THE NATIONAL
GUILDER Ang Opisyal na Pahayagan ng College Editors Guild of the Philippines
Enero-Marso 2016 BALITA
Students stage nationwide walkout, say ‘RIP’ to right to education | pahina 3 CEGP storms CHED over Bicol student death | pahina 3
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LATHALAIN
Sistema ng edukasyon sa administrasyong Aquino, may bagong biktima | pahina 6
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EDITORYAL
COLLEGE EDITORS GUILD OF THE PHILIPPINES Pambansang Komiteng Tagapagpaganap 2014-2016 MARC LINO J. ABILA Pambansang Pangulo The LPU Independent Sentinel Lyceum of the Philippines University IAN HARVEY A. CLAROS Tagapagpaganap na Pangalawang Pangulo The Torch Publications Philippine Normal University LIANA ACUZAR Pangalawang Pangulo para sa Luzon The Louisian Courier University of Saint Louis Tuguegarao FRANEL MAE POLIQUIT Pangalawang Pangulo para sa Visayas Tug-Ani University of the Philippines Cebu ROCHAMAE BIHAG Pangalawang Pangulo para sa Mindanao Mindanao Varsitarian Mindanao State University CHARINA CLAUSTRO Pambansang Pangkalahatang Kalihim The Communicator Polytechnic University of the Philippines-Sta. Mesa College of Communication JOSE MARI CALLUENG Pambansang Pangalawang Pangkalahatang Kalihim The National, National University
PAMBANSANG KALIHIMAN JOSIAH ELEAZAR ANTONIO KALasag, University of the Philippines Diliman College of Arts and Letters JUBERT CABREZOS The Philwomenian, Philippine Women’s University JOHN VINCENT CANARES The Catalyst, Polytechnic University of the Philippines-Sta. Mesa MARY ROSE IGGIE ESPINOZA The Arellano Standard, Arellano University PAUL GUMAGAY Tinig ng Plaridel, University of the Philippines Diliman College of Mass Communication CHRISTIAN KING The Catalyst, Polytechnic University of the Philippines-Sta. Mesa RONILO MESA The Manila Collegian, University of the Philippines Manila ANTON ONATO Tinig ng Plaridel, University of the Philippines Diliman College of Mass Communication GENESIS SORIANO The Spark, Southern Luzon State University-Lucban College of Engineering
College Editors Guild of the Philippines Pambansang Tanggapan Pamuhatan: Room 305 National Press Club Bldg., Magallanes Drive, Intramuros, Manila 1002 Numero ng mobile.: (+63)928-980-2646 Email: cegphils@gmail.com Website: www.cegp.org Facebook: fb.com/CEGPNationalOffice Twitter at Instagram: @CEGPhils Issuu: issuu.com/thenationalguilder
CEGP deplores campus press freedom attacks in UP The College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP), as the national center for the advancement of campus press freedom, denounces the recent attacks on campus press freedom in the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman. Last February 16, the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) organized an event at the UP Bahay ng Alumni where Liberal Party (LP) candidates were also present. LP supporters and UP Diliman Police (UPDP) harassed members of Tinig ng Plaridel (TNP), the student publication of UP College of Mass Communication, and Union of Journalists of the Philippines-UP Diliman (UJP-UPD). According to TNP, UP campus journalists were supposed to cover NAPC’s event “Our New Social Contract: Panawagan para Lubusin ang mga Nasimulang Reporma” but were barred by the UPDP to enter the venue for “security reasons” even after asserting that they are members of the campus press. They were also “verbally abused, called out and jeered by the LP crowd.” CEGP views this incident as a violation to campus press freedom and to the people’s freedom of information. The Guild condemns the harassment and treatment of campus journalists as a security threat. Meanwhile, Allan Pangilinan, the Students Rights and Welfare (STRAW) Committee chairperson and councilor of the University Student Council (USC) and a local affiliate of LP-Akbayan, posted on his Facebook account his intention to abolish the student publication fee for the Philippine Collegian, the official weekly student publication of UP Diliman. Pangilinan also accused the Philippine Collegian as a propaganda machinery of a political party in UP Diliman. The student publication fee is the lifeblood of student publications and the non-mandatory collection of the student publication fee is a violation of the rights of the campus press. It has been the struggle of student publications in the country for the mandatory collection of the student publication fee. Campus journalists until today are staunchly struggling for this right and it is an insult to those who fought and died in the name