Not because it’s a brass monkey weather (at least for me), but because of words. You know when they say “sticks and stones may break some bones, but words will melt any heart”? Well, words can also churn any stomach lately. They expressed their disgusts and remorse against social movements, national democracy, and collective actions. They expressed their disgusts and remorse against us and our ideologies. It seems that they have forgotten these were disgusts and remorse more necessarily against the people who have fought for our nation. We took their comments, advocacies, and what seemed to be baseless liturgies openly to the point that they could only strike us with blabbermouths and half-truths.
I did try my best to align the next sentences, however romanticized they might sound, for these are also words, and are mine. This could be just another rhetorical angst, but don't we all agree in the freedom of expression as amended by our constitution?
The heated debate last Friday in College of Mass Communication between two opposing parties, one who advocates leadership through student-centered practicality: Interdependent Student-Centered Activism (ISA), and the other which I belong to has faith in concrete action, “putting forward the interests of UP students and the Filipino people”: Student Alliance for the Advancement of Democratic Rights in University of the Philippines (STAND-UP) definitely aroused emotions.
The fiery dispute eventually became a cock-fight, with some candidates slashing their opponents with personal, vindictive and unsympathetic attacks. Who cheated what, who did not attend when, who gave this and that, spit and spat. Call it dirty, call it petty. Tag us radicals, tag us misleading. We will still walk within the university and out on the streets with the Filipino mass for we have been called such as that years ago and years after. We will continue to raise our left arms and wail for equality even more so if our throats were parched. We will move to strive hard with the fact that beyond the four corners of the auditorium and the power struggle that took place, STAND-UP never indeed ceased to be true to its militant tradition. Within the past year, we have mobilized thousands of students around the city, informing and providing actions to various national issues, not forgetting to continue encouraging the UP students to take a collective stand when needed while inside the campus. We empower as we move and vice versa.
I am apologetic for exhausting on the beautiful thought from the words of the late Lean Alejandro for I shall use and reiterate it one more time. We might not have answered some blanks on our test papers for we have missed schooldays or walked out of classes. Is it such an evil act? And how does that differ from anyone missing out on class because it's a bad night last night? A great difference! You may have never been absent in one single class, a proof of your academic commitment and diligence, part of the series of baby steps you are to accept traditionally as a manifestation of a successful student who eventually might give back to the community. But there's so much more to life than just settling for high grades and brandishing a flawless three-paged curriculum vitae, in the hope to land to a well-paying job overnight. Now more than ever, we have to partake in bigger leaps that would ensure that not only we will graduate and find a job, but that the next generation will have the similar education and future, if not better, than what all of us are privileged to grasp even at this time of repression. After all, as asserted in the debate many times, education is a right. To commercialize the value of education is to demerit the right of an individual, of a human being. A right that will ensure a human will have a chance to live a meaningful life within the simplest means. Ea Acaylar was hell right when she said that abusive and monopolistic private institutions limit academic freedom.
Yes, just like what you claim, we also are guilty of clicking the like button on Facebook every time there is a call for action on pressing issues that endangers the very existence of our freedom and our rights, then spread the word virtually. We must know we cannot stop there. And we didn't. Actions have to be done. And we acted. Even if Twitter paved the way for the uprising in Egypt, it were still the Egyptians who slept on the streets underneath the military tanks in order to prevent the latter from dispersing their mob. When their virtual network was blocked, the more they acted collectively because they understood the threat that they were facing. Had STAND UP not practised its preach of collective action, we perhaps did not achieve the results we gained. We are not claiming the victory to ourselves. We are deeply humbled with the concrete happening as thousands of other people from different walks of life not only heard, but listened to our call. Armchair and virtual activism aren't enough. The corrupt government officials will not count how many likes a Facebook page or retweets a tweet in Twitter gets and stop being corrupt!
You've accused us of being too proud, when you claim fame from the water dispenser and printer that you have contributed to the college. These equipment were not even properly maintained! To begin with, it should not be the student's pocket that had to be dug in order to have such facilities. It is the state's responsibility to provide those, but the state is abandoning us. And since you want to tabulate contributions, let's do a simple math: the life and function of any tangible equipment will not ever equate to the educational discussions (EDs) that we are voluntary imparting with students. As the 200 Facebook likes couldn't surmount the 3,000 students who went out and fought for their rights, the water dispenser and the printer is but ineffective against social awareness. Be like a candle and let others light their candles from you.
As for our stand against public-private partnerships, we are neither undermining the intellect of the UP student body nor the people who are consumers of the business built. Businesses are inevitable causalities of the economic framework. Except that, public education, specifically the type of which the state universities and colleges (SUCs) provide, are not businesses. We do not condemn those who bought their coffees in Starbucks nor purchased their Apple accessories in Technohub. That's a shameful, silly argument! What we condemn the administration for is permitting Technohub and its owners to lease the idle land of UP through an anomalous agreement. The promise was to convert it to a functioning research facility and lo and behold was the contract stating 25 years of commercial business operation. It will even last longer than some research processes that could have potentially been done in that place and would have been beneficial to the studentry and the country, maybe even to the world. The owners are not even abiding by the supposedly right financial amount they should allocate to the university. They corrupted a public asset as they steal many other things from the society and the Filipino people. Public-private partnerships are mere short-lived counterclaim to what the government is supposed to do. One of those is, to allocate the ideal amount of GDP to education and scientific research and prioritize nationwide development and social services rather than increasing the country's expenditures on militarization. When other governments in the world are deciding to increase spending and improving services on health and education, here lays the Philippines in turmoil because of military-spending in claimed local wars that do not even exist.
