UP Pres. Roman: No Rollback, Hands off UPD & UPLB Student Demands

UP President Emerlinda Roman was forced to respond to the students’ demands after student leaders submitted petitions through mass lobbying and demonstration last July 31 during the Board of Regents (BOR) meeting. The meeting held at UP Manila was greeted by student protesters from UP Diliman, UP Manila, and UP Los Banos, carrying their demands for tuition rollback, immediate UPLB student elections, and the reclaim of student institutions and organizations’ democratic rights.

Determined that these demands need to be answered directly by the UP Administration, the students insisted that the BOR face the students and hold a dialogue outside the halls. After minutes of negotiations, President Roman agreed to meet the protesters and gave her responses on the different issues raised by the students. Her initial responses were: there will definitely be no rollback of tuition; the UP Administration refuses to intervene in the UPLB student-elections issue; and that the student organizations’ demands will be studied and be left to the discretion of the Chancellors of different UP units.

Student leaders believe that it was a collective victory that students were able to urge President Roman to give immediate responses to student demands. However, it was also clear to them that she was merely washing her hands off the issue, a clear refusal to take responsibility over the dismal state of students’ democratic rights in the university, according to Jaqueline Eroles, Chairperson of Students Rights and Welfare (STRAW) Committee of the UP Diliman - University Student Council (USC). Student institutions and organizations who led the action pledged that all BOR meetings will be greeted with mobilizations until the demands were properly addressed.

No Rollbacks

Early this month, the USC released a statement calling for the rollback of tuition and the junking of the UP’s newest tuition policy. In the statement, the USC declared that in light of worsening economic crises plaguing the Filipino people, the UP Administration must provide economic relief to iskolars ng bayan and their families through a rollback in tuition. It also demanded for “the junking of the UP’s most recent tuition policy… without prejudice to further investigation of the STFAP and the increase of state subsidy for education.”

President Roman, acknowledging the present economic condition, was however firm that there will be no rollback of tuition for this academic year since UP has not increased tuition for the past two years in spite of inflation. She added that the issue of tuition increase is already over, thus she encourages students to “move on” and leave calls for rollback and support the review and revision of the Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Program (STFAP).

Some students claim, however, that the issue of tuition increase is far from being over. They said that the increasing no-show rates, the increasing number of student loans, the decreasing number of enrollees in non-marketable courses, and the continuous commercialization of education, among others, are proof that the tuition increase has not addressed the problem of quality of education. Rather, such has only apparently caused other issues that are inconsistent and contradictory to the aims of a state institution such as UP.

They also believe that UP’s recent tuition policy proves to be anti-student and anti-people, having provisions that allow automatic increase of tuition based on inflation. The danger of uncontrolled, escalating tuition in the future continues to confront iskolars ng bayan.

Hands-off the UPLB student elections

Admitting knowledge of the four-month delay of student council elections in UPLB, Pres. Roman said that the UP Administration will not act on the said issue, on the fear that it may be interpreted as a form of administration intervention on student institutions. However, the protesters were able to assert for a dialogue on August 4 between the incumbent UPLB University Student Council, UPLB Chancellor Luis Rey Velasco, and Vice-President for Legal Affairs Atty. Theodore Te which shall be mediated by the President herself.

On the August 4 dialogue, student leaders from UPLB challenged President Roman, having the highest administrative position, to take responsibility and uphold her statements that the administration should not intervene with the autonomy of student institutions such as student councils and publications. They challenged her to direct Chancellor Velasco to cease its intrusion on the UPLB SC constitution and should hold elections within the month.

The dialogue ended with the students successfully urging the UPLB Administration to concede into allowing for an immediate conduct of student council elections in Los Banos.

