PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte looked at himself as the father of the nation, but his “children” said he failed on this.
“The President is in no way a father to the country nor are we yearning for one,” said Dean Lacandazo, a youth leader from the central Philippines.
“He is nothing but a populist-fascist puppet of not only to the United States but subservient too to China,” he added.
During his third State of the Nation Address (Sona) on July 23, thousands of youth and students protested on how the President “failed miserably in leading the nation to unity, progress, and peace.”
In his speech, Duterte promised to "do whatever it would take to give all Filipinos a comfortable life, fighting powerful interests and making sacrifices."
"My obligation is to promote and uphold the greatest good, for the greatest number," the President said.
Yet for Lacandazo, Duterte's speech “was no more than a blabber of his imaginations in his own perceived universe.”
“His latest speech might have sounded more concise and somehow relatively more diplomatic by sticking to the prepared speech. But, more than the big words and tempered rhetoric is the actual truth: unabated killings, worsening poverty consistent with rising inflation and dipping peso economy, militarization in Samar countryside, and many more,” Lacandazo said on Friday, July 27.
“I cannot accept that the likes of Duterte will be compared to a father. Duterte is an embarrassment to all real fathers who worked hard for their children and their country,” added Jastine Domdom, a young rights advocate in Manila.
Amid Duterte’s landmark law on free tuition, progressive youth group Anakbayan in Eastern Visayas said that “education remains inaccessible to the youth, especially the poor.”
“However true that state universities and colleges in the region no longer collect tuition from qualified beneficiaries of the free tuition law which was signed by the President this year, a great number of students who weren't granted free tuition either because they were disqualified from availing [themselves] of the grant or are enrolled in private education institutions were still subject to high tuition fee rates,” said Mira Legion, chairperson of Anakbayan in the region.
For the University of the Philippines, the last tuition increase felt by the students was way back in 2013, the same year that the Socialized Tuition System was implemented, according to Legion.
In the case of senior high schools in Eastern Visayas alone, 38 have implemented tuition increases within the range of 5 to 15 percent for the academic year 2018-2019, she said.
“By critically analyzing the law and the provisions of its Implementing Rules and Regulations, we were able to conclude that the law is but a bogus reform which falls short in truly making education free,” said the 19-year-old leader who is also the convener of Youth Act Now Against Tyranny.
Legion said the anti-student provisions, such as the voluntary opt out, the “donation" scheme, and the return service system “are all clear manifestations that the law is not the free education that youth and students have clamored and fought for since time immemorial.”
“It is rather a watered down version of it. Not to mention the initiatives taken by Commission on Higher Education (Ched) to instruct the Unified Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education Act Board to implement stricter admission policies, tedious qualification processes and requirements in every school where free tuition is an option to students,” Legion added.
Norla Grace Betarmos, an associate professor IV from Southern Leyte State University, said they are implementing the free tuition law.
"We are strict in the admission according to the qualifications in board courses," she said.
“They can avail as long as they take the entrance exam. The board courses have qualifying standards. But the other courses, which don’t have board exams, are an open admission, as long as these are inclined to their capabilities,” said Betarmos.
She added they have schedules for examinations “to assess all the applicants.”
“We implemented free tuition. What we instill among students who are government scholars is that they have to give their best in their studies so they can be good public servants when they graduate,” Betarmos said.
Burden to students
Legion said the education agenda under Duterte administration remains a burden to the youth and students "because they are rooted to its three ills: colonial orientation, commercialization, and fascism."
“The only way education will be made free is if these three ills are finally resolved,” Legion said.
She said students all over the country experience almost the same kind of problems and challenges, such as the lack of available school facilities and equipment, shifting of classes, the extremely high price of education, inadequate number of teachers hired, campus repression and violence.
She said the colonial character of the country’s education is mirrored in the change in the trend of courses offered in schools from agriculture and Philippine history toward business-oriented ones, the sudden implementation of academic calendar shift, and the continuing implementation of the K to 12 program, which requires 12 years of education cycle from the previous 10 years.