of campus press freedom to take away what is rightfully for the students and their publication. For over 90 years, the Philippine Collegian gives alternative viewpoint on various issues of students and other sectors of society rarely given the focus in the dominant media. It is the commitment of the Collegian and other members of the campus press in the country to give social reality a face and voice. The campus press is a veritable pillar of students’ democratic rights and the disrespect of the rights of campus journalists and student publications is appalling. It is alarming for the CEGP that these violations happened just in a week in UP Diliman and the Guild deplores such attacks to the campus press. The CEGP, as the oldest, widest and only-existing alliance of tertiary student publications in the AsiaPacific, and with its more than 750 member publications challenge the LP and Pangilinan to issue their apologies to the campus press for their outright violations to the rights of the campus press, not just in UP but in the whole country.
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Ang Opisyal na Pahayagan ng College Editors Guild of the Philippines PUNONG PATNUGOT: Marc Lino J. Abila MGA KAWANI SA ISYU: Jose Mari Callueng, Ian Harvey Claros, Charina Claustro, Mary Rose Iggie Espinoza, Paul Gumagay, Ronilo Mesa
DIBUHO SA EDITORYAL: Dawn Janelle Manzano LARAWAN SA PABALAT: Philippine Collegian
Para sa mga kontribusyon at pakikipag-ugnayan sa patnugutan, maaaring magpadala ng email sa cegp.newsdesk@gmail.com.
BALITA 3 Students stage nationwide walkout, say ‘RIP’ to right to education THE NATIONAL GUILDER Enero-Marso 2016
National News Bureau Thousands of students walked out from their classes today to condemn Aquino for allowing schools to increase the cost of tertiary education through deregulation policies. In Manila, students marched to Mendiola from the University of Santo Tomas (UST) while holding mock tombstones bearing calls for Aquino’s accountability for the death of the Filipino youth’s right to accessible and affordable education. “We say ‘RIP’ to education in our country. For the past five years, the Aquino administration has been consistent in increasing the cost of education. In his term, tuition and other school fees doubled from P30,000-P50,000 in 2010 to P60,000-P100,000 in 2015. Such increases caused our six fellow youth to take away their own lives, while on the other hand, Filipino students are still suffering just to get college education,” said Marc Lino Abila, national president of College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP). This academic year 2016-2017, at least 400 higher education institutions are set to increase their tuition and other school fees and CHED earlier said that it is the right of these schools to increase the school fees. “Our fellow youth, Kristel Tejada, whose third year death anniversary we commemorate on March 15, should be graduating in University of the Philippines Manila this June 2016. She could have been a psychologist and eventually help her four siblings finish education, too. On the other hand, Jessiven Lagatic, who took his life last month, could have been an agriculturist. The likes of Tejada and Lagatic are proof of Aquino’s negligence
Baguio students hold protest against commercialized education along Session Road. Photo courtesy Outcrop of UP Baguio. in providing accessible education for all at all levels,” Jon Callueng, CEGP national deputy secretary general said. The youth groups also wore graduation caps with price tags bearing the high cost of education as tassels, and carried life-size crosses on their shoulders to show how heavily the youth suffers to get a college education under Aquino’s six years in office. SUCs posted an 83 percent increase in total other school fee collection in the past five years while their budget are incessantly being reduced, Abila explained. “Four of our six fellow youth who were
forced to put an end to their lives due to education-related financial issues are from state universities. This shows how seriously our state has abandoned its mandate to provide accessible education. Universities and colleges should not be milking cows of capitalist-educators,” Abila stressed. “All of us have been victims of state neglect in education, and we will not allow the government to have another Kristel or Jessiven pushed at the brink of hopelessness. It is now time for us to demand to Aquino and his successor to provide us the rights we have long been deprived of,” Callueng said.