Calls for reclaim of democratic rights, to be acted upon by Chancellors

President Roman will not act on the demands of more than 111 student formations in UPD since she believes that these are within the jurisdiction and discretion of Chancellors. However, student leaders insisted that the dismal conditions of student organizations’ democratic rights are alarming, since they are evident in almost all UP units, thus, the need and the demand for a system-wide policy that will safeguard the rights of all organizations in all UP units. Pres. Roman later assured the protesters that she will direct Chancellors to study the said demands.

Continued support and collective action

For the contingents from UPD, UPM, and UPLB, the July 31 BOR protest action and mass lobbying proved that gains can be achieved through collective action. The signature campaign, the petition, and the mobilization were not simply disregarded by the UP administration because it showed the broad support and the commitment of students for the address of their demands. Thus, they were resolved to go back to their campuses to gather more support from students, faculty, and likewise, administrators, to gather them in a collective force to push the BOR to concur and act upon these demands.

Text of the Policy Paper on Student Organizations’ Demands

Reclaiming the Rights of Student Organizations in the University of the Philippines

Background

At the height of the Marcos dictatorship, the Iskolars ng Bayan were able to force, through collective yet militant struggle, the re-establishment of student councils, publications and organizations in the University of the Philippines. Among the rights won in the aftermath of the students’ successful campaign included the beneficial use and possession of tambayans for various student organizations and student offices for the University Student Council, the Philippine Collegian and college student councils and publication. The tambayans and the student offices were used for free and provided basic amenities such as electricity and typewriters, in the presumption that student activities play a very important role in the learning process and training of UP students as future leaders and managers of different fields and professions of the country. On the other hand, student councils, publications and organizations were afforded the free use of different university and college facilities and equipment such as auditoriums, theaters, conference halls, overhead projectors, in pursuit fostering greater student involvement in university and national affairs. The procedural restraints of student organization recognition were also relaxed, with the university and its student leaders encouraging all types of student organizations to re-establish their university presence and engaging many others to found their own organizations based on their own interests and activities.

The Situation of Student Institutions Today

Almost three decades hence, the situation of student councils, publications and organizations are in a dismal state, despite token pronouncements by successive UP Administrations of its affirmation of the importance for these student institutions. In AY 2006-2007, the already constricted funding of the Philippine Collegian was subjected to administration intervention, causing the Collegian to default in publishing important news and analysis on the status of the newly implemented tuition increase. At present, no student elections have been held in UPLB, due to the forcible insistence of UPLB Chancellor Rey Velasco to impose his own anti-student version of the UPLB USC Constitution that betrays the principle of student autonomy, as the standing UPLB USC Constitution has long been followed by the students in more than a decade of student council elections.

The Worsening Conditions of Student Organizations

The Need for Tambayans

Nonetheless, equally disadvantaged are student organizations in the university. In UP Diliman, only about sixty tambayans are currently occupied by university-based student organizations, leaving more than half without tambayans in which to hold general assemblies, consolidation activities, and prayer meetings, among many other organizational tasks. However, those fortunate enough to receive tambayan assignments after a rigorous yet unreasonable process are not afforded a fully-functional tambayan. As most of these tambayans are not provided with electricity for low-wattage lighting, affected student organizations are forced to cease their tambayan activities upon nightfall. On the other hand, those tambayans provided with electricity are found to suffer from leaking roofs, flooding corridors, poor ventilation and the threat of demolition and displacement, precisely because of the unsound structural integrity of their tambayans as a result of years of university neglect in repairs.

While there are remarkable instances of fully-functional tambayans such as in the School of Economics, the College of Law, the College of Business Administration and the National College of Public Administration and Governance, these are very few in a sea of neglected yet important student facilities, notwithstanding the fact that very supportive college administrations were key indicators in ensuring such a fortunate predicament for their college student organizations.

We submit that tambayans are integral in the operations of student organizations, in the same manner that student councils and publications need their offices for their various activities. It is in tambayans, dilapidated or not, that student organizations plan their different activities, consolidate their members, engage in study sessions, and secure important organizational documents, among many other organizational tasks.

