"The 20th President of the University of the Philippines System, Alfredo E. Pascual, visited UP Mindanao on February 14, 2011 for a Sectoral Consultation with the Administration, Faculty, Students and Non-teaching Personnel."
"The party, composed of Mr. Pascual, his wife Mrs. Carmen M. Pascual and UP Mindanao Chancellor Dr. Gilda C. Rivero, was greeted by the UPMin community upon arrival. He then proceeded with the consultation program held at the Gaisano Room (ExeCom) and Lorenzo Hall (faculty, students, personnel), listening and answering to many concerns opened up by the constituents."
To see the complete pictorial coveage of this event, please check out the Himati page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/manage/?act=27924693#!/album.php?aid=36275&id=133344730040995&fbid=182389038469897
Showing posts with label Chancellor Gilda C. Rivero. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chancellor Gilda C. Rivero. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
A Testimony to U.P.'s Militant Struggle
(Photos courtesy of Himati)
Official Statement on the Roman Testimonial Ceremony Protest
UP Mindanao University Student Council
February 8, 2011
The 4th of February shall be another mark in our history. That day was not a testimony for outgoing UP President Emerlinda Roman. Rather, it was a testimony to the militant struggle of all Iskolars ng Bayan, faculty and staff, who together, continuously fought to defend the University of the Philippines against all forms of commercialization and privatization. A testimony to our enduring struggle to defend the university’s public character.
In her six years as UP president, Roman acted as an emissary of the reactionary government in pushing for neoliberal policies to make quality education inaccessible to the Filipino youth. To commend someone who pushed for the approval of such policies is insulting not only to the UP community, but to the Filipino youth and masses, who expects the university to perform its obligation to society: to provide quality and accessible education to the youth. The 300% tuition and other fee increases and the land use schemes have proven that Roman betrayed not only the Iskolars ng Bayan but also the democratic interest of the entire nation. It was not a solution to the continually decreasing state subsidy, rather, these neoliberal policies served as catalysts for the privatization of UP and total state abandonment. Instead of fighting for greater state subsidy, it has tolerated the negligence of the state to perform its constitutional mandate of making quality education accessible at all levels. Indeed, it has performed well in serving the interest of the reactionary government and the capitalists, and has neglected the true interests of the UP community.
But because of the strong opposition of the students, faculty and staff on these policies, the administration used systematic forms of repression in an attempt to silence the progressives. Many leaders, among the students, faculty and staff have bravely fought for our democratic rights and have faced different forms of political repression, from removing a regent in the BOR to delaying a professor’s tenure. The administration’s fascist character is revealed in a desperate attempt to preserve the neoliberal character and the feudal status quo. Our militant struggle has proven to be a powerful instrument in protecting people’s rights and interest. It has always overpowered the schemes of the fascist administration.
Spending a large amount of taxpayers’ money on that ceremony despite the P1.1B decrease in the university’s Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) for 2011 is just adding more insult to the injury. This display of extravagance is appalling. How can these university officials be so insensitive while students, faculty and staff have to make do with the slashed budget for the university? Indeed, UP is a microcosm of the Philippine society. This picture shows us the widening disparity between the rich and the poor. This is a picture of the leadership of the bourgeois class, insensitive to the plight of the masses and a futile attempt of bringing true change in society.
On that day, we stormed the testimonial ceremony to express our rage against Roman or what we refer to as Roman Empire. On that day, we sent a message that the UP community shall never forget the deep scars of political repression left by her administration. On that day, we have shown the strength of the masses and its ability to shake up a leadership that is unwilling to serve its true interests. We may have encountered violent reactions and threats, but it did not stop us and will never stop us. The cronies of the Roman Empire have failed to calm down the agitated students and were also exposed of their true reactionary nature conveniently camouflaged as former progressives. It also exposed them of their willingness to tolerate the Roman Empire’s leadership amidst its six year track record.
The act of pelting President Roman with eggs was symbolic, done out of accumulated rage and frustration. It symbolized how we cannot tolerate the bastardization of what our university stands for. Some may even regard it as a disrespectful act. But how can one respect someone from a corrupt institution? As one UP professor puts it, the ones who insist upon respect for an official of a corrupt institution are the ones who are actually, disrespectful. Disrespect towards members of the UP community, who have been deprived of and are struggling to protect their democratic rights. Disrespect directed against the youth and its families who have been deprived of a UP education, brought about by commercialization and privatization. With these said, it would then be more disrespectful to the majority if we did not do anything that day. It would then be more disrespectful to have not fought for our democratic rights. It would then be a disservice to our constituents.