CEGP storms CHED over Bicol student death National News Bureau Members of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) trooped to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) last February 17 to denounce the dysfunctional education policies that claimed the life of an Agriculture major in Camarines Sur. “The Filipino youth is again weeping at the loss of another student who’s a victim of the merciless and heartless education policies of CHED and Noynoy Aquino,” said Jose Mari Callueng, national deputy secretary general of CEGP. Last February 11, CEGP-Bikol reported that the 25-year-old Jessiven Lagatic, a student of Central Bicol State University of Agriculture (CBSUA), was found dead in his room. According to his family, Lagatic lost his scholarship due to some failing marks from
the previous semester which depressed him and later on pushed him to commit suicide. “Enough is enough! Aquino and his cohorts in CHED have claimed five lives already. In a state institution like CBSUA, it is unacceptable that poor students cannot continue schooling just because of economic barriers. We cannot sit comfortably in our classrooms knowing that another of our fellow youth claimed his own life because of the rising cost of education,” Callueng said. Callueng pointed out that the Aquino administration has intensified the commercialization and deregulation of college education that led to the yearly increase on tuition fee. In fact, tuition costs doubled during Aquino’s term. From the annual P30,000 to P50,000 in 2010, tuition ballooned to P60,000 to P100,000 in 2015. “The government has the constitutional
mandate to exhaust every possible means to ensure that education is given all Filipinos but Aquino is doing the contrary. We have witnessed how tuition and other school fees skyrocketed in both public and private schools during his term and how Kristel Tejada, Rosanna Sanfuego, Jhoemary Azaula, Nilna Habibun, and now Jessiven Lagatic were forced into desperation because of hopelessness in the education system,” Callueng explained. “Aquino has the ultimate responsibility for the deaths of our fellow youth. We are calling the Filipino youth to join the nationwide walkout on February 24 and March 11 to stop another round of tuition and other school fee hikes, decry Aquino’s policies of deregulation and commercialization of education and demand justice for the Filipino youth,” Callueng ended.
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THE NATIONAL GUILDER Enero-Marso 2016
LATHALAIN
Sistema ng edukasyon sa administrasyong Aquino, may bagong biktima Marc Lino J. Abila The LPU Independent Sentinel, Lyceum of the Philippines University-Manila
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sang semestre na lang bago ang pagtatapos niya ng kolehiyo. Pero hindi Ikalimang biktima na niya ito nagawang maipagpatuloy dahil naitulak siya ng sistema ng Marso 2013 nang napabalitang nagpatiwakal si Kristel Tejada ng edukasyon para kitlin ang sariling buhay. University of the Philippines-Manila dahil sa kawalan ng pambayad sa Ikalima na si Jessiven Ligatic, 25, mag-aaral sa ikaapat na taon ng matrikula. Sa unang kuwarto ng nakaraang taon, naging sunud-sunod Bachelor of Science in Agriculture sa Central Bicol State University of ang mga kasong kaparehas ng kay Tejada: sina Rosanna Sanfuego Agriculture (CBSUA) sa Camarines Sur, na nagpakamatay kaugnay ng (Cagayan State University), Jhoemary Azaulang (Eulogio “Amang� suliranin sabayarin sa paaralan. Rodriguez Institute of Science and Sa panibagong trahedyang Sa panibagong trahedyang ito, tila wala pa Technology) at Nilna Habibun ng ito, tila wala pa ring pagkatuto Zamboanga Sibugay. ring pagkatuto ang administrasyong Aquino ang administrasyong Aquino sa Ayon sa Kabataan Party-list sa pagbibigay dapat ng karapatan ng Bikol, ipinaalam ng CBSUA Office sa pagbibigay dapat ng karapatan ng mga of Student Affairs and Services mga mamamayan na makapag-aral dahil sa