TIMES like this are very rare for me. For some, waiting could be tiresome, boring and a waste of time. That is, if nothing comes to mind or when the hands are doing nothing and the eyes are bored with the sights.
Many times I pray for some waiting, a space between what needs to be done and what I am occupied with. That space gives me some time to reflect and think about what would others consider as mundane things, but are really equally important.
This environ where I’ve been was really something interesting for me, to see the birds flying low as their chirping fill the air. So I call this place a school of birds, where the sayaw as I call them soar high and low, unafraid of people as they seems to play along in the wind, unmindful of human noise and voices.
There’s something in this place that speaks of the essence of life. It is that semblance of freedom in the air, now I see a Carabao being tied by a boy in a nearby tree among banana trees as cool winds touches my face.
This is after all, the University of the Philippines (UP)-Mindanao, an educational institution that is supposed to serve the greater majority among the ordinary Filipinos who cannot afford to send their children to higher education. For ages, UP has been the bastion of all that symbolize the freedom-loving Filipinos whose search for Justice and Peace in the realm of education was all-encompassing.
It symbolizes the hope that keeps burning in our hearts, that one day, from out of its ranks there will come from among the youth a force that would bring us the true meaning of freedom, not the one that we are living now as we are made to believe.
It is our fervent hope that the young generation among us will someday bring us true justice and closer to the illusive peace that we have spent our lifetime for.
There were hundreds of iskolar-ng-bayan wannabes taking the UPCAT for a chance to have free education. One wonders how many of them could only get in and be "privileged." Free education is supposed to be every Filipino’s right not only a privilege. It is not only for the best and brightest, but for every Filipino no matter if they are otherwise.
Time and again this has been the call of the poor majority, those who are poor in every sense, and each time their supplications are denied.
It’s still the question of power when those who have the “power” belong to the opposite end of the political spectrum.
Thus, the so-called vision of the Department of Education that states:
“We dream of Filipinos who passionately love their country and whose values and competencies enable them to realize their full potential and contribute meaningfully to building the nation” might remain a dream if a number among Filipino children especially those belonging to the very least continue to be marginalized and disempowered.
Those grand halls of state universities and colleges would mean nothing to them whose interests these institutions were supposed to serve.