Quality Education

(mula sa Evaluating the Cultural Revolution in China and its Legacy for the Future, 2007. Tutal, ‘quality education’ ang ginagamit ng Inquirer at ni Noynoy para ipagtanggol ang budget cuts, tignan natin ang isang magandang modelo ng tunay na ‘quality education’)

 

In the early 1960s, the political line of the revisionists in education served their program of strengthening the power of factory managers, technical experts and government officials to modernize the country. Building up a well-trained core of experts, regardless of their political outlook, took priority over developing the knowledge and skills of millions of workers and peasants. Important aspects of feudal and bourgeois systems of education were maintained, such as utilizing nationwide admission tests to determine who would go on to the next level of schooling, thereby excluding most workers’ and peasants’ children. Resources were concentrated on a few “key schools” to train the new urban elite. Education in the countryside was badly underfunded, and the few workers and peasants who received a higher education rarely returned to their communities.1 Students were driven to study for high marks in order to seek personal fame and high positions.

 

In contrast, the educational policies of the Cultural Revolution had the goal of producing graduates who were both “red and expert.” Students were expected to gain knowledge and skills that could be used to solve society’s pressing problems. A second goal was to make more educational opportunities available to working class and peasant children. Third, a system of mass education was developed so that primary or middle school graduates would continue their educations throughout their adult lives. The last and perhaps most important objective was to provide political education. During the Cultural Revolution, the understanding was that a student must first have the idea of serving the Chinese people. Then she or he would work hard to develop the ability to do so.

 

During the years of the Cultural Revolution there was a vast expansion of education in the countryside, where 80% of the people lived. Since primary education was already universal in the cities, the goal was to introduce at least five years of primary schooling in the rural areas. State education funds were redirected to the countryside, so that primary school enrollment in rural areas increased from 116 million to 150 million from 1966 to 1976. Educated local villagers were recruited as “barefoot teachers” to teach in new schools built by the villagers themselves. Middle school enrollment rose from 15 million to 58 million as new middle schools were built or added to primary schools. In many of these schools, representatives of peasants’ and workers’ associations entered the schools to provide educational leadership and practical advice to students and teachers.

 

Special efforts were made to develop the educational systems in the remote national minority areas, composing 6% of China’s population. Schools and teacher training institutes had to start almost from scratch in some areas in the 1950s. By the early 1970s, the vast majority of youth were in schools, where they studied their native languages, music, crafts and customs alongside a regular curriculum. At the same time, minority cultures were popularized among the 94% who are Han in schools, films and on TV shows in order to combat Han chauvinism.

 

During a trip in 1971 through China, the Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars (CCAS) visited schools in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou and Xian. In a Beijing primary school, the younger children had five basic courses: politics, Chinese language, mathematics, sports, and art and culture. The students did not just recite lessons, but asked questions and attempted to solve practical problems together. In their sports classes, winning was not emphasized; at an early age students learned the principle of “friendship first, competition second.” Children who were falling behind received extra assistance from their teachers and fellow students. Every student could learn. Their potential just had to be cultivated.

 

Particularly in the lower grades, many lessons consisted of stories of heroines and heroes of majority and minority nationalities, children and adults, workers, peasants and soldiers doing noble and realizable deeds. At a combined primary and middle school, the CCAS delegation reported that:

 

We were surprised to find a sixth-grade reading class using as a text Rent Collection Courtyard, a series of articles about life in the old society. It was a new text, published during the Cultural Revolution. In a fourth-grade politics class, we heard the teacher discussing imperialism with her students. The lesson for the day was that United States imperialism was the leading enemy of Asian peoples and all peoples of the world. She gave an account of the Korean War and of two decades of American aggression in Southeast Asia.

 

The children also worked in school workshops. Groups of older children used stamping and electroplating machines to make parts for oil filters. The teachers explained to the visitors that learning facts and theory in the classroom and then applying them in the workshops helped the children to learn.

 

Textbooks, too, were changed during the Cultural Revolution. Districts experimented with writings their own textbooks, relating them to local problems and conditions. For example, schoolchildren in Nanjing used a book about the recently completed Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge. Instead of professional administrators, schools were governed by revolutionary committees composed of students, teachers, neighborhood people, workers propaganda team members and members of the PLA.

 

Before the Cultural Revolution, primary school graduates had to take entrance examinations to be admitted to middle school, institutionalizing a tracking system.

 

A few elite schools took the children with the highest scores, usually from non-working class families, while those with low scores had to leave school. The Cultural Revolution abolished this system. All children could receive a middle school education, and each middle school had a mixture of students with different abilities and family backgrounds.

 

At the middle schools these American scholars visited, middle school course offerings were similar: Chinese language and literature, math, basic agricultural and industrial knowledge,9 physical education and military training, revolutionary art and culture, history-geography, and politics, including the study of Mao Zedong Thought and Marxism-Leninism. Often, the material studied in English and Chinese literature classes would be about political affairs.

 

A combination of open and closed book exams, along with evaluations by teachers, fellow students and the students themselves, was used to test how students were progressing.11 In addition, most middle school students in Beijing spent one month a year learning in a school workshop or in a factory outside the school, as well as one month working in an agricultural brigade. During these periods, the students read and discussed scientific books related to the work they were doing.

 

In study and work, individual and collective creativity was encouraged. While it was understood that students had different abilities, creativity was not seen as only individual. Rather the view was that it comes from the combined intelligence and cooperative efforts of many people.

 

This course of study and work graduated middle school students ready to contribute to socialist society. Of the 1970 graduates of one Beijing middle school, 60% started working in factories, 30% went to the countryside to work in small factories, health clinics, schools or in the fields, around 10% joined the army, and some went on to study at universities or technical institutes.

