Student leaders announce plans to mobilize fellow students for Luneta prayer rally

December 16, 2006

Guarantee intensified anti-chacha campaign

Student leaders from the University of the East-Manila, St. Scholasticas College, UP Diliman and Manila and the University of Sto. Tomas today promised a large student and youth contingent at the Luneta prayer rally against charter change to be held on Sunday.

In a press conference, the students read a “unity statement of the youth against charter change” as their counterpart to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP’s) statement.

Alvin Peters, secretary-general of the National Union of Students of the Philippines said that along with the endorsement of CEAP (Catholic Educators Association of the Philippines) of student participation in the prayer rally, the students also pushed through with their own initiative of simultaneous protest centers across Metro Manila before proceeding to Luneta. “We got together to talk about a unified conduct that will demonstrate a strong and united student front that is firmly opposed to charter change,” Peters said.

Peters outlined several assembly points at various schools before traveling to the venue of the prayer rally. “For the schools located along Taft Avenue, the assembly point will be at De La Salle University, Katipunan Avenue is the assembly point for UP Diliman, Ateneo and Miriam College and España Avenue in front of UST will be the gathering place for schools in the University Belt.” Peters revealed.

UP Students angered over 300 percent tuition increase, compare tuition increase to Con-Ass

Meanwhile, UP Diliman University Student Council (USC) chairperson Juan Paolo Alfonso said that they would mobilize as many as a thousand students for Sunday’s rally. “After the unacceptable approval by our university’s Board of Regents (BOR) of the 300 percent tuition increase in UP, we are even more adamant that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s charter change be stopped in its tracks, cha-cha should be buried once and for all,” Alfonso said, referring to the recent UP BOR decision to hike UP tuition.

“While we are dismayed about the outcome of the BOR meeting yesterday and we are reminded of the recent proceedings in congress with regard to the conduct of the tuition increase approval, we are steadfast in our opposition to charter change just as we are determined to continue the fight against tuition and other fee increases,” added Terry Ridon, chairperson of the UP Manila student council.

Student demands

“What we students want is a credible government accountable to the people, not a government ruled and controlled by self-serving politicians and corrupt officials,” said Einstein Recedes of the UE-Manila student council. Recedes maintained that the actions of the majority congressmen during the deliberations that paved the way for Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass) were “proof-positive” that dirty politics is what currently holds sway in the country.

“Through charter change, the Arroyo’s administration hopes to suspend the May 2007 elections because it knows that the said elections will be an assessment by the Filipino people of her administration and it knows that in that assessment, her government will fail miserably. Arroyo and her cohorts are clearly desperate – the blatant attempts to rush Con-Ass through Congress and the persistent persecution of critics of the Arroyo regime are the concrete illustrations of this. The youth will not let this go without a fight,” Peters said. ###