Reinstate the Five-Day Class Week

by the UP Visayas Cebu College Student Council

In all its colleges, the University of the Philippines in the Visayas (UPV) is implementing a four-day class week. This scheme enjoins class schedules to run straight from Tuesdays through Fridays, imposing a strict man date not to have classes on Mondays.

Since the reduction of the number of schooldays from five days to four this semester, regular classes in UPV Cebu College start as early as 7:00AM and some end at 7:00PM.

Belt-tightening

Apparently, the purpose of the UP administration’s initiation of the four-day school week is to save money and cut expenditures short.

With Monday bearing the “strictly no class” mandate, they were certain that the costs for energy consumption, as well as the teachers’ pay, will be lessened—that is, if no make-up classes or other activities are made.

On a dialogue with the UP Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs Diana Aure, she said that the rationale for the switching to this schedule is to provide a longer weekend (Saturday to Monday) for the students to be with their families, especially those residing outside the campus or city.

A cost-saving idea we can’t afford

The aforementioned reasons from the administration clearly show that their academic considerations for switching to a compressed school week are usually only an after-thought.

Hence, we question the quality of education affixed with the university’s austerity measures and cost cutting. The grim implications and upshots of this shortened class week are stated herein:

1. Students have less time to complete their next day’s home-work, since classes usually start early and end late.

2. The successive school-days, without any breather at all, only make the students tired, and not necessarily better learners.

3. Some students have three successive subjects, which only drains their cognitive energies.

4. Inconvenient schedules like 11:30AM to 1:00PM classes, which are timed during lunch breaks, also hound the students.

Thus, it only shows that the adoption of this new class week schedule, without prior notice to or due consultation from the students, is but a futile, ineffective and unproductive course of action taken by the administration for cost-saving purposes.

The shortened schedule seems to be exclusively implemented out of blind obedience to the present Arroyo government’s anti-people schemes and anti-student policies for education.

Uphold right to education

We stand firm in upholding our basic right to quality education. In particular, we mean the following:

1. The restoration of the five-day class week (Mondays-Thursdays, Tuesdays-Fridays schedule), with Wednesdays reserved for laboratory and PE classes as opposed to the new four-day class week with its Tuesdays-Thursdays, Wednesdays-Fridays schedule.

This, we believe, will also give students with no laboratory or PE classes on Wednesdays the time to catch up with lessons, assignments and other extracurricular activities that will greatly help in the holistic development of the students.

2. The cancellation of inconvenient class schedules like those held during lunch breaks.

3. The holding of democratic student consultations in the University’s crafting of policies that will indirectly or directly affect the students.

We do not want learning cut back to a minimum level and thus call for the reinstatement of the five-day class week, the intensification of the fight for higher state subsidy and winning of the struggle for a truly nationalist scientific and mass-oriented education in the long run.

We demand what is only just and what is only right – that we be given quality education. And this will not be possible if our class schedules are compressed, if our school-days are shortened.

UP Studes Rock Out at School Trip 101

Tug-ani UP Cebu Publication Date: [June-July 2006 Issue]

UP Students kicked off a new year with a bang as they rocked to School Trip 101 last June 23, at the UP Open Grounds.

Cebuano talents like Urban Dub, Faspitch and Aggressive Audio performed onstage while UP bands AWOL and Balde ni Allan performed as well.

The Student Council was the host and main presentor of the said event.

SC Chairman Karlo Mikhail Mongaya said that they wanted to welcome the students to a new school year with the concert.

“We want to support local bands andlocal music,” Ann ALmendras, managing director and propietor of Big Wave Productions, the event organizer said when asked why theyt chose to bring the event to UP.

San Miguel Beer, Smart Buddy and Sun.Star Cebu were the main sponsors of the event. By Arrah Camillia R. Quistadio

Unite Against UP Commercialization

Butyag Student Council Publication Date: [June 5, 2006]

Warmest greetings to all Iskolars ng Bayan, old and new, as we welcome another academic year with renewed commitment and greater vigor in the continuing quest for a genuinely patriotic and mass-oriented education.