 

No classes were held in the universities in the early stages of the Cultural Revolution because of political turmoil and due to the effort to enable students to take part in political movements at their schools and in other parts of the country. When the schools reopened, they scrapped the old nationwide university admissions examination. Instead of taking senior middle school students in their graduation year, applicants were selected from among outstanding young workers, peasants and soldiers with two or more years of practical work behind them. Each province, district, city, factory and commune received a quota of applicants to fill. Then university admission committees made the final selections based on extensive interviews.

 

When Tsinghua University in Beijing reopened in June 1970, 45% of the students were selected by factories, 40% by the rural communes, and 15% by the PLA. Before the Cultural Revolution, 60% of the students were of non-working class origin. It was expected that these “worker-peasant-soldier students” would be more mature, more motivated, and have greater knowledge of the pressing problems of Chinese society.

 

For students who hadn’t graduated from senior middle school, a special half-year course was provided before they began the regular program at Beijing University.

 

At the new socialist universities, the course of study was shortened to two or three years. They had three faculties—arts, sciences and languages. In addition to the familiar college-level subjects with newly designed courses, political study and discussion was built into the curriculum. It was particularly important to keep politics in command of the universities so that their graduates, the most highly educated members of Chinese society, would not develop into a new bourgeois intellectual elite.

 

Teaching methods also changed radically. According to one professor, the old “injection method,” through which “we thought we could inject knowledge into students like serum into a patient,” was replaced by self-study and classroom discussion. One student commented that while books are important, “the more important thing is for us… to learn to think by ourselves, to use our own brains. Otherwise we will not be able to understand the real meaning of theories and their connection to practice, and we will not be able to solve the problems we encounter.”

 

Just as in the middle schools, work was incorporated into university courses of study. Beijing University had its own pharmaceutical factory, where students of organic chemistry and biochemistry were experimenting with and producing medicines. The factory also ran a two to three week course for workers from Beijing factories. After a visit to China in 1971, William Hinton reported that

 

 

Some engineering schools have in effect been dissolved and merged with nearby plants and design units so that students, teachers, engineers, draftsmen, workers, and technicians rotate through what can be called urban production communes, producing, learning and creating in turn, and then spinning off production teams capable of setting up new producing and learning communes. Just as in the rural communes, much emphasis is placed on the use of advanced workers and engineers in production as teachers in their special fields. These become part-time teachers on a regular basis.

 

 

Some technical institutes moved out of the cities altogether. For example, mining schools were moved to mining areas where students and faculty could combine theory with practice, work with and learn from the miners, and provide them with theoretical knowledge.

 

The Cultural Revolution also brought about changes in the administration of the universities. Workers and members of the PLA were assigned to the universities in order to ensure that students would not study in isolation and acquire knowledge that was irrelevant to the needs of the Chinese people. Students also served on the revolutionary committees that, together with workers, soldiers, professors and professional educators, administered the universities.

 

Another important question was the political consciousness and worldview of the teachers and professors. They were challenged to question what they taught and the methods they used, and to accept criticism from their students. And they had to combine theory with practice. At one teachers’ college in Shanghai, the professors divided their time equally between teaching, research and physical work in factories or the countryside. In teaching colleges’ second year, the study of pedagogy was combined with practice teaching in middle schools for a minimum of eight weeks. Once student teachers graduated, they often served as apprentices to more experienced teachers, a system that produced a stream of well-prepared new teachers.

 

Both newly trained teachers and veteran teachers who had felt suffocated by traditional teaching practices found their voices during these years. In the dozens of volumes of debates about education reforms published in different provinces during the Cultural Revolution, the most vocal condemnations of the old teaching methods came from teachers, and the most thoroughgoing proposals for changes were also made by teachers.

 

Education was not limited to the schools, but was viewed as an ongoing process of raising one’s cultural level, technical competence and political consciousness throughout adult life. One Canadian observer wrote about the varied arrangements for mass education during the Cultural Revolution:

 

 

There are study groups at workplaces and in neighborhoods that focus on the immediate problems of the group and on political issues. There are spare-time courses, part-work, part-study courses, correspondence and radio courses, and full–time workers’ colleges and peasants’ colleges offering programs in general “cultural knowledge” and technical skills.

 

 

A number of factories and communes she visited had their own libraries, and some advanced workers in Shanghai were engaged in studying Marxist philosophy and determining how to apply it to practical problems they faced in their plants, as well as to political issues in their work units.

 

In the early 1970s, a sharp struggle broke out among educators and within the party over whether to preserve the new system of education pioneered by the Cultural Revolution. In the film “Breaking With Old Ideas,” released in 1975, the two opposing lines were sharply presented. The first struggle was whether to build a new agricultural college in the countryside or the city, followed by the question of whether to admit peasants and workers with limited education or to require passing traditional exams. The film also featured the students’ demands for a curriculum that combined scientific knowledge, production skills and the development of political consciousness –to become red and expert– so they could return to serve their communes and factories.

 

The significance of these socialist educational policies was underscored by the restoration of pre-Cultural Revolution practices after Mao’s death. In 1977, the National College and University Entrance Exam was reinstated. According to one scholar, the extreme emphasis on standardized tests and curricula in the middle schools that did not fit the needs of rural people produced a drop-out rate of over 80% in some provinces during the early 1980s. During these years, large numbers of junior and senior middle schools were closed in the name of “raising standards.”

Budget cuts and the Aquino administration

No matter what excuses Malacañang spout now, the damning evidence can always be found in its previous pronouncements. For example, during their defense of the K+12 curriculum, the government said that this was to make our labor force more competitive. Deliberately-confusing jargon aside, this means that since an increasing number of Filipinos are employed as OFWs and call center agents, why not train more and more as such at the high school level. In this vision of the administration, college education is unnecessary. You don’t need Social Sciences 2, Humanities 2, Kasaysayan 1, Phil. Institutions 100, Sociology 10, Community Development 11, Natural Science 5, and the like, to wipe the asses of Caucasian elderly or to mimic the West Coast accent.

 

Another example is when Kabataan Partylist first proposed a several-year freeze of tuition and other fees in universities, the government said that school owners and administrators had the right to a fair profit. The unspoken extension of their logic is that this right is higher than students’ right to education.