A few days from now, the UP system will bid its final farewell to the Roman Empire, and another one will be taking its place. Let this be a testimony to UP’s militant struggle and go onwards with it. This is the only way that we can champion people’s rights and welfare. It is only through mass action that we can create history. Let us not be deceived by mere promises and plans. We must remain vigilant and active to ensure that our interests will be upheld. Together, let us stand and go onward with our militant struggle!
OPPOSE NEOLIBERAL POLICIES IN EDUCATION!
SERBISYO, TRABAHO, HUWAG GAWING NEGOSYO!
FIGHT FOR GREATER STATE SUBSIDY!
UP KILOS NA PARA SA DEMOKRATIKONG UNIBERSIDAD NG PILIPINAS NA NAGLILINGKOD SA BAYAN!
PAMANTASANG BAYAN, IPAGLABAN!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Diliman Videos of the Week Continued: A U.P. Alumnus Rages vs. U.P. Mindanao Students' Rage vs. the Distorted Priorities of the Outgoing Roman Administration (Videos 5 to 7)
Editor's note: In Video No. 5, we see an irate U.P. alumnus berating U.P. students for exercising their academic freedom to express dissent (not to mention their constitutional rights of free speech) over the policies of the Outgoing Administration of U.P. President Emerlinda R. Roman, and those of U.P. Mindanao Chancellor Gilda C. Rivero, including their mutual decision to participate in a testimonial ceremony for President Roman on that day (February 4, 2011) at U.P. Mindanao at a cost of PhP 100,000.00 to the Filipino taxpayer. These videos are courtesy of the U.P. Mindanao University Student Council.
The alumnus, who was an invited guest at the testimonial ceremony, boasts of once being a First Quarter Storm activist who braved water cannons, bullets and truncheons in the Marcos era. He now says that U.P. Mindanao students have no right to oppose the failure of the administrations of Outgoing U.P. President Emerlinda R. Roman and U.P. Mindanao Chancellor Gilda C. Rivero in terms of carrying out their responsible stewardships of the U.P. System and U.P. Mindanao, respectively. The alumnus even dictates upon the students to travel all the way to Congress in Quezon City from Mindanao to protest (rather than in U.P. Mindanao) because of a solitary placard that said that spending for the military should be channeled to education. However the alumnus also admitted that the students' complaint that PhP 100,000.00 was spent for the testimonial ceremony of outgoing U.P. President Emerlinda R. Roman was valid.
In Video No. 6, and with blood pressures rising on both sides, the U.P. alumnus demands that the students show respect for the U.P. Alumni who were participating in the event. He invoked seniority and age over the students, even offering to show them his senior citizen's identification card.
In Video No. 7, the U.P. alumnus finally and completely loses his temper with the students saying that they do not deserve respect, and uses foul language, specifically the word, "stupido," which can be distinctly heard in the the video. The alumnus categorically states that since the students did not follow instructions to stop disrupting the testimonial ceremony, then they deserved every iota of his disrespect. The U.P. alumnus later retreated behind steel gates when student activists drowned out his angry comments with chants. The video ends with a riveting declamation by a student activist who emotionally asks her companions if they would accept the demands of the U.P. alumnus that he would do all the talking and that they should simply accept their role which is to shut up and to hang on to every word that the official uttered as if their lives depended on it. Surely this should not be the case she says, surely to do so would be to negate their very existence as activists fighting for legitimate causes in support of their university and the people.
To see Videos No. 1 to 4 which covered earlier parts of the student protests at the same February 4, 2011 testimonial ceremony, please click on this link: http://diliman-diary.blogspot.com/2011/02/diliman-videos-of-week-up-mindanao.html
Video No. 5
Video No. 6
Video No. 7
The alumnus, who was an invited guest at the testimonial ceremony, boasts of once being a First Quarter Storm activist who braved water cannons, bullets and truncheons in the Marcos era. He now says that U.P. Mindanao students have no right to oppose the failure of the administrations of Outgoing U.P. President Emerlinda R. Roman and U.P. Mindanao Chancellor Gilda C. Rivero in terms of carrying out their responsible stewardships of the U.P. System and U.P. Mindanao, respectively. The alumnus even dictates upon the students to travel all the way to Congress in Quezon City from Mindanao to protest (rather than in U.P. Mindanao) because of a solitary placard that said that spending for the military should be channeled to education. However the alumnus also admitted that the students' complaint that PhP 100,000.00 was spent for the testimonial ceremony of outgoing U.P. President Emerlinda R. Roman was valid.
