Memo # 06

To: All Councilors, UPVCC-SC
From: The Chairperson
Re: Leadership Training Seminar

Warm Greetings!

We will be holding a Leadership Training Seminar (LTS) as part of the continuing efforts to consolidate our ranks as the primary student institution in the college. We will conduct the one-day seminar on May 28 (Sunday) at the Don Bosco Retreat House, Lawaan, Talisay City.

Each student council member is requested to bring at least a hundred pesos for the venue’s registration fee and our food accommodation. All councilors are required to submit their respective General Programs of Actions (GPOA) before the seminar for collation.

Below is the tentative program for the activity:

(May 28, Sunday)

9:00
Assembly Time/Roll Call

9:00-12:00
Analysis of Organizational Culture
by Prof. Phoebe Zoe Sanchez
Faculty, Soc. Science Division
UP Visayas-Cebu College

12:00-1:00
Lunch Break

1:00-2:00
Student Council Orientation
by Maria Fe. Jaime
President, Cebu City Federation of Tertiary Student Governments
Vice-Chairperson for Visayas, National Union of Students of the Phil

2:00-2:45
On Leadership
by Karlo Mikhail Mongaya
Chairperson, UP Visayas - Cebu College Student Council
National Vice Chairperson,
Katipunan ng mga Sangguniang Mag-aaral sa UP

2:45-3:15
Break

3:15-5:45
Integration of General Program of Action

Please keep updated for further details. Thank you very much.

In the service of the students,

Karlo Mikhail Mongaya
Chairperson

Speak out: Restoring ROTC's status

Sun.Star Daily Publication Date: [May 13, 2006]

Today’s youth have been stereotyped as an ill-guided generation of text addicts, perennial mallers and night hoppers.

Stretched to the extreme, this image has been used to emphasize our supposed lack of discipline, social responsibility, patriotism, etc.

The same line has been used in pushing for the revival of the mandatory Reserved Officers Training Corps (ROTC). The Department of National Defense is now pushing for the amendment of the National Service Training Program for the purpose.

The twisted logic, however, cannot hide the fact that ROTC has never taught the youth discipline, social responsibility and patriotism. It was precisely the lack of discipline in the program that led to the abolition of its mandatory status four years back.

Indeed, some people used the ROTC as milking cow with uniforms and other requirements sold at marked-up prices. Likewise, huge amounts were amassed in bribes from those who would like to avoid the course.

Aside from being anomaly-ridden, the ROTC also violates our civil liberties. Consider the mottos such as “what you see, what you hear, when you go, leave it here” and “obey first before you complain.”

While admittedly our generation is a bit captivated with malling and texting, it is another thing to call us less socially responsible or apathetic. The call for the abolition of ROTC’s mandatory status was first made in the 1960s. Now, who succeeded in putting an end to it?

The youth’s idealism and potentials can be harnessed outside the ambit of an irrelevant, abusive, and essentially fascist program.

Instead of bringing back mandatory ROTC, its proponents should instead lobby for greater state subsidy for education. Such a move will greatly help in promoting social responsibility and nationalism.

The killing of Bicol student leader Cris Hugo last March, the illegal arrest of the PUP central student council chairperson last April and the recent abduction of a community youth leader in Pagadian underscores the government-led violence against the youth.

A mandatory ROTC will only intensify the already horrifying state of civil rights under the Arroyo administration.

By Karlo Mikhail I. Mongaya
Chairperson, Student Council
UP Visayas-Cebu College

Statement: People's Clamor?

The Freeman Publication Date: [May 6, 2006]

While the current move to revise the 1987 constitution is led by an NGO named Sigaw ng Bayan, President Arroyo’s claim of a people’s clamor for cha-cha is still very questionable. Indeed, its most vocal supporters come from the ranks of GMA’s allies.

The use of government machinery to entice people to sign up with the “people’s initiative,” regardless of whether they understand its objectives seem to confirm our suspicions that it really is a Malacañang ploy. If so, then it would be more fitting to call the move a “Politician’s initiative” or a “Palace initiatve.”

To this end, government funds have been used for the undertaking of the people’s initiative. Likewise, millions of pesos are expected to be spent in an expensive plebiscite.

Instead of wasting the people’s money on self-serving schemes, the Arroyo government should allocate more budget for education and the social services. State Universities and Colleges, like UP, have long been deprived of badly needed state subsidy for the improvement of services and facilities.

GMA and her Sigaw ng Bayan have become so confident that nothing can stop their cha-cha train. It is sad to note that they are doing so at our expense.

By Karlo Mikhail I. Mongaya
Chairperson, Student Council
UP Cebu College

Speak out: Stand up for civil liberties

Sun.Star Daily Publication Date: [April 19, 2006]

Last March 19, Cris Hugo, national council member of the League of Filipino Students, was shot dead in Legazpi City.

The police illegally abducted two leaders of the student council of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines last April 4 while speaking in a community forum.

The UP Cebu College Student Council condemns such unjust acts and all moves that aim to clamp down protests against President Arroyo’s low education budget, the sorry condition of state universities and colleges, excessive increase in tuition and other fees, and other anti-student policies.

We likewise express extreme disapproval over proposals that seek to make the Reserved Officer Training Corps mandatory again.

The revival of the obsolete, corrupt, and essentially fascist program will only exaggerate the already repressive nature of the Philippine educational system.

Despite attempts to frighten us, we will never be cowed. The authoritarian stance of the present government is not a sign of strength.

Efforts to muzzle the media, clamp down on dissent and limit civil liberties are actions of a dying regime desperate to cling to power and continue to implement policies such as the deregulation of oil, the jacking up of the value-added tax, etc.

The UP Cebu College Student Council will continue to lead the Iskolar ng Bayan in standing up for civil liberties.

We will continue to work for a mass-oriented education that will truly cater to the needs of nation building and call for meaningful social change despite the continuous deception and tyranny of a bogus and anti-people government. ■