Pag Walang "Allowance" ang mga Mag-aaral, ang Bayan Walang Asenso.

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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Honor Excellence

Two words are seen in front of all blue books in the University of the Philippines - honor and excellence. During exams, many of us UP students burn the midnight oil for an uno, or a good grade, or to strike a grade that would at least keep us hanging on our dreams. However, we all know that excellence is not defined by the uno, the CS/US or the summa cum laude. Excellence is not an achievement awarded to you one day. Rather, excellence is a value - something to be lived by on a daily basis.

Honor is possessed by those who live as principled students, principles of honesty, loyalty and integrity. Excellence is also a function of honor. When you cheat in an exam, you have committed dishonesty and you have broken the code of honor. Without honor, no one deserves to be called 'excellent.' This is why honor came before excellence.

Honor and excellence work together to make up for a true scholar. So do the words 'student' and 'leader.' We are students first - learning, growing, responsible, and most importantly, realizing the value of education. When we've realized this we can go beyond the responsibilities of a student - lead other students, represent and fight for them.

Beauty will Conquer AS in UP Diliman

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The Incredible Ink

Billions of pesos spent.

Millions of fingers crossed.

One new administration.

A democratic decision has been made and is final.

It shall reveal its face in a few days,

and its consequences in the years to come.

Is democratic always right?

Partial Unofficial Tally:

(36.57%)

Presidentiables (10)

1 AQUINO, Benigno Simeon III C. 5580630
2 ESTRADA EJERCITO, Joseph M. 3551556
3 VILLAR, Manuel Jr B. 1934525
4 TEODORO, Gilberto Jr. C. 1468479
5 VILLANUEVA, Eduardo C. 431847
6 GORDON, Richard J. 216162
7 ACOSTA, Vetellano S. 58778
8 PERLAS, Jesus Nicanor P. 18324
9 MADRIGAL, Jamby A. 16756
10 DE LOS REYES, John Carlos G. 15084

Vice Presidentiables (8)

1 BINAY, Jejomar C. 5605074
2 ROXAS, Manuel A. 5058683
3 LEGARDA, Loren B. 1477027
4 FERNANDO, Bayani F. 402866
5 MANZANO, Eduardo B. 236257
6 YASAY, Perfecto R. 137619
7 SONZA, Jose Y. 23491
8 CHIPECO, Dominador Jr F 17130

Senatoriables (61)

1 BONG REVILLA, Ramon, Jr. B. 7304284
2 ESTRADA, Jinggoy E. 7265799
3 DEFENSOR SANTIAGO, Miriam P. 6688112
4 DRILON, Franklin M. 6106310
5 ENRILE, Juan Ponce -. 6085586
6 MARCOS, Ferdinand, Jr. R. 5325848
7 CAYETANO, Pilar Juliana S. 5309382
8 RECTO, Ralph G. 4761423
9 SOTTO , Vicente III C. 4679775
10 OSMEÑA, Sergio III D. 4349089
11 LAPID, Manuel M. 4144214
12 GUINGONA , Teofisto III D. 3944798

13 HONTIVEROS-BARAQUEL, Ana 3574362
14 BIAZON, Rozzano Rufino B. 3353750
15 DE VENECIA, Jose III P. 3242058
16 REMULLA, Gilbert Cesar C. 2927871
17 LIM, Danilo D. 2878165
18 QUERUBIN, Ariel O. 2561455
19 ROCO, Sonia M. 2554403
20 PIMENTEL, Gwendolyn D. 2318221

Party-list (187)
1 AKO BICOL POLITICAL PARTY

13710
2 COOPERATIVE NATCCO NETWORK PARTY

13590
3 AKSYON MAGSASAKA PARTIDO TINIG NG MASA

9667
4 COALITION OF ASSOCIATIONS OF SENIOR CITIZENS IN THE PHILIPPINES, INC.

9594
5 ANG LABAN NG INDIGONG FILIPINO

8504
6 1ST CONSUMERS ALLIANCE FOR RURAL ENERGY

8315
7 ABONO

7268
8 AN WARAY

7030
9 AKBAYAN! CITIZEN'S ACTION PARTY

6272
10 YOU AGAINST CORRUPTION AND POVERTY

6040
11 AKSYON NG MAMAMAYANG NAGKAKAISA

6012
12 ANG ASOSASYON SANG MANGUNGUMA NGA BISAYA-OWA MANGUNGUMA, INC.

5831
13 FILIPINO MUSLIM ORGANIZATION

5176
14 BAYAN MUNA

4801
15 AGRICULTURAL SECTOR ALLIANCE OF THE PHILIPPINES, INC.

