
vital operations of the hospital,”
said Dr. Legaspi.
On the morning of April 8,
Legaspi was operating on a brain
tumor patient who bled more
than expected, and the one unit
of blood prepared for emergency
transfusion was insufficient.
Legaspi asked a resident
assisting him to facilitate the
procurement of two more units
of blood as the patient’s blood
pressure was already falling due
to the loss of blood. The resident
recounted that he was refused
the two blood units in the health
operations office due to Legaspi’s
supposed LOA.
Dorm from pg 5
unibersidad na kung saan nakapagdidikta ang mga donor na
magpapatayo ng mga imprastraktura kung papaano patatakbuhin ang dormitory,” Student
Regent Charisse Bernadine Bañez said.
For 2010, UP will not receive
state subsidy for capital outlay
or funds used for infrastructure
building.
High rates
Occupants in the Centennial Dormitory will have to pay
P1,500 per month, about three
times higher than the current
fees charged in other dormitories. At present, all dormitories
in campus, except for Kamagong
and International Center, charge
less than P500 for monthly rent.
The income from the dormitory will be put in a trust fund,
to be used solely for maintenance of its facilities.
“Support service” areas for
residents of the Centennial Dormitory will also be built and
leased out to private business
establishments. Income from
leased spaces will be used to finance professorial chairs and
teaching grants, the contract
stated.
UP also plans to charge
P1,500 per month in the Acacia
Residence Hall, a 768-bed dor-
“In the end, they gave us all
the blood we needed. But the issue there was, at the critical period… we needed two units of
blood, [and] they only approved
one because of my involvement
in the protests,” he said.
PGH unaffected?
“Most of the PGH employees are working well and are
supporting the projects of the
hospital. Cases like Dr. Legaspi’s
does not happen all the time,”
Domingo said.
The hospital has even passed
the ISO certification surveillance audit and the PhilHealth
accreditation despite the protests, Domingo added.
Still, Gonzales filed a petition in the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (QCRTC) on
March 11 to contest the selection
of Domingo and “declare the petitioner the rightful director of
the UP PGH.”
Both parties submitted evidence to the QCRTC on April 12
and are awaiting the decision of
the court later this month.
“Susundin ko naman kung
anong ipag-uutos ng korte. Kung
kinakailagan kong bumaba sa
puwesto, gagawin ko. Pero hindi
ibig sabihin noon na [si Gonzales] na ang makauupo [bilang
director],” Domingo said.
“Pag-aralan natin at suriin ang problema. Maraming
kawani at mga doktor na dating
magkakaibigan ang nagkakahati-hati. Dapat nang maglabas ng
desisyon ang korte ukol sa PGH
nang hindi na maapektuhan pa
ang serbisyo nito sa mga mamamayan,” AUPWU-Manila President Benjamin Santos said. q
mitory in the7,958 square-meter
vacant lot across the UP Shopping Center.
In a letter endorsed to the
BOR on October last year, Enriquez explained that the figure
is equivalent to the lowest rate
in private boarding houses and
apartments around UP.
“Unless the dorm fee for
Acacia is set at a rate by which
it can maintain itself, this new
dormitory will suffer the fate of
our crumbling, decrepit dormitories,” she added.
“Sa pagpapatayo ng mga
dormitoryong kasing-taas na
ang upa sa mga pribadong
boarding house sa labas ng UP,
tuluyan nang nawawala ang pagiging student service ng student
housing,” Eroles said. Instead of
students paying for the maintenance of dormitories, such services should be subsidized by
the government, she explained.
Meanwhile, the Law Dormitory, which will be built near
Acacia, has yet to be discussed at
the college level, said College of
Law Dean Mario Victor Leonen.
“Nakatatakot isiping isa nang
trend para sa pamantasan na
buksan maging ang mga student
services sa pribadong interes, na
hindi naman mangyayari kung
nabibigyan ng sapat na pondo
ang mga nasabing serbisyo,” Bañez said. q
Health workers from pg 4
The PNP did not accept the
detainees on April 8, citing their
“overcrowded” jail facilities. The
PNP also refused to comply with
the April 23 order, arguing that
detention is the job of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, not the police.
“For the convenience of
our clients, I [asked the] court
to transfer the detainees from
Camp Capinpin to Camp
Bagong Diwa, seeing that the
PNP adamantly refuses to accept the detainees into Crame,”
said Matibag.
