In connection with my campaign for the USC Manila Chairperson post under the party Iskolar Student Alliance, hereunder are my answers to questions by the Manila Collegian distributed to all candidates.

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If you succeed in assuming the Chairperson’s post, to what direction would you take the USC on issues confronting the University of the Philippines such as the budget cut and Charter amendments?

If I am to earn the trust of UP Manila students to be their USC Chairperson, I shall view issues confronting UP in the context of UP Manila as a Health Sciences Center with a social conscience. Matters affecting the UP budget directly affect the Philippine General Hospital (PGH). It has a big share in the UP budget, and this share of funds translates into the capacity of service that it can provide. Deductions from the UP budget almost always translate into an increased cost of healthcare for the already burdened charity patients.

On that basis alone, I already have hard evidence to manifest opposition to a UP budget cut. Protest actions should be conducted in an inclusive manner – inclusive referring to both the form of protest and the students who shall join the said mobilizations. UP Manila students are a critical and varied lot brimming with creative ideas on how to express grievances to government. There is of course the rally, a high form of actualization. It would be equally important for me as USC Chair to hear and listen to the students’ collective voice on the issue at hand. There can never be a monopoly on having a social conscience. I am sure that if the USC sufficiently consults with its constituents, the students themselves and not the leadership structure will move for a rally.

In relation to the above, as the USC Chair it is also sensible for me to have my constituents taste the fruits of genuine student struggle. Social mobilization should never be packaged only in the context of a street parliament. A struggle within the system should also be mounted, so as to engage our nation's democratic institutions. The potential of a UP student to move this nation forward should be maximized by practicing grassroots leadership, a concept wherein all UP Manila students have a share in the protocols of its USC as applied to on-the-floor struggles (like lobbying, signature drives, manifestos, etc) that shall be coursed through the proper channels  for prompt  action.

The UP Charter should be evaluated by smelling the essence of participative action and feeling the touch of compassionate leadership. I support the current Senate Bill 1833's recognition of UP’s participative action in nation-building by mandating that it provide various forms of community, public, and volunteer service. This is the basis by which one of Iskolar’s projects – the NSTP-USC Volunteer Corps – may be pursued.

The institution of a modified Malacañang-free and publicly-accountable Board of Regents that is very much different and progressive relevant to the colonial 1908 model is worthy of consideration. The lower house acceptance of the UP System Assembly as a consultative body to this modified BOR can further spell the difference between simply sufficient to truly appropriate. It would maximize democratic governance with administrative efficacy.

The productive utilization of idle assets should be allowed with safety nets in the UP Charter.  Unfortunately, my opponents have resorted to conjuring fantastic images of malls and boutiques on campus, when that is not the intention of productive utilization. Assets of the University such as the lands of the Shell Pandacan Oil Depot, the Citibank Manager’s Residence in Forbes Makati, and the 3M Manufacturing plant alongside the South Luzon Expressway are definitely not for academic use. Much-needed funding from their rentals can then be used to complement but never replace nor augment State Subsidy. This is notwithstanding the provision on Appropriations that specifically guarantees State Subsidy not only for maintenance and operation expenses but also for growth of the University.

There is also another section in the proposed New UP Charter that this USC Chair will submit to the perusal of the UP Manila student body. This is the provision on Student Affairs. It formally recognizes the democratic institutions of the Student Council and the Student Paper, matters that this USC Chair shall also pursue for the benefit of students in Private Schools via support for the enactment of a Magna Carta of Students. A genuinely democratic Student Regent selection process should also be formalized by a referendum of students on which selection process they prefer, effectively breaking the shackles of controversial partisan dominance on the Office of the Student Regent.

Nevertheless, I am open to proposed amendments by the  UP Manila student body through their Iskolar-led and AK-balanced USC.

Assess the performance of the incumbent USC.

First, they do not see UP Manila as a Health Sciences Center with a social conscience. Worse than centralizing only on the College of Arts and Sciences to the exclusion of the six health profession Colleges, the incumbent USC totally abandoned its entire constituency by literally walking-out on necessary commitments towards Student Rights and Welfare. They orphaned the student body.

Second and perhaps most strikingly evident is that they never listened to the collective student voice on issues of local and national importance. This is exemplified by the approach they took on the UP Charter: Out of the seven Colleges of UP Manila, they only approached (not even consulted) CAS, CN, and CPH. They ignored the clear resolve of CM, and they didn't ask what CD, CAMP, and CP wanted to say. They ambiguously assumed an unverified stand for the whole of UP Manila. They cannot claim that they afforded the students a taste of genuine student struggle; neither can they say that they offered the scent of participative action and have the students feel the touch of compassionate leadership.