4793
16 ABANTE TRIBUNG MAKABANSA

4512
17 ANAK MINDANAO

4433
18 ADVOCACY FOR TEACHER EMPOWERMENT THROUGH ACTION COOPERATION AND HARMONY TOWARDS EDUCATIONAL REFORMS

4283
19 GABRIELA WOMENS PARTY

4217
20 ATONG PAGLAUM

4031

Source: http://2010electionresult.blogspot.com/2010/05/partial-unofficial-tally-as-of-2010-05.html

The Ilocos Experience

Last February 19, at around 6:50pm, I was on a city bus in EDSA on the way to the UP campus, running late for the 7pm call time at the Palma Hall steps. There was not much I could do to make public transport faster so I called up my friend, Cris to let them know I was on my way. This would be my very first field trip as a student of the Department of Geography, well, unless I get to Palma Hall too late. Fortunately, I was able to make it, thanks to the bus company which wasn’t on time either.

Our first stop for the trip was the city of Laoag, the capital of Ilocos Norte. We were all amused by the Oblation-like monument in front of the provincial Capitol. But more historic and symbolic than that monument was the Sinking Bell Tower at the Cathedral of the Diocese of Laoag. After our breakfast at a nearby fast-food, our convoy of two busses and a van were on its way to the historic Burgos Lighthouse in Cape Bojeador in the town of Burgos. The lighthouse, still operational to date, is one of the oldest in Asia and is the highest lighthouse (sea-level elevation) in the Philippines. So I expected a really old, shanty structure with a simple light mechanism – but it was not. Actually it stood very majestically facing the South China Sea, which, of course, meant the view up there was spectacular, and it was. We were able to get to the top of the lighthouse, getting a good look at the bulb. And it wasn’t what I expected either. After a dizzying climb at the structure’s spiral staircase, the view up there was great and the light mechanism looked very interesting and unique.

The Paoay Church and Sarrat Churches are both centuries old. The Paoay or St. Augustine Church was dubbed a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993 while the St. Monica Churhh in Sarrat is the largest Church in the Ilocos Region. Beside the Sarrat Church was a peculiar museum. It housed some odd things like the rope used to hang the GOMBURZA.

Our next destination was a place where local films like “Panday” or “Ibong Adarna” were shot. The Paoay sand dunes are a feature unique in this part of the Philippines – the very reasons why some particular scenes from movies were taken here. After visiting the dessert-like terrain, we were on our way to the last thing on out itinerary – the Heritage town of Vigan.

The saying “save the best for last” may apply with our itinerary, as my experience seeing Vigan was just unforgettable. The colorful history of Ilocandia is reflected by the complexity of Vigan – an oxymoron of the past and the present. That commenced my trip to the Ilocos Region, and I sure am glad I embarked on this wonderful experience with my friends and instructors from the University of the Philippines, a proof that UP life goes beyond the realms of the UP campus.

Five Odd Loves

“Five Odd Loves”, a story about five typical and sometimes not-typical-at-all college students and their bitter, hurt, empty, or confused hearts, is here not to be read as something apart from you but to somehow shed light into YOUR OWN EXPERIENCES and what you may be going through, or about to go through in the future---“


A group of five college students were drinking in Cantina, a restobar just outside their university. While drinking, they reminisce about what had happened, and if any, in their past semester. It’s different this semester ‘cause all of them are new transferees, from another university outside the metro


the five of them love like crazy. Maybe it’s because they’re in college, since they’re adolescents, or maybe, just maybe, these young boys and girls are just plain crazy people who know how to feel...


Diane
Let's start off with a girl. Let's call her Diane – she’s a tigress. For months, she has been missing her ex-girlfriend. YES. she did have a homosexual relationship. It has been like that since the transfer, because her ex was left back at the old school. This was very hard for Diane 'coz she thinks about her all the time and about how they would have been if they were still together. ‘Cause their literal separation led to this rather figurative separation. She does love her still and been missing her the entire semester. Even to the point of shedding tears and well, drinking booze.


Jane
If Diane had a girlfriend, this other girl, Jane, wishes she was one. There's this guy she's been into for almost a year now - the bad thing, Jane's guy was also left back at the old school. This 'thing' started out as a crush, then later on she found out that he has a crush on her too... So the 'thing' goes by without growing into a...relationship, which makes Jane really bitter about it, but events of the past few days make her look forward to some other 'thing' today....


