Crisis on food and education not isolated

The University Student Council (USC) of the University of the Philippines (UP) today held a press conference and forum at Vinzons Hall, the university’s main student union building, regarding the rice crisis the country is currently facing. Together with representatives from residents of the UP’s residential communities and transport groups in campus and a representative from the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), the student council demanded that the government take immediate, sustainable and pro-people solutions to the crisis.

According to its statement, the student council demanded that the government “increase its support to the National Food Authority (NFA) in its procurement of palay, dismantle the rice cartels and impose a crack down on illegal acts of price manipulation, implement a moratorium on the land-use conversion of agricultural land, and increase its investment in the agricultural sector.”

USC Councilor Fahima Tajar, chairperson of the student council’s People’s Struggle Committee, said that the meager budget and subsidy of the government for the agriculture sector is not dissimilar from the meager budget allocation of the government for its state colleges and universities such as the University of the Philippines, which pushes and forces such institutions to raise tuition and other such fees. In the USC’s statement, it claims that, “the increasing inaccessibility of our basic staple and of education has made the lives of many Filipino youths and their families harder and the opportunity to make their lives better difficult to reach.”

The student council related the crisis in basic commodities and social services to the failure in leadership under the administration of President Gloria Arroyo. The student council’s statement added that, “if such demands and solutions to the rice crisis are not met immediately, it is only imperative for the youth and the rest of the Filipino people to continue the people’s urgent call for the removal of Gloria Arroyo from office.” #