By MARICOLE SANCHEZ
www.nordis.net

“Farmer pala parents mo, kaya niyo bang bayaran ‘to?” (So your parents are farmers. Are you sure you can pay this?)

This was only one of the degrading statements from the office of the VP for Finance of the University of the Cordilleras (UC) during interviews of students who had delinquent accounts.

Irregardless of the approval of the House Bill 6700 that prompted the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to set-up an “anti no permit, no exam policy”, there are still universities here in the Cordillera that are prohibiting students to take their exam with out their permits. One of these universities is the University of the Cordilleras.

Aside from the “no permit, no exam policy”, campus repression was also felt by students who do not have the capacity to pay their accounts fully on time. The VP for Finance implemented a new procedure in securing permits that had caused students to skip their classes in order to line up in the queuing line for several hours or even two days at the maximum.

In the old procedure, these are the following steps; 1. Pay at the cashier, 2. Have your receipts signed at the office of the VP for Finance, 3.Then you can now get your permits at the designated places.

But with the new procedure, these are the following steps; 1. Pay at the cashier, 2. Get a promissory note at the Students Affairs Office (SAO), 3. Line up in the queuing line for an interview at the SAO, 4. If the interview went well, have your promissory note be signed at the VP for Finance, 5. Lastly, get your permit at the accounting office.

This situation has prompted the Political Science Society (PSS) to make a statement regarding this new, circuitous procedure from the administrators. In their statement, I would want to quote a statement “Nag-aral pa kayo, hindi niyo naman kaya” from the Students Affairs Office in an interview with a student.

Those that should take care of the welfare of the students are the ones demoralizing them from attaining their dreams. These students are in the university to study hoping this could give them a better life in the future but unfortunately, they are being degraded by the above statements. It is like adding salt to injuries.

UC is being greedy here considering it is a foundation. This is manifested even through the Land Infrastructure Maintenance, Acquisition and Development (LIMAD) fee which is questionable ever since it was implemented in the late 1990’s. This was opposed by the students since then but it is still being collected adding more financial burden on the students. In the CHED memo 13, universities should not collect Maintenance and Development fee separately from the tuition because 20% of the tuition goes to Maintenance and Development fees.

If the school did not abide with the memo, it is also possible that they will just ignore the “anti no permit, no exam policy”. Today, this university is proposing 10% tuition and other fee increases for the next school year. The consultation will be on the 26th of February but there is not enough information dissemination regarding this. Yes, there are posters but they are not visible. They are placed in bulletin boards that are not strategic. The venue is in the Nursing Auditorium which is too small to accommodate the thousands of students in the University. Classes will not be suspended. This is an issue concerning all the students thus the consultation must serve its real purpose not only for the sake of saying UC has conducted consultation.

There is a need for the students to unite and act against the repression of their democratic rights and against the proposed tuition and other fee increases. It is now time to break the silence. I am inviting everyone to attend the consultation next week with or without classes.# nordis.net