 

Combined, the two Palace statements clearly state that college education is not a right. It is a commodity, a privilege, for those who can afford it. Last week’s lame excuses, such as that there is in fact a budget increase (by adding an Office of the President fund into the SUCs’ fund computation), are all attempts at ‘damage control’ against a Filipino student body that has finally awakened from its yellow-induced dreams.

 

Education budget cuts are consistent with our education system’s characteristics of being colonial (serving foreign, instead of national, interests), commercialized (education is treated as a business and commodity for sale), and fascistic (violence is used to maintain order in school, and schools are used to maintain the current social order). The Aquino administration’s preference for budget cuts, in turn, is consistent with its nature as the #1 institution which upholds the interests of foreign corporations, big local businesses and hacienderos.

 

As with previous administrations ever since Andres Bonifacio, the Father of the Phil. Revolution & The Katipunan, was ‘unseated’ in Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo’s coup d’etat, the top officials of the country are also those with huge business interests: haciendas and other massive landholdings like Aquino’s Luisita (which comprise the majority of all the agricultural land in the country), and large businesses like Tan’s Philippine Airlines and Cojuangco’s San Miguel. They came to power using their enormous wealth. But as history shows, what puts you into power isn’t enough to keep you there.

 

Hence, all of the above-mentioned administrations come to an ‘understanding’ with foreign powers, especially the U.S. In exchange for providing the means to remain in power (military assistance primarily, such as arms, troops, and even whole bases) against the vast majority of the Filipino people, these governments implement and uphold foreign over national interests. Note how even the highly-praised Cory Aquino pledged to pay all of the foreign debts we acquired under the dictator Marcos, even while many economists and political analysts said that we could use EDSA 1 as an excuse to cancel those payments.

 

And it is no different under the second Aquino. Budget cuts are but the latest in the many anti-people policies and programs which litter the sidewalk of the ‘daang matuwid’: non-prosecution of human rights violators under the previous administration, continued presence of U.S troops in the country in violation of the Constitution, refusal to redistribute Hacienda Luisita to its farmers, demolition of informal settler communities, oil price hikes, LRT-MRT fare hikes, expressway toll hikes, refusal to increase workers’ & gov’t employees’ wages, refusal to stop human rights violations by the military today, etc.

 

Therefore, all those who took part in Sept. 23, 2011 must ‘widen their perspectives’ in the fight against the budget cuts. We must now unite with other sectors waging their own struggles against the Aquino administration, not just because we recognize the principles of ‘united we stand, divided we fall’, but also because we are essentially fighting the same enemy: all of our problems come from common roots. And definitely, we must recognize that there is little hope in having our human rights recognized by the government. If we are to stop the budget cuts, we must set our targets even higher: a society where there will be no budget cuts to social services, one which prioritizes human rights. This is the challenge facing us all today.

Kwentong strike

Sept. 22

 

Hindi pa sumisikat ang araw, gising na ako. Usapan kasi naming ng ka-grupo ko sa fieldwork (sa kurso kasi naming Community Development, ang buong ika-4 na taon naming ay nakagugol sa pagtatrabaho sa mga proyekto para paunlarin ang mga maralitang komunidad sa siyudad at kanayunan. Ngayong semestre, naka-destino kami sa isang komunidad sa Capas, Tarlac, mga 20 minuto mula sa Hacienda Luisita), luluwas kami papuntang Maynila sa sikat ng araw. Pero dahil napatagal pa kami sa pag-papaalam sa mga host families namin, mga 6:30 na kami nakadating ng McArthur Highway.

 

Habang bumabyahe kaming SCTEX-NLEX, naalala ko yung kwento ng kapatid ng aking Nanay Susan kahapon. Nung nalaman niyang estudyante ako ng UP, tinanong niya ako kung magkano na matrikula dun. “Mga mahigit P20,000 po kada semestre ang karaniwang binabayaran” sagot ko. Sabi ni Tatay, para bang imposible ng makatuntong mga anak niya sa kolehiyo. Ang panganay niya kasi, 4th year hayskul na. Dagdag pa niya, dati P2,000 lang ang binayaran niya kada semestre para makapagtapos ng vocational na kurso. Ngayon daw, P11,000 na. Napanood niya ata yung unang araw ng mga strike sa PUP at UP.

 

Sa kabilang bahay nga, kila Nanay Marie, hindi na niya pinatuloy ang bunso niya sa kolehiyo dahil di nila kaya ang P5,000 kada semestre na matrikula sa Tarlac State University (TSU). Kung tutuusin, ito na ang may pinaka-murang tuition sa buong probinsya. Yung mga bahay sa tapat, at sa mga tabi, ng bahay na tinitirhan ko ay wala ni-isang nakapagtuntong sa kolehiyo. Katunayan nga, dalawa palang na kabataan dito sa komunidad ng mahigit 1,600 katao ang nakilala ko na nakapagtapos ng kolehiyo.

 

Dumating ako sa UP Manila na suot-suot ang sinusuot namin sa araw-araw sa may komunidad. Ginawa ko lang na P.E shorts ko ung suot ko, at hindi naman sando yung pang-itaas ko. Buti nalang may dala yung karelasyon ko na si Erica na mga prop (propaganda, o ung may mga pulitikal na mensahe na) shirts at pantalong maong. Kaunting hilamos lang, ready for action na ako para sa strike.

 

Unang araw yun ng welga sa UPM. Sa umagang yun, ang bulong ng mga organisador ay ‘delikado’ daw ang strike dahil maraming estudyante ang ‘di nalang pumapasok. Dahil maraming mga guro ang nakiisa sa welga at di nalang nag-klase, sinamantala ito ng iba para mag-bakasyon, mag-lakwatsa, o kung ano-ano pa man.

