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.”

The ROTC was abolished in 2001 as a result of nationwide protests from students and victims of harassment and extortion following the death of University of Santo Tomas student and ROTC cadet Mark Chua from alleged ROTC “hazing”.

Palatino also disputed the bill’s claim that the AFP-ran program would teach the students how to be patriotic.

“The ROTC has taught its cadets how to become blind and docile servants. With its grim and bloody human rights record, the AFP has no right to meddle with the academic affairs of our youth. A war-mongering and mercenary institution must not be allowed to infiltrate schools and teach students,” he said.

Palatino said that the ROTC must instead be scrapped as it is being used to harass progressive student groups critical of the government.

“The AFP uses the program in its red-baiting campaign against progressive student groups. In many ROTC lectures, soldier-instructors conveniently tagged student activist groups as affiliated with the New People’s Army. The ROTC is clearly a threat to academic freedom,” he said.

Palatino vows to contest the bill.

“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 calls for the SK’s abolition. It is saddening that SK officials, due to the present system, have entered the makings of trapos who engage in corruption and misgovernance but this does not mean we have to kill venues for youth empowerment and governance.”

In its explanatory note, HB 1963 states, “(I)t is believed that the institution as a whole should not suffer from the practices of an erring few – if indeed the few are solely culpable for such crimes related to governance.”

“SK still stands as a representative body of the youth, advancing meaningful youth participation, promoting access to education and youth employment, and struggling for the delivery of basic social services for the youth sector…what the SK needs from the legislative is…a proposal to strengthen it through concrete and specific reforms,” it states further.

Palatino said that HB 1963 was formulated upon consultations with the SK National Executive Board, the National Youth Commission and community-level SK leaders.

Included in the bill are the following proposals for reforms:

-Changing the age requirement for SK candidates from 15 to 18 years old to 18 to years old to ensure that they have the legal capacity to perform their functions;

-Requiring SK units to deposit their funds in a bank preferably government-owned and granting SK units fiscal autonomy over their allotted budget;
- Requiring SK units to release a quarterly financial report to practice transparency and to curb corruption;
- Mandating that the Katipunan ng mga Kabataan (KK) function as the highest policy making body of the SK responsible for holding regular consultations with other youth-based organizations in the community;
- Empowering and encouraging the SK to engage in promoting basic rights such as quality education for all, secure youth employment, sustainable development, human rights and social justice.

Kabataan Partylist-NYC tie-up for SK registration
Palatino meanwhile announced that Kabataan Partylist and the National Youth Commission have agreed to engage in a partnership for a nationwide campaign to promote SK registration and awareness.

Dubbed “Ayos! A campaign for youth empowerment and public service,” Palatino said that they are aiming for “a massive awareness and registration campaign in communities and barangays nationwide.”

“Ayos! will be characterized by educational and fun activities that will tackle the functions and roles of the SK, as well as the SK Reform Bill. It is very vital that the youth participate in the SK elections,” he said.

Kabataan and NYC are set to launch Ayos! on August 5.  ###

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 that hound the education sector.”

The youth solon said that the present education crisis is characterized mainly by the commercialization of public education in order to cope with low government spending. “The burden of budget cuts and poor education spending is being shouldered by students through exorbitant tuition and other fee hikes. Aquino failed to present this sorry state of Philippine education in his speech.”

“Instead, by encouraging a more active role for private and foreign investors in education, Aquino had just virtually declared that he is leaving the education sector at their liberty. This is not different from the past government’s thrust of gradually washing its hands off its responsibility to provide quality and accessible education to the youth.”

Palatino also said that Aquino’s proposal of an additional two years for basic education “also means additional expense to parents and students”.

“We urge Aquino to seriously consider and review the youth’s education agenda:

1. Increase state spending on education to six (6) percent of the GDP.
2. Implement a three-year moratorium on tuition and other fee increases in all levels.
3. Promote a nationalist curriculum.
4. Uphold democratic rights of students
5. Improve teachers’ welfare.
6. Improve science, research and technology development.
7. Promote transparency and sanction corruption cases in education programs and contracts.
8. Review existing policies and institutions of education.