She added that commercialization of education is manifested through the outright approval of Ched and the Department of Education (DepEd) for tuition and other school fees increases requested by schools across the country.
Last June, DepEd allowed the increase in tuition and other school fees in almost 500 private basic education institutions, while Ched approved the hike in almost 300 private higher education institutions.
“All the while, students have long been victimized by the fascist nature of our education system through repressive school policies and programs, such as the mandatory Reserved Officers’ Training Corps, recruitment of students to be part of the Military Intelligence, military presence in schools, restrictive admission policies, to name a few, which then take away the democratic rights of students,” Legion added.
The League of Filipino Students also hit Duterte’s “militarization” on indigenous people’s schools and communities in the southern Philippines.
Awaken, unafraid
“While you continually pose as the champion of the students and the youth by boasting of the free tuition law, the sector will no longer be easily swept off our feet for we are very much aware of how the National Government has been hell-bent in taking from our hands our constitutionally granted right to free and accessible education,” Legion said of her message to Duterte.
“It is high time that you truly and genuinely address the qualms and clamor of not just the youth, but all the sectors in the country, rather than relentlessly feeding the people with lies and subjecting people involved the struggle to further repression and fascism,” she added.
She said the young people are no longer afraid of Duterte.
Duterte’s tax law, a burden to free education
The Rise for Education Alliance also called for the junking of Duterte’s Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (Train) law, saying it “has been used as justification by schools to increase tuition and other school fees.”
“The other school fees go in tandem with spiraling tuition rates to squeeze more funds from students and their families,” the alliance said.
Free education means not a single peso should be collected from students, it added.
“We are witnessing an across-the-board increase in prices because of new and more regressive tax system with the Train law. But the increase in the national coffers will not benefit the poor in the form of social services,” said Sonny Melencio, chairman of the Partido Lakas ng Masa.
Undelivered promises to teachers
Public school teacher Fidelino Josol said that Duterte has no one to blame except himself on why he failed.
“He lives on hype,” said the 50-year-old teacher.
Josol cited the unsolved extra-judicial killings of drug personalities and priests in the country. Human rights groups also estimated that nearly 20,000 Filipinos were killed under Duterte's "bloody" drug war.
See Timeline: Shooting incidents involving local officials, priests
Meanwhile, Benjo Basas, chairperson Teachers’ Dignity Coalition, said that Duterte's public statement in support of the teachers’ welfare did not reflect on the policies crafted by his administration.
Basas recalled that during the campaign for 2016 presidential elections, the Duterte camp has promised to give the P10,000 across the board increase for government teachers, along with the promise to double the salaries of military and uniformed personnel.
“Yet after two years, the increase in our salaries were pegged under the context of the salary standardization law, which only provides for a little over P500 increase from year 2016,” Basas said.
Basas maintained that “the solution for criminality, drug problem, and even corruption is an educated populace.”
As Duterte entered his second year in office, Basas gave him a 75 percent passing grade.
“He should be investing more in education and other social services and create more jobs. However, if he really wants to eradicate the drug problems, he should go after the big manufacturers and traders,” Basas said.
However, Basas remained “hopeful” that the President would do good on his promise.
“Aside from providing the salary increase, he should also ask the Congress to enact laws that would ensure the welfare and rights of our public school teachers and provide them with basic needs like medical care and hospitalization, housing, scholarship grants for them and their families and better retirement packages by reforming the Government Service Insurance System policies,” he said.
“The full implementation of Magna Carta for teachers, a 1966 law would also help augment the living and working conditions of our teachers,” he added.
The educators’ group launched a signature campaign asking Duterte to declare as "urgent" Senate Bill 704, which seeks P10,000 additional pay for the over 600,000 public school teachers and DepEd employees, P1,000 yearly allowance for their medical check-ups, and another annual bonus.
The entry-level salary for a teacher is P20,179, a far cry from the P29,668 monthly salary received by a junior police officer. (SunStar Philippines)