It is therefore imperative that the University Administration provide all student organizations fully-functional tambayans in the soonest possible time, with electricity for low-wattage lighting the first order of the day. We also demand that colleges extend tambayan hours until 8pm.

The Need for the Free Access to University Facilities and Equipment

Aside from the dismal tambayan problem, student organizations are faced with the issue of exorbitant rental rates in the use of university facilities and equipment for their different activities. For example, in the College of Mass Communication, the per-hour rate of the dilapidated CMC Auditorium is pegged at PhP3000/hour, while the average UP Diliman-wide per-hour rate of the use of LCD projectors amount to about PhP300/hour. Even the supposed UP student center, Vinzons Hall, require student organizations to pay about PhP100/hour for the use of any of its severely dilapidated student conference rooms, whether for general assemblies or activities. While student councils are granted the right of requesting Administration to waive the use of facilities and equipment, the same is not given to student organizations, with Administration asserting that extra-curricular student activities must pay market rates for the use of university facilities and equipment. As a result, student organizations encounter difficulties in holding many of their activities due to the high rental rates of facilities and equipment, especially when most of these activities do not need corporate sponsorships but simple activities such as acquaintance parties, general assemblies, academic forums, prayer meetings, leadership seminars and the like. It is therefore common to witness student organizations gathering in college lobbies and forming circles for their different meetings, precisely because of high rental rates of facilities and the corresponding lack of tambayans.

We submit that the university policy on the extra-curricular student use of facilities and equipment is misplaced, as it unnecessarily precludes student organizations from fulfilling their organizational goals and objectives, all of which are presumably in line with university goals and principles as well. We assert that while student organizations essentially engage in extra-curricular activities, these activities are fully subsumed in the holistic learning process that the university seeks to impart on its students, especially its student leaders. It is in these student activities that student organizations are able to validate in practice much of the theories learned in the classroom, particularly in the fields of accounting, management and leadership, economics and politics, among many other fields that are expressly or impliedly employed when students engage in student organizations. While we concede that these definitely constitute a cost to the university, the University Administration must view these as beneficial costs in pursuit of the holistic academic development of its students.

Therefore, we demand that the University Administration remove rentals rates for the use of all its facilities and equipment not only to student councils and publications, but to student organizations as well. In the immediate, we demand that the possession and the free beneficial use of student conference rooms of the Vinzons Hall be transferred to the control of the UP Diliman University Student Council. We also demand the immediate construction of the College of Education Student Center without the conditions set by the UP Diliman Chancellor that the College of Education Student Council provide the University a Centennial Professorial Chair worth PhP1.5M.

Corollary to this the students’ demand for the immediate construction of more bulletin and publicity boards in conspicuous places in the University, whether inside academic buildings or along its sprawling grounds, notwithstanding a need to relax regulation requirements in the proliferation of publicity materials for student activities. This problem is most apparent in larger UP campuses such as Diliman, Los Banos, Mindanao and Visayas, where there is no close proximity of academic buildings, thus, hampering publicity, campaign and recruitment efforts of different student organizations.

Moreover, we demand that concerned offices in control of university facilities and equipment exhibit flexibility in scheduling the use of its facilities and equipment, especially on student activities involving urgent matters of university or national importance, as endorsed by the Office of the Student Regent or the respective University Student Councils of each UP unit.

The Problem with UP Administration Regulation on Student Activities: On the Organization Recognition Process and the Right to Assembly

The tambayan and rental rates problems notwithstanding, another problem articulated by the student organizations is the rigorous yet taxing recognition process of student organizations. Emerging student organizations such as CMC’s PRAD encounter serious difficulty in getting their organizations recognized because of the fifteen-member quota imposed by the recognition process. Long-standing organizations such as the UP Education Society are under threat of failing to be recognized this year because of mere procedural limitations, such as failing to schedule interview dates on time. These are only among the many issues raised by student organizations on the procedure of organization recognition.

