I attended the 28th National Congress of KASAMA sa UP (Katipunan ng mga Sangguniang Mag-aaral sa UP) last October 27 to 27 at UP Mindanao in Mintal, Davao City. I was there primarily as Deputy Secretary General, partly as member of the UP Diliman University Student Council.

KASAMA sa UP is the broadest alliance of student councils in the University of the Philippines System, with almost thirty member student councils from all the UP units and campuses in the country, from Baguio to Mindanao.

(more…)

Tags: Board of Regents, Davao, KASAMA sa UP, Mindanao, UP Mindanao

Last September 17, students and progressive groups in UP Diliman held an Anti-War Anti-Cha-Cha Festival in protest against the war in Mindanao, Charter Change, and continued gas hikes.

The whole-day activity was kick-started by anti-war games at the lobby of Palma Hall as a form of protest against the continuing deployment of military and US troops in Mindanao. The main game was “Dodgeball Against GMA” where two-teams–one twenty-strong team composed of students in 70’s attire and another in GMA masks–went head to head for the dodgeball championship. The tournament sought to symbolize the triumph of pro-people policies against the current ones being implemented by President Arroyo.

Part of the festival was a forum in the afternoon by leading UP faculty at the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy Audio-Visual Room. That was a forum regarding the prospects of the continuing war in light of the current peace negotiations.

Tags: charter change, Gloria Arroyo, Mindanao, Palma Hall, STAND UP, war

War is show business, that’s why we’re here.
- Conrad Brean (Wag the Dog, 1997)

Lantad na lantad ang makasariling interes ng rehimen ni Gloria Arroyo at ng U.S. sa pagpasok sa Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) ng Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) at Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Mula sa mga abo ng pagkabigo ng kaniyang pakanang People’s Initiative for Charter Change noong 2006, muling gumawa ng oportunidad ang kaniyang rehimen upang pasayawin ang mamamayan sa kaniyang Cha-Cha sa pamamagitan ng pagkasangkapan sa mahigit apat na dekadang armadong tunggalian sa Mindanao para sa kanilang karapatan sa sariling pagpapasya o right to self-determination.

Ang matagal nang pakikibaka ng mamamayang Moro para sa kanilang mga pampulitika at pang-ekonomiyang kahilingan ay malayong maisakatuparan sa ilalim ng pamumuno ni GMA. Imbes na sinserong harapin ang ugat ng kahirapan at pag-aaklas ng mga kababayang Moro na primaryang nagmumula sa pagsasamantala ng malalaking panginoong may-lupa at korporasyong multinasyunal sa kanilang mga ancestral lands, ginamit pa itong pagkakataon para itambol at isulong ang naantalang anti-mamamayang Cha-Cha na sa huli ay lalo lamang magtitiyak ng interes ng iilan sa ‘Bangsamoro homeland’. Tunay na walang sinseridad ang rehimeng ito sa pangmatagalang kapayapaan sa Mindanao at nagawa pang isangkalan ang buhay at kapakanan ng mga sundalo’t sibilyan para isulong ang mga nasabing interes at upang magbunsod pa ng giyera na nakikitang pagkakataon upang gawing lehitimo ang mga base militar sa Mindanao at ang paggamit ng emergency powers dahil sa giyerang ang rehimen niya mismo ang may pakana.

(more…)

Tags: charter change, Gloria Arroyo, Mindanao, war