Students, teachers, and parents picket DepED vs. 2 more school years

Hundreds of high school and college students, teachers and parents staged a protest action yesterday outside the Department of Education (DepEd) Regional Office XI to express their disapproval over the extension of the 10-year basic education cycle to two more years, a proposal presented by DepEd Sec. Armin Luistro to Pres. Benigno Aquino III in Manila.

“Owing to the fact that the country lacks 49, 699 teachers, 57, 930 classrooms, 3.48M armchairs and 34.7M textbooks, the education crisis,” according to No to K+12! Alliance, “will not simply be solved by adding two more years in the students’ schooling.”

“Unless the poverty incidence in the country is given due attention, unless the teachers are given just compensation, parents employed with sufficient salary and benefits, and school facilities be improved, such reform will only serve as a “band aid” solution that temporarily covers, but will not essentially heal the wounds of the educational system,” said Paul Randy Gumanao, spokesperson of the alliance.

Gumanao said that the alarming increase in the drop-out rate is an indication that the students cannot sustain a longer stay in school due to many factors such as poverty. For every 100 students who enroll in grade 1, only 25 students can proceed to college and this, according to Gumanao, “should be looked into by the government rather than adding more years.”

“What has to be immediately addressed is the budget allocation for education that will improve the quality of instructions and the quality of the facilities. The government failed to see the real situation of education in this poverty-stricken country. Extra years in school would mean extra expenses and this is very burdensome especially to poor families whose primary concern is survival,” Gumanao added.

The alliance urged the Aquino administration to be faithful to its promise of allocating 6% of the GDP which will automatically go to education budget.
“Extending the basic education to 12 years would mean more school drop outs, more jobless graduates and more OFWs,” said Gumanao.

Gumanao called on the youth, the parents and the teachers to be part in campaigning against the K+12 and to help push for a genuine educational reform. He also urged the local legislators to make necessary actions to heed the clamor of their constituents to scrap the proposed moves.

Similar protests were held in different major cities in the country including Cotabato City and Zamboanga City.

--------------

A reporter asked me if isn't it too violent that the high school students almost knocked down the agency's gate. I answered her that this is the best way to express the anger of the youth. And the destruction of the gate (if ever nasira o masisira man)is nothing compared to the millions of lives that will be ruined if this nonsensical program will be implemented.

DepEd Sec Luistro yesterday asserted that the additional school years under the K12 program will address the problem of deteriorating quality education in the country. Ito lang ang masasabi namin, ISTORYAHEEEEE!

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. #

Davao youth opposes ROTC revival

Davao City --- Progressive youth group League of Filipino Students and Anakbayan – SMR express its strong opposition against plans of the Aquino administration and the AFP to revive mandatory Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC).

Karlos Manlupig, LFS-Southern Mindanao Regional Spokesperson, explained that the maneuvering of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Department of National Defense (DND) to resurrect the mandatory ROTC is an expression of the state’s militarist bent especially in reviving once again its plan to train young students for combat, intelligence and other military-related purposes.

Mandatory ROTC was abolished in 2001 after waves of massive protests were staged nationwide due to longstanding complaints of corruption, hazing, mental abuses and harassments of student leaders and activists. The ROTC abolition was also triggered by the murder of one Mark Chua, a student at the University of Sto. Tomas, in March 2001.

Chua exposed the corruption in the ROTC corps in the UST’s college newspaper, an expose which resulted in the relief of the ROTC commandant and his staff. As a result of his courageous act, he got death threats and was later assigned to undergo security training in Fort Bonifacio. He was killed a few days later, when his body was found floating in the Pasig river; his body bore torture marks, hands hogtied and face wrapped with packing tape

“Mandatory ROTC will resurrect once again the evils which Chua exposed, and which thousands of students have experienced. It will also foster campus militarization, mental and physical abuses, and additional financial burden to students and their families who are hardly able to cope with skyrocketing prices of tuition fees,” said Manlupig.

“There is no need for students to undergo ROTC because the purported trainings, as being justified by the AFP for the revival of the ROTC, are already being conducted under the NSTP-CWTS program. All students who underwent this program will automatically be reserve volunteers that may be deployed in times of calamities and emergencies,” said Manlupig.

The youth groups also lambasted the AFP’s logic that ROTC is the most effective program in teaching patriotism and discipline.

“Fascism is not synonymous to patriotism and discipline. If the government is sincere in teaching the youth patriotism, the most plausible option is to overhaul the colonial structure of our education system from and change it one that is nationalist, scientific and mass-oriented,” Manlupig said.

He added, “The people, particularly the youth, has rejected ROTC already. We cannot afford to see another Mark Chua who will die brutally under the hands of ROTC and the military personnel,” Manlupig said.#

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)