However, one of the bigger issues raised by student organizations is the full and continuing control of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and the Office of Student Affairs on the recognition process, where no student representatives are included in the organization recognition committee, notwithstanding the propensity of the OSA to determine the classes of student organizations being recognized in the University. In CMC, political organizations are banned from recognition on the mere basis of the orgs’ political nature. On the other hand, the League of Filipino Students in CSSP was recently denied recognition by the College Student Affairs Coordinator on the mere basis of duplication of recognition between the university-wide LFS chapter and its CSSP-based chapter. Clearly, this non-duplication requirement is not among the requirements for organization recognition as per the Student Handbook, notwithstanding the arbitrary demand by the CSSP College Student Affairs Coordinator for the submission of an essay to “justify the existence” of the LFS-CSSP.

The worst case of this would be the situation of student organizations in UPLB, where there is absolute administration intervention, not only in the organization recognition process, but also in the determination of what classes of student organizations are permissible in UPLB. As a result, religious organizations including Muslim and Christian organizations are under threat of non- recognition on the puny excuse that the University is a non-sectarian public institution, as per the Separation of Church and State. Varsitarian (Provincial) organizations are under threat of non-recognition in the premise that provincial organizations breed regionalism and preclude the establishment of national unity and identity. Moreover, fraternities and sororities are under threat of non-recognition in the premise that fraternities and sororities amplify the existing gender biases and prejudices among sexes.

It is clear in all of these that the organization recognition process by the University Administration in its different UP units are being used to curtail the students’ constitutional right to self-organization by fully controlling the process itself and even determining unilaterally which organizations deserve recognition by the University.

Nonetheless, we demand that the UP Administration follow the recognition process in UP Manila, where the Office of Student Affairs convenes and coordinates the student committee for org recognition which is composed of representatives of the University Student Council, College Student Councils and different student organizations. It is this process that upholds student autonomy in student affairs and it is one of the continuing hallmarks of the struggle of the students decades prior in claiming the rights of student organizations in the University.

In line with this, we demand, as a policy, that organization recognition be liberally construed in favor of student organizations and not on the strict implementation of recognition guidelines and procedures to enable a greater number of student organizations to enjoy the rights and privileges of recognized student groups.

Most importantly, we demand that the right to self-organization of students be preserved in the University of the Philippines, where the University Administration shall not dictate the classes of student organizations that may be recognized by the University, in the presumption that student organizations all engage in lawful and noble activities in pursuit not only of specific organization objectives, but for the development of the UP community and the country as well.

Another important consideration with regard to UP administration regulations involves the constriction of the right to assembly of student organizations particularly on university issues such as the tuition increase, and national issues such as the economic crisis. Student councils and organizations are prevented by faculty and college administrations from entering classrooms to discuss pressing issues while college-wide protest assemblies are disallowed in some colleges.

On this matter, we demand that the right to assembly of student organizations and councils be respected at all times in all UP units, subject only to coordination between college or university administration and the student councils or organizations concerned. Coordination shall be construed as mere notice to university or college administration, and shall not be the basis to prevent the students from the exercise of their right to assemble.

The Need for Democratic Representation of Students in Different Levels of University Affairs to Further Protect Student Rights

The more than twenty year experience of the Office of the Student Regent in representing the students in the Board of Regents is the paramount testament of the need for democratic representation in different levels of university affairs. It is this grant of right to the Student Regent that has enabled the highest student institution to steadfastly defend the different concerns of the UP students in the Board, from the expression of militant dissent on tuition increases and the submission of independent and critical policy papers for the better management of the university bureaucracy. On the other hand, the Colleges of Arts and Sciences in UP Manila and Social Work and Development in UP Diliman also recognize the right to representation of students in crafting their respective college policies by allowing a representative of their college student council to sit as a member of their college executive committees. Through the years, both college administrations and their students had achieved mutual benefit and cordial relations as a result of this, as each party’s differences in policies and perspectives are discussed at the onset, precluding unnecessary tensions and fostering an amicable yet principled atmosphere in these colleges.

