Ngayon ang simula ng ating #BagongUSC! MARAMING SALAMAT, UP DILIMAN!

UP Diliman, sila ang maghahatid ng #BagongUSC sa susunod na taon! 

Nagpapasalamat sina Arjay, JP at ang buong UP ALYANSA sa suporta at tiwala na binigay nyo sa panawagang makabuo ng konsehong nakikinig sa kwento ng bawat Iskolar para sa Bayan! 

#BagongUSC, Bagong Kuwento ng Paglilingkod!

I am a UP student. I wasn't able to get the STFAP bracket that I needed, but someone told me that my dreams didn't end there and that we could still do something about it.

I am a UP student. I'm gay and I was afraid to come out, but someone convinced me to live free and that I am safe in the University.

I am a UP student. I'm part of a fraternity, but someone made me realize that we are part of the solution in ending the culture of violence in our circles.

I am a UP student. My dorm has problems I thought I'd just have to live with, but someone reached out and said we’d work on them together.

I am a UP student. I used to believe that grades were everything, but someone showed me that there are lessons still to be learned beyond the classroom.

We are UP students, each with a different story to tell, but united in a shared narrative of trials and triumphs. In getting through our struggles, there will always be those with whom we share our fears, our hopes, and our dreams.

Imagine a University Student Council composed of fellow students which, far from being a passive fixture, becomes an active partner in our unfolding journeys; one that measures its relevance not simply by projects and programs, but also by the difference that it makes in the story of the Iskolar and the Filipino.

Envision an institution of student leaders which recognizes that contexts and ideas are in constant flux, and responds to them not by insisting on outdated lenses, but by being open to all perspectives for progressive change; one that does not rely on archaic modes of action, but instead adopts solutions as dynamic as the challenges themselves. While we recognize that the only thing constant is change, we see that beyond this, what is truly constant are our principles within these changes.

This is our University Student Council – a USC with a new story of leadership and service that embodies engagement, relevance, and innovation; a USC that takes the experiences of each student and weaves them into the collective epic of the National University and society.

Kaya nating bumuo ng bagong USC. Simulan na natin ang bagong kuwento ng paglilingkod.

ARJAY MERCADO for USC Chairperson!

JP DELAS NIEVES for USC Vice Chairperson!

VOTE STRAIGHT UP ALYANSA SA USC

ON FEBRUARY 27!

Principled disagreement and anonymous black propaganda: A challenge

Over the past few days, I have been receiving reports of anonymous efforts to bring down Alex Castro in the race for USC Chair. As a fellow candidate and in behalf of UP ALYANSA, I wish to voice my strongest condemnation against these malicious attempts.

The campaign is a time not just to show off each candidate's and each political party's strengths and victories, but also a time to educate and to engage in a healthy, passionate, and principled discourse.

In the earlier part of this week, members of ALYANSA made a principled disagreement with Alex Castro's citation of wrong information on the sin tax law. Rooted in our advocacy to make this campaign more about platforms and less about personalities, we demanded an apology from Alex Castro and a retraction of the misinformation that the 15% allocation for tobacco farmers has been stricken off the sin tax law. To this day, we have not received any apology or retraction; so, our principled disagreement and demand continue.

But when a supposed screenshot of an alleged chat conversation between Alex and a "friend" cropped up, I was personally disappointed. Today, a perverted statement entitled "Sex Will Fix" was released in different areas in campus.

These are exactly what ALYANSA has been campaigning against. While we make sure to maintain our principled disagreement with Alex Castro and KAISA on the level of issues and platforms, efforts like these serve as roadblocks to our dream of an informed student body.

The anonymity of these efforts reveals exactly their purpose: Nothing more than to regress to personality politics and blur this campaign into becoming a pageant of reputations rather than clear platforms. I personally challenge the people behind these efforts to come into the open and make a principled choice to inform, rather than to maliciously attack. I challenge the people behind these to reveal their identities and the USC Chair candidate they support, if any, so the students may decide for themselves what to make of the propaganda.

As student leaders, it is our duty to inform and shape the debates in campus to become a discourse of principles, integrity, ideology, and platforms. This campaign is not about me; it is not about Alex Castro's alleged chat messages or motives. This campaign is about the students and their right to make an informed choice on their next University Student Council.




Carlo Brolagda
ALYANSA USC Chairperson candidate
February 20, 2013

WE MADE HISTORY.

WE MADE HISTORY.

In a year, we passed in Congress the reproductive health and sin tax bills into laws. Through mass mobilizations and various direct negotiations, we convinced the government to increase the budget for the University and other state universities and colleges. After decades of systemic corruption and misgovernment, we detained former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and impeached her former Chief Justice Renato Corona.

In a year, we have mainstreamed the discourse of gender equality in campus. We stood firm in our condemnation of fraternity-related violence and, for the first time, filed a case as students against warring fraternities. We have institutionalized fiscal transparency and mechanisms of accountability in the USC. We have freed the USC from its former captivity in outdated dogma and transformed it into a body truly reflective of our passions and aspirations.

Today we are at a critical juncture, faced with an obvious choice: Do we continue our momentum of progressive change or do we fall back into irrelevance and empty rhetoric?

ITULOY NATIN ANG NAPAGTAGUMPAYAN. Our victories have only begun. As we weave our individual stories of hopes and dreams, we realize that, as a collective, we are headed towards one destination. As we build on our successes, we affirm our shared journey towards genuine student empowerment, social justice, and social progress.