The new academic year offers us an opportunity to raise our level of unity against the Arroyo administration’s prioritization of militarization and foreign debt servicing; it’s continued neglect of the social services; the yearly education and UP budget cuts; tuition and other fees increases; deteriorating services and facilities in State Universities and Colleges (SUCs).

Let us call attention to Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s privatization and commercialization schemes that will most likely continue implementation until her term ends in 2010 unless she is removed from power by a people’s uprising.

Already, the UP Board of Regents, the highest decision-making body in the University, approved an increase of tuition for incoming students of the UP College of Medicine in Manila.

In an alarming turn of events, only the UP Faculty Regent Roland Simbulan and Student Regent Raffy Jones Sanchez voted against the doubling of UPM-CM tuition from the current P11,000 per semester to P20,000 per semester.

This is as the the UP Manila University Student Council and the College of Medicine Student Council decried, in spite of a Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) resolution freezing tuition and other fees in State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) for AY 2006-2007 because of the economic crisis.

The approval would certainly open the floodgate against undergraduate tuition increase in all UP colleges and campuses. There is really the danger especially now that UP President Roman’s 2005-2011 Plan include the call for a “review of the existing tuition policy and structure in undergraduate programs.”

This is in line with International Monetary Fund-World Bank (IMF-WB) dictates and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), that our country entered to in 1998.

Let us not also forget that the Long-Term Higher Education Development Plan (LTHEDP), which systematically reduced the number of state-subsidized colleges and universities from 271 in 1996 to 109 by 2005, is also nearing its full-bloom implementation.

This would of course mean the Arroyo government’s removal of subsidy for UP’s Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) thus forcing UP to look to other means to fully subsidize its operations.

Hence, the presence of proposals to add two or three more brackets in the Socialized Tuition Fee Assistance Fee Program (STFAP), with tuition ranging from P40,000 to P60,000 per semester.

Indeed, we are not new to the effects of the above-mentioned policies. Even the 7am to 7pm 4-day school week austerity measure is a direct order issued from Malacañang.

It is thus with such in mind that we must persist in educating, organizing and mobilizing our own and the Filipino people’s ranks in order to help improve our welfare and advance our democratic rights and interests.

Let us continue to press for a higher budget for education. It is also of great importance that we push for a tuition moratorium, not only for UP but all the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) throughout the country.

Along this line, we must also direct our efforts towards putting to an end to all repressive measures found within school.

Finally, we should also never forget that it is in attaining a higher level of unity with the basic masses - workers, peasants, and urban poor - that we can pursue the fight for our rights and welfare.

Let us therefore expose ourselves to the standard issues of the day. (political assassinations of activists and community leaders, curtailment of civil liberties, US military intervention thru the Visiting Force Agreement (VFA), the Anti-Terrorism Bill (ATB), the long-delayed P125 across-the-board wage increase, the Palace-Initiated Cha-cha train, etc.

If we unite firmly and collectively act on the basis of our concrete situation and from the practical experience of the Filipino people, we can stand firm against the mounting of anti-student impositions and overcome the many challenges that face us.

By Karlo Mikhail Mongaya
Chairperson, Student Council
UP Visayas – Cebu College

SC Co-hosts Inter-School Tilt for Bands

Tugani UP Cebu Publication Date: [January 2007 Issue]

Blue plastic material encircled the perimeters of the UP Cebu College soccer field in time for the Nar-sing Interschool Band Showdown last January 6.

The plastic material was placed to prevent possible onlookers from free riding in watching the event.

The slight rainshwoer did not stop the Cebu Normal University (CNU) Nightingale Student Council and he UP Cebu Student Council from pushing through the event.

Although UP has no nursing course, SC Chairman Karlo Mongaya said that their decision to team up with CNU to hold an interschool Nursing event was “a good venue to develop unity among the students of Cebu City, whether Nursing students or not.”

In addition, Mongaya explained that it was partly an income generating project of the Student Council to finance their activities.

The band showdown started at about 6:00 pm and ended at about 1 am.

Among the guest bands who entertained the crowd in the concert were famed Bisrock performers such as Aggressive Audio, Phylum, Mantequilla and Indephums.

