Open Letter to VC Gregorio & CMC Admin
An Open Letter to Vice-Chancellor Cynthia Gregorio & The College of Mass Communication Administration
As early as the first week of April, it has come to the USC’s attention that 11 residents from Village B, UP Diliman will be affected by the planned demolition in the said area to give way to the rehabilitation of the DZUP tower. As student body representatives that recognizes the importance of the different sectors of the UP community, the USC decided that it would be best to study the whole situation in order to protect the rights and welfare of Village B residents, while not having to sacrifice the improvement of broadcast services to be rendered by the rehabilitation of the DZUP tower.
In cooperation with Anakbayan, the USC Community Rights and Welfare committee (USC CRAW) held regular meetings with Village B residents to consult them and to offer any help that the USC can provide. Meanwhile, the USC also submitted a letter last April 16, 2008, addressed to Prof. Rose Feliciano of the Broadcast Communication Department of the College of Mass Communication requesting for pertinent documents regarding the DZUP project. In the letter, the USC stated the reasons for such request:
We are humbly requesting your kind office for copies of pertinent documents relating to the project, so that we may study carefully the context, the facts, and the justifications for its various implementations, and that we may fairly dispense to our constituents and to the university community our stand and position with regards to the issue, and the action that we shall be taking.
A few days after, when the USC and the CMC Student Council (CMC SC) followed up on the status of the request, the involvement of these student institutions in community affairs was questioned. Nevertheless, we asserted that these community issues are also students’ concerns, and therefore, demand action from the USC and CMC SC.
Last April 28, 2008, a dialogue between the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Community Affairs with the CMC administration and Village B residents, with the USC, College of Arts & Letters Student Council (CAL SC), CMC SC, and All-UP Workers Union transpired with regards to the demolition of Village B to give way for the installment of a new DZUP transmitter.
In the course of the dialogue, the student councils, in order to effectively study the situation and dispense a fair and justified action thereafter, requested a moratorium on the demolition and further asserted for copies of pertinent documents relating to the project. Beforehand, there were already licensed engineers, who volunteered to take part in the study and were already waiting for the copies of these documents.
The request for this documents, however, was turned down. According to the administration, the refusal was due to the reason that such documents are too detailed and technical for the student representatives to acquire and understand.
We would like to express our utter disappointment at this rejection. The matters on hand are matters of interest to the UP community: from the students of CMC, to the residents of Village B, and other similar sectors in our campus facing similar situations and challenges. As the official student representative body, the USC would like to assert its right to information with regards to matters that concern our constituents and the university community. Such documents, as such related to transactions and issues within the premiere State University, must be considered public documents, which should be available to the public for critical scrutiny. Thus, we reiterate our demand for the documents pertaining to the demolition of Village B and the installment of the new DZUP transmitter.
Furthermore, we would also like to reiterate that the USC firmly stands in its principle of giving service and representation to the marginalized sectors of the UP community. We recognize that our university is not an institution exclusively academic. The different sectors are components of our everyday activities in our campus, and therefore, it is important to conscienticize ourselves in their real situations and be integrated with their present concerns. In the present condition where these sectors lack adequate representation to policy and decision-making bodies of our university, the USC pledges to be a student institution that will uphold their democratic rights, alongside of the students’.
We hope that the different offices in our campus find these assertions a move to help in the establishment of a more democratic governance in our university. Let us all work hand together in the pursuit of the interests of our constituents, not as contending sectors, but as one whole UP community.
Respectfully Yours,
University Student Council - UP Diliman
Right to information, check. Giving service and representation to the marginalized in UP, check. Kudos. Kampi ako dyan.
Pero demolisyon ba talaga ang mangyayari? Ang balita ko kasi hindi naman daw demolisyon. Ipapaurong lang yung ibang structures dahil lumampas na (dahil, i.e. sa pagpapagawa ng mga extension o garahe sa bahay) sa original plan.
Dati naman daw kasing mayroong zone kung hanggang saan lang yung mga bahay kasi nga para hindi sila tamaan ng radiation ng transmitter, eh kaso dahil 1) walang budget ang kolehiyo pera pampagawa ng perimeter fence, at 2) dahil lumalaki ang pamilya nung ilan at akala nga nila pwede nilang tayuan yung mga bakanteng lote, ayun, not knowing na hindi pala pwede.
So sinong lugi ngayon?
Tulad ng sinabi ko sa first paragraph, kampi ako sa mga nasabing puntos. At siyempre ayoko ng demolisyon. Pero matagal na nating hinihintay na mabalik sa dati ang DZUP na naabot ng mas maraming tagapakinig. Dahil lang ba sa iilan eh ipagkakait natin sa mas maraming bilang ang karapatan sa impormasyon at sa mga kaganapan sa unibersidad? Wala lang.
request naman talaga for pertinent public documents ang campaign ng open letter, hindi “pagkakait sa mas maraming bilang” ang karapatan nila sa may accessible at malinaw na signal ng DZUP. mahalaga naman talaga ‘yun.
May ilang bahay na garahe lang ang matatamaan. Pero may ilan din na kailangan talaga gibain ang buog kabahayan.
Maagang hiningi ng USC ang documents at kumuha ng professional volunteers para pag-aralan ang project. Dapat sana pag-aaralan ang possibility ng pag-uurong ng transmitter ng ilang metro para di na kailangan mag-demolish. May ilan ding recommendations na gusto sanang aralin pa. Pero dahil di nga natin maacquire ang documents, hindi rin tayo makapag-submit ng sound recommendations.
Kaya ang campaign talaga ay ang right to these documents dahil as USC, we can only give informed consent and/or sound recommendations kung maaaral ng malalim yung isyu.
Sa ngayon marami tayong letters na nakabinbin sa mga offices requesting for documents. Some of which are regarding the Monday as Free Day Policy, One-way acad oval policy, etc.
So we will give some offices a copy of this letter para ireiterate lang ang right natin to information =)
Kudos to the USC for initiating this move for the students’ right to information! Hindi tamang rason na sabihin ng administration that these documents are highly technical and detailed for the students’ appreciation. That, I believe, is beside the point. The point is to ensure such documents are made public; whether or not students can understand and appreciate them is the students’ problem.
hindi po ba mga informal settlers ung mga affected?
hindi po sila informal settlers
ahh.. kasi mukhang informal settlers eh nung sumama ako sa barricade na natalo din ng demolition team. hehe
just an aside:
looks can be decieving. yung dinemolish na wet & dry market sa may OCS sa Philcoa are legal tenants to the land they stand on, bilang mga narelocate na sila before galing sa lupang kinatatayuan ng helera ng mga restaurants atbp.ng establishments sa kabilang side. may dokumento pa sila to prove it! but no, they still delineated the “line of destruction”. add insult to injury: nilampasan pa nila yung delineation na sila mismo ang gumawa. Nagnakaw pa ng mga produkto ng mga legal vendors. Pati yung legal na mga kable-kable nila, hindi sinanto.
MMDA, like PNP & AFP, IMO, have no semblance of credibility whatsoever.
on topic: oo, I go for araw-arawin nyo ang request for information na yan. mababa talaga ang tingin nila sa academe, noh? ipagptuloy ang tuny, palaban at makabayang pagsulong ng mga karapatan ng buong komunidad ng UP!