A policeman holds tourists hostage. A former governor stands trial for the massacre of at least 58 people by his private army. The Supreme Court is accused

of plagiarism. The Ombudsman is accused of corruption. A former President, accused of everything from electoral fraud to human rights violations, gets elected to Congress without ever being held accountable for her crimes.

And our current President, Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, has initiated steep price and toll hikes for the transport sector even as he purchases a P4-million luxury Porsche for his own use. Our President, a wealthy landowner, vows land reform even as he refuses to redistribute his family’s 6,435-hectare hacienda. Our President claims that his 2011 budget is “pro-poor,” even as he decreases allocations for social services like health and education.

Still, amidst the turmoil, the youth found the courage to protest.

Student powerLast November, over 3,000 students marched out of their classes in the University of the Philippines (UP), Diliman, to protest the P1.39 billion slash in the university’s budget for 2011. The UP protests were part of a nationwide string of youth mobilizations, as students from both public and private schools descended upon Mendiola and the Senate, challenging the Aquino administration to uphold the right to education.

In response, lawmakers pledged some P500 million in congressional insertions to state universities and colleges (SUCs), while the budget was revised to include an additional P170 million for SUCs.

But the President himself has simply refused to recognize the students’ cause. Aquino conditionally vetoed the additional funds for SUCs before he signed the 2011 national budget into law, arguing that all schools — both public and private — should generate their own income instead of relying on the government. And Aquino’s refusal to fund SUCs virtually transforms them from state institutions to private business enterprises.

Privatization: Aquino’s favorite tactic. Suddenly education is no longer the responsibility of the government, but another social service left to the whims and caprices of the private sector. Instead of being dedicated to public welfare, schools must are now turned into business enterprises.

This means that school administrations will attempt to turn a profit in any way they can. Possible income-generating measures include tuition hikes, the imposition of new fees, and charging for invented requirements provided by the school, such as uniforms, ID straps, and so on.

However, the education sector is not the only victim of Aquino’s misguided policies.

CounterinSurgenCy budgetAquino claims that the 2011 budget showcases his priorities. Indeed, it does: the budget rose for debt servicing and the military, while allocations decreased for education, agriculture, and overseas Filipino workers. Evidently, he prioritizes foreign interests and the security of his administration over the welfare of the people.

Like his predecessor, Gloria Arroyo, Aquino has made counterinsurgency a centerpiece of his framework for governance. This year, Oplan Bayanihan was unveiled, a replacement for Arroyo’s controversial and widely criticized Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL).

Aquino boasts that Oplan Bayanihan is different from OBL, which has been blamed for many of the human rights violations of the past decade, including some 1,200 extrajudicial killings (EJKs) and hundreds of enforced disappearances. No less than the United Nations has conceded that the majority of killings and disappearances, mostly of activists, were “state-perpetrated.”

Yet in practice, Oplan Bayanihan is no different from OBL. The extrajudicial killings continue under the new regime — with 22 EJKs recorded during the first six months of the Aquino

presidency, the killings are taking place, with impunity, at an alarming rate of almost one victim each week.

This week’s victim, shot dead in Palawan, was environmental advocate and radio anchor Gerry Ortega. He was the fifth journalist to be killed under the Aquino administration.

The climate of violence and impunity evinces the flawed logic behind government counterinsurgency programs, which seek only to suppress legitimate protests against the worsening conditions of society, instead of directly addressing the problems which fuel insurgency in the first place.

At this point, confronted by worsening crises within and outside the university, the Iskolar ng Bayan has no choice but to act.

As 2010 drew to a close, we saw the power of collective action. Now, the victories of the past year must serve as the groundwork in the continuing struggle to assert — not only our right as students to accessible quality education — but our right as Filipinos to a nationalist culture, to democratic governance, to an equitable and just society.

no to tuition and fare hikeS!fight State abandonment of eduCation

and other SoCial ServiCeS!JuStiCe for the viCtimS of human rightS

violationS!

January 27 UP President Emerlinda Roman’s last Board of Regents meet [Quezon Hall, 9:00am]January 28 Black Friday: MRT/LRT fare hike protest action [LRT2 Katipunan station, 3:00pm]February 1 11:30am AS Lobby Youth mobilization against the commercialization of education [Mendiola]February 49am Public Consultation on MRT/LRT Fare Hike, Mobilization Black Shirt Day

budgetary item allotment1

inCreaSe 2010 2011

Debt servicing P726.63 B P823.27 B

Armed Forces of the Philippines

P60.67 B P89.77 B

Philippine National Police P49.89 B P69.43 B

Priority Assistance Development Fund (Pork Barrel)

P10.9 B P24.8 B

Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (Conditional Cash Transfers)

P10 B P29.2 B

deCreaSe

UP System (including the Philippine General Hospital)

P6.92 B P5.53 B

State Universities and Colleges2 P22.4 B P21.71 B

Commission on Higher Education

P2.54 B P1.69 B

Department of Agrarian Reform P21.17 B P16.69

Department of Agriculture P41.2 B P37.75 B

Department of Foreign Affairs3 P12.69 B P10.98 B

Department of Agriculture P12.69 B P10.98 B

Alay Sining is a university-wide cultural mass organization, and a member of Student Alliance for the Advancement of Democratic Rights in UP (STAND-UP). To join, contact Gelai (09182875381) or Nads (09177332256).

everywhere, there Are signs ofA culture gone hAywire.

1 Comparisons based on the 2010 General Appropriations Act under Gloria Macapagal-Arroyoand the 2011 National Expenditure Program under Benigno Aquino III2 One of the biggest slashes in the CHED budget comes from the scholarship fund, downfrom P1.15 B last year to P501 M in Aquino’s budget proposal 3 The biggest slash in the DFA budget comes from the funds set aside for migrant