PARA SA UP. In the advancement of our rights and welfare as Iskolars para sa Bayan, we abandon intangible promises and choose concrete solutions. We refuse sloganeering by merely opposing. We choose to propose. We have chosen to forward amendments based on students’ rights which have been successfully incorporated into the Code of Student Conduct. We choose a more just and equitable system of socialized tuition. We choose to formalize our freedoms and liberties with a national law on students’ rights and welfare.

PARA SA BAYAN. As we fight for the marginalized, oppressed, and powerless sectors in our society, we go beyond oversimplified classifications. We engage government from the outside and within. We refuse to battle wrongs with another wrong. We choose to be proactive. We have chosen to challenge impunity and patronage politics with a freedom of information law. We choose to end indecent labor conditions with a security of tenure law. We choose to address gender inequality with an anti-discrimination law.

Victory after victory, our choice becomes clearer: We choose to continue making history.

ITULOY NATIN ANG NAPAGTAGUMPAYAN. PARA SA UP, PARA SA BAYAN!

Carlo Brolagda for USC Chairperson!

Alex Santos for USC Vice Chairperson!

VOTE STRAIGHT ALYANSA SA USC ON FEBRUARY 28!

 

ITULOY NATIN ANG NAPAGTAGUMPAYAN. PARA SA UP, PARA SA BAYAN!

Abusing the Right to Free Speech: A Response to the Death Threats Directed to USC Chair Heart Diño

UP ALYANSA strongly condemns the death threats directed to USC Chairperson Heart Diño.

Heart Diño, being the Chairperson of the University Student Council, is a public figure to the student body. She has the right to act and voice her opinions in her personal capacity, yet her actions will always be subjected to public scrutiny. Recently, her actions and opinions have received such criticisms and contentions. We respect this circumstance but for several cases it has gone too far: certain people have threatened to hurt or even kill her. These cases exceed what is warranted as free speech or opinionated criticism. These threats of violence must not be tolerated.

The first few death threats came immediately after Heart’s election as USC Chair. Although these threats were made online, they must not be taken lightly. For one, a certain Rey Refran is calling for others to participate in her assassination. The violent tone is evident as he threatened to “plant a bullet in her” and even offered to personally “be the hitman”. Aside from these, several comments also attack Heart on the aspect of her gender, referring to her derogatorily. Such violent and despicable statements cannot be accepted. Although we exercise the right to free speech, this right must be exercised responsibly; criticism can be reasonably presented without violence or prejudice towards any person's gender, race, beliefs, etc.

As Iskolars para sa Bayan, we cannot condone such threats of violence. We must be careful to ensure that the criticisms we present are sensible and sensitive, not promoting violence or hate.

WE MADE HISTORY. Maraming salamat, UP!

Maraming, maraming, maraming salamat mga Iskolar para sa Bayan! ♥

TARA, simulan ang pagbabago!

Mula ngayon hanggang sa hinaharap, TAYO ANG USC.

TOGETHER, WE CAN MAKE HISTORY!

Tara, simulan natin ang pagbabago kasama sina...

HEART DIÑO FOR USC CHAIRPERSON!

ACE LIGSAY FOR USC VICE CHAIRPERSON!

VOTE STRAIGHT ALYANSA SA USC ON MARCH 1!

Iskolar para sa Bayan, TAYO ANG USC.

UP Student Leaders Must Uphold UP Ideals

UP student leaders must uphold UP ideals

[Published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on 13 December 2010]

THE STORY of our student leaders is the story of the brave and the few who take on the role of primus inter pares, first among equals. Just like every student, student leaders struggle with their academics, but they have the added responsibility to lead and serve us as our elected representatives. It is a difficult road that they have chosen; we, UP students, are grateful for their sacrifices.

The chairman of the University Student Council (USC), Rainier Astin Sindayen, chose to walk this road. We sincerely thank him for leading us, students of UP Diliman, especially at a time when the quality of our education was being threatened by budget cuts.

However, we cannot ignore this disturbing trend among our student leaders to disregard their responsibility to pursue academic excellence, the responsibility to do no more and no less than the best that we can. To fail in this responsibility is to dishonor all who are sacrificing for our education: ourselves, our families, our university and our nation.

The motto of our university is “Honor and Excellence.” We, leaders or not, are expected to strive to be honorable and excellent. How can we allow anyone who doesn’t uphold honor and excellence to represent the university? With our USC chairman unable to re-enroll in his department due to academic delinquency, his legitimacy as a student leader is suspect. The consequences of his negligence are grave, as the USC will always be questioned, their acts constantly under a shadow of doubt. However, led by his partymates acting as a rubber stamp, the USC has upheld his tenure twice in spite of the clear rules mandating him to relinquish power. The USC is squandering whatever is left of its moral ascendancy to lead.

With this, we can only sincerely appeal to our USC chairman to exercise genuine leadership, to value his own integrity and to comply with the rules of his council. As we still believe in his sense of idealism, we ask him to make the supreme sacrifice of stepping down from his post for the sake of the students—to uphold HONOR and EXCELLENCE, to become an iskolar para sa bayan.

(You may also read this letter at this LINK.)

The Logic of Student Leadership

This is Akbayan Youth UP Diliman's statement on the leadership crisis in the University Student Council. Akbayan Youth UP Diliman is a proud member-organization of UP ALYANSA.

To be an Iskolar para sa Bayan

We thank our student leaders for the sacrifice that they made for us. Nonetheless, for a student leader to disregard his or her academic responsibilities, to maintain even just the MINIMUM academic standing, is a disservice. It is a disservice, not just to the students that he or she serves, but also to the Filipino people, to whom we owe this education.

To our University Student Council, do the right thing.

Resolve the leadership crisis in the University Student Council.

Uphold honor and excellence in student leadership.