When asked if the concert was a success, Mongaya replied, “the UPVCC-SC considers the activity a success because we were able to reach out to other students.” By Jill Marie Duero

UP Students Leave Classes In Protest Of Tuition Hike

The Freeman - Cebu Publication Date: [Monday, January 29, 2007]

Hundreds of students in all campuses of the University of the Philippines boycotted their classes on Friday to protest the 300 percent increase in their tuition imposed by the UP Board of Regents (BOR) last December.

In UP Cebu College, the youth party-list group KABATAAN Party, together with other student organizations led by the Nagkahiusang Kusog sa Estudyante (NKE) and the Student Council, walked out of their classrooms to demand for the recall of tuition and other fee increases (TOFI).

All wearing red, more than a hundred-fifty students marched around the campus and burned a large effigy of a UP enrollment form to express disgust over the UP administration’ ’s trampling of the students” right to proper consultations on the such increase.

Karlo Mikhail Mongaya, KABATAAN-Cebu Information Officer and UP Cebu Student Council Chairman, said the tuition increase, which is in line with the Long Term Higher Education Development (LTHEDP) of 2001-2010, will lead to other tuition hikes in other state universities and colleges (SUCs).

“The present government” s grandplan for education is not merely the neglect of education as was the analysis of previous generations of students. What we now see is the out-and-out abandonment of the responsibility to provide accessible and quality education for all,” Mongaya said.

The youth leader condemned the anti-student LTHEDP, which pushed for, among others, the gigantic increases of fees in 70 percent of SUCs, making tuition equal to those of private schools, and the reduction of SUCs to 20 percent of its present number.

“TOFI is not merely a local UP issue. TOFI, which is a manifestation of state abandonment of education, is an issue of national scope that will definitely affect the future of the Filipino youth,” he said.

Meanwhile, NKE spokesperson and Student Council official Ralph Sanchez said the BOR’’s decision to have tuition “subsequently adjusted annually based on the national inflation rate” makes UP no different from private schools where education is treated as a privilege for those who can afford rather than as a basic right.

Sanchez said the BOR has shifted the burden of subsidizing the university” s expenses to the students and their parents, ending UP’’s thrust of providing a mass-oriented education. - Wenna A. Berondo

Campus Renewal Plan to Give UPV Cebu a New Look

UP Views Publication Date: [January 2007 Issue]

A major overhaul is now eyed for UPVCebu College’s landscape as UPVisayas officials discussed last October 18, 2006 the UPVCC Campus Renewal Plan.

This intends to make the college “more responsive to the needs of the region.” UP Pres. Emerlinda Roman’s advisers for infrastructure, Prof. Mary Ann Espina and Dean Christopher Espina of the UP Diliman College of Architecture, conceptualized the design and layout.

New infrastructures and facilities as well as “quality” programs for students will be some of the features once the said plan will be realized.

A Graduate Studies building with an estimated cost of P500,000 will rise behind the Administration Building. The present Arts and Sciences Building, meanwhile, is now under renovation, and will be used for its original purpose as a dormitory.A gymnasium, campus
hotel and shopping center are also included. A proposed underground, if not an overpass, will also let students pass with ease from the Administration Building towards the Sugbu Cultural Center and other buildings across the street.

“The UPVCC Development Plan (or Campus Renewal Plan) is a lifetime plan. The way to achieve these physical and development plans is through the cooperation of the whole UPV Cebu community with the coordination and support of the government and also of the people that will invest and believe in us,” Dean Enrique Avila stated.

However, before the physical plans will be put up, Dean Avila stressed that the academic programs should first be enhanced: “The various course divisions of UPV Cebu should have good faculty and it should offer unique programs in the region.” Furthermore, he said that the academic programs should be strengthened and developed so that they will go together with the proposed facilities and infrastructures.

As of now, the college plans to set up a foundation so that resource generation for funding
this development project will not solely depend on the government. The foundation will also be the source of the money needed to relocate informal settlers in Barangay Camputhaw.

Student Council chairperson Karlo Mikhail Mongaya, member of the UPV Cebu Development and Renovation Committee, said that there are two phases in the plan: (1) renovation and renewal and (2) construction.

He estimated that by 2018, UPVCC “will coequal other UP units,” which means that it will be known as UP Cebu, and not just as a branch of UPVisayas.

