It's November. The air crackles with tension. Both within and outside the university, long-simmering issues have been ignited, which will have a resounding impact on the character of the University of the Philippines. You are generally casual about calling yourself "isko," seeing it mostly as a status symbol, but it’s sinking in: you are an iskolar ng bayan, and it is not just a point of pride. It is also a responsibility, a heavy duty you must bear as a student of the country's premier state tertiary institution for education.
You are focused, rightly so, on here and now; on what must be done, what must be confronted. Yet you are also thinking about the future.
A few weeks from now, will the Senate follow in the footsteps of the House of Representatives and approve President Benigno Aquino III’s proposed national budget, much contested by sectors such as health and agriculture whose budget was slashed? A month or so from now, will UP have a President that fights for an adequate budget for state colleges and universities, or one that plays along with Aquino’s plans for state abandonment of the education sector? Some years from now, will UP still serve the people by being a bastion of accessible quality education, or will it be unrecognizable; morphed by commercialization into a limited and expensive space for a privileged few?
This is our story. And yes, it is ours, for the power to shape it is in our hands.
Certainly, to be a UP student is an honor. The question indirectly posited by Alyansa, one of the political factions within UP, is how deeply this matter of honor rests upon academic excellence. There is no doubt that those two letters, “UP,” carry a definite cachet — to be a student or professor of the university is to be conferred with automatic expectations of academic excellence.
Yet is this the defining factor? What are grades, after all, but a numerical record of how adequately a student meets the specific requirements of a course and professor?
UP students must not be isolated in a bubble of unos and awards. UP students have always had an integral role in national affairs. They are students who recognize that their loyalty is not only to themselves as individuals, but to the millions of Filipinos whose plight cannot be ignored.
To say that getting a relatively low grade in the academe outweighs being elected through a fair vote by the UP student body is the height of petty politics. To place matters of bureaucratic obstructionism ahead of the crucial issues confronting the university — not the least of which is the largest budget cut in its 102-year history — is to belittle what UP stands for.
We in STAND-UP regret that our counterparts in the council, despite a consensus vote held on November 15 retaining Rainier Astin Sindayen as the USC chairperson, have chosen to prioritize trivial technicalities over the clear facts surrounding this case.
That Rain was duly elected by thousands of UP Diliman students to be their USC council chairperson. The grade requirement he met as a candidate for the USC elections, which others now claim he “violated,” is a part of the election code, not the USC Constitution.
That Rain has not only been an unwavering voice for student interests and a staunch defender of student rights, he has also integrated student concerns into the broader context of national development — a true testament to the grand tradition of UP, in line with the actions of past student leaders whose names have been remembered, not only in the university, but throughout the country.
Most importantly, that the time the USC wastes excoriating Rain for his grades — a matter of grave concern only to the student politicians opposing STAND-UP — is time the USC should have spent on a matter that affects every student in the entire UP system.
This refers, of course, to the pending P1.39 budget cut in UP's budget, embedded in Aquino's P1.645-trillion National Expenditure Program (NEP) for 2011.
STAND-UP calls on all UP students to place their attention where it belongs: not on the ridiculous infighting instigated by rival political parties in UP, but on the opportunity to squarely defend UP against a budget cut which would set it on the grim path to state abandonment. Aquino has a suggestion for UP: engage in commercialization and privatization to offset his staggering budget cut. Yet even as he leaves education to the questionable mercy of the private sector, he has bloated the budget for debt servicing and the military.
Let us recognize that there are more important things right now than political bickering. These are difficult, challenging times, and progress will not be obtained by ousting a chairperson, who has repeatedly proven his dedication to the student body, over a contested grade requirement.
Some of the greatest chairpersons who ever led the USC, like Lean Alejandro, were not even enrolled when they served out their term in office. Yet they stand out in the darkest periods of history as luminaries who fought for both UP and country, for both students and the other oppressed and exploited sectors of society, recognizing that they are inextricably intertwined.
It does not matter whether or not you support or belong to STAND-UP. You are a part of the youth sector, a student, a Filipino. Fight to ensure greater state subsidy for the UP system, the whole education sector, and other basic social services. Join in the struggle for societal change.
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