Council Meeting June 22, 2011 Attendance: Kherl Reyes: Henry Tan: Kelvin Tagnipez: Ben Bismark: Ann Huang: Diane Vitriolo: Carissa Sta. Maria: Carlo Magsino: Irene Arzadon: Van Valdez: Hannah Manalili: Ryan Hilado: Bettina Ramas: Simone Carpio Ria Zapanta Stef Su:
P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P Agenda: I. Kapekonomia II. RH March III. Org Fair IV. Freshie Campaign V. Acquaintance Party VI. Courtesy Call VII. Freshie Committee VIII. Updates IX. Peace talks discussion with Tin Valero
I.
Kapekonomia a. EdRes asks for help in publicity through any way possible (OL, word of mouth, textbrigs) b. Program, as discussed by Irene Arzadon i. 4-4:30 Registration ii. 4:33-5:03 Speaker 1 (Prof. Kraft) iii. 5:03-5:18 Q & A for speaker 1 iv. 5:18-5:48 Speaker 2 (Dean Ocampo) v. 5:48-6:03 Q & A for speaker 2 c. Individual assignments through volunteer system i. Set-up: Bettina, Stef, Ben & Carlo 1. In charge of ingress ii. Time keepers: Simone and Stef 1. Will make sure that the schedule is followed iii. Laptop: Ria 1. Will manage the power point presentations iv. Ushers: SESC and Educ SC 1. Guide the guests and handle registration v. Documentation: Irene 1. Take pictures for documentation and provide a camera vi. Hosts: Ann and Ben 1. Coordinate with time keepers and keep the crowd lively Page 1 of 8
Council Meeting June 22, 2011 vii. All volunteers will wear green d. Tasks left to be done i. Certificates of appreciation will be printed by Irene later ii. Pastries will be provided for by the Educ SC iii. Water will be provided by Kehrl iv. Thermoses will be provided by Kelvin and Irene v. Each councilor must come up with the questions to get the ball rolling should there be a lag from the audience during the Q&A portion vi. Registration forms will be printed by Irene later II.
RH AGENDA a. The RH march will be held on June 24. Assembly time: 3:00pm in front of AS 1 b. The march will pass by the school of economics to “pick-up” supporters c. Expected people from the school of economics: At least 30 d. Program will start at 5pm and a specific portion of the program was allotted to the members to speak in support of the RH bill i. Kehrl Reyes will speak on behalf of the school of economics e. Everyone will wear purple
III.
Organization Fair a. The orgs are generally happy due to the high number of apps signing up b. A “pakain” will be held on June 24 lunch time. The orgs will subsidize the cost, 500 each.2 c. The org fair tarp has been posted and will be used for future org fairs unless an additional org is created in econ
IV.
Freshmen batch rep elections a. Most of the campaigns are being done online through FB. Not all candidates decided to post an 11x17 poster. b. It was stressed that council members are not allowed to help the freshmen candidates in any way so as not to appear biased and give an unfair advantage to any of the candidates. c. The elections will be held on Friday in the same spot as where the council booth is during the organization fair. d. Preparations still to left undone: i. The ballot box will be handled by Carlo M. He has talked to the econ staff to construct one. ii. The ballots and the master list of voters will be prepared by Ben iii. The sophomore reps will be the ones in charge of the booth.
V.
Courtesy call a. Will be held over lunch during the 1st week of July b. Will be held on the day with least conflicts. Ben will check the scheds to confirm which schedule is preferable 3
VI.