As for our stand against public-private partnerships, we are neither undermining the intellect of the UP student body nor the people who are consumers of the business built. Businesses are inevitable causalities of the economic framework. Except that, public education, specifically the type of which the state universities and colleges (SUCs) provide, are not businesses. We do not condemn those who bought their coffees in Starbucks nor purchased their Apple accessories in Technohub. That's a shameful, silly argument! What we condemn the administration for is permitting Technohub and its owners to lease the idle land of UP through an anomalous agreement. The promise was to convert it to a functioning research facility and lo and behold was the contract stating 25 years of commercial business operation. It will even last longer than some research processes that could have potentially been done in that place and would have been beneficial to the studentry and the country, maybe even to the world. The owners are not even abiding by the supposedly right financial amount they should allocate to the university. They corrupted a public asset as they steal many other things from the society and the Filipino people. Public-private partnerships are mere short-lived counterclaim to what the government is supposed to do. One of those is, to allocate the ideal amount of GDP to education and scientific research and prioritize nationwide development and social services rather than increasing the country's expenditures on militarization. When other governments in the world are deciding to increase spending and improving services on health and education, here lays the Philippines in turmoil because of military-spending in claimed local wars that do not even exist.
The claim that us, UP students must be above the mass in order to be the pedestal of leadership is a beastly statement. As what Toby Roca said, “It’s a moral duty for you to serve the nation.” STAND-UP has not and will never put itself above the mass, for we serve the mass. We propel the interests of the Filipino people as they have provided the necessary means that pioneered our education since the first time we stepped on the university, amongst many other reasons.
STAND-UP may have come as a surprise to you. Why are we so vigilant, so tireless and so resilient? We never perceived anybody as weak. We simply take the initiative. We believe and take pride in UP’s “honor before excellence.” Clearly, this campaign period has come to its boiling point. At some extent, there will be a cooling down just like there is sunset after sunrise. Ahh, for some of us yes. Of course, after the election it will! When last names are proclaimed, hands shaken, and the glory are temporary owned, I think it will. Don’t fret though because in our hearts, elections or no elections at all, we burn. For years, STAND-UP CMC has been burning with its desire to end the repressive governance, state-abandonment, and political killings of journalists in the Philippines.
I recently reflected why I am in media where there is apparently no definite job security as practitioners bargain hard for an acceptable salary in the industry. Not to mention every chilling word a journalist writes can lessen every breath he takes. But to exhaust my reasons and take delighted arrogance on my assumed role is like an annoying corny joke - nobody wants to hear it, so I don't need to say it. The simple truth is that ISA, STAND-UP CMC, or a non-partisan, we are now part of mass media. We took an oath. We sought relevance in Walter William's the Journalist Creed. We must abide by the Journalist's Code of Ethics. One of our sworn social responsibility is to be the government’s watchdog. We are not doing justice to that responsibility if we are quietly allowing the government to continue its wrongdoings. I remember well in one of my classes with a well-known professor, that media (and the press) should be the Scorpion, whose nature is to sting. As honored as we are to wear a Media ID or flash a Press badge, we must not forget to embody a little sense of nobility by performing our imperative duty. To abandon our responsibilities is to spit at UP’s pride and deny our countrymen their rights for factual and significant information.
I recently reflected why I am in media where there is apparently no definite job security as practitioners bargain hard for an acceptable salary in the industry. Not to mention every chilling word a journalist writes can lessen every breath he takes. But to exhaust my reasons and take delighted arrogance on my assumed role is like an annoying corny joke - nobody wants to hear it, so I don't need to say it. The simple truth is that ISA, STAND-UP CMC, or a non-partisan, we are now part of mass media. We took an oath. We sought relevance in Walter William's the Journalist Creed. We must abide by the Journalist's Code of Ethics. One of our sworn social responsibility is to be the government’s watchdog. We are not doing justice to that responsibility if we are quietly allowing the government to continue its wrongdoings. I remember well in one of my classes with a well-known professor, that media (and the press) should be the Scorpion, whose nature is to sting. As honored as we are to wear a Media ID or flash a Press badge, we must not forget to embody a little sense of nobility by performing our imperative duty. To abandon our responsibilities is to spit at UP’s pride and deny our countrymen their rights for factual and significant information.
So, if a moment in time will come that a friend or a foe who does not share the same ideology come and ask me to choose between staying in class with him or mobilizing on the streets without him, my response would always be the same as before. I have understood that the moment my hands hold a red poster is the moment I chose to cherish my loved ones, defend my freedom, assert my rights, serve my nation, think of the Filipinos, and fight for you.
You said loud and proud that you believe in "alternative activism". Please check your term and then express your disgusts and remorse against us. If you will have any. I think I do not have to vomit anymore.
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| TUNAY. PALABAN. MAKABAYAN. STAND UP CMC |
For added resources, you might want to read the blog post of a non-partisan UP CMC student regarding the debate or the newest related post from the official blog of STAND UP.
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