UP Cebu Students Hold Christmas Party for Street Children

Cebu Daily News Publication Date: [December, 2006]

The UP Cebu College Student Council and Y-KONEK held a Christmas party and donation drive for the adopted street children of the Children of Cebu Foundation Inc. last Friday at Jollibee Mango from 1:30 to 4pm.

“This will serve as the UP Cebu students’ christmas gift for our less forunate brothers and sisters. We do not just rally. We pursue all forms of actions that will advance the Filipino youth and people’s interests and welfare,” said Karlo Mikhail Mongaya, UP Cebu Student Council Chairperson.

The Student Council activity, named “Sabwag,” is led by its Gender and Youth Desk and Community Rights and Welfare Committee. The Christmas party is made possible through the help and sponsorship of Jollibee.

Y-KONEK Visayas Coordinator and UP student councilor Heno Rey Chin said: “This christmas is a season of giving. We UP students are always willing to give back what we can to the Filipino people whose taxes subsidize our education.”

“We likewise extend our gratitude to all who answered the call for the SC Sabwag donation drive,” added Chin. ■

Youth Group Condemns UP Tuition Increase

The Freeman - Cebu Publication Date: [Saturday, December 23, 2006]

The KABATAAN Party-Cebu City has condmened what is said was an “unjust and immoral” implementation of the 300 percent increase in tuition fees of the University of the Philippines.

“While the youth and the UP community receives this news with grief, we are angered by the arrogance of the regents who approved the proposed increase without properly consulting the students,” said Karlo Mikhail Mongaya, KABATAAN Party Cebu Information Officer and UP Cebu College Student Council chairperson.

The decision of the UP Board of Regents did not include the votes of the faculty and student regents who had sought for a public consultation with the students. The other regents reportedly did not heed the call for a dialogue with the thousands of students who barricaded the BOR meeting venue.

“The Malacañang-appointees in the BOR has clearly learned much from their masters in the art of approving anti-people proposals despite strong public outrage,” Mongaya said.

“Like (President Gloria) Arroyo’s postponement of the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) summit due to the political storm brought by the railroading of ChaCha, the UP administration cancelled the annual lantern parade intending to prevent students from joining protests against the said hike.”

However, he stressed that unlike the PGMA-allied lawmakers who had heeded the outcry of the Filipino people against ChaCha, the BOR proceeded to railroad the planned hike in the face of the strong opposition by various sectors.

“We will not take this sitting down. This is an infringement to the basic right to education and a blatant manifestation of the commercialized nature of the Philippine educational system,” said Mongaya.

“This is not only an issue of fee increases. More importantly, this is a result of the Arroyo administration’s policy of slashing budget for UP and education in favor of militarization and onerous foreign debt payments,” he said.

In January, the student council chair said, the BOR and the Arroyo administration may face another ‘First Quarter Storm,’ in obvious reference to the historical period in the 70s that saw hundreds of thousands of students participating in daily demonstrations.

“The BOR has crossed the line. Now that the proposal has been approved, we will be leading massive protests for the scrapping of the much-hated anti-student measure,” Mongaya said. Jasmine R. Uy

UP Studes Protest Tuition Fee Increase

The Freeman - Cebu Publication Date: [December 15, 2006]

Students of University of the Philippines Cebu College yesterday launched a text protest to oppose the proposed 300 percent increase in the tuition fee of the state-owned university.

This as the UP Board of Regents, the university’s highest decision-making body, is scheduled to meet today to discuss and decide on the proposed increase.

Since few weeks ago, the UP Cebu College - Student Council has been conducting protests to show its opposition to the move.

Today, thousands of students at different UP campuses across the country are expected to join simultaneous protests urging the BOR to scrap the tuition increase proposal.

UP Student Regent Raffy Jones Sanchez and Faculty Regents Roland Simbulan have already assured the students of their stands against the tuition hike during the BOR meeting today.

“While the UP Cebu students may have traveled back to their provinces for the early vacation, they will not be giving the BOR an early respite from pressure politics against the increase in UP tuition,” said UP Cebu Student Council chairperson Karlo Mikhail Mongaya.

Mongaya said that any form of increase in UP tuition is unjustified since this will deprive the majority of the Filipino youth the ability to benefit from UP education, especially in this time of crisis.

“The planned hike clearly shows that the country’s “premier state university” was never exempted from the colonial, commercialized, and repressive system of education of our country.”

“This is a repression of the youth’s right to education. This will only encourage the government to further reduce the budget for UP and shirk on its responsibility to subsidize education.”

Mongaya said that “Iskolars ng bayan” from the other UP units, where classes are still going on, will also be holding demonstrations to coincide with the BOR meeting. - Wenna A. Berondo

Text brigade against tuition increase

From the UP Cebu College Student Council

The early vacation will not deter us from holding our simultaneous protests against the proposed increase in UP tuition.

Let us appeal to our Board of Regents (BOR) to scrap the proposed 300% tuition hike by barraging them with text messages from today to December 15.

The BOR Will be deciding on the planned increase in its December 15 meeting. Only our collective action can put an end to the said anti-student proposal.

Karlo Mikhail Mongaya
Chairperson, Student Council
UP Visayas Cebu College

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Members of the BoR with mobile phones:

UP President Emerlinda Roman - 09189461009

Regent Gari Tiongco - 09178194529

Regent Romulo G. Davide - 09193501454

Regent Nelia T. Gonzalez - 09175258846

Regent Edmundo Varona - 09178344426
(Please do not include in text brigade - still hospitalized.)

Regent Roland G. Simbulan - 09173716307
(Please do not include in text barrage - is against tuition increase already.)

Regent Raffy Jones G. Sanchez - 09064430135
(Please do not include in text barrage - against tuition increase already.)

Please pass to all UP iskos and iskas, family members and friends.

Suppression of Campus Press Freedom

A statement of support from the UPVCC – Student Council

The UP Cebu College – Student Council (UPVCC – SC) condemns in the strongest terms the UP Diliman administration’s blatant suppression of the Philippine Collegian’s continued operation as a student publication.

The administration has been very stubborn in its unrelenting misuse of its authority by withholding the Collegian’s budgetary allocations. For almost four months already, the Collegian has been barred from publishing its issues.

The UPVCC – SC believes that this indirect suspension is equivalent to the silencing of the students’ interests as articulated by the official publication of the UP Diliman studentry. It is suppression at its worst.

We are one with the rest of the UP community in upholding campus press freedom against what we deem as a direct attack against a very significant student institution – the Philippine Collegian.

The UPVCC – SC fully supports the call for admin to respect the right of the students to a free campus press and to stop the withholding of the Collegian’s printing funds. ■