Acquaintance party a. Will be held on July 8 1
Was moved to July 1 due to heavy rains and the cancelation of classes Postponed due to heavy rains and the cancelation of classes 3 After checking, four people are unavailable WF and two on TTh, lunch time 2
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Council Meeting June 22, 2011 b. Ann requested a quick run-through of all the activities already done with the freshmen to gauge what activities they’re willing to do and what their initial impression of SE is. i. Activities done with the freshmen were, Freshie or with the theme “Tara” where they were segregated into blocks. Econ GA where most of the participants were freshies was also mentioned. Lastly, the block handling with the orgs where the freshmen were split into three randomized groups was brought up. c. Several themes were suggested but the general idea was for the theme to be in line with “Econ, bilib ako” which attempts to reframe council into a “more than events based” council. i. The theme for acquaintance party is: Pajama party. The theme is designed to give a general homey feel to the party. ii. To give incentive to people to follow the theme, a prize will be given to the best in costume. d. Program inserts by council members i. Launch of “Econ, bilib ako” as the theme for the semester. This will include a video, station ID and a quick message at the end by Kehrl ii. A message from the administration iii. Van will launch the publicity campaign for schoolympics iv. Henry will relaunch the econ website which was carried over from last year’s council v. The video introducing the council will be shown. vi. The dance crew and gleecon will be revived through a performance during the party. Although all councilors agreed this will be difficult as they disbanded three years ago. However, with specific weaknesses in the dance crew and gleecon identified last year, it will be easier to revive them, 1. Prof. de Dios and Fabella can perform. The council will request this e. A potential schedule conflict was raised since the acquaintance party will be on the same day as the UP Fershie concert. However, since the concert won’t be held until late at night, it was pointed out that the two events will actually complement each other as there is greater incentive for the freshies to stay after class. VII.
July 4, freshie committee meeting a. All freshie batch reps are invited to go so whoever wins for the election on Friday will have to attend b. Fmen will be held on July 8. It is a concert held for the freshmen
VIII.
Merchandise sale a. Car invited everyone in the council to purchase a shirt. b. The UP planners are selling at a normal pace but she reminded everyone of their sales quota c. One second hand Varian was sold. Donations for books are still open.
IX.
Specific Updates a. Juniors i. Primers will be prepared for electives and will be based on the electives 101 primer last year ii. The batch reps association will meet regarding the batch shirts, acquaintance party and sat classes. They will consolidate prices and the single source for all merchandise to lower costs. b. Media and Publicity i. The pubmat for varsity try-outs will be reprinted due to a printing error Page 3 of 8
Council Meeting June 22, 2011
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ii. The material for prodwork for the council board is ready. Prodwork will be scheduled next week 1. We have to wait for the neo booth to move so that the board will be open for prod work Seniors i. Stata workshop will require a room to be reserved. It will be on July 6 1. Speaker will be Prof. Joseph Capuno and he will speak on using stata specifically about its application for thesis purposes SAC i. Varsity practice and try-outs have been set. However, it was raised the women’s basketball team may be difficult to assemble due to the lack of members.4 ii. The batch reps will send the link the survey for schoolympics. Right now, the statistics for the vote is that 33 people voted for schoolympics to be on a Sat and 11 voted for it to be on a Mon iii. The venue for Schoolympics will either be DAR or QC circle as not that many people are voting for Marikina sprots complex Marketing i. Diane will try to convince Sun cellular to sponsor given that we can only provide a venue. The council cannot sell due to lack of manpower. Secretariat i. Change in SOP as the office of the college secretary requested that room reservations not be too advance. Room reservations will now be made only 4 days before the event EdRes i. Breps will help publicize kapekonomia ii. Academic alliance will focus more on org based tutorials because the organizations want to keep the incentive for students to apply for their orgs. Hence, the major work of the academic alliance will not center on tutorials. However, tutorials will still be made available to the general student body c/o the council. 1. Big tutorials have proven to be ineffective anyways as raised by Irene Arzadon. The students will be better off if the academic alliance just gave out the materials for the students to study on their own. iii. Kamustahan will be planned. It will be purposed towards defining the auxiliary corps of the EdRes. ~ 30 Minute Recess ~ (so as not to conflict with EcoSoc general assembly)
X.
