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End of Term Report

Hon. Krista Iris V. Melgarejo
31
st
Student Regent
University of the Philippines System

A year ago, I was entrusted by the iskolars ng bayan to represent them inside the highest policy
making body of UP, the Board of Regents. In the span of that one year, we have faced many
issues, from the intensification of the commercialization policies to the utter negligence of the UP
administration and the national government of our fellow iskolars ng bayan and countrymen in
Eastern Visayas.

As this term comes to a close, let us look back at the past academic year and may this review
give us lessons that shall motivate us to continue to fight for the democratic rights of the students
and the Filipino masses.

Commercialization
Commercialization schemes and policies have greatly affected the public service orientation of
the University and we have seen and experienced them in their full blown scale in the past several
years. From the increase and implementation of miscellaneous fees to the approval of income
generating projects to utilize idle assets in different constituent units, we are continually
challenged to break the idea of self sufficiency and the concept of the necessity of income
generation.

Naming Rights Policy: The Eurotowers Group, Sy and Virata
Since the term of former President Emerlinda R. Roman, the Naming Rights Policy has given the
private sector the right to name buildings and facilities (and other benefits such as tax exemptions)
in exchange of their donations to the University. Such naming rights policy will not only drive us into
further self-sufficiency but it will affect the orientation
and culture University its sense of nationalism and
history.

Theater Building of the UP Diliman College of Arts
and Letters Donation from the Eurotowers
Group amounting to Php 100 million.
Renaming of the UP Diliman College of Business
Administration to Cesar E.A. Virata School of
Business Donation from Regent Magdaleno
Alabarracin amounting to Php 40 million in total.
Building and facilities for the UP Professional
Schools in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig (to be
named Henry Sy Sr. Hall) Donation from the SM
Investments Corportation amounting to Php 400
million.
Photo credit: UP Diliman School of Business
Student Council Facebook Page
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Utilization of Idle Assets
Republic Act 9500 or the UP Charter of 2008 has legitimized the use of the Universitys idle assets
and the entry of private corporations. These income generating projects have always been
disguised as projects that have academic purposes such as research (ex. The UP-Ayala
Technohub was disguised as a science and technology park to be utilized by UPD students and
faculty). Although there have been no new projects approved in the Board during the term, last
year, we witnessed the establishment of the UP Town Center at the old site of the UP Integrated
School along Katipunan.

Privatizing Public Health Care: Alyssa Asilo and the Class D Patients
The Philippine General Hospital is no exemption to privatization schemes. Aside from the
establishment of the privately operated Faculty Medical Arts Building within the PGH complex, the
PGH administration has now implemented new fees for Class D patients. The scheme has
repeatedly denied the poorest of the poor health care services.

In fact, other schemes such as the requirement of a
downpayment from patients has already claimed the
life of an iskolar ng bayan. Veterinary Medicine
student Alyssa Asilo did not receive immediate health
services because her family was unable to pay for the
downpayment required by the PGH.

We raised these issues repeatedly in the Board but
clearly, there was inaction from both the UP and PGH
administration.

Fee Increases
The OSR has been consistent in monitoring fee
increase/implementation proposals and made sure
that the guidelines stated in the Policy of the Use and
Implementation of the Tuition and Miscellaneous Fee
Increases are observed. But more than this, we have made it clear inside the Board that mere
numbers in the consultation do not and will never justify such increases as we are in the premise
that education is a right and should not be subjected to pricing like mere commodities.

Kristel Tejada and the UP Code of Forced Student Loans
The untimely death of Behavioral Sciences student Kristel Tejada became the epitome of the
dismal state of Philippine education. Kristel became the face of many more undocumented cases
of Filipino youth who have been denied of their right to education. Instead of addressing the issue,
the UP administration and the national government blamed the death of Kristel to her emotional
weaknesses and inability to cope up with problems.