In Video No. 6, and with blood pressures rising on both sides, the U.P. alumnus demands that the students show respect for the U.P. Alumni who were participating in the event. He invoked seniority and age over the students, even offering to show them his senior citizen's identification card.
In Video No. 7, the U.P. alumnus finally and completely loses his temper with the students saying that they do not deserve respect, and uses foul language, specifically the word, "stupido," which can be distinctly heard in the the video. The alumnus categorically states that since the students did not follow instructions to stop disrupting the testimonial ceremony, then they deserved every iota of his disrespect. The U.P. alumnus later retreated behind steel gates when student activists drowned out his angry comments with chants. The video ends with a riveting declamation by a student activist who emotionally asks her companions if they would accept the demands of the U.P. alumnus that he would do all the talking and that they should simply accept their role which is to shut up and to hang on to every word that the official uttered as if their lives depended on it. Surely this should not be the case she says, surely to do so would be to negate their very existence as activists fighting for legitimate causes in support of their university and the people.
To see Videos No. 1 to 4 which covered earlier parts of the student protests at the same February 4, 2011 testimonial ceremony, please click on this link: http://diliman-diary.blogspot.com/2011/02/diliman-videos-of-week-up-mindanao.html
Video No. 5
Video No. 6
Video No. 7
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Diliman Videos of the Week: U.P. Mindanao Students Rage Against the Distorted Priorities of Outgoing Roman Administration
Editor's note: The following is a series of videos taken yesterday by the U.P. Mindanao University Student Council over policies of the Outgoing Administration of U.P. President Emerlinda R. Roman as well as those of U.P. Mindanao Chancellor Gilda C. Rivero.
To see Videos No. 5 to 7, please click on this link: http://diliman-diary.blogspot.com/2011/02/diliman-videos-of-week-continued-up.html
Video No. 1 begins with Katipunan ng mga Sangguniang Mag-aaral sa UP (KASAMA sa UP) Vice Chairperson for Mindanao Krista Melgarejo sweetly asking security guards and officials if she and fellow students can be let inside the building where the February 4, 2011 testimonial ceremony for President Roman, hosted by Chancellor Rivero is going on. The request is denied by an official, who says the students may be let in if they return in formal attire.
Videos 2 and 3 represent the interregnum before the crescendo of grief, outrage and anger manifested in Video 4, as the students ultimately erupt in protest and rage against the distorted educational and financial priorities of the Outgoing Roman Administration who seem to regard the PhP 100,000.00 spent for the testimonial ceremony as mere loose change, even as U.P. faces a massive budget deficit in 2011. The students are also protesting the formula of the Roman administration which is to raise tuition fees and commercialize many aspects of the university, even as they have no compunction in freely spending U.P.'s already shrunken 2011 budget over unimportant and inessential matters (such as testimonial ceremonies) when the students themselves have inadequate laboratory equipment, and are facing other deprivations.
To see Videos No. 5 to 7, please click on this link: http://diliman-diary.blogspot.com/2011/02/diliman-videos-of-week-continued-up.html
Video No. 1 begins with Katipunan ng mga Sangguniang Mag-aaral sa UP (KASAMA sa UP) Vice Chairperson for Mindanao Krista Melgarejo sweetly asking security guards and officials if she and fellow students can be let inside the building where the February 4, 2011 testimonial ceremony for President Roman, hosted by Chancellor Rivero is going on. The request is denied by an official, who says the students may be let in if they return in formal attire.
Videos 2 and 3 represent the interregnum before the crescendo of grief, outrage and anger manifested in Video 4, as the students ultimately erupt in protest and rage against the distorted educational and financial priorities of the Outgoing Roman Administration who seem to regard the PhP 100,000.00 spent for the testimonial ceremony as mere loose change, even as U.P. faces a massive budget deficit in 2011. The students are also protesting the formula of the Roman administration which is to raise tuition fees and commercialize many aspects of the university, even as they have no compunction in freely spending U.P.'s already shrunken 2011 budget over unimportant and inessential matters (such as testimonial ceremonies) when the students themselves have inadequate laboratory equipment, and are facing other deprivations.
Video No. 1
Video No. 2
Video No. 3
Video No. 4
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