 

Nung pagpatak ng alas-diyes (ung pinagkaisahan ng mga estudyante, guro, at kawani na pormal na simula ng welga), may buhos ng mga estudyante. Pero imbes na dumiretso sa lugar na pinagdadaausan ng programa, nagmamadali silang magsilabas at dumiretso dun sa malapit na mall. Kaya naman halos maiyak na si Erica sa pagsambit niya sa mikropono na “Hindi lamang tungkol sa ating ang budget cuts! Pati ang PGH, kung saan nakaasa ang mga mahihirap na Pilipino para sa serbisyo medikal, ay apektado! Hahayaan ba natin na mamatay nalang sila dahil pinagkaitan ang mga mahihirap ng serbisyo medikal? Ganyan ba ang diwa ng ‘Iskolar ng Bayan’?”

 

Siguro may mga nakonsensya dahil yung mga tumpok ng mga nakatambay sa may RH Garden, lumapit na sa programa. At pagkatapos siguro ng isa o dalawang minuto, dumating na yung mga lider-estudyante ng UPM na nag-ikot sa buong College of Arts & Sciences (yung buong CAS Student Council at mga ilang miyembro ng University Student Council) kasama ang mga daan-daang estudyante na sinundo nila mula sa mga classroom nila. “OK”, sabi ng isang kasama, “Hindi na masama”.

 

Nagdaos kami ng maiksing programa. Nagsalita si Prop. Carl Ramota para sa CONTEND (grupo ng mga makabayang guro), isang representante mula sa All-UP Workers’ Union, at si Cleve Arguelles, ang bise-pangulo ng USC (hindi kasi nakiisa sa welga ung taga-pangulo nila, pati ang mga kapartido niya). Simula noon, tila baga hindi na naalis ang ngiti ko sa araw na iyon.

 

Simboliko naming isinara ang CAS sa pagtatayo ng mga barikada ng mga upuan. Pagkatapos, nag-planking kami sa kahabaan ng kalsada sa tapat ng CAS. Para akong bacon na pinirito sa aspalto sa ilalim ng tanghaling tapat. Kasi naman, tatlo lang kaming naunang humiga. Pagkatapos sumunod yung mga iba pang estudyante, pero pa-tatlo-tatlo o apat-apat. Tapos may mga nagpinta pa dun sa kalsada mismo. Pero tuwang-tuwa pa rin ako kasi nagtatawanan rin ung mga iba pang nag-planking sa biglaan at epektibong pagparalisa ng trapiko sa Taft Avenue. Dagdag pa dito, pinagtatawanan rin namin yung Anti-Planking Law ng isang mambabatas na walang magawa.

 

Pagkatapos, nag-martsa na kami papunta sa mga tinaguriang ‘white colleges’ (tinawag na ganito dahil ito ang mga kolehiyo kung saan ang mga estudyante ay naka-uniporme na puti, tulad ng Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing, atbp.) para mag-imbita sa mga estudyante doon na sumama sa strike.

 

May laganap na karanasan ang mga organisador sa UPM sa pagiging ‘konserbatibo’, ‘maka-sarili’, at ‘apathetic’ ng mga estudyante sa ‘white’. Kaya naman halos di makapagsalita sila sa tuwa ng makitang may mga estudyante sa CAMP (College of Allied Medical Professions), Nursing, Dentistry, at Pharmacy na lumabas sa kanilang mga klase at sumama sa amin! Nag-martsa ang aming bulto hanggang sa tapat ng Phil. General Hospital (PGH) kung saan nagpahayag ng pakikiisa ang direktor ospital na si Dr. Joe Gonzales. Nakiisa rin ang Student Regent na si Krissy Conti, at binasa pa ang mga mensahe ng pakikiisa ng mga ilang mambabatas. Pagkatapos, isa nanamang planking. Pero ngayon, binuo namin ang salitang ‘UP STRIKE’ gamit ang aming mga katawan. Balita ko, ipinakita ito sa iilang mga pahayagan nung sumunod na araw.

 

Nag-martsa kami pabalik ng CAS para sa libreng pakain ng Sigma Kappa Pi fraternity para sa mga kalahok sa strike. Habang naglalakad, pabiro kaming nag-cha-chant ng “Lider estudyante, pakainin!” at “Sagot sa kagutuman, pagkain!”, mga paglalaro sa mga iba pang slogan ng mga aktibista.

 

Pagkatapos kumain ay ginawa naming malaking alternatibong classroom ang strike area. Nagtalakay ang mga miyembro ng iba’t-ibang organisasyong kalahok ng mga talakayan sa mga estudyante. Ang ilan sa mga paksa ay yung budget cuts mismo (may isang block ng mga first year na taga CAMP na halos wala pang alam hinggil dun), itsura ng sistema ng edukasyon ng bansa, hanggang sa kalagayang pampulitika at pang-ekonomiya ng bansa. Marami ang sumali sa mga nasabing organisasyon dahil sa mga ganung talakayan.

 

Hindi natuloy yung planong cultural program sa gabi na katulad sana nung strike nung nakaraang taon. Pero hindi nabagot ang mga estudyante na lumahok sa overnight vigil sa CAS. Tinuruan kami ng mga miyembro ng Indayog Dance Varsity, isa sa mga miyembro ng KILOS NA sa UPM. Pinalabas ang ilang mga dokyumentaryo tulad ng Yes Men, Sa Ngalan ng Tubo (hinggil sa Hacienda Luisita masaker), at Misedukasyon. Nagpakain naman yung Sigma Delta Pi sorority ng marshmallows at wafers na may chocolate dip (sosyal!). Ang libreng hapunan naman ay sagot ng Health Organization for the People (HOPE).