Together with other student leaders, progressive administrators, and sectors, the OSR became part
of the Justice for Kristel Alliance. The alliance forwarded several revisions to the University of the
Philippines Code in line with the April 2013 Board resolution stating that No qualified UP student
shall be access to education based on financial incapacity.
UPLB Vet Med student Alyssa Asilo (Photo
credit: Yahoo! Southeast Asia Newsroom)
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However, the approved revisions (which were
proposed by the administration) to the Code did
not bring any significant changes for the iskolars ng
bayan. It has only forced students to avail of student
loans when they are not able to pay for their
matriculation fees during the registration period.
Loans are short term solutions, but it does not
address the problem of high tuition rates in UP.

The Board resolution just became mere lip service as
there were no concrete policies or actions to
address anti-student and anti-poor policies like the
forced LOA policy in UP Manila and the class list
purging in UP Diliman.

Socialized Tuition System
Established in 1989, the Socialized Tuition and Financial Assitance Program (STFAP) aimed to
democratize access to UP education through fairness and social justice. However, the
mechanism only highlighted the differences in the financial status of the students and have only
justified the lack of government subsidy for higher education (in line with the Roadmap for Public
Higher Education Reform Program). The scheme has been repeatedly used to put up the illusion
that higher education can still be affordable in spite of the high tuition rates in the University.

Last December 2013, the Board approved the Socialized Tuition System or the revamped version
of the STS. According to the administration, the new system will help students by lessening the
requirements for the application and revising the process. In fact, in the February UCSFA meeting,
the STS has been exposed for what it truly is a discount system for the Php 1,000 to 1,500 tuition
rate in the University.

Yes, indeed that are going to changes process-wise however, we are not only concerned about
the surface level changes in policies. The essential question here is, did it solve the high cost of UP
education?

We remained firm, together with the students that the STFAP cannot answer this question. Thus,
the struggle for our right to quality education remains and we would like to pursue our
counterproposal to this system that the UP administration should problematize how to make the
tuition rate accessible even for the poorest of the poor. The OSR enjoins all student leaders to keep
their vigiliance on this policy especially it is in its first year implementation.







Photo Credit: Ronalyn V. Olea (Bulatlat.com)
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Globalization
Instead of addressing the needs of the Philippine society, our Philippine education sector has been
designed to cater to the needs of the global market by adapting international policies that do
not even fit with the local situation.

PCARI: Science and Technology for Whom?
Science and technology has always been associated with the improvement of the quality of life
in society. That is why in the Philippine context, we want to use science and technology so that
the country would be able to maximize its resources and undergo national industrialization. But
with the dismal state of funding for the field of science and technology, it seems like a long shot.
Despite the potential research studies that Filipino scientists can pursue for the soceitys benefit,
they are not able to do so since there is very little support coming from the national government.

We stood against the participation of the
University from the Philippines-California
Advanced Research Institutes (PCARI) Project
because clearly, it does not benefit the Filipino
people. It is appalling that the national
government can give away Php 10B for this
project (the Philippines will solely fund the
project) while the local science and technology
field has very poor funding. The discoveries and
innovations from the joint researches will not
translate to direct benefits to the common
Filipino. Aside from that, we are encouraging the
phenomena of brain drain because the
project does not have any strong guidelines to assure that scholars of this project will come back
and use their technical knowledge for the country.

Academic Calendar Shift
In line with the ASEAN Integration of 2015, this policy wanted to improve student and faculty
mobility by synchronizing the academic calendars with other universities from ASEAN member
countries. However, analyzing the policy further will reveal that there is more to this than just
exchange student programs and hiring foreign faculty.

In line with this newly approved policy, each constituent university will be conducting an
assessment of its academic programs according to the standards set by the Asian University
Network. Programs that do not meet these standards (ex. number of enrollees per year) can be
revised, merged with other programs or even abolished.