• • Repeal Education Act of 1982.
  • Repeal Campus Journalism Act of 1991.
  • Revamp the government policy of reducing the budget of state universities and colleges.
  • Review and strengthen the regulatory powers of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Department of Education (DepEd)

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 necessities in order to achieve its goal. He, however, had so far not made any categorical commitment to increase the budget for education.

Palatino said that to increase funds for counter-insurgency was tantamount to tolerating and condoning further extra-judicial killings instead of resolutely putting a stop to them. “It sets a deadly encouragement to the military that the past Arroyo administration’s policy of extra-judicial killings and human rights violations against perceived ‘enemies of the state’ is still a go.”

He said that the funds for counter-insurgency could be used to procure additional classrooms and chairs, textbooks, laboratory facilities among others.

“As it is, the budget allotment per capita for education is much, much less than the cost of one bullet (P 11 per student: P 14 per bullet).”

He said, unfortunately, students have been “biting the bullet when it comes to the government’s prioritization of militarization and counter-insurgency over education”.

“Increasing budget allocation for education would also decisively put to stop yearly tuition and other fee increases. The Aquino administration should put the interest and the welfare of the youth over giving license to trigger-happy military elements to kill one activist after the other.”

The youth solon had earlier presented to the new Aquino administration the youth’s agenda for education, first among them the allocation of six (6) percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) to education as prescribed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Palatino, in today’s SONA proceedings, wore a sablay (graduation sash) printed with the words, “Stop tuition and other fees increases! Stop the killings!”.

 The sablay, according to him, signified “every youth’s right to quality education and the youth’s respect for human rights by calling an end to extrajudicial killings”.

Palatino, together with other representatives of progressive partylists, later joined thousands of youth and students who walked out of their classes to participate in the People’s SONA rally. ###

“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 an earlier ruling disqualifying nominees of Ang Kasangga Partylist. The COMELEC recently ruled in favor of a disqualification case alleging that the first two nominees of Kasangga were not from the marginalized sector.

“For Arroyo to be seated alongside workers, women, farmers, teachers, senior citizens in the Congress is just plain wrong. COMELEC made a very wrong move,” said Palatino.

Kabataan Partylist and other youth groups intend to file a formal motion to call on COMELEC to reverse its decision.

Palatino also stressed the “urgent need” to review the partylist law. “The review and amendment of the partylist lawis must be prioritized in the 15th Congress. There should be clear guidelines to prevent the abuse of the partylist system,” he said. ###

“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 other fee hikes. Policies such as CHED Memorandum 13, for instance, need to be reviewed and updated.”

CMO 13 does not include miscellaneous fees in the yearly tuition consultations of private higher educational institutions. In effect, school administrations are given free reign to arbitrarily increase miscellaneous fees either as smokescreen for tuition hikes or on top of tuition rates.

He added, “CHED must also uphold public higher education. Over the years, state colleges and universities (SUCs) have suffered the worst budget cuts resulting in commercialization, privatization and other income-generating ventures at the expense of our poor students.”

“Increase in state subsidy for SUCs should be CHED’s top priority. We hope Licuanan would take up the cudgels for higher state subsidy for education in the 2011 national budget deliberations, ” Palatino said.
Palatino is calling for the allocation of six (6) percent of the Gross Domestic Product to education as prescribed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

“We also hope that Licuanan develops CHED into a more pro-student institution that would uphold freedom of speech and expression of students. Until now, not all tertiary schools have their own student councils and campus publications. These institutions are basic rights of students,” he said.

Working to make CHED more accessible to students, he said, would be a major positive development since the CHED Chairman is automatically represented in all Board of Regents of state colleges and universities.

“Lastly, there should be no conflict of interest. She should not dilly-dally in imposing sanctions against school-owners in violation of rules and regulations governing tuition and other fee hikes and other policies. The main problem with previous CHED administrations was their links and bias towards school owners and capitalist educators,” he said.

Palatino also urged Licuanan to support calls to amend laws such as the Education Act of 1982 and Campus Journalism Act of 1991 and review past administrations’ labor export program in relation to the orientation of the educational system.

