It felt quite odd walking all around Palma Hall with a big-headed mascot from Studio 23. It was a spontaneous decision to go around there. We even had to convince the strict guards to let us in and promote our event last Monday.

This thing ABS-CBN is doing, going around mass communication colleges in different universities, is obviously, a systematic public relations campaign coated as say, a campus tour regarding youth involvement in nation-building (what with the upcoming May elections) or coated as a youth media summit, like the Pinoy Media Summit held at Miriam College where student representatives from all the communication schools in the Philippines were invited. There’s nothing wrong with it really. It’s quite ingenious actually that they are conducting all these to woo “future media practicioners” into their fold, while they’re in school. They even sent the “Tres Marias” (Charie Villa, Maria Ressa, Luchi Cruz-Valdes) of their News department to speak with us in UP last Monday.

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There had been much buzz regarding BlogParteeh ‘07. I’ve never really attended any gathering, formal or informal, of bloggers so it’s probably lamentable that I had to skip another one.

We initiated and inducted ten freshmen into UP Cinema Arts Society yesterday at the usual place in Lagro. Welcome to UP CAST, Aleli, Caloy, Golda, Ilsa, Kim, Melai, Mikki, Paul, Roanne and Sam! Congratulations.

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This youth mobilization was still part of the week-long series of events and demonstrations against the passing of the UP tuition increase. The mobilization as a whole, however, is a youth-wide rally against the government’s failure to stop unabated tuition hikes and the apparent state abandonment of the youth and education. There were contingents from various universities, colleges and high schools in Metro Manila. [View photos from the rally here].

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I was standing on the sidewalk, reviewing the photos I’ve taken when a guy called out my name. It was Mong Palatino of Mongster’s Nest. I’ve been an avid follower of his blog for some time now and it was pretty cool to see him in the flesh for the first time.

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We’ve been walking for almost half an hour. I was so thirsty, I left the mob for a while and decided to enter a convenience store along Morayta. I stood beside a policeman while at the counter. He was eyeing me. Then another policeman came. It’s not that I got scared. It’s just awkward that they looked at me that suspiciously. It’s not as if I looked like I was about to wreak havoc and kill people. I walked off the store immediately after paying for my bottled water.

“We serve and protect,” they say. Serve and protect who, really? The military and police, of course have always been used and always been instrumental in maintaining elite rule and our country’s tragic status quo.

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Here are some of the things I got myself into the past days.

First, last Saturday, I went with the guys from Universitas to tutor a handful of elementary school children at Krus na Ligas Elementary School. It’s been years since I did this. Back in senior year in Ateneo High School, one of our course requirements was to tutor elementary school kids at a designated public school for almost an entire school year. We made our own lesson plans every week and brought our own props, papers, and visual aids. Volunteering for Universitas Project Forge isn’t as demanding, because all materials are apparently ready beforehand. I wish I could do this every weekend, but all my other commitments won’t permit me, unfortunately.

Last Monday, at the pro-Philippine Collegian demonstration at AS (Palma Hall) lobby, my friends made me speak in front of the crowd. Hayayay. I still get very nervous whenever they make me do public speaking. Especially in rallies. It takes practice, I guess.

Oh, and this afternoon, while walking towards UP MCO’s tambayan, my friends pulled me into doing this role-playing stint for a short video segment for GMA 7’s Unang Hirit. Darn. That was very spontaneous. Ang dugyot ko pa noong tanghaling ‘yon.

Yesterday, I also shot my first ako-lang-ang-direktor / I-call-all-the-shots short short video exercise/film! It feels liberating that I’m not just the actor or the assistant director or the production manager or a production assistant. I’m my own director, even for just a short video exercise! Yahoo. Whatever.

Many thanks to my friends Ayeen and Christer for acting for me. Hehe.

This is not a widely known fact, but last December 15, aside from approving the proposal increasing the tuition of incoming UP students by 300+%, the Board of Regents (BOR) also approved annual tuition increases based on the Philippine’s national inflation rate.

Many of the pro-tuition increase advocates justify their support by claiming that this is more of a pragmatic issue from the side of the university administration rather than an issue of ideological shift. They claim that while the government cannot provide what it needs (a claim we also contend), it’s imperative for the university to source part of its fund from the “scholars” themselves for the meantime. But what does the annual increase in tuition prove? The approval of an annual increase in tuition simply proves right what we’ve been harping all along, that the tuition increase proposal isn’t just an act of “last resort,” it is a total surrender and an ideological submission to the government’s real plan of slowly abandoning its constitutional mandate to provide quality tertiary education to its people, all in part of the national administration’s medium and long-term higher education development plans. An annual tuition increase adjustment ultimately strips the University of the Philippines much of its character as a state university because it permanently mandates the university to source part of its finances from the nation’s university scholars themselves.

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Despite the persistent withholding of its funds by the UP administration, the Philippine Collegian has been able to release a couple of ‘rebel’ issues the past months through financial soliciations and through the internet (by their usual .PDF files). You may download a copy of the latest issue from the editor-in-chief’s multiply account here or through the paper’s deviantart site here.

Editorial Day of Reckoning | News BOR approves 300% tuition increase for incoming freshmen: Student, faculty regents unable to vote in delibs | Tambayan ng Gabriela Youth, nilooban: Mga polyetong may lagda ng PKP, iniwan ng suspek | Susunod na mga rehente ng mag-aaral, guro, napili na | Gahasa sa Konstitusyon | Peli(kulang)? | Chronology of resistance: December 15 in retrospect | Kultura R/Dekonstruksyon | On Duty: Sa Mata ng Isang Guwardiya | “Sariling desisyon” | Jump Cut | Eskapo | Parol, Parada, Panaginip | Graphics | WOW Diliman | Opinion | Acrobat(ics)

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