years of sacrifice, YEARS OF STRUGGLEThe University of the Philippines (UP) Board of Regents (BOR), the highest policy-making body of the University, granted the request for a student observer to attend BOR meetings upon the recommendation of then UP President Salvador Lopez on 29 September 1969. Gerardo Barican, then chairperson of the UP Student Council was appointed to fill this post. From the five nominees submitted to the UP President and the BOR, Barican was appointed as the first student regent (student observer status: without any voting power but may participate on deliberations) on 25 January 1970 by then President Ferdinand Marcos. The BOR Chair and the UP President announced that this appointment of the student council chair as regular board member “will therefore set an important precedent and give due recognition to the role of students in the life of the university.” The chairperson of the UP Student Council automatically became student regent in succeeding years since there was no other UP autonomous or regional unit structure established during that time. The incumbent UP student council chairpersons Ericson Baculinao (1970), Manuel Ortega(1971) and Jaime Galvez Tan (1972) were appointed regular members of the BOR concurrent with their student council term. Jaime Tan and his council members served only for two weeks (8-23 September 1972) until the official declaration of Martial Law by then President Marcos. With the declaration of Martial Law on 21 September 1972, all student councils, organizations, fraternities, sororities and publications in UP were immediately abolished. A month after the declaration, President Marcos issued Presidential Decree (PD) number 58 which amended the UP Charter and allowed the creation of other UP units. PD No. 58 also changed the composition of the BOR to provide a seat for “one regent representing the student body” in the 14-person BOR. Without student council officers however, it was physically impossible to install a student regent. The campaign for the restoration of the student councils, as well as the reinstatement of a student regent, began two years into Martial Law. Student leaders aggressively fought for democratic rights and engaged university authorities to recognize the right of students to organize. The first student council was restored in UP Los Baños, in 1978, closely followed by the revival of regional college councils. The University Student Council (USC) of UP Diliman was re-established in 1980. The seventies and eighties were the peak of flourishing of the student movement. Students asserted that the right to organize is a basic human right and is significantly part of the preparation and development of future leaders of our nation. In this period of self-awareness, the students also recognized the transience of their status and the importance of immersion with the productive and more stable sectors of society. BY THIS TIME, UP was a university system with three units in Luzon. Thus, the central UP Student Council based in UP Diliman ceased to represent all the constituents. Seeing the need to consolidate the ranks of all students in the UP System, the UP Diliman USC convened a national convention of all university and college student councils in UP on 17-22 October 1981. During the convention, the Katipunan ng mg Sangguniang Mag-aaral sa UP (KASAMA sa UP), national alliance of student councils, was loosely organized to spearhead the system-wide campaign to reinstate a student regent in the BOR. Student leaders emphasized the need for students to be directly involved in policy formulation in the University - since the largest stakeholders of the University are the students. Student leaders also demanded that student regent should be chosen solely by students among their ranks to secure true student representation, rejecting the previous practice of selection of student regent by the UP President then to be appointed by the President of the Philippines. KASAMA sa UP served as the campaign and coordination network of student councils in the UP System especially on issues concerning students and other concerns which are local and national in scope. It was formally launched on 14 November 1982. Delegates from twenty-five student councils met in the Faculty Center of UP Diliman to recognize “the need to consolidate the struggle for students’ welfare and democratic reforms.” Ma. Lourdes Almazan, a councilor from UP Diliman USC was elected as the first KASAMA sa UP chairperson. The convention was the culmination of the struggle of the students to revive student councils in the entire UP system. On 7 January 1983, the KASAMA sa UP held its first dialogue with the BOR. During the dialogue, KASAMA sa UP leaders asserted the right of the students to directly participate in the decision-making processes in UP through direct representation in the BOR. On 5 and 6 February 1983 KASAMA sa UP held a system-wide conference to discuss the mechanism for the selection of the student regent. Their position: an Office of the Student Regent (OSR) should be created to position an ex-officio membership of the SR in the BOR and the institutionalization of its board membership. They agreed further to form a U.P. System-wide Student Council (UPSSC) with its chair automatically serving as the student regent. This council will “define the lines of accountability of the student regent to his constituencies.” On 24 February 1983 they had a second dialogue with the BOR and the board agreed in principle to their demands. A ratification of a system-wide student council charter must be made before such a council can be created. The alliance agreed to the BOR’s proposed interim student regent appointed by the President from a list of three nominees they submitted. UPSSC failed to materialize and the student body still had to contend with the less official status of their regent. KASAMA sa UP convened the National Assembly of Student Leaders on 26 and 27 November 1983 and resolved to have a student representative in the BOR pending the ratification of the UPSSC Constitution. They defined the rights and responsibilities of this student representative and elected Leandro Alejandro, UP student council chairman of Diliman, to the position. Another dialogue with UP President Edgardo Angara on 22 December of the same year maintained the appointment by selecting from a list of three students submitted by KASAMA sa UP. The national assembly rejected Marcos’ hand in the appointment. PRESIDENT CORAZON AQUINO'S Executive Order No. 204 amended the composition of the Board of Regents. The memberships of the undersecretary of agriculture and the chancellors of the autonomous units were