LFS commemorates 33 years of anti-imperialist struggle; deplores continuing US intervention

Davao City- Members of the League of Filipino Students launched yesterday the month-long celebration of their 33rd anniversary through a protest action to condemn the continuing foreign intervention, principally by the United States of America in the country.

The students simulated the “Hostage Crisis” in a street play wherein they presented the Filipino people as hostages and Uncle Sam as the hostage-taker. According to Karlos Manlupig, LFS-Southern Mindanao Regional Spokesperson, “As citizens of a nation long trapped in colonial relationship with US, we are actually hostages to the economic, political and cultural dictates of US Imperialism.”

LFS has long held the tradition of being a consistent and the biggest anti-US student organization in the country.

The youth leader expressed his dismay over the present administration’s programs which kowtow to imperialist interest in the country. “P-noy, without doubt, is the commissioned replacement to the bootlicker Arroyo regime. Despite the massive movement calling for the pull-out of US troops and the abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement, P-noy has refused to this call, he being the newest US puppet in Southeast Asia,,” said Manlupig.

In Mindanao, it was reported that more than 600 US troops are deployed in different areas in the island that actively participate in different overt and covert operations. Recently, USS George Washington, a nuclear-powered warship, docked in Manila Bay.

“The stories of the brutal massacres perpetrated by American soldiers during the Philippine-American War are still reminiscent . Modern cases of savagery by US forces have been recorded including the Subic Rape Case and the murder of Gregan Cardeno and Capt. Javier Ignacio,” Manlupig said.

Manlupig calls for the Aquino administration to learn from the mistakes of the previous administrations and listen to the clamor of the people. He also challenges P-noy to stand for the people and act on the scrapping of VFA on his coming state visit to the US.

“No country in the history of mankind attained development under the avaricious clutches of US Imperialism. And the people, including the youth, will fight back to cut off foreign domination and to dislodge the local puppets. Over the last hundred years, we have become ‘hostage’ victims. We have to work and struggle hard to end this oppression,” Manlupig said.

The students will conduct a series of protests, art exhibits and cultural activities this month to commemorate the LFS’ 33 years of militance and perseverance. #

Youth alarmed over Pnoy's public-private partnership, says it will make education less accessible

The youth raises the alarm today after failing to hear from Aquino concrete plans to address the education crisis in his first ever State of the Nations Address.

“Instead of providing solutions to the dismal state of the country’s education system, Pnoy ironically prioritized public-private partnership and foreign investments,” said Karlos Manlupig, League of Filipino Students Regional Spokesperson.

The group expressed its fear that Aquino's public-private partnerships will open our gates to gross foreign exploitation and will only intensify the commercialization and privatization of education.

According to KABATAAN Partylist Representative Raymond Palatino, “Opening further the education sector to private and foreign investors would only make education less accessible to the youth. It does not at all address the need for higher state subsidy nor the yearly tuition and other fee hikes that hound the education sector."

The youth solon said that the present education crisis is characterized mainly by the commercialization of public education in order to cope with low government spending. "The burden of budget cuts and poor education spending is being shouldered by students through exorbitant tuition and other fee hikes. Aquino failed to present this sorry state of Philippine education in his speech."

“We urge Aquino to seriously consider and review the youth's education agenda:
• Increase state spending on education to six (6) percent of the GDP.
• Implement a three-year moratorium on tuition and other fee increases in all levels.
• Promote a nationalist curriculum.
• Uphold democratic rights of students
• Improve teachers’ welfare.
• Improve science, research and technology development.
• Promote transparency and sanction corruption cases in education programs and contracts.
• Review existing policies and institutions of education.

a. Repeal Education Act of 1982.
b. Repeal Campus Journalism Act of 1991.
c. Revamp the government policy of reducing the budget of state universities and colleges.
d. Review and strengthen the regulatory powers of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Department of Education (DepEd)

In Davao City, existence of repressive policies like the BASE 20 Policy in the University of Mindanao are affecting thousands of students.

“Noy said “pwede ng muling mangarap.” But to merely dream is folly amidst the realities we are facing. The supposed hope of the nation-- the youth-- do no want to merely dream. We want concrete solutions to the economic, political and cultural realities that are posing obstacles to us being the hope of the nation,” Manlupig concluded. ###

Photo: Pinoy Weekly (Boy Bagwis)

Youth gives Arroyo failing grade; challenges Aquino to prosecute her

“Finally, the end is here and Gloria must face the final curtain,” this was the statement of Karlos Manlupig, Regional Spokesperson of League of Filipino Students, as youth led by Kabataan Partylist, LFS and Anakbayan today staged a march-protest as a send-off for Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

“We deplore Arroyo for further neglecting the millions of youth in her 9-year rule who were forced to quit school and suffer the miserable working and farming conditions in our country,” said Sheena Duazo of Kabataan Partylist.

In a study conducted by the National Union of Students in the Philippines, only 1 out of 10 Filipino students were able to get a college degree under the US-Arroyo administration.

“This our solid basis in giving Arroyo a failing mark in her performance as the president of the country,” Duazo said.

Manlupig explained that Arroyo’s exit from Malacanang today does not mean that the people will easily forget her atrocities. “Arroyo and her rabid lapdogs must pay dearly for their sins. And we will do all necessary actions to ensure that they face what they deserve,” Manlupig added.

The youth groups also challenge Noynoy Aquino to make sure that Arroyo be severely punished for all her crimes to the Filipino people.

“The “daang matuwid” presented by Aquino have to mean the prosecution of Arroyo,” added Manlupig.###

LFS Anib (late post)

Youth activists burn US flag to protest continued US military intervention



Davao City— In time of the commemoration of the September 11 World Trade Center Bombing, militant youth group League of Filipino Students (LFS) together with members of the Kabataan Partylist burned the flag of the United States in a symbolic protest to condemn the ongoing U.S. military intervention in Mindanao and in other parts of the country.



“The burning of the US flag is a symbolic act to show that we must defend our democratic rights and national patrimony from the U.S. government’s military and capitalists’ interests. After the 9/11 bombing, US aggression in the country has intensified as the Arroyo administration offered our country to be the 2nd front of the US war on terror,” League of Filipino Students - Davao Spokesperson Karlos Manlupig said.



The group urged the scrapping of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), a military agreement between the Philippine and the US governments which the group called “one-sided and a fetter on Philippine sovereignty.”



Manlupig added, “The VFA has ensured that the country remains as a puppet to the dictates of the US government. It has allowed our country to become a front in the U.S. war of terror and its other proxy wars against our own people and other nations. It has as well led to the unbridled plunder of our natural resources to benefit the coffers of capitalist nations.”



LFS noted said that in Bangsamoro areas where US military presence and actual participation in combat has been documented, human rights violations against the Moro people have been rampant.



Recounting how the U.S. military has maximized the said agreement to keep erring US military personnel under U.S. jurisdiction, LFS noted the Subic rape case wherein the U.S. government refused to hand over Lance Corporal Daniel Smith even after the latter was convicted.



LFS, which celebrates its 32nd anniversary today, enjoins the youth to keep a vigilant stand against the intensifying U.S. military aggression in the country which has led to gross atrocities against the Filipino people, especially in the Bangsamoro areas.