It is this same principle and policy that the students seek to implement in different levels of university administration. As such, we demand that a member of the college student council be given a seat in the executive committees of their respective colleges in the UP System, following the CAS UP Manila or the CSWCD UP Diliman model of student representation. The student representation demanded shall also extend at the UP autonomous unit level, where a member of the University Student Council shall be given a seat to the autonomous units’ executive committee.

The Necessity of Collective Action by the Student Organizations and Students

In the history of the University, the Iskolars ng Bayan have always sought to let our voices be heard by the UP Administration and the Board of Regents whenever we present reasonable demands, especially as we celebrate our Centennial year and the existence of UP Charter provisions affirming the role and rights of students in the University. In this regard, we submit this policy paper in the hope that the UP Administration and the Board of Regents favorably consider the demands presented above.

We wish to state unmistakably the general sentiment of our student organizations on the entire matter –

At the center of this entire democratic rights campaign and policy paper is our deep concern on the tacit yet insidious effects of these student org policies, particularly the pacification of critical dissent of students in the University, not only on university issues such as the tuition and lab fee increases, but also on national affairs such as the present economic crisis felt by the Filipino people today.

By precluding student organizations from meeting with fellow students in large assembly areas such as theaters and auditoriums due to high rental rates, the flow of collective unities and criticisms of policies are not as efficient as it had been in decades past. By precluding student organizations from gathering in their tambayans and offices, the requisite consolidation, planning and empowerment of org members are not substantially met. By precluding student orgs from being recognized, its existence as trailblazers of change and reform are ultimately stunted by a seemingly interventionist administration.

In the ultimate analysis, the only way for the students to decisively win this struggle is by uniting with each other in principle and action, and assert its rights to the UP Administration and the Board of Regents.

We refer back to the story of the UP students in the late 70s and early 80s, when in the darkest days of the dictatorship, they stood up and struggled united in reestablishing the student councils, publications, and organizations and affording all these institutions indispensable rights and privileges that are now being systematically reversed by the UP Administration.

Today we shall stand up again. As we celebrate UP’s Centennial year, there is no better time to act than now.

USC Statement: The Iskolar ng Bayan in the Thick of Crises

Last June 20, 2008, the story of a freshman Chemistry major who dropped out on the third day of his classes found its way in the pages of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. The Letter to the Editor was written by a professor in the UP Math Department who was dismayed to find out that his student dropped out because he was assigned to bracket C of the restructured Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Program (STFAP), which in consequence would require him to pay P600 per unit.

Sadly, our fellow Iskolar ng Bayan’s situation has become more common in UP since the Board of Regents approved the 300% tuition and other fee increases (TOFI) last 2006, despite the lack of comprehensive consultation from the students and the absence of the Student and Faculty Regents in the meeting.

More alarming, however, is how common our fellow Iskolar ng Bayan’s plight is in this country. According to the CHED, 11 million Filipinos aged 6-24 years old or just over one-third of those in that age bracket have stopped going to school. The Commission adds that for this school year alone, approximately a million school-going Filipinos have had to drop out.

Should we be surprised? After all, as the prices of basic goods like rice, bread, canned goods, vegetables, meat, fish, petroleum products, transportation, and electricity skyrocket to record-highs, the Filipino family’s budget for sustaining their children’s education has virtually disappeared.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO), families in developing countries, such as the Philippines, spend 60% of their budget on food alone. Moreover, the IBON Foundation cites that the poorest 30% of the Philippine population spends even more than that. When the cost of staple foods rises, therefore, the poor are the first to suffer. So when both the cost of staple foods and education simultaneously increase, it is nothing but a recipe for disaster for the 65 million Filipinos living below the P112/day poverty line.

Dole-outs in the form of rice and other subsidies do nothing to address the real causes of spiraling poverty and diminishing access to education in the Philippines. Many groups have insisted that a P125 across-the-board wage hike and the scrapping of VAT are realistic measures the government can take to provide instant relief to those hardest hit by the prevailing economic crisis.