patuloy na pagpapatupad (OSAS) na hindi mare-renew ang mamamayan na makapag-aral dahil sa ng mga polisiyang naglalayo sa mga kanyang iskolarsyip sa susunod kabataan sa mga pamantasan at patuloy na pagpapatupad ng mga polisiyang na semestre dahil mayroong ilang itinutulak sila sa kamatayan. asignaturang bumagsak si Jessiven naglalayo sa mga kabataan sa mga Dahil sa komersiyal ang isa sa sa nakaraang semestre. katangian ng edukasyon sa Pilipinas, pamantasan at itinutulak sila sa kamatayan. Umapila si Jessiven, pero taun-taon na lamang kung magtaas hindi siya pinagbigyan. Wala rin ng matrikula at iba pang bayarin ang mga publiko at mga pribadong umanong dokumentong ibinigay ang OSAS na nagsasabing matatanggal pamantasan at kolehiyo sa bansa. ng scholarship ang mag-aaral. Taun-taon rin gustong kaltasan ng administrasyong Aquino ang badyet Napilitang magbayad ng halos 7,000 pisong matrikula ang pamilya para sa state universities and colleges (SUCs) para unti-unting makatayo sa ni Lagatic mula sa kanilang maliit na kinikita para makapagpatuloy si sarili ang mga ito nang walang suporta mula sa estado. Sa esensiya, gawing Jessiven sa kaniyang huling semestre. Bagaman nabayaran ng pamilya kalakal imbes na karapatang ibigay ang edukasyon sa mga Pilipino. ang matrikula, hindi na kinaya ng pamilya ang dagdag na araw-araw na Sa ganitong sitwasyon ng edukasyon sa bansa, di nakapagtataka na gastusin sa pag-aaral. maraming kabataang hindi na nagpapatuloy sa pag-aaral at may ilang Benepisyaryo ang pamilya Ligatic ng Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino sukdulang pinili na wakasan ang kanilang buhay. Program (4Ps) ng pamahalaan at kabilang sa programang ito ang
LATHALAIN Expanded Students’ Grants-in-Aid Program for Poverty Alleviation (ESGP-PA) kung saan nabigyan ng scholarship si Jessiven. Ayon sa College Editors Guild of the Philippines, makakatanggap ng tulong pinansiyal ang isang mag-aaral na iskolar sa ilalim ng ESGP-PA para sa kolehiyo na P60,000 kada taon para sa matrikula at iba pang bayarin, mga libro, board and lodging, health services at iba pang gastusin sa paaralan. Pero P30,000 lang ang natatanggap ni Jessiven mula sa P60,000 na sapat lamang para sa isang taong pambayad ng matrikula. “It is a social reality that studying equates to a costly endeavor. Even though Lagatic was able to enroll, the daily expenses of going to school and daily academic requirements prevented him from attending his classes. The supposed allocation for his everyday expenditures was already used for his enrollment. Slowly, Lagatic was becoming desperate and hopeless. The final push was his upcoming midterm examinations,” ayon sa League of Filipino Students, matapos mamatay si Jessiven. Komersiyalisado Ang komersiyalisado at deregularisadong katangian ng edukasyon sa kolehiyo ang tinuturong ugat ng walang puknat na pagtaas ng halaga ng matrikula at iba pang bayarin sa mga unibersidad at kolehiyo sa Pilipinas. “At the heart of this [education] epidemic is the continuing policy of commercialization and education deregulation, a policy that intensified under the Aquino administration,” wika ni Sarah Elago, pambansang pangulo ng National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) at unang nominado ng Kabataan Party-list. Ang pag-akyat ng bayarin sa mga pampubliko at pribadong paaralan ay pinahihintulutan ng gobyernong Aquino sa pagpapatuloy nito sa pagpapatupad ng Batas Republika Blg. 232 o Education Act of 1982 at iba pang mga patakaran na naglalayon ng mas mataas na bayarin sa mga paaralan at iba pang kontra-estudyanteng panukala. Sa tala ng NUSP, dumoble ang halaga ng matrikula sa panunungkulan ni Pangulong Aquino. Mula sa P30,000-50,000 para sa isang taon o dalawang semestre noong 2010, umabot na ito sa P60,000-100,000 nitong 2015. Tinataya ring nasa 400 na unibersidad at kolehiyo sa buong bansa ang magtataas ng bayarin sa pagbubukas ng klase ngayong 2016 ayon sa independent monitoring ng Kabataan Party-list.
