Naganap noong martes, Nov. 26, pero hindi naibalita sa tv, or ibang media. 5,000 students stage walk-out vs illegal fees, demands Aquino gov’t to re-channel pork, funds to education REFERENCE: Philip Bautista, ISG President, 0916-1089-182 Some 5,000 students of Eulogio Amang Rodriguez Institute of Science and Technology walked out of their classes today to protest against the illegal collection of the P1,500 Development Fee in their school. The students demand that the Aquino administration re-channel funds to education and social services following the notion that the government has enough funds when the pork barrel scam was exposed and the Supreme Court declared the unconstitutionality of the Priority Development Assistance Funds, Malampaya Funds and Presidential Social Fund among others. “Our mobilization today shows the anger and massive discontent of the students from the illegal collection of the P1,500 Development Fee and the inaction of the national government over our demand for greater state subsidy on education. Budget cuts on education is the major reason why illegal fees are collected from students, it is the government’s fault why we carry such burden,” said Institute Student Government President Philip Bautista. The student leaders arranged a dialog with EARIST President Dr. Eduardo Caillo but members of the administration were not present. They aim to pressure the EARIST administration to sign an agreement to end the collection of the illegal Development Fee, which has been changed to Construction Fee this semester, discontinue the harassment and the threat for suspension of student leaders. The College of Education dean have declared a suspension order to all students who joined the mobilization today. He added, “The Development Fee was collected from students without an official Board of Trustees resolution. For several semesters, we have searched for any legal basis of their collection but the EARIST administration failed to provide us any legal papers. Now, they changed the Development Fee to Construction Fee which is very wrong because funds for construction of buildings should come from the Capital Outlay of state subsidy.” “We have continuously been threatened by members of the security guards and goons of the school president. One student has been man-handled when tension rose because the guards padlocked the whole school. They took pictures of us and occupied the Office of the President even if they’re not official employees of the school,” Bautista added. Last Saturday until this morning, the security guards forced to enter the College of Business Administration Student Government office to halt its operation and preparation for today’s mobilization. “We demand that the EARIST administration face us and adhere to our calls. We demand that the Aquino administration to re-channel sufficient funds to education and social services. We all know that he holds the largest pork barrel worth P1.3 trillion, we hold him accountable for our dismal situation,” said Bautista.### - Read --> touristattractivedestinations.blogspot/2013/11/5000-students-stage-walk-out-vs-illegal.html
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 10:40:43 +0000
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