OUTCR
MAPAGPALAYANG KAISIPAN SA MALAYANG PAHAYAGAN
AGOSTO 2016
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Millions worth of failure
eUP continues despite malfunctions \\ Ellainemor San Pascual
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ven with the apparent problems encountered by eUP, University of the Philippines President Alfredo E. Pascual (PAEP) will still push through with it as stated on the 1320th Board of Regents (BOR) meet last August 25. Errors found President Pascual considers eUP as the flagship program of his administration with SAIS (Student Academic Information System) being one of its core information systems. SAIS is responsible for the overall tracking of a students’ lifecycle. This includes the curriculum, admission, registration, advisement and payment. The P746.9 million spent for the system as of 2015 contains numerous promises of improvements with regard to the systems used by all UP campuses. However, recent events in different UP campuses proved otherwise. On July 30, 500 students camped out in University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB) during the first usage of SAIS just to ensure slots for their subjects. This then caused an uproar of complaints from students and parents due to glitches of the supposed improved enrollment. UP Baguio students, on the other hand, suffered the inefficiency of SAIS during the second day of enrollment on July 28. This led to the suspension of the third day of enrollment. According to a statement released by the eUP team, SAIS was subjected to a Denial of Service (DoS) attack. Joy Natividad of ComSci@upbag said that DoS is done by an attacker sending multiple requests to a server which may result in system failure. Costs and Effects A great number of students, organizations, student councils and unions showed dismay on the supposed improvement by making a call to junk eUP. Last August 25, 2016, a system-wide protest action against eUP was done in different UP campuses. Afterwards, a discussion about eUP, its functions and issues encountered, was spearheaded by the UPB College of Science (CS) committee, comsci@upbag and University Student Council (USC). According to Ralz Anzemuel
Juatco of the UPB-USC College of Science (CS) Committee, scrapping eUP will be hard for PAEP’s administration because it is under multiple signed contracts. However, continuous usage of eUP will only result to the increase of tuition fees because UP will be paying for the licenses of FMIS (Financial Management Information System), EIS (Executive Information Sysem), HRIS (Human Resource Information System), SAIS and other database management systems until the contracts end. As of June 2016, eUP has spent more than the assumed expenditure on bandwidth, equipment and IT support systems (P747M). The expenses went up to P793 million, this according to the eUP thesis of Journalism students of University of the Philippines Diliman, Ronn Joshua Bautista and Krixia Zhienelle Subingsubing. Troubleshooting eUP started last 2012 and is expected to be fully complete this coming 2017. Councilor Jhun Camit of USC said that the completion is unlikely to happen. This is the result of the recent problem that occured from the said system. Nonetheless, for the USC, junking eUP is the best solution to stop it from causing further damage. “Ang ginagamit na fund sa eUP ay TFI (Tuition Fee Increment Fund) na galing sa perang nakolekta sa pagtataas ng matrikula,” UPB-USC NatCorps Head Nedlloyd Tuguinay said. “To be cost-efficient, dapat i-iimprove na lang ang mga homegrown systems, CRS at SystemOne,” Tuguinay added. When this resolution was raised to PAEP, he said, “Kikita ba tayo diyan?” On the other hand, Dodot Orbon, UPB-USC Chairperson stated the USC will continue calling to junk SAIS and eUP. An ongoing petition to junk eUP, led by the Alliance of Concerned Students (ACS) and USC, has now reached 200 signatures.
SYSTEM GLITCHES Students of University of the Philippines Baguio (UPB), along with other UP campuses, participated in a national coordinated action calling to junk SAIS and eUP. Also, students continue to hold Alfredo Pascual accountable for the millions wasted on the program. \\ Photo by Divine Loraine Peñaflor
19 NDFP consultants released for Peace Talks
Karapatan urges release of 4 more \\ Divine Loraine Peñaflor
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s National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) celebrates the release of its peace consultants to participate in the formal peace talks in Oslo, Norway, it urges the Duterte administration to release 4 more NDFP consultants, and release 550 other political prisoners in the Philippines. On August 15 to 19, 19 peace consultants were released including Wilma Tiamzon, Benito Tiamzon, Alan Jazmines, Adelberto Silva and Renante Gamara who are in Oslo. The NDFP thanks the Duterte administration for fulfilling its promise of releasing political prisoners for the peace talks abandoned by Benigno Aquino during his term. However, Karapatan still calls for the release of four other peace consultants Eduardo Sarmiento, Leopoldo Caloza, Emeterio Antalan and Renato Baleros Sr. who are still detained in the Philippines and are supposed to be under the protection of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG). Under JASIG, NDFP Consultants are protected from arrest, surveillance and
harassment. According to Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN), the release of these political prisoners, most especially peace consultants, will help the progress of peace talks that aim to solve the root causes of the armed conflict in the Philippines. Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay emphasized that all cases filed against Sarmiento, Caloza, Antalan and Baleros are trumped up charges. “These people are wrongly convicted of crimes they did not commit,” Palabay said. Sarmiento currently serves a 20 to 40 years of sentence in prison for being convicted of illegal possession of firearms and explosives in December continued to page 2
UP Baguio Outcrop Tomo 43 Agosto 2016
USC supports ROTC abolition, condemns campus militarization \\ John Rey Dave Aquino
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resolution to abolish the Reserved Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program was submitted at the General Assembly of Student Councils (GASC) last July.
