UP Manila chancellor, vice chancellor called to resign in wake of student suicide

Students from the University of the Philippines Manila, the country’s premier state university, light candles outside their campus in Manila, Philippines, to mourn a freshman student Kristel Tejada who comitted suicide Friday March 15, 2013 allegedly after being forced to take a leave for her failure to pay her tuition. AP

MANILA, Philippines–The faculty of the Department of Behavioral Sciences in UP Manila on Monday called on the school’s chancellor and vice chancellor to resign following the death of 16-year-old freshman Kristel Tejada.

“We strongly appeal to the conscience of Chancellor Manuel Agulto and Vice Chancellor Josephine de Luna to show their solidarity and humility to the aggrieved family of Kristel Tejada and other victims of their repressive policy by rendering their irrevocable resignation,” said the statement read by sociology professor Jocelyn del Mundo.

The statement was read at the Philippine General Hospital chapel after a mass on Monday sponsored by the student council for Tejada.

“We hold (Agulto and De Luna) accountable for the deprivation of Kristel’s right to education that cost her life,” it said.

Tejada’s father, Christopher, who heard the mass together with wife Blesilda, welcomed the petition.

He also accepted the return of Tejada’s UP identification card, which she had to surrender when she filed a leave of absence.

“It’s as if my daughter came back to life,” he told reporters.