Manifesto on the Acad Oval Policy

Below is a manifesto prepared by the University Student Council’s Community Rights & Welfare Committee under CSWCD Rep. Carmela Lagang seeking for a moratorium on the “One-Way Acad Oval” traffic policy of the UP Admin.
 
MANIFESTO OF UNITY AGAINST THE UNDEMOCRATIC IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ONE-WAY ACADEMIC OVAL POLICY
University Student Council (Community Rights & Welfare Committee)
All-UP Workers Union (AUPWU)
Office of the Student Regent (OSR)
Samahan ng mga Manininda sa UP (SMUP)
All-UP Transportation Forum (AUPTF)
All-UP Academic Employees Union (AUPAEU)

We believe that the history of our University proves that as a community, we have a proud tradition of taking part in the struggles of the people in and out of the University. Different sectors of our community, from the students to the residents of the various communities in campus, to the jeepney drivers and operators, contribute greatly in the everyday flow of activities in our university. As such, it is our role to be acquainted with each other’s demands regarding our issues and concerns as a community.
At the last week of March this year, the UP Administration imposed a “one-way policy” around the Academic Oval inside our campus. The rationale behind this policy is to lessen the pollution in campus and the volume of vehicles inside. However, this kind of scheme does not significantly reduce the number of vehicles that enter the university every day and it may even produce more vehicular emissions due to lengthened routes for public and private vehicles.

This kind of policy has affected the livelihood of UP transport groups, especially the drivers and operators of the Toki and Katipunan franchises. There have been no formal consultations between the transport groups, the students, and other affected sectors of the UP community by the UP Administration before the implementation of the policy. The “one-way policy” of the UP Administration adds more to the diminution of their income and has also created lengthened routes that force additional consumption of oil in a time when oil price hikes are relentless. According to the jeepney drivers, their incomes have not been enough to sustain an average family size of six members, as there is also a prevailing economic and political crisis in our country.

Aside from these predicaments, various student organizations and individuals were also consulted by the University Student Council and has expressed the inconvenience that the policy has brought them. Because of the lengthening and limitations in transport routes, it has taken many students a longer time to go to their classes and other important destinations in campus.
We, members of the different sectors of the UP community, recognize the services jeepney drivers have rendered to us and to our community for many years. We are one with the UP transport groups in opposition to this “one-way policy” of the UP Administration and in the campaign to bring back the drivers’ previous routes. We demand for: dialogues with the Vice Chancellor for Community Affairs for the democratic consultation with consent from the affected sectors of the UP community; proper representation of jeepney drivers and students in the transport committee of the UP Administration; and the immediate resolution regarding the various conflicting issues on the implementation of the “one-way scheme” around the Academic Oval.