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Epekto ng umiigting na deregulasyon sa edukasyon ang taunang pagtaas ng matrikula. Ibinunga ng Education Act of 1982 ang pagpapatupad ng CHED Memorandum Order (CMO) No. 3, series of 2012 na panuntunan sa pagtataas ng matrikula. Bagaman sinasabing CMO 3 na kinakailangan ng konsultasyon, madalas ay mga bogus na konsultasyon ang nangyayari sa mga pamantasan at sa iba pa nga ay wala. Hindi rin ligtas ang mga Iskolar ng Bayan sa SUCs, tulad nina Kristel at Jessiven, sa hagupit ng komersiyalisasyon at deregulasyon sa edukasyon. Binigyang-laya ng mga patakaran sa edukasyon na magpasya sa sarili ang SUCs sa mga sisingiling bayarin sa mga magaaral. Samakatwid, pinahihintulutan ng gobyerno ang mga SUCs na maningil ng mga bayaring hindi naman kinakailangang bayaran ng mga mag-aaral. Tuloy ang laban Nagsagawa ng mga pagkilos ang mga organisasyon ng estudyante sa loob ng mga unibersidad na tinawag na “Black Valentine” protests nitong Pebrero 12, isang araw matapos ang pagpanaw ni Jessiven. Nagkaroon din ng pagsisindi ng mga kandila sa Mendiola ang mga grupo upang ipanawagan ang pagpapanagot kay Aquino sa kanyang patuloy sa patakaran ng komersiyalisasyon at deregulasyon ng edukasyon na nagbubunga ng maraming kabataang hindi na tumutuloy sa kanilang pag-aaral. “Before, we said: one death is one too many. Now, the education crisis has already claimed five lives. The Aquino administration should not continue playing blind and deaf to the issue of tuition and other fee increases,” ayon kay Elago. Nag-anunsiyo ang progresibong mga grupo ng kabataan at estudyante ng malalaking protesta at walkout sa Pebrero 24 at Marso 11 para labanan ang pagtataas ng matrikula at maipabasura ang mga OSF na hindi pinakikinabangan ng mga mag-aaral. Nangako rin ang kabataan na ipagpapatuloy ang laban sa libre at dekalidad na edukasyon para sa mamamayang Pilipino at hindi na nila hahayaang may susunod pang kapwa nila kabataang kikitilin ang buhay dahil sa desperasyon at kawalang pag-asa. Kanilang iginigiit na hindi na dapat pang masundan ang pagpanaw nina Kristel, Rosanna, Jhoemary, Nilna at Jessiven at dapat managot si Aquino sa kanyang kataksilan sa kabataang Pilipino.
