UP CMC calls for abolition of pork barrel, investigation of corruption, arrest of plunderers

N.B. – This is the official statement of the UP College of Mass Communication on the pork barrel issue, signed by 29 faculty members and 14 staff led by Dean Roland Tolentino and former deans Luis Teodoro and Georgina Encanto.

Statement of the University of the Philippines
College of Mass Communication
August 23, 2013

THE FACULTY, students and staff of the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication (UP CMC) will join the people’s assembly and march at the Luneta on Monday, August 26 to express our collective outrage. We demand the abolition of the pork barrel system; the immediate arrest of, and the filing of appropriate charges of plunder and other high crimes against those involved in the P10-billion pork barrel scam from both the private and public sector; and a thorough and non-partisan investigation into the entire system of which the scam is only a small part of the estimated P250 billion lost to corruption in the public sector.

Together with the rest of the Filipino people, UP and its constituents, as well as the other state universities and colleges, are among the victims of the corruption that has metastasized throughout officialdom as well as the private sector. While our budgets are being reduced to the detriment of our mandates to train those among our young men and women with the most potential to serve this country and its people, billions are funnelled annually into the pockets of scoundrels and thieves both in and out of government so they may indulge their greed for fleets of luxury cars, palatial homes, and shopping binges abroad.

This is a horrendous crime for which those guilty of it should be penalized. President Benigno Aquino III should first of all forthwith cause the withdrawal from the 2014 General Appropriations Act of the P27 billion in pork barrel funds for Congress, selected agencies, and his own office the Department of Budget and Management has appropriated. He should immediately organize an investigative body credible enough to look into the extent to which not only pork barrel but also other funds have been and are being misused, while ordering the Department of Justice to file the appropriate charges of plunder against those involved in the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

President Aquino’s “bosses” have spoken. His defense of the pork barrel and his insistence on keeping the system intact despite widespread outrage and opposition of the Filipino people are unacceptable. These are completely at odds with the people’s sentiments and the objective interest in seeing to it that taxes are well-spent for the people’s own benefit rather than that of a handful of rapacious individuals whose greed knows no limit.

COLLEGE OFFICIALS
Dr. Roland B. Tolentino, Dean
Prof. Danilo A. Arao, Associate Dean
Prof. Randy Jay C. Solis, College Secretary

Dr. Georgina R. Encanto, Former Dean
Prof. Luis V. Teodoro, Former Dean

Prof. Jane O. Vinculado, Chair, Broadcast Communication Department
Prof. Lucia P. Tangi, Officer-in-Charge, Journalism Department
Prof. Patrick F. Campos, Director of Office of Extension and External Relations

FACULTY
Broadcast Communication Department
Dr. Elizabeth L. Enriquez
Dr. Perlita G. Manalili
Prof. Rosa Maria T. Feliciano
Prof. Victor C. Avecilla
Prof. Josefina C. Santos, DZUP Radio Station Manager
Prof. Fernando A. Austria, Jr.
Ms. Ma. Ivy A. Claudio

Communication Research Department
Prof. Jacques Rusanna Yves DM. Gimeno

Journalism Department
Prof. Evelyn Katigbak
Prof. Ma. Diosa Labiste
Ms. Teresa Congjuico

UP Film Institute
Prof. Shirley P. Evidente, Faculty Coordinator for Academic Programs and Research, UPFI
Prof. Eduardo J. Lejano, Jr., Faculty Coordinator for Film, Theater and Extension Services
Prof. Jose C. Gutierrez III, College Webmaster
Mr. Roy C. Iglesias

LECTURERS
Broadcast Communication Department
Prof. Melba S. Estonilo
Prof. Marinela M. Aseron
Mr. Dexter Mantes

UP Film Institute
Maria Lourdes De Guzman
Carlo Gabriel Pangilinan
Bryan Quesada

ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF AND REPS
Gina Villegas
Marianita P. Cinco
Rosalita S. Burlat
Armando H. Hirao
Nemesio B. Faulan
Clarissa S. Concepcion
Raquelita Bacarra
Jacqueline Manalo
Teresita Santos
Irene Sia
Hermana Dela Paz
Ma. Christine Hernandez
Jam Tolentino
Janette Pamaylaon

CMC Student Council (composed of 13 elected student leaders)