Gloria Arroyo « Victor Villanueva

Posts tagged with Gloria Arroyo

June 16, 2010

First day of school

More than two hundred youths from different universities and communities in Metro Manila marched yesterday, June 15, 2010, to the gates of Malacanang to protest the worsening crisis in education

Yesterday was the first day of classes for most schools, colleges and universities in the country. As millions flocked to their respective campuses, more than 8 million of our fellow Filipino youths and children will not even get to step inside a classroom. This marks one of the highest number of out-of-school youth in our nation’s modern history.

In Gloria Arroyo’s nine years in office, the nation has experienced budget cuts in education, tuition and other fee increases left and right and as mentioned, the highest out-of-school and drop-out rates in years.

Despite the constitutional guarantee that education is a right of each and every Filipino, going to school has increasingly been such a financial burden to millions of Filipino families, if they can get in a school at all. Even public elementary and high schools, with up to 61,343 in classroom shortage and 54,060 in teacher shortage, cannot accommodate all Filipino children, nor can they provide the kind and quality of education needed for national development. The Department of Education itself declared that there are as many as 5.6 million out-of-school children.

The students were able to squeeze past through the barbed wire barricades of Mendiola and march to Gate 7 of the Presidential Palace

The nation’s public universities, on the other hand, has been suffering budget cuts almost every year forcing them to extract tuition and other fees from their students and forcing them to sell resources which would otherwise have served their constituents. The Philippines actually has the lowest percentage of youths studying in state universities. In other countries, state universities and colleges accommodate majority of college-age youths. In the Philippines, we force them to either enroll in private institutions with steep tuition rates, or to not enter college at all.

While our parents’ wages have been stunted for decades, the government has allowed tuition rates in private schools and public universities to escalate. It has in fact almost doubled since Gloria Arroyo became President. In 2001, the national average cost per unit in colleges and universities was at P257.41. In 2010, it has almost doubled to P501.22. In Metro Manila where most of the country’s colleges and universities are located, it is worse. From P439.59 per unit in 2001 it has ballooned to P980.54 per unit in 2010. These don’t even take into account the long list miscellaneous fees being implemented by schools, which hide the real cost of education.

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December 10, 2009

Sowing the seeds of a nationwide declaration

The way the Arroyo administration is stretching the meaning of “rebellion” is utterly absurd. If this is allowed, we’re making possible a bizarre scenario where the Arroyo administration may connive with its many warlord allies across the country to stage any “massing of arms” in order to justify a nationwide declaration of martial law as they near the day they are booted out of office in the 2010 elections. A few days ago, the Defense Secretary came up with an odd press release revealing something we’ve known all along anyway–that there are private armies all over the country. Suddenly, the government claims Ampatuan supporters have arrived in Manila. Then arms and a grenade are discovered near the NBI in Manila. They’re clearly beginning to sow the seeds of justifying a nationwide declaration. All they need is to stage another shocking performance.

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December 5, 2009

A Martial Law rehearsal

The recent declaration of Malacanang placing Maguindanao under martial law sets a dangerous precedent. There are only two reasons granted in the Constitution for the declaration of martial law. First is invasion, the second is rebellion. Clearly, none of these conditions were present in Maguindanao. A few days ago, even the military and the police themselves said that a declaration of martial law is unnecessary. All of a sudden, the Arroyo administration claims there is virtually a rebellion in Maguindanao at the moment. They are stretching its meaning dangerously to accommodate their political plans. Apparent lawlessness in the province is not rebellion. Resistance from arrests is not rebellion. For rebellion to exist, the political motivation of overthrowing the civilian government is necessary. There clearly is no rebellion in Maguindanao. At most, all there is in Maguindanao is a refusal by the Ampatuan camp to cooperate with the authorities. They are armed, yes, but those arms were issued by the government itself, the legal existence of the private army provided for by the President herself. It goes without saying that this condition can be remedied by existing government forces in the province under a “state of emergency”, without the implementation of martial law.

Where then is the danger? The Arroyo administration will lose its executive power in less than a year. The administration ticket is expected to lose the 2010 elections. Arroyo’s congressional candidacy indicates her refusal to step down from power. It is not difficult to surmise that the declaration of martial law in Maguindanao is a rehearsal for a national implementation. With the twisted definition of “rebellion” that it used in Maguindanao to justify the military rule, it is now easy for the administration to call any condition of lawlessness as rebellion in other parts of the country, if not the entire country as a whole.

It thus becomes imperative for us, the people, to show and declare our objection to this move by the Arroyo administration. Neutrality and complacency to the martial law in Maguindanao will only serve to embolden the administration to use it accordingly nationwide, once it loses its other political options in maintaining their hold on power. We demand justice for the victims of the Ampatuan massacre, but martial law is not the answer.