Last March 26, the Commission on Higher Education released a statement that it does not advise
the shift in the academic calendar for higher educational institutions because: 1) farmer and
fisherfolk households will run out of financial resources by August; and 2) the harmonization with
the schedule of basic education. In fact, the points raised by CHED were among the arguments
that we raised during the Board meeting. It is indeed disappointing that such statement came
Photo Credit: Manila Standard Today
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very late from the chairperson and there was no pressure from the CHED to make UP administrators
think otherwise about the approval of this policy.

We stood firm inside the Board that this hastily approved policy disregarded the concrete
conditions of the Philippine education sector and will only take higher education further away
from the Filipino youth, especially those coming from the basic sectors of society. Aside from that,
this sham internationalization policy will lead the youth to a future of competing for low paying
jobs from multi-national companies along with other graduates from other ASEAN countries.

Repression
Repressive policies proposed and implemented by University administrators have always been the
means to silence the iskolar ng bayan and discourage critical thinking and analyses on the various
anti-student and anti-people policies being implemented inside and outside the University.

Code of Student Conduct
Back in 2009, word spread about the Diliman Draft Code of Student Conduct which aimed to limit
the freedoms and rights we enjoy as students and Filipino people such as the right to organize,
freedom of expression, and peaceful assembly. Student leaders came together to launch a
system-wide campaign calling for the junking of the Code as administrators in the respective
constituent units were prepared to adapt and implement it.

A year later, the OSR together with other student leaders, was able to negotiate with the Diliman
administration to revise the Code in order to remove the repressive provisions. Under this term, we
were able to negotiate with former Chancellor Saloma to include in its core principles the concept
of academic freedom, collegiality and self regulation. We were also able to decrease the ban on
freshmen recruitment for fraternities and sororities from one year to one semester. However, when
this reached the level of the Board, its approval was repeatedly halted.

We are well aware that various repressive policies exist in the student handbook/code of conduct
in the constituent units across the system. There are units that prohibit recruitment of freshmen into
any student organization, limitations in the usage of facilities, etc. The OSR has continued to
monitor and campaign against these policies.

However, we must make it clear that we do not want to settle with the small tactical gains. The
OSR stands and should stand firm that we are against any code that will hamper our democratic
rights.

Repression inside the Board
There have been attempts to silence the voice of the iskolars ng bayan inside the highest policy
making body of the University. From the attempted railroading of the STS in November to the
muzzling of your Regent to make public pronouncements on anti-student and anti-people issues.
Despite this, we continue to be steadfast in upholding the voice of the students and the people
inside the Board. We now challenge our fellow student leaders to also remain steadfast in the
midst of increasing repression inside from the state and the University administration.

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National Issues
Realizing the connection of the different issues found inside and outside the University, the OSR
has never failed to participate in national issues together with other sectors in the society. It is in
this way that we realize that if we want significant changes inside the University, we can only
achieve it through genuine social change.

The Pork Barrel Scam and the National Budget
So much controversy surrounded the 2015 national budget. Our campaign started off with the
DMB approved budget for basic social services. For the next fiscal year, the UP system will be
receiving around Php 8.1B vis--vis its Php 17.1B proposal. It was also last year that we discovered
that the national government, through CHED, has pooled a lump sum budget under the
commission for the capital outlays of the 110 SUCs nation-wide which they have to compete for.
The prioritization of SCUs will be based on the how they perform. Leading SCUs such as UP will be
receiving more from CHED.

With the exposure of the pork barrel scam, we
were all appalled at the amount of money
that is allocated every year for the Priority
Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) of
public officials and the Presidents own pork
barrel which are disguised as lump sum funds
under several itemizations and government
agencies. This despite the funding for basic
social services like education and health.
Together with other sectors, we participated in
numerous peoples mobilizations against pork
barrel scam, calling for its scrapping and
rechanneling to basic social services.

Typhoon Yolanda: Going Beyond Relief Efforts
and Calling for Justice
Like in the past years, the OSR together with the student councils initiates relief efforts under Tulong
Kabataan. There was endless support coming from the UP community and the general public so
that we could provide relief goods for our kababayans in Eastern Visayas. Some even participated
in the peoples caravan to distribute the goods directly not only in Tacloban but also in other parts
of Leyte and Samar.