Last year, the government allotted a miserable 2.66% of the GNP for education – once again, nowhere near the minimum of six percent set by UNESCO Delors Commission for developing countries. Since 1998, when the education budget peaked at 3.8%, the government has continuously and deliberately decreased public spending on education in line with its commitment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and its Structural Adjustment Program (SAP). The IMF’s SAP encourages governments with massive foreign debt to reduce spending on social services so as to increase allocation for debt servicing. Certainly, a look at the Philippine budget in the last eight years clearly illustrates how compliant the government has been to the SAP: giving more than half of the pie to pay off debts and leaving so little to care for the physical and mental well-being of the Filipino people.

Since 2001, President Arroyo with her administration has done nothing substantial to re-appropriate government spending and genuinely prioritize education. On the contrary, she has aggressively pushed for the full realization of the SAP through the Long Term Higher Education Development Plan (LTHEDP), which aims to make 70% of all State Universities fiscally autonomous by raising their tuition fees to private-school-level by 2010. She has also refused to do anything to alleviate the impact of oil price hikes and instead continues to implement E-VAT to the further detriment of Filipinos.

In light of all these, we demand for: the immediate rollback of the tuition increase amidst a worsening economic crisis; the junking of the UP’s most recent tuition policy (automatic tuition increase based on inflation, tuition increase to augment government subsidy, restructured STFAP), without prejudice to further investigation of the STFAP; and the increase of state subsidy for education. These are but some of the many genuine steps towards providing economic relief to all iskolars ng bayan. These are crucial steps so that families today and in the future no longer have to choose between spending for food or spending for education.

As Iskolars ng Bayan, we must analyze these social and economic issues besieging our country beyond the comfortable confines of the academe. We cannot afford to ignore the widespread hardship, which the majority of the Filipino people are barely enduring, because sooner rather than later it will affect us all – and the UP Chemistry freshman’s story will be too commonplace to be on the news.

Roll back 300% tuition increase!
Junk UP’s newest tuition policy!
Push for a comprehensive review of the STFAP!
Increase government spending on education!
Reform the Philippine educational system!

A Call for Vigilance: Mondays or Wednesdays?

Let us remain vigilant.

The new Academic Calendar has been approved. The peculiar thing is, the usual Wednesdays-off has been changed. Now, Monday is our official day off, aside from the weekends.

On February 4, 2008, the Board of Regents, approved the resolution submitted by UPD Chancellor Sergio Cao recommended by the UPD Executive Committee, observing Mondays-off. This is in line with RA 9492, an Act rationalizing of national holidays amending for the purpose Section 26, Chapter 7, Book 1 of Executive Order No. 292, as amended, otherwise known as the Administrative Code of 1987” or the holiday economics. The resolution states that, “due to the enactment of RA 9492, most holidays, except those of religious significance will be shifted to the nearest Monday, the academic calendar will now observe Mondays off to avoid interruption of classes that fall on Monday. (UPD Executive Committee, January 24, 2008)”.

After the enactment, Chancellor Cao called upon the colleges to conduct consultations for the said shift. However, resolutions of such consultations have failed devastatingly to represent the sentiments of most students.

Constant vigilance is not for its own sake. Same efforts have been seen in the case of the UP Visayas for instance. So that after implementing the same policy, students and the faculty members have successfully brought back the Wednesday-off Academic Calendar. This same call of constant vigilance goes to all UP students.

It is in this regard that the University Student Council emphasizes that such policies, albeit left entirely on the discretion of the Chancellors, directly affect students and faculty members alike. Having said that, we call that such changes be studied further where students and faculty members are involved and consulted accordingly. It is our resolve that any measure or policy be truly reflective of the student’s, as well as the UPD community’s, interest.

This statement was prepared by the USC Academic Concerns Committee.

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.