“The election period has highlighted the youth sector’s clamor for free public education up to the tertiary level, a move that can only be achieved by stopping tuition and other fee increases and at the same time, allocating greater state funding for public education institutions, including all state universities and colleges.”
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com
MANILA — Progressive youth groups challenged the presumptive president, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte to make good his campaign promises and stand with the poor. He could mainly show this by making the outgoing Aquino administration accountable, and turning away from its “tuwid na daan” policies.
“Today, the youth welcomes with high hopes the clear mandate given by the Filipino people to president-elect Duterte,” said Sarah Elago, first nominee of Kabataan Partylist, the sole youth party in Congress since 2007.
Duterte has been leading Roxas in the presidential race by six million votes. She added that such lead is “a clear indictment” of the Aquino administration.
Elago said Duterte should “actively engage the clamor for free public education and the scrapping of decades-old education policies that have transmogrified the education system into a business rather than a fundamental right.”
Tuition hikes, K to 12
First in the list of youth’s challenges to Duterte is to immediately stop increases in tuition and other school fees. “We challenge President Duterte to issue an executive order that will, in the short term, effectively and swiftly impose a tuition increase moratorium for the incoming school year.”
In the long term, the group called on Duterte to scrap the Education Act of 1982 and related regulations, which they said, have legitimized and institutionalized annual increases in tuition and other school fees. The charging of “other school fees” — which they called “the monstrous twin of tuition increases” — should be made illegal.
They also called on Duterte to support the call for free public education at all levels.
“The election period has highlighted the youth sector’s clamor for free public education up to the tertiary level, a move that can only be achieved by stopping tuition and other fee increases and at the same time, allocating greater state funding for public education institutions, including all state universities and colleges.”
They challenged Duterte to order a review and eventually stop the implementation of the K to 12 program, the flagship program of the Aquino administration that added two years to the 10 years of basic education.
Elago said the K to 12 program “poses an additional burden for students and their families, and its imminent full implementation would undoubtedly plunge into chaos the basic education system.”
This coming school year 2016-2017, the senior high school phase of the K to 12 program will be implemented, as the first batch of students enters Grade 11.
Elago added that the program is designed for private education companies that will rake in profits as senior high school programs are mostly offered by private schools.
During the campaign period, Duterte said education is his second top budget priority. He is also open to stopping K to 12 and “wait for the right time, more money, and more teachers at hand ready to embark on the K to 12.”
With this, Elago said their hopes are high that soon the new president will heed the call to junk the program.
End contractualization
The Kabataan Partylist challenged Duterte to end contractualization, as it affects the youth who comprise majority of the labor group. Many work as contractuals without benefits, and with low wages.
The March 2015 Labor Force Survey data of the Philippine Statistical Authority (PSA) shows that about 4.1 million Filipinos are unemployed as of January 2015.
Of the total unemployed, those age 15 to 24 years comprised 47.3 percent or about 2 million, while 31.6 percent or about 1.3 million came from the 25 to 34 age group,” Kabataan Partylist quoted the data.
“We challenge the new president to make good on his promise to eradicate contractualization, and further challenge him to support the call for the institution of a P16,000 monthly national minimum wage,” the group said.
They added that the incoming president should pursue a national industrialization program “that could generate decent jobs and finally end the spiraling unemployment in the country.”
Hold Aquino administration accountable
Anakbayan said that the defeat of the ruling party’s standard bearer is an illustration of “deep public disgust to the corruption, human rights abuses, incompetence, and everything rotten that ‘tuwid na daan’ represents.”
The group said Duterte should give weight to the people’s “protest vote” by being true to his campaign promise of punishing corruption, starting with making outgoing President Aquino and Budget Secretary Butch Abad accountable for their involvement in the presidential the pork barrel system.
Anakbayan, meanwhile, advised Duterte to avoid appointing individuals who are associated with the previous Aquino and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo administrations. He should instead keep his promise to appoint progressives in his Cabinet, said the group.
Anakbayan said they have no illusions that changes can be done by “one man alone or within the stifling confines of the neo-colonial state given the continuing entrenchment of oligarchic interests and the hidden hand of US imperialism.”
The group stressed that genuine social change can only be achieved through the collective action of the Filipino people.
“Only by uniting with the people’s movement can a Duterte presidency succeed in asserting national sovereignty, empowering the people against the ruling elites, and overseeing development that benefits the majority,” the group said. 
