Kabataan Representative Raymond Palatino today balked at Rep. Eduardo Gullas’ proposal to restore the mandatory Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) and abolish the National Service Training Program (NSTP) among college and university students.
The youth solon said Rep. Gullas’ House Bill 737, which aims to reinstate the mandatory ROTC for all male college students of both private ad public universities and colleges and repeal the NSTP Act of 2010, would “reverse and disregard the gains of students in their fight against an unrightful military training.”

Kabataan Partylist Representative Raymond Palatino today filed House Bill 1963 or the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) Reform Bill as registration period for the upcoming barangay and SK elections opens on August 6.
“It is our belief that the basic local government unit of the youth should not be abolished as proposed by many. What SK needs is for it to be strengthened and empowered,” said Palatino.
HB is a revised and improved version of HB 6870 first filed by Palatino in the 14th Congress.
“Corruption and inefficient governance are among the major issues causing …

After due consultation with the SK National Executive Board and various SK officials around the country, this bill was created. Among its important aims are: to institute a uniform procedure for releasing and reviewing SK budgets, to empower the Katipunan ng Kabataan as the basic unit and consultative body of the SK, to more clearly define the procedures for succession and filling of vacancies, and to regularize training seminars for SK members. Essentially, these proposed reforms intend to return the faith of people, most especially the youth, in the SK as a genuinely representative local government unit that strives at all times to advance the rights and welfare of the Filipino youth and, concomitantly, to empower duly-elected SK officials as persons in authority to more efficiently carry out their duties and responsibilities.

The constant shortchanging done by the government to schools due to its massive debt service prioritization has forced our public schools and universities to increase tuition and other fees effectively closing its doors and denying education to millions of poor Filipinos.

The need to repeal the provisions on automatic appropriations for debt service in order to address the grave crisis in social services, in particular the public education sector, is now, more then ever, urgent. Similar legislative measures have often been proposed in the past, but many of them are proposals for the sake of giving Congress the actual power of the purse. None of them ever became law. Indeed, this bill also seeks to reinforce the constant clamor for the repeal, but going further, this bill seeks to assert that the repeal of the automatic appropriation for debt service must serve the socially just purpose of giving our people what is due them for their toil and taxes.

Kabataan Partylist Representative Raymond Palatino said that the youth failed to hear Pres. Aquino’s concrete plans for education in his first State of the Nation Address.
He said that he feared Aquino’s framework of promoting ‘public-private partnerships and more aggressive foreign investments’ would only intensify privatization, commercialization and corporatization of education.
According to Palatino, “Opening further the education sector to private and foreign investors would only make education less accessible to the youth. It does not at all address the need for higher state subsidy nor the yearly tuition and other fee hikes …

“Funds for counter-insurgency would be put to better use if re-directed to address the education crisis.”
This was the statement of Kabataan Partylist Rep. Raymond Palatino in anticipation of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino’s first State of the Nation Address (SONA) today.
“Aquino can hit two birds with one stone by alloting the promised for the intensification of the government’s counter-insurgency campaign to the education sector instead,” he said.
Armed Forces Chief of Staff Ricardo David Jr. had earlier declared to end counter-insugency in three years wherein Aquino vowed to provide the military all …

Kabataan Partylist Representative Raymond Palatino expressed dismay over Commission on Election’s (COMELEC) decision today giving multimillionaire and former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s son Mikey Arroyo a seat in Congress as the representative of Ang Galing Pinoy, a partylist claiming to represent security guards, taxi and jeepney drivers.
“COMELEC’s decision is a clear mockery of the partylist system. This is a grave insult to the Filipino people. We do not want, and will not allow another Arroyo in the Congress,” says Palatino.
Palatino called on COMELEC to review their decision, saying the move contradicts …

Kabataan Partylist Representative Raymond Palatino today welcomed Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chair Patricia Licuanan’s vow to instill reforms in the higher education sector.
“We look forward to Licuanan’s promise of reforms. We hope that she is up to the task of facing the education crisis head-on,” Palatino said.
Palatino said that to genuinely enact positive changes in the CHED, Licuanan should address yearly tuition and other fee increases and work to make the agency more accessible to students.
“The CHED must practice stronger regulatory powers over the unjust imposition of tuition and …

Emergency budget for education can come from OP funds
Kabataan Partylist Raymond Palatino today called on President Benigno Aquino III to make good his word that he will allot six percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) to education.
“This coming State of the Nation Address (SONA), we expect Aquino to fulfill his promise that he will allot 6% of the GDP to the education budget,” said Palatino.
Palatino said that earmarking six percent of the GDP for education will mean higher state subsidy to address the problem of shortages, poor quality and to prevent …

Kabataan Partylist Representative Raymond Palatino welcomes the appointment of former Citizen’s Battle Against Corruption Representative Joel Villanueva’s appointment as the new director general of Technical Education and Skills Development Authority(TESDA).
“Villanueva’s appointment is a good head start to lead TESDA as one of the agencies of the government engaging on education, especially for the marginalized youth,” says Palatino.
TESDA, which focuses on the technical and vocational courses was established to “encourage the full participation of and mobilize the industry, labor, local government units and technical-vocational institutions in the skills development of the …