 

Isang kinatuwa namin ay yung mas maraming bilang ng mga dumalo sa vigil ngayong taon. May isang buong block ng 1st year (di ko nga lang alam kung Political Science o Development Studies ang kurso nila) na bagama’t hindi nag-overnight, nagpagabi sila. Tuwang-tuwa kami dun sa isang estudyante na 5pm palang nakaupo na sa may strike area at naghihintay ng programa. Walang nakakakilala sa kanya kaya nahiya ang mga taong kausapin siya. Pero kahit na ganun, nanatili siya hanggang sa kinausap siya ng mga kasama. Si Tsina, estudyante ng Nursing, ay miyembro na ng HOPE. Andun rin ang isa sa mga kaibigan ko at kapwa-miyembro sa Anakbayan, si Kath, na nagkaroon ng di-pagkakaunawaan sa pagitan naming dalawa nung mga nakaraang buwan. Natuwa ako na nakapagusap uli kami sa pagkakataon na iyon.

 

Masarap ang tulog namin nung gabing yun. Pinayagan kaming matulog sa library ng CAS, kung saan malamig at protektado kami sa mga lamok, dahil nakiisa sa welga yung Chief Librarian. Hanggang sa pagtulog namin, dama ko yung pagmamahal at suporta ng masa.

 

Sept. 23

 

Kaunting tapik lang, gising na agad ako. Bagama’t di pa 5am at natulog na ako ng 2am (dahil sa sobrang excitement), sinikap ko pa rin igpawan ang matinding antok na naghihila sa akin pabalik sa kama. Para magising yung mga iba pang kasama na tulog-mantika, nagpatugtog ako ng mga nakakatawang awit sa aking cellphone tulad ng ‘Last Friday Night’ ni Katy Perry at yung theme song ng pelikulang Rocky.

 

Pagkatapos gawing paliguan ang mga C.R, fresh na fresh na kaming sumasalubong sa mga maaagang dumating para sa 7am na mga klase. Pabiro kong sabi kay Erica, “Kitang-kita sino yung unti-unting kinakain ng sistema”. Pagkatapos ng (isa nanamang libreng) almusal ng arroz caldo na sagot naman ng Workers’ Union, nagsimula na ang mga organisador na mag-ikot sa CAS para magpalabas ng mga klase.

 

Di tulad ng kahapon, marami na agad ang mga estudyanteng naghihintay sa strike area. Pagbaba ng ilang mga estudyante na kusang lumabas na, nag-snake rally na kami.

 

Dumagundong sa buong CAS ang mga chant ng “Edukasyon, karapatan ng mamamayan!”, “Budget ng UP, dagdagan, huwag bawasan!”, “Budget Cut sa SUCs, tutulan, labanan, huwag pahintulutan!”, at “Walang pagbabago sa ilalim ni Aquino!”. Parang nasa UP Fair ang mga estudyante kung maghiyawan sa kada klase na napapalabas ang mga estudyante. Hindi na nga ganung karami yung mga klaseng nadadaanan kasi maraming propesor na ang kusang hindi nagturo ngayong araw bilang pakikiisa. Yung isang klase ng Computer Science, kahit na kumukuha sila ng exam, pinalabas pa rin sila.

 

Nagkaroon ng maiksing programa muli sa strike area. Nainis kami habang nakikita na nagsisialisan ang mga ibang estudyante dahil sa karanasan, yan yung mga nag-walkout nga, pero ginamit lang yun na paraan para makauwi ng maaga mula sa mga klase nila. Pero natuwa naman ako ng ituro ni JM Lanuza, isa sa mga miyembro ng USC, na yung iba ay bumabalik na may dala-dalang pagkain. Bumili lang pala yung iba ng tanghalian nila.

 

Nagsimula na ang martsa ng UPM papuntang Mendiola. Bagama’t yung inisyal na mahigit 1,000 na nag-walkout ay nabawasan papuntang mga 600-800, mataas pa rin ang mga diwa namin. Medyo kinakabahan lang ako na dahil naglalakad kami sa ilalim ng tanghaling-tapat, maubos yung bilang namin.

 

Padre Faura. City Hall. Lawton. Quiapo. Pag-dating namin sa puntong ito, naliligo na ako sa pawis at ang init na ng pakiramdam ng mukha, leeg, at ulo ko. Minu-minuto akong tumitingin dun sa mga nagmamartsa na mga first timers at nakikinig para sa kahit anong senyales na gusto na nilang tumigil. Pero salamat naman at kahit na kita mo ang pagod sa kanilang mga mukha, wala namang angal na lumalampas sa kanilang mga labi. Minu-minuto rin ang pagpapaalala ng mga marshalls na “Malapit na po tayo. Kaunti nalang”

 

Halos kasabay namin dumating sa tapat ng UST yung bulto ng mga estudyanteng hayskul na nag-walkout rin. Nagmamadali kaming umupo sa ilalim ng silong at bumili ng tubig. Agad akong nakaramdam ng upo pag-upo ko, at nangamba ako na ‘di na tatayo ang mga estudyanteng kasama namin.

 

Biglang may kumalat na balita: mahigit isang libo daw ang nagmamartsa mula UP Diliman. At ayun na nga, nakita ko sa malayo ang mga bandila at streamer na pula. Umakyat ako dun sa concrete island at nakita ko nga. Biglang naghiyawan ang mga tao at nagtaas ng kamo bilang pagsalubong sa mga naglakad ng 17 kilometro. Agad nawala ang atmospera ng pagod sa paligid namin.

 

At nagsimula na ang martsa papuntang Mendiola. Dumadagundong na talaga ang mga sigaw. UP Diliman. PUP. UP Manila. PNU. High School. Mga estudyante mula sa mga pribadong unibersidad. Mga kabataang kumakaharap sa demolisyon sa North Triangle, Quezon City. Mga kabataang out-of-school mula sa Maynila. Pag dating sa FEU, dumugtong ang mga estudyante ng FEU at PUP Taguig, pati ang mga kabataan mula sa iba pang parte ng Metro Manila. Kung nasa harap ka, di mo makita yung likuran ng bulto. Kung nasa likuran ka, di mo kita yung harapan ng bulto. Kung nasa gitna ka, di mo makita ang magkabilang dulo.