Mongaya confirmed that there would be a student consultation regarding the UPV Cebu Campus Renewal Plan this January. (Katrina Coloso & Al Marie Padayogdog; UPVCC Info Volunteers)

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

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

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. ■

A Manifesto Against the Proposed Tuition and Other Fee Increases

We, the Iskolar ng Bayan, strongly oppose the proposed tuition and other fee increases in the University of the Philippines as it is a grave and direct attack to our basic right to education and a clear manifestation of the government’s severe neglect of its responsibility to provide for education.

The proposed tuition increase (UP Diliman, Manila and Los Banos: from P300 to P1,000 per unit, UP Visayas, Mindanao and Baguio: from P200 to P600) and the accompanying increase in miscellaneaous fees (Diliman: P615 to P2000, Los Baños: P515 to P2000, Manila P565 to 950, Baguio P595 to P1405, Visayas P595 to P1405, Mindanao P830 to P1640 ) intensifies to a grand extent the commercialization of UP education and poses a grave attack to our right to education. It also defeats our struggle for greater state subsidy for education as it pushes UP to generate its own income rather than.assert the state’s responsibility to fund UP.

Tuition increase will further render UP education inaccessible. The worsening economic situation indicates the wide insufficiency of minimum wage to even sustain the basic needs of the family as show by the P 654.96 national average daily cost of living for a family of six as of January 2006 and the P325 daily minimum wage in Metro Manila. Based on this cost of living 8 out of 10 families or roughly 83% of Filipino families are considered poor, while using the international poverty measurement which count those living under $ 2 a day as poor, indicates that over 87% of the country's families are poor. With such conditions, an increase in tuition would be a social injustice and woluld further entrench the people to poverty.

The proposal defeats our fight for higher state subsidy. By generating income from students, the burden of providing education is shifted from the state to the students and their families. Such commercialization of education will consequently push the government to continuously slash budget allocations for the university and on the long term abandon its responsibility to subsidize education in accordance with its policies on education.

The proposal in principle and in practice overtly alters the very nature of UP as a state university of and for the people. The proposal clearly derives from the principle that students themselves – rather than the general taxpayer – should pay for the cost of higher education regardless of state budgetary constraints since virtually all the benefits of an undergraduate education are appropriable to the private individual himself. This undoubtedly departs from the principle of a state university which must first and foremost promote and protect the right to education by asserting the government’s responsibility to subsidize the university and a university which inculcates the spirit of valuing social over individual interest.

The fight against the imminent tuition increase is a fight for our right to education and against the commercialization of UP education. Such struggle requires from among our ranks the highest unity in will and action. Only through our collective and militant assertion can we triumph against the proposed tuition increase ad uphold our basic right to education.

Oppose tuition and other fee increases!

No to commercialization of UP education!

Fight for greater state subsidy!

Uphold our right to Education!

U M A K S Y O N

Ugnayang Multi-sektoral Laban sa

Komersyalisasyon ng Edukasyon

Cebu Student Leaders Organize Group, Hit ASEAN Summit Cost

The Freeman Publication Date: [November 10, 2006]

Student leaders in Cebu have organized the Street University, an alliance of youth groups, which soon started commenting over the government’s huge fund outlay for the coming ASEAN Summit.

The alliance leader, Karlo Mongaya, also the Chairman of the University of the Philippines Cebu College Student Council, said the alliance would serve as the youth’s campaign center or venue for exposing their concerns on regional issues and leaders.

In a press conference yesterday, Mongaya said the Street University is not against the holding of the ASEAN Summit here but would like to express its sentiments over the government’s expenses for such an event.

Cebu has been spending about P650 million for the Cebu International Convention Center while the education sector needs 74,115 classrooms, said Mongaya. ■

Speak out: Street U launching photo

Sun.Star Daily Publication Date: [November 14, 2006]

STREET University (Steet U) would like to make a clarification regarding a photo that came out in Sun.Star Cebu’s Nov. 10 issue.

The paper published the photo on the launching of Street U and placed it beside a picture of students from a Mandaue High School cleaning the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC). The caption for the photos had the title, “Student participation.”

