Kabataan Partylist Representative Raymond Palatino today scored President Noynoy Aquino’s move to reduce subsidies for state college and universities (SCU) in his proposed 2011 budget, stating that his proposition was an “abandonment of government’s responsibility to provide the Filipino youth with quality and affordable education.”
Based on the proposed 2011 budget, the PNoy administration allocated P 23.4 billion to the country’s 112 SCUs, 1.7 percent lower than this year’s budget.
“Aquino and his budget team should refrain from issuing statements that education is a major priority in the current administration when in …

Joint Press Statement
August 31, 2010
The progressive party-list bloc in the 15th Congress firmly believes that the impeachment case against Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez can and will prosper if President Aquino and the Liberal Party-led coalition in the House musters the political will to make sure it does. The impeachment complaint only needs 90 signatures of endorsement and the articles of impeachment can immediately be sent to the Senate for trial.
It is incumbent upon the President and the LP leadership to ensure that the impeachment complaints succeed. Ombudsman Gutierrez’s removal from office …

Kabataan Partylist Representative Raymond Palatino today said that legislating media blackout is unnecessary to address situations like last Monday’s hostage crisis at the Quirino Grandstand.
“As the people’s eyes and ears to events of national significance, journalists should be given the right to cover crisis situations. The media should collectively create a protocol on how they should handle crisis situation coverage,” he said.
“But such right and responsibility should be accompanied with ethics and professionalism on the part of journalists. Sa halip na i-blindfold mo ang media, mas nararapat na i-train sila …

Kabataan Partylist Representative Raymond Palatino urged the House of Representatives to use internet live streaming technology to broadcast every committee hearings and plenary sessions through House Resolution No. 271.
Palatino filed HR 271 today stating that “one of the best ways to afford the People their right to information and to promote transparency and accountability among public officers is to allow the public to actually witness public proceedings undertaken by government agencies.”
Palatino said, “Using live streaming in the internet gives a good alternative to people who can’t be physically present during …

Kabataan Partylist Representative Raymond Palatino today filed House Bill 2676 mandating that educational institutions are prohibited to use Styrofoam food service containers and other synthetic products harmful to the health and environment.
Palatino said, “Styrofoam is non-biodegradable and resists compacting, thereby taking up extra landfill space for long periods of time. The damage exacted by the continued use of Styrofoam is manifest in the perennial problem of waste management in the Philippines.”
Apart from the problem in waste management, the young lawmaker also cited the chemical hazards that Styrofoam or polystryrene …

Kabataan Partylist Representative Raymond Palatino today filed House Resolution No. 272 condemning the violent dispersal of protesting high school students last August 20 at the Department of Education, Pasig City.
The resolution called on the lawmakers to “initiate legislative measures in order to ensure that the right of our students to air their legitimate grievances is secured.”
Around 50 high school students stormed DepEd to address their complaints regarding the collection of unjust fees in their schools and the proposed additional two years in secondary education. Yet a few minutes after the …

Kabataan Partylist Representative Raymond Palatino today filed House Bill 2592 or the “BPO Workers’ Welfare and Protection Act of 2010”, which seeks to promote and protect the rights of our fellow Filipinos, who flock to Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies for immediate employment.
Originally filed last 14th Congress, Palatino said that the BPO Workers’ Welfare and Protection Act of 2010 “sought to assert the prescribed labor standards set forth in the Labor Code and institutionalize additional benefits that would hopefully address specific work-related problems and issues peculiar to the nature …

The move to add one year in elementary and another year in high school will not answer the country’s declining quality of education, the growing number of out-of-school youth, nor will it lift the country’s employment rate.
Below are five reasons to counteract former Department of Education (DepEd) Sec. Juan Miguel Luz’ ‘delusions of grandeur’.

Transform SK into corruption watchdog instead – youth solon
Instead of abolishing the Sangguniang Kabataan, Kabataan Partylist Representative Raymond Palatino today said that the government can opt to “reorient the youth council and transform it into a youth watchdog versus corruption and misgovernance.”
“We should not put to waste this large network of young Filipinos who want to participate in government and community service. Why not tap the SK and launch a nationwide campaign against corruption and misgovernance, train the youth to be advocates of new politics from the barangay level up,” …

Kabataan Partylist Representative Raymond Palatino today called on the government to “reorient” the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) and transform it into a youth watchdog vs corruption and misgovernance amidst proposals to abolish the youth council.
“We should not put to waste this large network of young Filipinos who want to participate in government and community service. Why not tap the SK and launch a nationwide campaign against corruption and misgovernance, train the youth to be advocates of new politics from the barangay level up,” said Palatino.
Palatino said this will “invigorate” …