The transfer of the detainees
to Bicutan does not revoke the
right to file a complaint for indirect contempt against the military and the PNP for not complying with the April 23 order to
transfer them to Camp Crame,
Matibag added.
Eksenang
Peyups
The Jejemon
EdIhShEun
PoeWH!
TRO denied
Meanwhile, the Court of Appeals denied on April 28 the petition for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the
investigation of the Commission
on Human Rights (CHR) on the
arrest and detention of the Morong 43.
The TRO was filed by Judge
Cesar Mangrobang, presiding
judge of Imus, who issued the
warrant of arrest used by the
military on February 6.
The TRO was a tactic used
by the military to avoid investigation on the legality of the
arrest, said Dr. Julie Caguiat,
spokesperson for the Free the 43
Health Workers Alliance. In the
past three hearings, the military
refused to comply with summons to appear before the CHR
and produce the Morong 43.
“We need to rapidly conclude these hearings so the CHR
can form a resolution regarding
the continued detention of the
Morong 43,” said CHR Chairperson Leila de Lima. q
SR from pg 4
Still, the legality of the new
SR-select is a matter which must
be settled by the BOR in the next
board meeting this May, said UP
Vice-President for Legal Affairs
Theodore Te.
UP President Emerlinda Roman said that for her, it was "not
an issue" whether or not Bañez
presided over the GASC. "But
I am only one vote in the BOR.
The other regents may question
it, they may not," she said.
If the BOR rejects the selection of the GASC, the Office of
the Student Regent will staunchly contest such repression, said
Co. “Nararapat na maging tuntungan ng mga estudyante ang
kalagayan ngayon ng SR para
sa demokratisasyon sa pamantasan,” she said. q
LALALALALA
LALALALALALA
L A L A L A L A
LALALALALA
L A L A L A L A
LALALALALA
LALALALALALA
LALALALALA
L A L A L AY O U T
apply na! akyat l ang sa kule at hanapin si pichie
http://www.philippinecollegian.net
HElloeWhz PfoeGh! Moezzztah nuh Qeu? GRabeeh
lAhng pOeWh aNg FheizBuk,
AnDameeh Lang AyAwh
Sa mGa JeJEmoehnz liKe
mOi. Kaya dEEtoh Na laHNg
pOewh aq mAgsUsUlat
sA ~EP~. PAzeNziA Nah
pfoueh kuNgh Maszakeeth
sa mAta~, nAg-EexpREzz
laNg Poewh ng SaRileeh!
AJeJeJeJe ;-P
UnAng TsEEzmax PFeOUh
!!!
ANo PoEwH itoNg MaJor
NeTwOrk nA MasyAdong
obViOus kuHNg mAgParAde
ng ColOrs for the upCUmming May 2010 ElExioNs?
SuBrang HalaTa naMan Poewh kaSi, KulAng na lAnG
mAgLAgAy ng RIbBon (ehem,
dilaw, ehem). At aHng PazzaBhog to the Nth Level 
Hindi ipinalabas ng network
na ito ang commercial ng
isang party list ng mga bulilit dahil unethical daw ang
video. Naglalaman raw kasi
ang video ng gate ng isang
hacienda na may specks of
blood. HmMPpff, paLiBhAsA
kOntRa sA kAndiDatoeh
NilA. JUjuJUjuJUjuJU.
SEcOnd TsEEzmax PFeOUh
!!!
HaBanG vaCaTioN mOdE
taYOhnG LhAt, busy-BusyHan aNg atiNg mGa BeloVed
& eLeCTed UnIVerSal StUDioUs ToNCil. InAyOz PoEwh
Ng mGA SC-eLect aNg Mga
CUmMiTtings na MaghAhAti sa mGa sa tRabAHoew
nExt Year. PeRo paRaNg May
tRoubles aNg MeaTiNgs, dAhiL naGfuSe rAw aNg Mga
ColoRs fOr a Not-sO CoMMon cAuSe: TalUnIn ang MajOrity Na Party! As In, nAgOpErAtiOn cOMbiNatiOn
rAw aNg dAlaWang
parTiEs PaRa mAtAlo
ang vOtIng poehWers
ng isa PaNg paRtEy.
 Natuto lang magmath, naglunukan na
ng personal angas at differences sa prinsipyo. Ay,
wala pala silang pinag-iba.
Ajejejejejeje. SoWree POewhz Sa mGa taTaAmaaN.