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THE NATIONAL GUILDER Enero-Marso 2016
CEGP to Comelec: Honest election is your obligation National News Bureau Election watchdog group Kontra Daya held a protest in front of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) on March 15 to criticize the refusal of the former to implement the Supreme Court’s order requiring the activation of Voters Verification Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) feature of vote-counting machines (VCMs). “The COMELEC is evidently not interested to implement the order. Instead of indulging in making steps to enable issuance of voter receipts to reach the May 9 deadline, they are engaging in a gamesmanship with the Supreme Court by threatening that the polls may be postponed for a month. This tactic is for the high court to reverse its decision,” said Jose Mari Callueng, CEGP National Deputy
Secretary General. The poll body earlier said that they are looking over manual counting as an option. If not, they will be forced to move the elections to June 9. “People’s vote should be rightfully counted. That is called transparency and it is the right of the people to have transparent and clean elections,” Callueng furthered. He added that while COMELEC’s “Noel, Po-el” (no election, postpone election) pronouncement stirs public doubt on the integrity of the May 9 elections and it alo crafts speculations that the poll body has possibly “pre-programmed” the VCMs to favor Liberal Party’s bets. Meanwhile, although the Guild believes that providing the VVPAT may give some degree of confidence to the people that their
votes were indeed counted by the machine, it questioned the poll body’s transparency over election process. “First, we have seen glitches in the machines, and now the threat to postpone the elections or return to manual system. How can we even trust COMELEC or the election system? COMELEC is not even listening to the people. With the intervention of a foreign company in our election system, the poll body already surrendered our independence as well,” Callueng said. With Task Force Bantay Boto, campus journalists assure that they will be vigilant of the election process and will thwart any move of the COMELEC that will harm the nation’s vote. “Clean, honest, and credible election — that is, after all, the obligation of COMELEC to the nation,” Callueng ended.
CEGP: Bongbong’s VP bid is a threat to democratic rights National News Bureau The College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) expressed alarm over Bongbong Marcos topping the recent Pulse Asia vice presidential survey in a press conference commemorating the World Day Against Cyber Censorship last March 12. CEGP National President Marc Lino Abila said that if Marcos Jr. lands on the secondhighest post of the republic, he would do anything to distort history and blur the atrocities during Marcos Sr.’s 21-year tyrannical rule. “Having another Marcos on one of the top positions in the government is appalling and winning the vice presidency is a way to recapture Malacañang. We cannot let the scion of a dictator win despite the fact that his family abused human rights, killed and tortured a multitude of people, violated people’s democratic freedoms, amassed the public funds and brought the nation into bankruptcy,” said Abila. “Bongbong is not as innocent as he thinks himself to be. In fact, Bongbong was instrumental in plundering public coffers during his father’s presidency. How can one explain the large amount Bongbong is spending for his premature campaign and TV ads? It’s obvious that he’s using their ill-gotten wealth to have a comeback in Malacañang,” Abila explained. Abila added that the Marcos regime can be likened to the Dark Ages when the dictatorship had the monopoly on its so-called truths, when freedom of expression and freedom of the press were non-existent. The Marcoses
had the media under their control and crony press did nothing but praise the dictator. “Though some Millennials are blinded by the lies of the Marcoses, campus journalists are well aware of the viciousness of the Marcoses to the campus press. A number of young men and women who fought the dictatorship were campus journalists. In the age of Internet and social media, campus journalists won’t let anyone muzzle us from telling the important
issues of the youth and people. We won’t let Bongbong Marcos, an author of Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, be vice president,” Abila asserted. “The campus press will never fall for the deceptions the Marcoses are telling the public. We are committed in protecting campus press freedom and democratic rights. We won’t let anyone trample press freedom and the people’s right to know the truth,” Abila ended.
Press freedom advocates warn on the implications to press freedom if Bongbong Marcos wins the vice presidency in a press conference in commeration of World Day Against Cyber Censorship last March 12. Photo courtesy of Philippine Collegian.
Never Again to Martial Law! No to Bongbong as Vice President! Campaign Against the Return of Marcoses to Malacañang (CARMMA)
BALITA 7 Campus journos commemorate #EDSA30, vow not to let Bongbong win in 2016 polls THE NATIONAL GUILDER Enero-Marso 2016
National News Bureau The College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) commemorated the events of the EDSA I uprising three decades ago as the nation remembers the struggle of the people agarinst the Marcos dictatorship. In a rally near EDSA Shine last February 25, CEGP praised the Filipino masses that fought the tyranny of Marcos and to call for social, political, and economic reform in the nation. “The CEGP also denounces efforts by the Marcoses and their cohorts to dilute the true
spirit of the EDSA uprising and to downplay it as a mere historical event. Bongbong Marcos’s vice-presidential bid is a testament of how the Marcos family plans to recapture their wealth and power. We should derail their plot to get back to Malacañang,” stated CEGP National President Marc Lino Abila. “EDSA People Power I did not just happen because of the likes of Corazon Aquino and those in socio-political power—it was an event that was sparked by the undeniable anger brewing inside every Filipino who took to the streets and fought for their rights together,”
Former COMELEC chair Sixto Brillantes inspects the new VCMs in Robinsons Place Manila during the nationwide mock polls last February 13. Photo by Marc Lino Abila.
