MORE than 300 students and faculty from the University of the Philippines (UP) Cebu walked out of their classes to oppose the neoliberal attacks on education, and called for the junking of the different anti-student policies on Thursday, October 13.
Neoliberal is relating to a modified form of liberalism tending to favor free-market capitalism.
Spearheaded by the Rise for Education Alliance - UP Cebu, Anakbayan UP Cebu, the Nagkahiusang Kusog sa Estudyante, and the UP Cebu student council, eleven other organizations including the All UP Academic Employees’ Union, organized the protest action as a part of a UP system-wide campaign to stop the neoliberal attacks on education.
The students raised the issue of the skyrocketing tuition that bars students from entering UP in spite of the existence of the socialized tuition system, and the other school fees like miscellaneous fees, laboratory fees, and the rental fees have also burdened them.
Their call to junk the different fees came with their demand to hold Acting Chancellor lawyer Liza Corro and her administration accountable for implementing these repressive policies and exorbitant fees, and ultimately becoming instruments of the neoliberal attacks on education, particularly in UP Cebu. Not only did they railroad the implementation of these policies, but they did so even without any explanation to the students to whom they are mandated to serve.
After marching inside the buildings, they initially held a program outside the Performing Arts Hall (PAH) where the live streaming of the UP president selection was ongoing and where the UP Cebu Acting Chancellor Corro was. With the goal of confronting the acting chancellor, they were able to enter the PAH despite the administration’s attempts of locking them out. But Corro had already fled the venue.
“Dean Corro’s act of fleeing from the students who demanded accountability only proves her unwillingness to support the clamor of the students and the teachers, especially in this university,” Rise for Education Alliance - UP Cebu convenor Joisa Cesista said.
The program continued at the entrance gate where the different organizations and members of the faculty manifested their outrage through speeches and even performances.
Ligaya Rabago, adviser of UP Cebu’s oldest performing arts group, explained that because of the aforementioned fees, UP is already losing its public character.
The program ended with a flash mob where Sayaw-e, the official UP Cebu dance organization, led the crowd dance to the song “Bang! Parang holdup lang ‘yan” by the Rise for Education Alliance. (PR)