Lex
If Jane is looking forward to something new, Lex is looking behind at a past relationship. He and his boyfriend broke up a few weeks ago. they have been together for more than a year..so it makes the break-up even worse. Lex and his ex (oh, rhyming! haha) used to live in the same house, in the same room, back at their old school. The relationship started out with the guy courting Lex, practically begging him to be his boyfriend... Lex used to close his doors to things like that but with the guy’s persistence and effort, they later had a relationship. But now that it is over, all of that shatters Lex.


Migz

When it comes to love, is it worse to be experiencing something that’s really messed up, or experience nothing at all? What’s hard for Migz is that he has had flings and relationships back in their past school but had stopped like he’s gotten a dry spell. Migz has liked many persons the past semester but like I said, nothing ever really happened. Not one of those petty crushes or hook-ups ever blossomed into something anything more meaningful than what they just are – feelings that don’t grow.


Haley

If there was someone in the group who’d want to get drunk the most, it would be Haley. It’s her first time feeling something reeeaally special for someone. And you know what they say; every ‘first time’ is important…and special too. That’s pro’lly the reason why she wants to get drunk and all. Lately she’s been falling apart, ‘cause she has now lost part of what’s kept her together for the semester – the special thing she feels for a certain Katy. But she’s still hoping that all that special feelings she has felt wouldn’t go to waste.


Diane, Jane, Lex, Migz and Haley may be going through hard times lately, and that is precisely why they’re all at one table and in one short story...


Not true. Why they are all sitting around the same table, why they’re sharing drinks and telling stories, why they’re all in this very blog – what brought them together in an experience of self expression – is not about the pain, rather it’s about something more meaningful. This blog, that experience,… THIS, IS ABOUT THEM. This is about the five crazy college students who call each other ‘friends’. The rationale of looking at pain is not for merely acknowledging the pain, the reason behind it is beyond that – it is to face the facts that first, there is pain, secondly and more importantly, there are people to get you through the pain.


--- A cliché may say that it’s the scars make a person tougher and more beautiful in the end, but I’d rather believe that it’s not the scars that make one tougher or more beautiful; it’s the process of learning from it.
by Mickey Eva VIII

Climate Politics

On the 2008 June issue of Outcrop, the UP Baguio official publication, I wrote a feature article about the call to mitigate climate change. Entitled “Seconds to Shutdown”, the article was a combination of research, analysis and significantly, calls to environmental social responsibilities. 17 months later, I have written what you are reading right now.

Seventeen months may not be very long for the Earth’s calendar, but it is for the human race, as it is fast-paced, and let alone the fact that we are on a race against global warming. This being considered, we should be asking what has been done, instead, what is more evident are the things that have not been done.

…

Three days ago, I attended a lecture by Larry Lohman for the Deconstructing Discourse and Activist Retooling Programme or DDARP at the University of the Philipines Diliman. He gave light to today’s climate politics and climate justice. To start his lecture, he showed us a simple illustration symbolizing the causes of climate change – fossil fuel being taken out of the ground - and then showed a very simple solution – putting a cork on that ground’s hole. “And if there’s any solution that does not lead to this, it is not a solution”, he added.

To add more details to this very simple problem-solution slideshow, he started talking about the politics of this solution. He introduced the audience to the idea of “Carbon Trading” – the commerce of pollution rights. This system makes pollution rights, or carbon footprint for ordinary people, a commodity. This is based on the principle that the [economic] north owes the [economic] south, as many environmental activists would put it. This is one “solution” that is in practice today, Lohman says.

The lecture went on about just solutions to solve the climate crises, until it came to the open forum. I stood up and asked “Given the circumstances – the economic north not doing enough of their corporate social responsibilities – does the third world stand a chance at leading this global economic and political initiative?” He has one answer to that question – “absolutely.”

Larry Lohman is an American lecturer in front of an audience of one Chinese and about a hundred Filipinos. But he is not lying.

Our world today may look like a snapshot out of the scene between David and Goliath, a duel between the North and the South – economically and politically. But then, at the height of global interdependence, we all now look at what each other’s doing at a risk to overthrow abusive and monopolistic forces – the “Neoclassical Liberalism”, the “Free World”, a world in continuous pursuit of justice.

And in this world, let alone at a time that the human race stands fragile and struggling, there is significance to every nation’s ascendancy, every leader’s discretion. We have to empower ourselves and in effect, start the initiative. Not one human voice shall stand insignificant amidst the threat of an environmental, a political, and a global lack of action.

J.E. Micael M. Eva VIII

UP Diliman Geography Student