PS:
Seryosong mensahe: SALAMAT po sa mga nagdala
ng bagong mga upuan sa
opisina ng Kulutera. LaBsYu
POewhz!
Nico Villarete
Opinyon
Philippine Collegian
Tomo 87 Blg 29-30
Biyernes, 07 Mayo 2010
Editoryal
I
h i n d i natata p o s a n g pa k i k i s a n g ko t
to ang huling pahina ng terminong ito. At tangan hanggang ng
mga pinakahuling salitang dadaloy
mula rito ang mga armas ng pakikisangkot na ating pinanghawakan
mula pa sa simula.
Walang alinlangan ang ating ginawang
pagtindig, sapagkat umiinog ang pahayagan ng Philippine Collegian sa isang uri
ng lipunang tahasan ang mga linyang
nagtatakda at namamagitan sa magkakaibang puwersang nagtutunggalian:
ang iilang naghahari at ang mas maraming pinagsasamantalahan. Kung kaya’t sa
simula pa lamang ay nakita na natin na
isang ilusyon at malaking kasalanan ang
pagwawalang kibo at hindi pagpanig sa
umiiral na digmaan.
Batbat ang nagdaang taon ng mga
krisis na ating kinaharap sa loob at labas ng pamantasan. At mula sa mga ito,
natunghayan natin ang pagsilang sa mga
kabalintunaang tumatak sa ating kolektibong kamalayan at kasaysayan.
Kamakailan lamang, nasaksihan nating nagsipagtapos ang huling pangkat ng
mga mag-aaral ng unibersidad na nakatamasa ng mababang matrikula bago
ipinatupad ang 300 porsyentong pagtaas
nito. At sa kabila ng pagmamalaki ng administrasyon na nanatiling abot-kamay
ang edukasyon ng pamantasan para sa
kabataan, sinundan pa ang pagtaas na ito
ng pagpapatupad sa mga dagdag bayarin
na pinapasan ngayon ng mga mag-aaral.
Gayundin, tumambad sa atin ang lanPh
i l i pp i n e
Co
l l e g i a n
tarang paggamit sa baluktot na lokiha at
sukdulang kapangyarihan upang sagkaan
ang mga demokratikong proseso ng ating
mga institusyon.
Hindi natin nalilimutan ang ginawang
pagtanggal sa Rehente ng mga Mag-aaral,
ang ating nag-iisang kinatawan sa Board
of Regents dahil sa teknikalidad. Ito’y isinagawa ng administrasyon sa gitna ng katotohanan na ang mga mag-aaral ng unibersidad ang pinakamalaking bumubuo
sa pamantasan, at kahit na dalawa sa mga
Rehente mula sa Malacañang ang paso na
ang panunungkulan at malaon nang dapat inalis sa kanilang mga puwesto. Nanatiling taliwas din sa ating mga prinsipyo
ang sapilitang pagpapatalsik kay Dr. Jose
Gonzales bilang direktor ng Philippine
General Hospital, bagaman napagbotohan nang iluklok siya sa posisyon.
Nasaksihan din ng nakaraang taon
ang isa sa mga pinakamalalang paniniil
sa mga mag-aaral ng UP Los Baños sa
kasaysayan, kung saan tahasang kinupot
ang kanilang mga institusyong pang magaaral. Nahinto ang paglabas ng kanilang
pahayagang Perspective dahil sa pag-ipit
sa pondo nito. Sinampahan din ng kanilang administrasyon ng mga gawa-gawang
kaso ang mga estudyanteng kritikal, o di
naman kaya’y pinaratangan at binansagang mga “komunista” ang mga mag-aaral o gurong lumalaban sa ipinatutupad na
mga represibong palisiya.
Malinaw na ang mga pag-atakeng ito
sa ating mga karapatan ay pagsunod ng
opisyal
na
lingguhang
pahayagan
pamunuan ng pamantasan sa mga dikta
ng ating pamahalaan. Isang pamahalaang
ikinukumpas ang saliw ng komersalisasyon upang mabitawan ang kanyang
responsibilidad sa eduksayon, at pasismo
upang mabusalan ang mga lumalaban sa
kanyang kabuktutan.
Sa ganitong tunggalian, walang espasyong sinayang ang Philippine Collegian
sa pagbalikwas sa ganitong opresibong kalakaran. Naging lunan ng mapanuring panulat ang bawat pahinang pumanig sa interes
ng mas nakararaming mamamayan.