The location of the photo unintentionally gives the wrong impression that Street U is giving its uncritical support for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) 12th Leaders’ Summit.

At a glance, the layout and caption could mislead the reader into assuming that Street U is part of the government’s preparation and mobilization of resources for the summit. Such, however, is not the case.

In almost all of the Arroyo administration’s costly propaganda efforts for the said summit, there is emphasis on its being a “cure-all” or panacea for each and every problem that now affects the country, thus justifying the staggering expense for its preparations.

However, the more important question about its agenda and how it will address the issues faced by Asean constituents, particularly the youth, have been sidelined. This is exactly what Street U aims to address.

In particular, Street U is raising the concern over the present government’s lavish spending for a four-day event even as the budget for social services like education remains meager.

Cebu, alone, has been spending about P650 million for the CICC whereas this could have been used to finance the need of the education sector for 74,115 classrooms. Moreover, the overall budget for the Asean, which is P2.5 billion, could already enroll 166,667 college students for the second semester.

By Karlo Mikhail Mongaya
University of the Philippines

Cookout Draws UP Talents, BisRock Bands

Tugani UP Cebu Publication Date: [August-October 2006 Issue]

UP students were treated to an all-night showcase of UP and Cebuano talents as UP Cebu College celebrated Cookout 2006 last August 18.

Bisrock bands Aggressive Audio and Phylum enterteinaed the crowd with their humorous music that drove people crowding near the stage. Different UP organizations showed their talents in singing, dancing, and modelling.

In the band showdown, ACT UP’s Dama de Noche won the rythm of the crowd and the judges as they grasped the first prize. The Communicators of UP’s (Plano and Slash of Latagaw placed second and third, respectively.

The Department of Science and Technology Scholars Association of UP (DOST SA UP) grabbed the first prize in the singing ompetition, followed by the Math Majors Circle (MMC) and Kalesa.

In the Rampahan contest, the UP Ecological Society (UPECS) took hold of the 1st prize. Up close was the League of Filipino Students (LFS), the UP Football Club and the Political Science Society.

Sayawe bagged the top prize in the dancing competition, followed by Every Nation Campus Ministries (ENCM) and andres.

Cookout 2006 was presented by Y101 and organized by the UP Cebu College SC, with mass communication seniors comprising the produciton team.

Asked how he would assess the Cookout, SC Chairman Karlo Mikhail Mongaya said, “First and foremost, the Cookout was successful and this success belonged to the UP students.” By Al Marie Padayogdog

Greenpeace Urges UP Students to Save Seas

Tug-ani UP Cebu Publication Date: [August-October 2006 Issue]

A call to protect the oceans was the message of the “Save the Seas Forum” held last September 1 at the UP Cebu College COnference Hall. The UP Cebu Student COuncil, the Fisherfolk Development Center (FIDEC) and the Environmental Legal Assistance Center (ELAC) presented the forum.

“In the context of the Guimaras oil spill, it is but proper that we, the Iskolar ng Bayan, involves ourselves in an issue which not only affects the Filipino people but the whole world in general,” UP Cebu COllege SC Chairman Karlo Mikhail Mongaya said in his opening remarks.

The main speaker, Danny Ocampo, a campaigner for Greenpeace International Southeast Asia, talked abou how to defend the oceans. Greenpeace is involved in rehabilitation work in Guimaras, documenting the state of the mangroves in the region, and conducting underwater research and preliminary survey.

“Theimpact won’t be seen in the next few weeks, but in the next few months,” Ocampo assessed of the damage the oil spill brought to the seas.

He recommended that marine resources be cultivated, that coral reefs be protected, and that Petron be made accountable for the oil spill.

“I hope we remeber that what we do in land has impact on 70 percent of the Earth, which is our seas,” he reminded UPians.

Meanwhile, Vince Cinches, executive director of FIDEC gave a brief presentation about their office, which is a non-stock, non-pogit organization for marginal fisherfolks in Region 7. FIDEC extend socio-economic development assistance, legal aid, dialogue facilitation and marine resource protection to various fishing communities.