Abila further said. At that time, the Philippines was in shambles— the promise of a better country destroyed with the voracious embezzlement and violation of human rights by the dictatorship. The economy took a nasty fall, and basic freedoms and civil liberties were near to non-existent. However, the country is now in a far greater mess than it did before, all hidden behind the veil of the impossible promises of the neoliberal policies imposed by the Aquino administration. Democratic rights are also at risk, with the Philippines being the fourth most dangerous place for journalists around the world, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. “The unwise implementation of western influenced neoliberal policies also affects students. State universities and colleges are forced to create income-generating initiatives at the cost of impeding on the rights of students and communities, steeply raise tuition fees and other school fees year after year, revise curricula to fit in to buzzwords such as ‘globally competitive’ and ‘marketable,’ and to oppress students who decide to speak out against these violations of their rights,” Abila explained. “As campus journalists, the CEGP criticizes the government’s dressing up of the EDSA I uprising as mere historical milestone led by the few, when it is, at its core, more than the sum of the angry cries of the masses against the dictatorship. Finally, the Guild recognizes the need to be inspired and to learn a lesson from the EDSA uprising—that mass action can create change in society—and calls for Filipinos everywhere to come together to fight government oppression, to resist neoliberal policies, and to clamor for true human freedom and liberty,” Abila ended.
New VCMs still prone to vote rigging – CEGP National News Bureau The College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) expressed alarm on the new vote counting machines (VCMs) as possible tools for automated cheating this coming May polls. “VCMs are still prone to automated pandaraya just like the ‘Hocus PCOS’ machines used during the last two national elections,” said Marc Lino Abila, CEGP national president. The independent monitoring of the Kabataan, Tayo ang Pag-asa Task Force Bantay Boto, a youth-led initiative for clean and honest elections, documented problems with the VCMs during last February 13 nationwide mock polls. The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) deactivated the voter verification paper audit trail (VVPAT), the broadband global area network (BGAN) terminals had difficulties
catching signal, and ballots were rejected due to the oversensitivity of its self-diagnostic feature. “After you vote, of course, you would want to know if your vote entered correctly in the VCM. The VCM will print a receipt for the voter to check if the vote was registered. VVTAP can serve to detect fraud but even the on-screen verification feature was also deactivated by COMELEC,” added Abila. The COMELEC en banc resolved that the receipt-printing feature be deactivated in fear that this may be used for vote-buying and vote-selling. CEGP, however, said that both the receipt-printing and on-screen verification features should be turned on for transparency. Some polling centers reported ballot rejections by the VCM due to the oversensitivity of its self-diagnostic feature. As per COMELEC rules, one voter is only allowed to enter the ballot in the machine thrice. After
that, it would be invalid. Some of the ballots were also rejected due to ink-blotting. “Contrary to COMELEC’s claim, the mock polls did not go smoothly,” Abila said. The youth election watchdogs also found problems in BGAN terminals after taking several hours to set-up and looking for signal for it to send results to the National Board of Canvassers (NBC). The transmitter should be able to send the results in an hour after the voting was closed but some took about two hours. Out of 40 mock poll centers, only 37 were able to transmit the results. “The youth won’t let the 60-30-10 scheme to happen again. Election fraud has become easier through automation. It is the duty of every voter to be vigilant not only on the day of the elections but even during the preparations to secure the nation’s vote,” Abila ended.
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LATHALAIN