 

Pag salpak sa may kanto ng Morayta at Recto, naghihiyawan na kami ng “Mendiola! Mendiola” at “Ayan na, ayan na! Ayan na ang sambayanan!”. Ni-isang patak ng pagod ay tila nawala na sa katawan namin. Kitang-kita sa mukha ng lahat ang halo ng saya at kahandaang lumaban.

 

Sa wakas nakatuntong na kami ng Mendiola. Sa mismong oras na iyon, di ko maiwasang makaramdam ng matinding saya. Kayang-kaya naman palang magkaisa ng mga estudyante ng UP at ipaglaban ang interes ng mga tao labas sa kanila, kahit na kinukutya na ang pamantasan bilang tahanan ng mga mayayamang maka-sarili. Kitang-kita kung paano ang mga estudyante at masa ay kikilos basta’t sila’y aabutin at papaliwanagan, at basta tama ang ipinagpaliwanag. Naalala ko yung kanta ni Bob Marley at naalala ko si Noynoy, “You can fool some people sometimes, but you can’t fool all the people all the time”.

Muni-muni sa harap ng TV

Minsan nalang ako makapanood ng balita. Sira kasi ang mga telebisyon dito kaya puro si Willie Revillame ang naaabutan ko. Pero kanina, parang napangiti ako at bumilis tibok ng puso ko. Hindi dahil nakita ko si Georgina Wilson, o kaya naman isang mixed martial arts na laban. Kundi dahil sa iisang programa ng balita, andami-daming magkakaugnay na mga kwento. Para bang may gustong sabihin sa akin, sa atin:

 

Parang batang nagsusumbong sa nanay si Press Secretary Edwin Lacierda ng punahin niya ang planong transport strike ng PISTON sa Lunes. Pinapalabas niya na ‘di sumusunod sa usapan’ ang PISTON dahil dumalo naman ang mga lider nito sa ginanap na diyalogo sa pagitan nila at ng gobyernong Aquino.

 

Kasabay nito, nag-motorcade naman ang mga driver at operator ng bus sa mga rutang Metro Manila-Southern Luzon laban sa panukalang pagpapataw ng dagdag buwis sa mismong toll fees ng SLEX (Southern Luzon Expressway).

 

 

Samantala, mahigit isang libong empleyado ng Phil. Airlines, kasama ang kanilang mga pamilya ang nag-rally papuntang NAIA (Ninoy Aquino International Airport). Sa dami nila, ilang beses nilang natulak pabalik ang mga pulis na nagtangkang humarang sa kanila.

 

Kaparehong araw rin inilunsad ang pambansang protesta ng Alliance of Concerned Teachers laban sa mababang pondo para sa mga guro sa public schools. Hindi sila gumamit ng chalk buong araw para ipanawagan ang mas mataas na ‘chalk allowance’.

 

 

Kaya napa-isip ako.

 

1. Mahigit isang taon na si Noynoy sa pwesto. Bakit andami pa rin nagpoprotesta? Wala ba talagang disiplina ang mga Pilipino para hintayin ang pagbabago? Hindi ba talaga tayo marunong makuntento? Likas ba tayong mga pintasero at taga-hanap ng mali? O totoo ba ang sinasabi ng mga aktibista na wala talagang pagbabago?

 

2. Bakit kailangan pang mag-banta ang PISTON ng pambansang tigil-pasada para lang pansinin ng gobyerno? Parang yung League of Filipino Students, pinansin lang ni Noynoy (sa pamamaraan ng pang-iinsulto) dahil sa nakaambang ‘campus strikes’ sa susunod na linggo. Nakakalungkot isipin, lalo na para sa iba. Pero mabuti ng maging malinaw ang mga bagay-bagay: banta at pwersa lamang ang naririnig ng gobyernong nagbibingi-bingihan.

 

3. Walang laban ang mga pulis, nasa kamay man nila ang mga pamalo at water cannon, sa harap ng isang pwersa na ilang daang beses na mas malaki sa kanila. Sa harapan ng manhid na gobyerno at ng simpleng Pilipino, ang tanging sandata ng ikalawa ay ang malaking bilang at sama-samang pagkilos. At sa maraming pagkakataon, sapat na ito para magtagumpay.

 

Ilang araw nalang at mga estudyante at guro naman ng mga pampublikong kolehiyo ang mangangalampag sa manhid na gobyerno. Gusto ba nating mapakinggan? Gusto ba nating masunod? Gusto ba nating magtagumpay? Kung pareho ang ating mga sagot, wala na dapat tayong pagtalunan pa. Sa Lunes, kita-kits nalang sa Mendiola.

Pulitika ng ‘Iskolar para sa Bayan’

Nung isang beses na nagbabantay kami ng bilangan ng boto sa student council election sa Unibersidad ng Pilipinas-Diliman, nag-chachant kami ng “Iskolar ng Bayan, Ngayon ay Lumalaban!” bilang pampalakas ng loob. Siguro sa asar, inis, at inggit, biglang nagsusumigaw ang mga nasa maka-administrasyong partido ng “Iskolar rin kami! Iskolar rin kami!”.

Kahit sinong estudyante ang tanungin mo, dalawang bagay ang inuugnay sa terminong Iskolar ng Bayan: una, ang mga aktibista at ang kulay pula. Pangalawa, ang mga sarili nila. Biglang pasok-eksena ang Iskolar para sa Bayan. Saan ba ito nagmula?

Unang ginamit ang terminong Iskolar ng Bayan sa isang artikulo sa Philippine Collegian, ang pahayagan ng mga estudyante ng UP Diliman, nung Sept. 3 1975. Ginamit, at patuloy na ginagamit, ang termino para himukin ang mga estudyante na  maglingkod sa mga aping sektor ng bansa bilang ‘bahagi’ nila. Kung susundan ang lohika ng islogan, nangangahulugan na hindi makakamit ang mga karapatan at interes ng karaniwang estudyante kung hindi makakamit ang karapatan at interes ng naghihirap na sambayanan.

