A nation's well-being is highly influenced by its economy. The stability of economies are determined by the performance of its capital. And of all forms of capital, it is the human capital that delivers most. And the best means of creating competitive human capital is through well-funded quality education.
To the national administration: invest in education, invest in the entire nation's future. Fail doing so, and soon enough it will all crumble down - its human capital, its economy, and consequently, its entire well-being.
"Pushing" the country's many educational institutions "toward becoming self-sufficient and financially independent" is an insult to those it serves most significantly - the most hardworking, least fortunate and most deserving of students. The raison d'etre of these institutions is to be the state's outlet in assisting its sons and daughters in reaching their full potential for nothing else but the progress of their lives, of the lives of their families, and of this nation.
The allocation of the taxpayers' money - money that took Filipinos days of farming, nights in the call center or labor miles away from family - seems to veer away from catering to the true requisites of those citizens, and the future citizens as well. According to Edward Everett, "education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army", or empirically ineffective means of providing physiological needs, I would add.
When we call for what we deserve, we call for good reasons - ones that ought to be heard. We call because we are educated, but more importantly this time, because of the angst that our education is being taken for granted. And because the nightmare that the next students of the institutions we learned to value may fail to heed such calls is simply inconsolable.
Towards unity, consciousness, and action, we shall fight for students' right to accessible quality eduction.
We students should be critical and assertive in our fight against the budget cut.
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