Co-authored by the UP Mindanao (UPMin) College of Humanities and Social Sciences SC, UPMin College of Science and Mathematics SC, and UP Mindanao USC, the resolution holds that campus militarization must be stopped in all UP campuses amidst President Rodrigo Duterte’s proposal to reinstate mandatory ROTC. The resolution reads that ROTC resulted in numerous harassments, red tagging and even 21 human rights violations in the ranks of such progressive student organizations and other 22 formations. On its situation Duterte expressed his desire to make the program mandatory once again to “instill discipline and love of country” in today’s youth. In addition, Duterte believes that the country needs a reservist corps, should China retaliate over the matter with the West Philippine Sea. Calls to abolish ROTC rose in 2001 when Mark Chua, student cadet at the University of Santo Tomas who had exposed the corruption in the UST-ROTC, was killed by his fellow cadets. ROTC was later made optional
in 2002 with the enactment of the Republic Act 9163, or the “National Service Training Program (NSTP) Act”. Guian Guerzon of the UPB-USC College of Arts and Communication (CAC) committee said that the resolution is a response to the persisting abusive activities within the said program. The resolution reads “campus militarization is rampant among colleges and universities, especially those where progressive student organizations and other formations actively reside.” The existence of the program in UP also violates the UPDepartment of National Defense (UP-DND) accord, wherein state security forces are prohibited from entering university premises. In UPMin, members of the 11th Infantry Batallion supervise the training of student cadets after the Board of Regents (BOR) signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). The ROTC program is supposed to be under the Department of Military Science and Tactics (DMST), but no such academic unit exists in UPMin. Meanwhile, soldiers from the Philippine Military Academy train
ROTC enrollees in UP Baguio. In UP Los Baños, army barracks exist inside the campus for the ROTC. On a larger scale The resolution was also submitted in light of rampant militarization of communities in different parts of the country. According to Kalikasan Peoples’ Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE), increasing military presence has also brought about intensified violation of human rights in these communities. In September 2015, Lumads were forcibly evacuated from the town Lianga and San Agustin in Surigao del Sur. Their departure was prompted by the massacre of Lumad school director Emerito Samarca and Lumad leaders Dionel Campos and Aurelio Sinzo at the hands of the MagahatBagani Force, a paramilitary group involved with the 36th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army. Likewise, indigenous peoples in the Cordillera who are actively protesting against large-scale mining operations in the region experience the same cases of harassment and human rights violations from the AFP.
19 NDFP Consultants...
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2013. His lawyers insisted that the court made a mistake in its decision since it failed to prove the offense beyond reasonable doubt. Sarmiento also faced two other cases, use of fictitious name and arson, but both were dismissed. Caloza and Antalan, on the other hand, were convicted for “murdering” a certain Kathlyn Ramos in September 2015. Bayani Domingo’s testimonies were the only basis for the decision. Domingo, however, admitted that he did not see Caloza and Antalan kill Ramos. Meanwhile, the release of Baleros on humanitarian grounds is being urged. Baleros suffers from several diseases in which he acquired from the Samar Provincial Jail. Baleros was charged for murder and frustrated murder, robbery in band, multiple homicide and arson. The court dismissed all charges except for one. Palabay urged the current administration to junk all trumpedup charges against political prisoners in accordance with previously signed agreements by the NDFP and Government of the Philippines (GPh). “This policy and practice of filing trumped up criminal charges against social workers, religious, human rights advocates, leaders of people’s organizations and consultants to the peace process have to stop,” said Palabay. NDFP proclaimed that the first formal talk between the two concerned parties was a success. The next formal talk will be in October 2016.
LAMBAT Binigyan ng pagkakataon ang mga delegado ng 76th NSPC upang makasalamuha ang mga lokal na mangingisda ng Oton, Iloilo kabilang na si Jimmy Muestas na gumagawa ng kanyang lambat upang gamitin sa pamamalaot kahit pa malalakas ang alon dahil sa Hanging Habagat.
\\ Kuha nina Quimberlyn Ranchez, John Rey Dave Aquino at Divine Loraine Peñaflor