Students boycott classes at UP Los Baños

SAN PEDRO, Philippines – Students walked out of their morning classes at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños on Friday to protest the “insufficient budget” allotted by the government for higher education in 2012.

Around 500 students, teachers and university employees joined the rally around the campus that started at around 10 a.m., according to Ma. Cristina Madeja, chairperson of Sakbayan, a political student organization in UPLB that spearheaded the rally.

“Some teachers opted to dismiss their classes so the students could join the protest,” added Humanities instructor Laurence Castillo, 21, who said he too joined the rally.

“We, in the academic union, support the call for a higher state subsidy for education. [Budget cuts] may mean lower benefits for us [employees] but the students suffer more because these may mean higher tuition for them,” he said.

UPLB student Miam Aquino said she failed to join the rally but other students expressed their support through social networking sites.

“I think it made an impact. I saw a lot [of students] ‘liking’ the comments on Facebook,” she said.

Madeja said they were dismayed by the government’s decision to slash P800 million from the budget for higher education as seen in the proposed national budget for 2012.

“We wish to point out that what we are protesting is how the budget for education has remained insufficient,” she said in a phone interview.

The students held a program while around 100 of them joined the mass “planking” in front of the Oblation statue. They also burned a cardboard black coffin which “symbolizes that the Philippine education has died,” Madeja said.