removed. Appointee regents were reduced from six to five, at least three of whom are alumni of the university. The faculty also secured the right to be represented by a regent. Most importantly, the largest constituency of any educational institution – the students – now had their representative with the right to vote. The OSR was formally established and Francis Pangilinan, UP Diliman student council chair (1987), became the first SR who can vote on decisions. Student regents selected by KASAMA sa UP and subsequently appointed by the President were David Celdran (1988), Amante Jimenez (1989) and Henry Grajeda (1990). In 1991, KASAMA sa UP named Jose Ilagan, a student council officer from UP Los Baños, as its unanimous choice for student regent. Ilagan’s name was submitted to then UP President Jose Abueva for Malacañang’s approval. Abueva, however, chose to defy the selection process of KASAMA sa UP and instead recommended UP Diliman USC chairperson Angelo Jimenez, for appointment as student regent. Despite protests from KASAMA sa UP, Jimenez accepted the nomination and was subsequently appointed. KASAMA sa UP fought to assert its mandate and student autonomy by refusing to recognize Jimenez as student regent. Within five years of the UP administration's intervention, students themselves had a hand in undermining the selection process of the SR. The UP Diliman and Manila USCs did not participate in the student regent selection process in 1996 and communicated to the BOR their objections to the process. The SR selected that year was Leo Malagar from UP Diliman. In recognition for wider and active participation of all UP student councils in the democratic selection of the student regent, Malagar formed the General Assembly of Student Councils (GASC) in 1997 to include all student councils in the SR selection process. All student councils whether KASAMA sa UP member councils or not, crafted the Codified Rules for Student Regent (CRSRS). This assembly effectively shelved all other proposed mechanisms for the selection of the Student Regent. In 1998 the UP Diliman USC disregarded the selection process they took part in and nominated their own choice, John Pineda, to UP President Emil Javier, over GASC-selected Dennis Longid. Stronger safeguards and intense opposition nevertheless made Longid serve as the SR that year. In 1999 several student councils led by the UP Diliman USC contravened the selection of Ferdinand Zafranco of UP Manila. They wrote to various UP administrators and the offices of the University President, and even President Joseph Estrada, contesting Zafranco’s academic qualifications. Zafranco was selected a few months before the academic year. When he was not accepted for enrollment in June, his appointment was revoked and thus the previous student regent Longid extended his term. In 2001, Kristine Clare Bugayong and the KASAMA sa UP exposed graft and corruption from the term of Hannah Serana. Serana from UP Cebu allegedly received 15 million pesos from the Office of President Estrada for the UP Diliman Vinzons Hall renovation. Serana was charged with graft and corruption, with the Sandiganbayan ruling squarely that the student regent is a government official. 2006 was another challenging year for the OSR. Three GASCs were launched after student councils failed to achieve at a decision on the rules to be used for the selection process in the first two GASCs. There were heavily debated provisions: the inclusion of good academic standing in the qualifications of a nominee, the one-council, one -vote voting scheme of UP student councils in the selection proper; and the exclusions of the historical role of KASAMA sa UP in the CRSRS. All three provisions were inserted into the CRSRS and used to select Raffy Jones Sanchez. The following year and thereafter, student councils have reverted to the earlier version of the CRSRS. When the UP Charter was approved in 2009, Sec. 12 (g) provided for that the Student Regent must be chosen by the students from their ranks in accordance with the rules and qualifications approved in a referendum by the students. The referendum requirement, considered by the students repressive, ratified the decade-old CRSRS with 73% of the 26,118 students who participated in the system-wide referendum held on 26-31 January 2009. A system-wide campaign to "Defend the OSR" was launched as a reflexive and strategic response to intervention. In December 2009, in the middle of decision-making on the directorship of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH), several regents questioned the qualification of Charisse Bernardine Bañez to continue as student regent. Because she was neither enrolled nor on leave for that semester, the UP administration declared that Bañez ceased to be a UP student, and therefore ceased to be student regent. The OSR and the decried the ill motives behind such move. Students believed that some members of the BOR influenced by Malacañang orchestrated the ouster of their regent in order to appoint their own bet as PGH director. Even as the students recognized Bañez to be their representative, former SR Shahana Abdulwahid also sat in BOR meetings the rest of Bañez's term to "lend legitimacy" to the seat. The following year, in the middle of her term and as the BOR prepared to select UP's 20th President, Cori Alessa Co was dismissed from the University for failing academic requirements. In accordance with provisions of the CRSRS, she ceded the post to second nominee Jaqueline Joy Eroles. Students questioned the suspect timing, as the lack of a student representative delayed the eventual selection of UP President Alfredo Pascual. History has shown that the challenge for every generation of students is to protect the integrity of the institution and its processes from external and undue intervention, as well as fractiousness and corruption from among their ranks. Only proactive vigilance and mature responsibility can dignify years of sacrifice, years of struggle. |
roster of student regents1987 Francis P.N. Pangilinan 1988 David Andrew M. Celdran 1989 Gonzalo Bongolan 1990 Amante N. Jimenez 1991 Henry Bernabe Grajeda 1992 Angelo J. Jimenez 1993 Ariel Tanangonan 1994-1995 Dennis Cunanan 1995-1996 Sahlee N. Cariño 1996-1997 Leo M. Malagar 1997-1998 Desiree Jaranilla 1998-1999 Dennis Longid 2000 Hannah Eunice Serana 2001 Kristine Clare Bugayong 2002 JPaul Manzanilla 2003 Gloria Theresa Cutab 2004 Marco delos Reyes 2005 Ken Leonard Ramos 2006 Raffy Jones Sanchez 2007 James Mark Terry Ridon 2008 Shahana Abdulwahid 2009 Charisse Bernardine Bañez 2010 Cori Alessa Co / Jaqueline Joy Eroles 2011 Maria Kristina C. Conti 2012 Cleve Kevin Robert V. Arguelles |