Peace talk discussion with Tin Valero a. Tin Valero started the discussion by mentioning that the statement has been convened over and has been ratified by several other organizations b. Tin Valero continues to state that the purpose of the statement is to forward the youth agenda on the peace talks. These are to forward comprehensive reforms in the law specifically those that touch on agreements on socio economic policies. c. Stress was placed on the fact that there have been no clear resolutions to the reforms being demanded hence the peace talks haven’t reached a resolution. 4
The try-outs and practice this weekend was moved due to the storm Page 4 of 8
Council Meeting June 22, 2011 d. The statement has been passed around several councils and student organizations as part of their consultation process. Aside from the school of economics, they have approached the PolSci department and several law schools just to name a few. e. Tin asked for what the school of economics student council generally felt about the peace talks. i. Councilor Henry Tan mentioned that there were other talks on going such as that concerning farmers. He attended this talk last year. ii. Bettina Ramas mentioned that several government officials just wanted to retain their positions in the government hence a lot of violence has taken palce. iii. Ryan Hilado said that it is a simple repercussion of other social problems the general public is not aware of. iv. Arriana Zapanta said that for long lasting peace to be attained, the two parties must meet halfway and concessions must be made by both sides. f. Tin Valero then gives a brief situation briefing to iron out the details. She mentions: i. There are several groups such as the GPH (government of the Philippines), CPP (communist party of the Philippines) , MILF (moro islamic liberation front) just to mention a few that are involved with the peace talks. All parties have something at stake. 1. All parties want to achieve development for the country but they just have different perspectives on how to achieve that development. Though all agree that socio economic reforms are necessary. 2. Each party also has its own military arm. ii. In the status quo, the peace talks are ongoing but were suspended during the time of PGMA. The peace talks have been underway since the administration of Cory Aquino. iii. The laws that are being used to govern the conflict are international ones so as not to subject one party under the law of another and give unjust leverage to one. iv. Bilateral reforms are being discussed to prevent one sided policy making v. The problem will not be solved overnight but people are searching for much needed and immediate economic relief. vi. The root of the conflict is socio economic vii. Decision in the end will be in the hands of the parties involved with the peace talks. 1. The normal citizen may not have a major say in the matter 2. Representation of the ordinary citizen in the talks is vital for long lasting peace 3. Supposedly, the government officials represent the people in the talks. However, the statement questions whether or not these officials are really the best people to represent the citizens. She emphasizes the monopoly of capitalists and bureaucrats in the Phil. government. viii. A referendum might be necessary to ensure that the peace talks are effective. g. She then discusses the differences between the main two parties in their approach to long lasting peace. These are namely the CPP and the GPH i. CPP 1. Represents the farmers and the oppressed 2. Believes in fighting against the oppression of foreign capitalism 3. Believes in fighting against feudal exploitation and state policies that support this 4. Believes that corruption is one of the root causes of the problem. ii. GPH Page 5 of 8
Council Meeting June 22, 2011 1. Has been changing its stance in the talks as the term of presidents change but has been consistent with its push for peace. 2. Believes that the “four pillars of good governance” are key to solving the problem. h. She then discusses the statement on a point-by-point basis i. Social reforms for land and agriculture 1. Benedict Bismark mentions that the Philippines is slowly becoming more industrialized economy hence the focus of reforms must then be more geared towards this for progress. Tin Valero then agrees that there have been efforts to industrialize and that this is the key to progress. However, the “owners of industrialization” aren’t the Filipino people but the foreigners. This is why, she elaborates, 75% of the Filipino people are still farmers despite the degree of industrialization. 2. It was then mentioned that the agriculture industry also needs improvement as this sector is the most harmed by the feudal struggles and territorial divisions that plague the country. Industrialization is the key to improving the country’s state as mentioned. 3. Van Valdez then clarifies whether or not the statement is anti-globalization because of the wording in the statement. Tin Valero then mentions that the statement itself is not against globalization. It is against domination of the foreign countries when it comes to trade. She mentions that most of the time, because the Philippines is a poor country, we get the lesser half of the bargain because we do not have the power to demand of other countries. She parallelizes it to colonialism and how the Philippines is a naturally rich country. 