FEATURE

Chester Mark Tuazon is a fourth year Nursing student at the Baguio Central University (BCU) and is the incumbent governor of the Samahan ng mga Mag-aaral sa Narsing at Midwifery (SMNM). He is expected to graduate on March 2005. An epitome of an active learner, always critical and assertive, he was treated as a rebel and was tried to be put in isolation just recently.

Sometime in January, Tuazon led the phenomenal BCU student mobilization against the unjust affiliation fee paid for by Nursing students. The Commission on Higher Education (CHED)-Cordillera sided with the students when it issued orders for the school to mull over the students’ demands led by the SMNM. As a result, affiliation fee pivoted to just P7,000 from an overwhelming P24,000 and the tuition hike from 10% to just 5%.

Several rallies without permit
In a letter addressed to CHED Regional Director Dr. Magdalena Jasmin on April 27, BCU President Margarita Fernandez asked for the transfer of Tuazon to other schools. Such request, she said, is due to her health condition. “At my age, I am easily affected physically and emotionally, which is detrimental to my efficient management of Baguio Central University. Possible and similar incidents should be avoided,” she reasoned.

Tuazon said that Fernandez’s request was a clear violation of his constitutional right to education. “Since 2002, I have been a student of Baguio Central University and have never committed any act detrimental to the school. My involvement in leading student protests against the unjust affiliation fee is in performance of my obligation as governor of the College of Nursing and Senate of the Student Parliamentary,” he refuted.

Tuazon’s CHED scholarship remained. Jasmin reiterated that BCU has no basis not to enlist Tuazon because he never violated any law and is in good academic standing. The issues raised during the rallies which he led were legitimate, hence Jasmin recommended that Tuazon be given the freedom to enroll in BCU. Despite this, the school registrar still refused to accept Tuazon.

Several SMNM members picketed in the BCU main building during the enrollment period. Tuazon even consulted a lawyer who informed him of the Supreme Court doctrine that the grounds for a school to refuse enrollment include a student’s failure to fulfill certain academic requirements and serious breach of conduct. Even so, the BCU grievance committee already cleared him from the alleged violation of university rules last March and was allowed to enroll in a summer class on April this year.

Just as he was ready to file necessary charges against BCU President Margarita Fernandez; Dean of the College of Nursing and Midwifery, Jeannette Bongalos; and University Registrar, Elena Nerpio he was admitted on June 14, the last day of enrollment.

Tuazon was allowed to enroll provided that he will no longer run for any position in the BCU student government, be involved in any student protest in or outside the school, affect in any way issues that would come out later. Similarly, he was asked to bring to the attention of concerned school officials complaints regarding the school policies first before the conduct of demonstrations.

However, Tuazon did not succumb to the previous conditions. Earlier, in an interview for a newspaper, he said he never regreted leading the demonstrations because it was a right guaranteed by the constitution. He said the result of the protests his group initiated is favorable to their parents who work very hard to send them to school.

In 1999, another student leader, Joe Licawen, was denied readmission for the same grounds by the same school. Yet, the Regional Trial Court (RTC), ordered the BCU administration pay a total of P55, 000 for moral and exemplary damages for the violation of his freedom of expression and right to association. Likewise, Licawen won a petition for mandamus, a special civil vacation which seeks the court aid of issuing an order against a person or institution to do an act, in that case, to admit his enrollment.

Under Pressure
Student repression is likewise rampant in other schools in the city, such as the infamous carry-over scheme of Saint Louis University (SLU), and the mandatory selling of Internet cards beset the Louisians. Students from the University of Baguio (UB) are continuously deprived of financially and administratively autonomous student councils and publications. To note, staff of The Executive (publication of the College of Commerce) are harassed and intimidated by the administration. The paper stopped printing this year. Writers from The Nexus, were also reportedly experiencing restraint from the University of Baguio administration. They were charged of violating the student hand book for alleged personal attack to school official. Conversely, beside the fact that the “attack” was however not parallel to exposing faculty misconduct, it is only the duty of a campus journalist to safeguard truth and to express it so that the people may know. Pines City Educational Center (PCEC) incessantly collects money for student funds when there is no student council and campus publication in the campus.

Other burdens
The implementation of the Expanded Value Added Tax (E-VAT) and fare hike has put students in dire straits. For instance, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) memorandum mandates that student discounts in transportation is no longer applicable during weekends, holidays, and vacations. As students, we are burdened with these multiple outlays for undeniably, we are also consumers. We eat, ride in jeeps, and pay for our education. We are victims not just by the regressive tax measure but also by the outright state abandonment of our sector.

Miscellaneous fees are amassed in separate items. Proof to this is the CHED partial report dated June last year that admits that miscellaneous fees swelled by 140%. …only increases that exceed the preavailing year’s average inflation rate shall require a consultation process. The country’s inflation rate is nailed at 8.5%. Tuition and miscellaneous fee increases that are less than the equivalent to the current inflation rate will not be subjected to consultation. School owners can automatically increase school fees of all sorts as long as it is within the the range of the inflation rate so to speak. Instead of regulating runaway school fee hikes, CHED memo # 14 legitimizes ways to grate up profits despite restraints to increase tuition. CHED is actually allowing schools to collect more fees as the “other school fees” definition in their new guideline can mean many peculiar items like excessive development fee, sangguniang barangay (SB) fee, foundation fee, land infrastructure maintenance and acquisition (LIMAD) fee, internet fee, library fee, insurance fee, guidance and counseling fee, among others.

Since education has been reduced to a business, we ought to carry forward our fundamental task to arouse, organize and mobilize the biggest number of our fellow students and the rest of the Filipino people as student leaders. When education is still about paying a lot and receiving less, the battle continues. # Angelica Campo