Posts published during January, 2008
After picketing outside the gates of Senate, we returned to campus and updated our fellow students of the progress of the UP Charter bicameral conference approval. I went org hopping with some colleagues in AS, Engineering and Vinzons. Late that afternoon, we held a program at AS steps then proceeded to march towards Vinzons Hall where we continued the information campaign.
It’s quite telling, that the passage of the new UP Charter was set right at the beginning of the year of the university’s centennial, because it is indeed part of a larger plan of the UP administration to push for its distorted policies guised with the celebration of UP’s centennial as a very convenient and palatable excuse. It is, indeed, part of a larger government scheme, as ascribed in the Long-Term Higher Education Development Plan 2001-2010 (LTHEDP 2001-2010), of furthering the decrease in state subsidies and transforming all its state universities into self-sustaining semi-private institutions by selling its assets and raising tuition. All to the detriment of the Filipino youth, most of whom can barely afford the present cost of tertiary education in UP and other state universities; and to the disadvantage of the Filipino people such institutions claim to serve.
Last December 19, 2007, Senate Bill No. 1964, otherwise known as the Pangilinan-sponsored Act to amend the University of the Philippines Charter, was approved in the Senate. It seeks to replace the century-old charter of the country’s premiere state university to “avert the declining competitiveness of UP education.” Granted, the university’s charter is indeed archaic and is in need of amendments in order to effectively perform its role as the country’s premiere state university. However, the present bill, sponsored by Senator Francis Pangilinan, at large, includes provisions that some of us believe will further institutionalize the present Board of Regents’ undemocratic governance of the university and further alienate majority of Filipinos from democratic access to UP education. [You may download this .doc file for a more detailed matrix of the contented provisions and the corresponding amendment proposals].
Last Monday, January 28, 2007, as both the Congress and the Senate resume session after their holiday breaks, bicameral conferences were held in the Senate to finalize and pass the government’s priority bills. One of which, is the new UP Charter.
Read the rest of this entry »
The day went by quite quickly. Since all our shots that day were outdoors, we didn’t have any artificial lighting, thus it was easy to shoot and move around. That proved to be quite an advantage when you’re not totally in control of your environment. For example, since we had a protest rally sequence, we coincided our first shooting day with an actual Mendiola rally (instead of staging/faking our own), which on that day was a commemoration of First Quarter Storm. We were, however, not able to schedule our shoot correctly so we had to rush and shoot everything we can before the protest action ended.
We encountered some problems with the Manila Police, too, but everything was settled eventually. There’s an inconsistency with our actors’ police uniforms, I don’t know if people will notice.
law student, film school graduate, student leader, youth activist, Kabataan Partylist legislative officer