Atty. Amelie Amor Estrada of ELAC, also gave a presentation of what their organization was all about. ELAC is a non-profit, non-government organization which help communities defend the earth. Their programs include developmental legal assistance, community-based resource management, education and training, advocacy campaigns, and research and enforcement of laws. By Arrah Camillia Quistadio

“Salamat!”

Butyag Student Council Publication Date: [August 24, 2006]

August 18 had been a successful UP showcase of talents to the community, an event with form and content that provided entertainment for all.

With the Cookout’s success, the Student Council recognizes that all the grueling efforts for preparations and legwork could have been futile without your support and a job well done.

The success of Cookout 2006 is meaningless without acknowledgement of your valuable role in implementing the SC’s vision of putting together an occasion that would bring all of UP’s sectors together, proving our onness in a tradition that is essentially UP.

Salamat ug Padayon!

SC Chair is Rep to UP Tacloban Dean Search

Butyag Student Council Publication Date: [August 24, 2006]

SC Chairperson Karlo Mongaya was selected as the offical student representative to the Search Committee for the UP Tacloban College Dean Selection during the 1208th Board of Regents meeting.

As the student representative, Mongaya went to Tacloban last July 12-13 and August 13-16 to hold consultations and tackle UP Tacloban issues for the next Dean like tuition increase, faculty infighting and rampant politial repression. By Phoebeth Peras

Memo # 14

To: All Councilors, UPVCC-SC
From: The Chairperson
Re: Texting Network

As agreed upon during the 10th General Assembly of the UPVCC–Student Council, here is the texting network for the purpose of providing a more effective and efficient communication system within the council:

Karlo Mikhail Mongaya -> Maria Girly Patigdas & Gian Marko Enfectana

Maria Girly Patigdas -> Gian Marko Enfectana & Karen Ann Zarraga

Gian Marko Enfectana -> Karen Ann Zarraga & Charito Tan

Karen Ann Zarraga -> Charito Tan & Gayle Opsima

Charito Tan -> Gayle Opsima & Genry Gabayan

Gayle Opsima -> Genry Gabayan & Marinel Velmonte

Genry Gabayan -> Marinel Velmonte & Phoebeth Peras

Marinel Velmonte -> Phoebeth Peras & Stacey Kaye Cardoso

Phoebeth Peras - Stacey Kaye Cardoso & Heno Rey Chin

Stacey Kaye Cardoso - Heno Rey Chin & Ralph Sanchez

Heno Rey Chin -> Ralph Sanchez & Hope Tilog

Ralph Sanchez -> Hope Tilog & Jenno Gacasan

Hope Tilog -> Jenno Gacasan & Beryl Ann Manching

Jenno Gacasan -> Beryl Ann Manching & Nasvin del Rosario

Beryl Ann Manching -> Nasvin del Rosario & Doyle Belluga

Nasvin del Rosario -> Doyle Belluga & Francis Infiesto

Doyle Belluga -> Francis Infiesto

In the service of the students and the people,

Karlo Mikhail Mongaya
Chairperson

Memo # 13

To: All Councilors, UPVCC-SC
From: The Chairperson
Re: 10th General Assembly

What: Regular Meeting
When: August 1, 2006; 9:30am-12nn
Where: Student Council Office

The order of business is as follows:

1. Approval of Agenda
2. Approval of the Minutes from the Previous Meeting
3. Business Arising from the Previous Meeting
4. Communications

a. 10th Systemwide Student’s Congress

5. Announcements
6. Year-level Reports
7. Committee Reports

a. CRAW Committee
b. EDRES Committee[1]
c. Environment Desk
d. Gender-Youth Desk
e. KULKAT Committee
f. SOFS Committee[2]
g. Sports Desk[3]
h. STRAW Committee[4]
i. Pulse Desk[5]

8. COOK Out Updates
9. UP Cebu Student Summit Outputs[6]
10. UP President Consultation Assessment
11. UMAKSYON Concept Paper
12. Other Matters

In the service of the students and the people,

Karlo Mikhail Mongaya
Chairperson

[1] Tuition Increase Final Recommendation discussion
[2] UNISO updates
[3] Intramurals updates
[4] ROTC updates, Report on July 28 mass action, etc.
[5] 4-day school week & Boarding House survey
[6] Student’s Agenda for Dean Selection