He said that the Education Act of 1982 “allows school-owners to arbitrarily raise tuition to their discretion”, the CJA of 1991 “has closed down campus publications since its implementation,” and the government’s labor export program “induces higher educational institutions to adjust their curriculum to one-sidedly cater to demands of the global market, driving away our nurses, doctors, teachers and professionals instead of urging them to contribute to national development.”

“We are open to a dialogue with Chair Licuanan to discuss pertinent issues and our proposal for policy reforms in the education sector,” Palatino said. ###

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 the worsening commercialization of education.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) prescribes that at least six percent of a country’s GDP be allocated to education.

Emergency budget
Palatino also said that while he welcomes Aquino’s statement that he would re-direct funds of the Office of the President to disaster relief, among others, the president can also re-align other items in the OP budget to address immediate needs of the education sector.

“Pres. Aquino can start resolving the education crisis by allotting an emergency budget for education. The sector is beset with problems that cannot wait to be resolved by the 2011 budget proposals and deliberations which start in August or September,” Palatino said.

The youth solon pointed to the condition of state colleges and universities (SUCs) such as the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) and University of the Philippines (UP) which are in dire need of “rescuing.”

For the present academic year, PUP accepted around 17,000 freshman enrollees this June yet its annual budget can only accommodate 10,000 new students.

“As we speak, the university is at a loss on how to provide more classrooms and facilities, as well as employ more faculty for the needs of the entire student population. We have been receiving reports that the classroom to student ratio in PUP has reached almost 1:80 or more since the start of classes. PUP freshmen and their parents are forced to endure this miserable state because they could not afford to transfer,” he said.

Tuition in PUP is lowest at P12 per unit.

Meanwhile, UP’s measly budget has forced yet a fresh spate of laboratory fee increases.

In UP Diliman and Visayas Cebu College, the UP Board of Regents has recently approved increases in 38 lab fees and the imposition of 15 new lab fees for AY 2010-2011.

“These are results of yearly budget cuts suffered by SUCs. These can be immediately resolved if Pres. Aquino agrees to sacrifice some items funded for in the Office of the President.”

Every year, the OP has a Contingent Fund worth P640 million. This fund was used mainly by outgoing Pres. Arroyo for her numerous trips and junkets. “If this fund has already understandably been used up by Arroyo, there are still other items from which the emergency allocation can come.”

Among them, Palatino enumerated, are the intelligence funds directly managed under the OP (P650 million), funds for the Visiting Forces Agreement Commission whose functions are not specified (P1.748 million) and the budget for the maintenance of the presidential jet (P1.2 million). ###

]]> http://kabataanpartylist.com/blog/news-allot-6-of-gdp-to-education-youth-urge-p-noy/feed/ http://kabataanpartylist.com/blog/news-youth-solon-welcomes-villanuevas-appointment-looks-forward-to-a-better-tesda/ http://kabataanpartylist.com/blog/news-youth-solon-welcomes-villanuevas-appointment-looks-forward-to-a-better-tesda/#comments Fri, 16 Jul 2010 03:31:54 +0000 admin http://kabataanpartylist.com/?p=1859 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 country’s human resources” according to Republic Act 7796.

Palatino cited that of the education agencies in the country have been linked to numerous issues on corruption given that the funds on education is second among the highest appropriations in the national budget.

“Most out-of-school youth opt to take up courses provided by TESDA as an alternative for them to the costly formal schooling which is why it plays an important role to not let the marginalized youth be fully left behind. With Villanueva’s appointment, we look forward that that TESDA will function as an education agency that will not be smeared with issues on corruption given his years-long advocacy against corruption,” adds the youth solon.

Former TESDA director general Augusto Syjuco, an Arroyo ally, was the first Cabinet member charged for grave misconduct in 2008 for using TESDA’s Php 9.2 million funds for the printing his book “Salabat for the Soul.”

Palatino added “We hope that Villanueva will ensure that corruption cases will pursue against Syjuco. It is important that the former administration must be accountable for their sins to the youth whom they committed plunder with.”

“With this, we hope the TESDA will provide more scholarships so that youth from the countryside will be empowered and gain access to work and education as a ladder for them to pursue college,” ends Palatino. ###