Walang pag-aatubiling tinuligsa ng
ating pahayagan ang pang-aabuso ng rehimen ni Gloria Arroyo sa kapangyarihan
at ang kanyang mga pagtatangkang manatili rito. Lumantad din ang kapabayaan ng
pamahalaan sa mga rumagasang bagyong
Ondoy at Pepeng, kung saan libu-libong
Pilipino ang nasawi o nawalan ng kabuhayan at tirahan. Naging kritikal din ang
ating pagsusuri at inugat ang nakagigimbal na insidente ng pamamalasang sa naganap na Ampatuan Massacre, kasama
ang ipinataw na Batas Militar bilang hungkag na solusyon, sa mga pangunahing
suliranin ng bansa. Lumabas din sa mga
pahina ng Philippine Collegian ang ilegal
na pag-aresto at pagpiit sa 43 na manggagawang pangkalusugan, na sa gitna ng
mga panawagan ng iba’t ibang grupo sa
loob at labas ng bansa, ay kasalukuyang
hindi pa rin pinalalaya.
Gayunman, hindi lamang ang mga
pahina ng pahayagan ang binagtas ng
ng
mga
mag
-aaral
ng
pakikisangkot ng Philippine Collegian.
Kasama ng mamamayan, lumabas ang
mga kasapi nito sa lansangan upang
basagin ang paniniwalang hiwalay ang
mamamahayag sa mga nagaganap sa kanyang kapaligiran. Sa pagtakwil natin sa
mito ng pluralismo at pagiging obhetibo,
hindi natin pinalampas ang paniningil sa
mga nagmamalabis at nambubusabos sa
ating bansa.
Lalong malaki ang pangangailangan
na tumindig ang Philippine Collegian sa
nalalapit na halalan. Kagaya ng ibang
alagad ng pamamahayag, nararapat na
ilahad ang ilan sa mga pinakamalalaking
suliranin na dapat tugunan ng susunod
na pamahalaan: lupa para sa magsasaka,
seguridad ng mamayan sa mga batayang
serbisyo, at ekonomiyang nagsisilbi para
sa sambayanan at hindi sa dayuhan.
Walang pagod tayong lumalaban, sapagkat bilang mga mag-aaral ng pamantasang ito, kinikilala natin na iisa lamang
ang ating tinutunggali at ng mga inaapi
at pilit na isinasantabing mga sektor ng
lipunan.
Ito na ang huling pahina ng terminong
ito. Subalit hindi dito nagwawakas ang
pagbitbit sa mga armas ng pakikisangkot.
Hangga’t hindi natatapos ang kawalang
hustisya na pinag-uugatan ng digmaan
at nagbubunsod sa mga kabalintunaan,
asahan natin ang patuloy na pagdami ng
mga kamay na tatangan sa mga armas na
ito. Magpapatuloy ang pakikisangkot ng
Philippine Collegian. q
unibersidad
ng
pilipinas
-
diliman
Punong Patnugot Om Narayan A. Velasco • Kapatnugot Larissa Mae R. Suarez • Patnugot sa Lathalain Ma. Rosa Cer M. dela Cruz • Patnugot sa Kultura Mixkaela Z. Villalon • Patnugot sa
Grapiks Janno Rae T. Gonzales • Tagapamahala ng Pinansiya Dianne Marah E. Sayaman • Mga Kawani Maria Bianca B. Bonjibod, Pauline Gidget R. Estella, Chris Martin T. Imperial, John Francis C.
Losaria, Archie A. Oclos, Mila Ana Estrella S. Polinar, Marjohara S. Tucay, Nicolo Renzo T. Villarete, Julienne Nicolo André M. Zapanta • Pinansiya Amelyn J. Daga • Sirkulasyon Gary Gabales, Ricky
Icawat, Amelito Jaena, Glenario Omamalin • Mga Katuwang na Kawani Trinidad Basilan, Gina Villas • Pamuhatan Silid 401 Bulwagang Vinzons, Unibersidad ng Pilipinas, Diliman, Lungsod Quezon •
Telefax 9818500 lokal 4522 • Email kule0910@gmail.com • Website collegiannews.multiply.com • Kasapi Solidaridad - UP System-wide Alliance of Student Publications and Writers’ Organizations •
College Editors Guild of the Philippines