Ang Iskolar ng Bayan ay naiugnay sa mga aktibista sa kampus. Hindi nakapagtataka lalo pa’t dalawang taon pagkatapos itong unang gamitin, itinatag ang League of Filipino Students (LFS). Sa mga sumunod na taon, nagkaroon ng ‘kilusang demokratiko’ sa UP na nagbalik sa mga konseho ng mag-aaral at sa Opisina ng Rehente ng mga Estudyante. Ang mga aktibista-estudyante ay nagkaroon rin ng malaking papel sa kilusang nagpatalsik kay diktador Ferdinand Marcos.

Subalit pagkatapos ng EDSA 1, nagkaroon ng matinding debate sa loob ng mga progresibong organisasyon, kasama ang mga aktibista sa paaralan. Kasabay nito, lumaganap ang pagtingin na ‘laos’ na ang aktibismo, at may pangangailangan para sa ‘makabagong’ porma ng aktibismo, isang porma na aangkop sa ‘nagbabagong mga panahon at kondisyon’. Pagtanggi ito sa pagsusuri ng mga ‘tradisyonal’ na aktibista na kahit napatalsik si Marcos, nananatili pa rin ang lumang kaayusan ng lipunan: pinaghaharian ng mga dayuhan, malalaking kapitalista, at panginoong maylupa.

Pagkatapos ng ilang taong ng kaguluhan, sinabi na ‘nagwawasto’ na ang mga aktibista. Sa mga taong yun, sunod-sunod ang mga kaganapan: itinatag ang Anakbayan, lumawak ang mga organisasyon ng mga iba pang sektor, lumaki at dumami ang mga protesta sa pangulo noon na si Erap, at muling narinig ang mga baril ng New People’s Army na idineklara ni dating pangulong Ramos bilang natalo nung 1995.

Kahit sa mga paaralan, makikita ang pagbabalik ng aktibismo. Itinatag ang mga alyansa-partido ng mga estudyante na tangan ang oryentasyo ng mga ‘tradisyonal’, tulad ng STAND UP sa UP Diliman, ASAP-Katipunan sa UP Manila, at Sakbayan sa UPLB. Kasabay ng mga pagkapanalo sa mga konseho (ang kongresista ng Kabataan Partylist na si Mong Palatino ang nanalong USC Chairperson sa Diliman nung 2000), napatalsik si Erap sa pwesto.

Dito na papasok ang usapin ng Iskolar para sa Bayan. Sa loob ng ilang dekada, dinala ng mga aktibista ang esensya at prinsipyo ng Iskolar ng Bayan. Ang nasabing termino ang naglalarawan rin sa matagal na tradisyon ng UP bilang tahanan ng mga makabayan at makamamamayan. Sa usapin palang ng termino, nahiwalay na ang mga maka-administrasyong partido at grupo sa mga kampus mula sa karaniwang estudyante.

Bilang tangka na agawin ang eksena, gumawa sila ng bagong termino (Iskolar para sa Bayan) at binihisan ito mga ‘makabagong’ porma ng aktibismo para di-umano ay magkaroon ito ng legitimacy. Ang Iskolar para sa Bayan ay naka-angkla parin sa pananaw na may pangangailangan para sa ‘makabagong’ aktibismo. Pero hindi ito ang unang beses na nagkaroon ng ganitong usapan. At alam naman nating lahat kung anong kinalabasan ng unang beses na pinagusapan ito.

CCTs, Press Releases, and the War of Messages

When Noynoy Aquino claimed that his recent drop in the surveys was caused by a ‘lack of media promotion’ of his administration’s so-called achievements, we just assumed he was being his usual cerebral-challenged self. Yet upon reflection, he wasn’t being stupid. He was just actually speaking out based on his training.

First, check out the following:

This is because perception is crucial in developing control and influence over population groups. Substantive security, political and economic measures are critical but to be effective they must rest upon, and integrate with a broader information strategy. Every action in counterinsurgency sends a message; the purpose of the information campaign is to consolidate and unify this message. … Importantly, the information campaign has to be conducted at a global, regional and local level — because modern insurgents draw upon global networks of sympathy, support, funding and recruitment.

This was written by  Dr. David J. Kilcullen, the Chief Strategist of the U.S State Department’s Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism back in 2006. If this is indeed the U.S military’s new approach to ‘insurgencies’, then it is relatively radically different from the previous U.S counter-insurgency plan which our local soldiers used as a the model for Gloria Arroyo’s ‘Oplan Bantay Laya’: the Phoenix Program.

Regardless if the above quote is the official viewpoint of the U.S government now, there is reason to believe that this is the approach which Noynoy Aquino subscribes to now. In his critique of the current ‘Oplan Bayanihan’, Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes Jr. writes:

In the section on “Strategic Environment” which deals with the socio-economic and socio-political context of the armed conflict, Bayanihan describes the “economic environment” of the country. It admits that there is “inequitable distribution of wealth and unequal economic opportunities” that “result in a wide income gap between social classes”.

However, Bayanihan also says that “there is no direct causal link between low economic status and armed conflict”.  What exists are “perceptions of relative deprivation” which are “correlated with the emergence and persistence of conflict in the Philippines”.

For the AFP, it is the “perception of relative deprivation” and not concrete socio-economic and political issues like landlessness, unemployment and injustice that drive people to take up arms against the government. For the AFP, solving the “root causes” of armed conflict boils down to changing people’s perceptions without having to change their socio-economic conditions.

Whoever wrote Bayanihan and Dr. Kilcullen can agree on one thing: information and ‘the message’ is vital. What is the Aquino administration’s, and the AFP’s, message? That it is doing something to eliminate poverty. It doesn’t matter if it isn’t really eliminating poverty. For the military, the important thing is to have the people believe in the government’s good intentions, which would make them turn their back on anti-government forces.

With this framework, one can actually make sense of the Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs). Sure, they are useless as a means of eliminating poverty (anyone disagreeing should check this paper out). But like we said, the government isn’t after elimination, just having you believe that elimination is ‘on the way’. And the psychological impact of giving out money is great (a max of P1,400 monthly), especially for those who earn P5,590 a month (that’s the minimum wage for gov’t employees). And if you haven’t been living under a rock these past few months, you’d know that this is what the government constantly crows in the media as its ‘centerpiece’ in eliminating poverty.