4. Benedict Bismark then asks specifically how the foreign countries dominate the Philippines in terms of trade. a. She mentions that the specifics are at the latter part of the statement but briefly discusses a few. b. Tin Valero then discusses that the monopoly of power will not be solved in the current system as the feudal struggles continue without any sign of relief. More than that, the solutions are merely “bandaging the wound” and not really healing it. c. She mentions that the struggles have proven to be a better alternative to status quo as it has helped countries such as China and Vietnam develop. In status quo, she says, it might seem as though it is simply better to occur foreign debt but that is not the case as debts come with more than a monetary price. The foreign capitalists attempt to stun the growth of the country to forward their own goals. d. Tin Valero expounds that after collective ownership of the land is achieved, further juxtaposing the case to that of China and Vietnam, the monopoly will be broken and social mobility will be achieved. She stresses that 75% of the profits of farms like Hacienda Luicita goes only to the landlords. She mentions that this is unfair for the farmers who gain only as much as PHP9 for their labor in the farms. 5. Henryson Tan then questions whether or not it is best to simply give the land to the farmers as there is no reassurance that they will use the land to maximum efficiency. He states that because the farmers might not be knowledgeable how to run a business, they will simply be bought out again Page 6 of 8
Council Meeting June 22, 2011 and the cycle will reoccur. On top of that, the farms will not yield as much output as before. Tin then mentions that she agrees that the farmers must be educated but the problem must be solved one step at a time. The reason why they are not educated is because they lack the resources. More than that, there has to be change given that the status quo is not working. 6. Ryan Hilado then mentions that not all haciendas are evil. Some actually give fair wages. He cites examples. Tin Valero then mentions that she agrees that there are some good landlords out there. However, the bad ones are more prominent and she cites several examples i. For purposes of expediency, Tin Valero asks Kelvin Tagnipez to briefly read the statement and its points. i. In brief, the points were that the state is alienating its people and for the youth to progress, imperialism among other wrongs must be abolished. Specifically, the statement demands several things and, in gist, these are: 1. Solution to surplus labor 2. Reforms for trade acts 3. Wage hikes for the common laborer 4. Comprehensive land reforms 5. Just trial of PGMA 6. Just trial and removal of corrupt AFP officials 7. Peaceful military agreements 8. Freedom of speech and basic human rights 9. The flourishing of ideas 10. Recognition of the right to organize 11. Peace negotiations that bring social justice and are not alien to the public. These should also bring about just and long lasting peace. j. It was then brought up that unless the Philippine culture of self-interest is corrected, none of these changes will truly come about. k. Henryson Tan then asked how collective ownership will come about. Given that most landlords will not be willing to simply give up their lands to farmers. He mentions that the government might not be ready to handle this. Van Valdez adds by saying that most attempts to simply give away land to the poor ended up in bloody conflict. He cites the French revolution. Tin Valero then mentions that majority of the Filipino people are under the tyranny of the system and that something has to be done. She admits that the statement is ideal and again mentions a step by step solution to the problem. She then mentions this is why we must push our leaders and ourselves as leaders in our own right to change. After all the amendments, the system will be ready for this. She mentions that the status quo is worse because the farmers are in a situation where they “Have nothing to lose but their chains� She adds that given our different circumstance, we might find it hard to put ourselves in their shoes. l. Tin Valero then asks if there are any last minute clarifications before the session is wrapped up. Van Valdez then asks if the statement is anti-OFW because it seems to question the labor export system in the Philippines. He brings up a simple supply and demand model. He also brings up the fact that the OFWs have done a lot for the country. He mentions that a closed door policy like that of Japan way back when will not work. Tin Valero states that the statement is not anti-OFW and reiterates that the statement is simply against foreign domination. She mentions that in labor export, the push for our workers to go abroad is the lack of jobs in the country. She states that no OFW really wants to work in the situation wherein he is separated from his family and is forced to work in another country. She states that the real problem is in the lack of local jobs and that is a problem worth fixing. Page 7 of 8
Council Meeting June 22, 2011 m. To conclude, Tin Valero invited the SESC to join the statement. In response, SESC said that it will consult with the student body. Specifically, it will bring the statement to SEAC for review. Tin Valero was invited to join the SEAC meeting in order to clarify any questions regarding the statement. n. Additionally, SESC mentioned that a Kapekonomia can be dedicated to the peace talks.
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