Posts tagged with Kabataan Partylist
April 24, 2011. Subic, Zambales. We were invited to conduct a leadership training seminar for the Sangguniang Kabataan federation of Ilagan, Isabela. I gave a talk on how to write resolutions. Aside from talks, we also facilitated some ‘team-building’ games.
March 9, 2011
March 8, 2011. The House of Representatives Justice Committee finally held its final affirmative vote before submitting the impeach complaints against Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez for the deliberation of the entire House membership in the Plenary. The vote yesterday was on whether or not the complaints had “probably cause”.
The impeachment complaint of BAYAN (Bagong Alyansang Makabayan) alleges that the Ombudsman betrayed the public trust and violated the Constitution via her inaction and failure to file charges in the P728 million fertilizer fund scam and the “Euro Generals” scandal, as well as her whitewash of the anomalous Mega Pacific deal.
More than a dozen members of the National Union of Students of the Philippines conducted a lightning rally inside the session hall of Batasang Pambansa to protest the proposed budget cuts of the Aquino administration against state universities and colleges. Outside Batasan, dozens more held a rally to urge Congress to reject the budget cuts, not only on state schools, but on other social services of the government, and rechannel non-productive yet monstrous spending on the military, on debt-servicing and on patronage dole-outs.
Call center agents and BPO workers unite! Support House Bill 2592!
A few days ago, a call center agent visited us at the Congress office to express her despair over the working conditions in her place of work. She’s now been dismissed (for being a “trouble maker”), and is currently fighting for her separation benefits in court. She reveals how she’s also been afflicted with carpal tunnel syndrome which her company refuses to compensate as a work-related problem. She claims she is not the only one suffering the same. Many of her co-workers have apparently also gotten pneumonia, two of whom had died. Many of them also have urinary tract infection (UTI).
She is not the first one to approach us narrating their problems working with BPO companies. It has become apparent that many BPO (business process outsourcing) companies commit various forms of exploitation in order to rake in the profits from this “sunshine industry”. From refusing to grant regularization to workers having had worked for more than six months (through various schemes), to refusing to provide adequate health and occupational safety services in such a sickness-prone environment (one of the surprisingly very common grievance is the no-bathroom break policy), many (I would assume that not all) companies (as in any industry) employ various means to maintain their profit margins at the expense of their employees.
Thousands of workers marched on the streets of Manila together with hundreds from other sectors of society to commemorate Labor Day
More than two weeks ago, I marched in my third Labor Day rally in Manila, together with thousands from different sectors of society, to commemorate international workers’ day. Being the last Labor Day celebration under the Gloria Arroyo government, the theme of the mobilization was centered on ensuring her departure from the Malacanang, her nine-year regime having been characterized by record high unemployment, depressed wages and grave abuses of workers’ rights, and on ensuring the people’s commitment to prosecute her for her administration’s sins and failures. Being a few days before the national elections, the celebration was also an opportune time for various sectors to demand from all the candidates a pro-people and nationalist labor platform, a discussion of which has been all but silenced with all the shallow and petty mudslinging that characterized the three-month campaign period.
Reps. Liza Maza & Satur Ocampo marching with leaders of workers' unions and other sectors
Rainier Sindayen, Chairperson of the University of the Philippines Diliman student council, leads the chants as the thousands marched through Quezon Boulevard onto Liwasang Bonifacio
There is an ongoing mock elections happening in the University of the Philippines system this week till next. All UP students from units and campuses from UP Baguio to UP Mindanao are involved. Majority of the national university’s more than 50,000 students are expected to participate.
The project, entitled Botong Isko 2010 seeks to “unite students and the whole UP community for a clean, transparent, and honest elections, and to find out which candidates are favored by the Iskolar ng Bayan.” The endeavor also seeks to engage politicians in the issues of the youth, especially of UP students, and of the country summed up in UP students’ agenda for change.
Kabataan Partylist, which has college chapters in UP Diliman, campaigned on the first day of the mock elections, encouraging students to participate, recognizing the potential impact of an institutional victory among iskolars ng bayan in the premiere university in the country. UP students are perceived to be a legitimate representation of the Filipino youth, with students from all over the country. (“Perceived” because we have to remember that only a minority of voting-age Filipino youth are able to afford and attend college, and the University of the Philippines at that).
The daughter of presidential aspirant Manny Villar, Camille, also went college hopping in UP Diliman on first day, encouraging UP students to get involved, and of course vote for his father, an alumnus of the university himself. 
Supporters of Makabayan senatorial candidates Satur Ocampo and Liza Maza also made their rounds in the different colleges in campus.
In the next few days, other candidates will be trooping to UP to campaign and sway the votes of UP students. The victors in this mock election may well claim to have the vote of the iskolar ng bayan. As to whether or not it translates to an actual representation of the general sentiment of the Filipino youth, I do not know, but surely it reflects the votes of those among the best and the brightest youth of the country.
The past month saw various student council election campaigns in campuses across the country. For some students and for those of us who have graduated, there is a tendency to dismiss student council elections in major universities as irrelevant child play. For me, though, and I’m not saying this just because I have always been involved in campus politics, I believe that student council elections are legitimate exercises of students democratic rights. It serves as a rehearsal for students of their part in the larger context of Philippine society. I also believe that the leadership of the student council is decisive and crucial in the formation of student mass movements against commercialization of education and campus repression.
In the University of the Philippines Diliman, the militant Student Alliance for the Advancement of Democratic Rights – UP (STAND-UP) regained the leadership of the University Student Council, after two years of losing the Chairman position. The Alternative Students’ Alliance for Progress – Katipunan ng mga Progresibong Mag-aaral ng Bayan (ASAP-KATIPUNAN) in UP Manila similarly regained the leadership of their University Student Council after three years of losing. STAND-UP and ASAP-KATIPUNAN’s nationalist counterparts in the other UP campuses in UP Baguio, UP Tacloban, UP Miag-ao, UP Cebu and UP Mindanao also scored resounding victories. This is indeed a reaffirmation of the genuine leadership that nationalist and militant activists offer and the potency of militant and collective activism in challenging attacks to students’ rights and welfare and in engaging the different issues that plague the country.
law student, national democracy activist, film school graduate, photography hobbyist