Another thing that makes sense in Aquino’s ‘war of messages’ is how the military has been labeling its troops’ operations as COPD (community organizing for peace and development) and its troops as ‘peace and development troops’. The military’s press relations men constantly ‘remind’ us of the ‘people-centric approach’ of ‘Bayanihan‘. It’s a very friendly term. Does it matter if you understand it? No. But if it somehow lessens the bloody images the AFP conjures in your mind, then its the ‘war of messages’ at work. They’ve also claimed to have released a ‘human rights handbook’.

However, the experience of a journalist showed that despite the relabeling, the AFP still uses its same terror tactics at the community level. A Church-led fact-finding mission into Davao, one of the most militarized regions in the country now, also reveal the same human rights violations.

 

For the government to adopt such a sneaky and under-handed theory means only one thing: it has no intention of actually addressing the roots of the nation’s insurgency, which are the roots of poverty. It refuses to break up the land monopoly of families like the Cojuangco-Aquinos which enslave millions of peasants, it refuses to cancel our unequal agreements with the U.S which partly keeps the latter economically afloat, and it refuses to nationalize vital industries which have brought billions of pesos in profits for millionaires.

P.S Now the need for a Presidential Communications Group makes sense! It’s all about the message!

Much ado about the RH Bill

In the past few months, I’ve noticed how posts regarding the RH Bill (mainly in support) have flooded my Facebook news feed. The culprits are people whom I’ve never heard speak regarding any other social issue before, whether it be education budget cuts, price controls, the plight of OFWs, or continuing human rights abuses by the military.

I agree with the lament of a friend who is in the UP Diliman University Student Council: we wish that those actively supporting and/or opposing the RH Bill give the same level of attention to other equally, if not more, urgent peoples’ issues.

I have a suspicion that the current set-up of the RH debate is being encouraged by the powers-that-be to avoid talking about the real roots and solutions to poverty.

I agree with Archbishop Oscar Cruz in his analysis that the Aquino administration is advancing the RH Bill as part of the government’s approach to poverty: instead of redistributing the wealth through measures like land reform and wage increases and more social services, lets just reduce the number of poor people. While this may not be the viewpoint of the more ‘enlightened’ supporters of the RH Bill, there certainly is a fair share of nuts who subscribe to this.

However, I disagree with the ravings of another RH Bill opponent, Manny Pacquiao. Seizing upon the overpopulation-is-not-the-root-of-poverty argument, he instead proclaimed it was (guess what) corruption!

On both sides of the debate, the roots and solutions to poverty are being ignored.

This is precisely the motive of pseudo-progressive partylist group Akbayan in being one of the most rabid supporters of the RH Bill. If you’d take into account every public statement the group, or any of its leaders, has made under the new administration, you’d notice that it has ignored every issue where the Aquino government is clearly at fault. Not once did it comment regarding the spate of oil and other price hikes, or even the LRT-MRT fare hike. Akbayan’s representatives in Congress even supported the budget cut for State Universities and Colleges. And it also failed to support calls by workers for a meaningful wage increase.

Instead, Akbayan has made much noise regarding the proposed burial of Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani, the removal of (former) Ombudsman Gutierrez, and the RH Bill: all issues in which the biggest enemy is not the Aquino administration. Which makes sense if your role as a ‘junior partner’ in the current government is to ‘calm down’ anti-Noynoy protests and movements.

Unless those debating the RH Bill raise the level of discourse, then both sides are doing the Filipino people a great big disfavor.

Bewildered JV

After lording it over San Juan City for decades like Maguindanao’s Ampatuans, Isabela’s Dys’, and Tarlac’s Cojuangco-Aquinos, JV Ejercito and his clan is bewildered with the criticism he is now facing.

In support of a San Juan community which is facing demolition, activists under the National Capital Region of Bayan (Bagong Alyansang Makabayan) have began flooding Ejercito’s Facebook fanpage and Twitter account with comments against him. His (or rather his PR peoples’) response is predictable: ban the offenders from the fanpage. It’s par for the course: the admins of the fanpages of Noynoy Aquino and Akbayan Partylist all did the same last elections. Same thing goes for pro-administration parties in the University of the Philippines and the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.

But what shows how rattled Ejercito was with such a ‘flood’ was how his PR people kept ‘talking’ after banning every last netizen which made even the slightest comment in support of the activists.

One of the most ridiculous attempts at sympathy was their claim that after the ‘flood’ campaign began, the fanpage’s followers rose by more than 200 overnight, a sign of support for the embattled solon. Looking at my own news feed, I could easily tell that the 200 was composed of detractors, not supporters. But who could now contest Ejercito’s assertion? Everyone’s banned.

But perhaps what really got Ejercito’s ire was my own tweet regarding his own family’s track record of ‘using the poor’. In an obvious play for sympathy, he called on the Bayan activists as ‘ginagamit ang mga mahihirap’. In response, I cited how his family hired busloads of urban poor from places like Tondo to storm the Palace during the so-called ‘EDSA 3′ riot. I also noted my own personal experience in countless anti-Gloria Arroyo rallies where other ‘groups’ would join the Bayan bandwagon. There, the ‘rallyists’ under the Erap groups would admit that they were paid.

Perhaps the on-going ‘propaganda war’ regarding the demolition of Corazon de Jesus brings back nightmares for JV. Around a decade ago, the same groups of ‘dayuhang militante’ exposed his father’s corrupt and anti-poor track record to the masses they make a show of serving. The most popular (in terms of electoral vote leads) presidency in history before Noynoy Aquino was ousted by the ‘dayuhang militante’.

Dahil idedelete na daw ng Friendster ang mga pics natin dun…

… I decided to save one of my most personal pics there.

High school days.

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