The Supertyphoon destroyed two of our campuses UPV Tacloban and the UPM School of Health
Sciences in Palo, Leyte. It is quite disapppointing that despite what our felow iskolars ng bayan
went through during the height of the typhoon, the response from the UP system administration
has been very slow. It has only provided very minimum help for our students, faculty and staff from
the two campuses. It cannot even give our most affected students the financial assistance that
they need (ex. immediate rebracketting to E1 or E2, allowances and other subsidies). Until now,
the campus has still not recovered from the calamity while there has been little assistance coming
from both the UP system and the UPM admnistration for UP Palo.
Katipunan Kontra Korapsyon (Photo Credit: UP Aperture)
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We realize that this is more than just
providing relief efforts in the affected
areas as we can only provide limited
resources. We are one with the People
Surge and Tindog Network in their call for
justice as they have not yet received
significant relief and help from the
national government. We shall continue
to challenge our student leaders and our
fellow iskolars ng bayan to call for justice
for our countrymen in Eastern Visayas and
to continue to pressure the government to
not only provide the overdue relief but to
also provide long term solutions during
natural disasters.


Human Rights and the Peace Talks
The OSR continues to be involved in the issue of human rights violations in the country, calling
justice for all the victims (where several are UP students/alumni). We were able to spearhead
several activities so that students could understand that it is not enough that we call for justice for
the victims of human rights violations, but it also entails that genuine social change is needed.

Through these discussions and being involved in the different activities of the campaigns will reveal
that human rights violations are products of a systemic problem in society. From there, we will also
realize that it is not only those who are detained, disappeared and murdered who are human
rights victims but we are all victims of human rights violations when we are denied our basic rights
to education and basic social services.

And it is in this realization that we realize that just and lasting peace cannot be achieved by
increasing military operations against revolutionary groups under Oplan Bayanihan. Rather, it is by
solving the roots of the armed conflict that we will be able to achieve peace just and lasting
peace based on social justice. That is why the OSR shall to enjoin all student leaders and all iskolars
ng bayan to join the campaign in calling for the immediate resumption of the peace talks

Challenges and Prospects
In line with the Aquino administrations RPHER, government funding for higher education remains
to be in a dismal state and simultaneously encouraging the administrations of the state universities
and colleges to look for means to implement income generating projects through tuition and
other fee increases, privatization of services, leasing of lands to private corporations, and other
various forms. Commercialization and privatization have all the more destroyed the public
character of the University and has taken higher education further away from the Filipino youth.

Policies to internationalize and globalize the education sector have also contributed to the
worsening crisis. This year, the government will continue to implement its K to 12 program and some
The UP Palo Oblation after Typhoon Yolanda (Photo Credit:
Rolando O. Borrinaga)
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of the higher educational institutions will proceed with the implementation of the academic
calendar shift policy. Such policies are leading the hope of our nation to a bleak future. We are
also subjected to repressive policies as our struggle against the anti-student and anti-people
policies continue in an attempt to silence the growing clamor for our democratic rights.

However, we should not look at the approval and implementation of these policies as
disadvantages. In fact, these policies have further ripened the conditions for the strengthening
among our ranks.

Our Urgent Tasks
As the countrys economic, cultural and political crises worsens, we are all the more chall enged
to consolidate our ranks and continue the struggle of past student leaders and the Filipino people.

1) Continue the critique of the different policies and programs being implemented inside and
outside the University;

2) Intensify our campaigns against anti-student and anti-people policies. Expose and oppose
the worsening crisis in the education sector and the Philippine society;

3) Maximize all forms and media to raise awareness among the studentry. In todayss internet
age, social media should also be maximized. However, this should only be complementary
to relating with the grassroots level of the studentry;

4) Deepen the political awareness of our iskolars ng bayan and the Filipino youth. Link and
raise the discourse of various issues inside and outside the University; and

5) Continually engage the studentry and other sectors to struggle for genuine social change.