Re-elect Kabataan Party list

Kabataan Partylist is the first and only youth party-list group in Philippine Congress today.

Kabataan is a large network of energized and pro-active young people who are leaders in various organizations, formations and barkadas. Our members from across the regions represent diverse interests, backgrounds and social status, tied by a common vision of a better future for the youth and for the nation.

Together with some of its founding organizations - the National Union of Students, College Editors Guild, the League of Filipino Students, Student Christian Movement of the Philippines, Anakbayan and Kabataang Artisa para sa Tunay na Kalayaan – Kabataan Party-list vigorously campaigns for youth and students’ interests and demands concerning education and employment.

Kabataan party-list remains at the forefront of youth and students’ campaigns against unabated tuition and miscellaneous fee increases, for higher state subsidy for education, adequate jobs for new graduates, the defense and recognition of human rights and civil liberties which include consumer rights and the right to health, and the protection and conservation of national patrimony. It continues to give primacy to the promotion of holistic development and genuine youth empowerment.

Our Common Vision

KABATAAN Party-list believes that the youth should devote its intellect, energy and courage to building a new society devoid of corruption, inequality and social injustice.

It supports youth and student-led organizations working for social, political, economic, cultural and environmental justice in the Philippines, and enjoins youth from all walks of life to foster active participation in nation-building, good governance and social change.

Our Collective Mission

KABATAAN Party-list is working to galvanize the Filipino youth’s unity for social change. It encourages the youth to work collectively with other sectors to build a bright future. It upholds, promotes and defends the interest of the youth to be able to harness its fullest potential as a sector.

Program of Action

1. Empower the youth to encourage them to take on active participation in nation-building, good governance and social change.

2. Uphold the youth’s fundamental rights and democratic interests (education, employment, environment, sports, health, etc.)

3. Assert the youth’s right to decent living, equal opportunities and humane living conditions.

4. Assert and safeguard national independence, respect for national patrimony, love and loyalty to the country.

5. Guarantee the participation and representation of the youth in all affairs of governance and decision-making bodies of government.


http://kabataanpartylist.com

Kabataan Party Gives 7 Tips For Youth Voters!

7.Bring your Voter's ID. For those who don't have them yet, at least know your precinct number.

6.Bring your own pen. Only 5 minutes allotted per voter inside the booth. Don't waste it looking for a pen that actually has ink.

5.Be ready with an umbrella, a cap/hat and a handkerchief/hand towel. PAGASA weather forecast says May 14 will be a regular-weather day (read: hot) with scattered showers in Visayas and Mindanao.

4.Bring your "kodigo". Unlike in school exams, these are not prohibited in the poll booths. Saves time and means that you've made up your mind 100 percent on who to vote.

3.Bring a camera and/or a camera phone. And keep an eagle-eye watch for suspect and illegal activities in your respective polling places. Keep election watch hot lines at hand.

2.Bring your barkada. One way to encourage all your friends to exercise their right to vote. Make May 14 your Barkada day!

1.Wear blue. Against electoral fraud. For youth representation in Congress. Make your votes count!

Why Blame RP Population For Lack Of School Rooms?

Letter to the Editor

Education Department Secretary Jesli Lapus seems to be hallucinating for blaming the country’s population as the one causing the shortage of classrooms in the country. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her minions are beginning to sound alike.

First it was the Palace Queen who put the blame on the citizen’s luxuries and ordered a control on using short message sending or texts and cigarette smoking to avoid experiencing hunger.

Now, one of her minions in the guise of Secretary Lapus presented to us a very (il)logical reason why the country insufficient number of classrooms. Let’s start with facts. The government, according to a UNESCO study, should be spending 6% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for education. But the government measly appropriates 3%.

The Department of Education admitted that 45,775 classrooms are lacking (assuming a ratio of 45 students to one classroom). But according to the President, the budget is now ready to provide 14,000 classrooms this year. Will that answer the lack of classrooms?

No. A bulk of 31, 775 would still be needed. And besides, Lapus said “every minute, four babies are born.

It’s like every 10 minutes, I’m short one classroom.” Now, Lapus is blaming the high birth rate as the cause of classrooms scarcity. Why? It’s simple. Because he, along with other lapdogs of the palace, has been tasked to cover their boss’ incapacity and lack of sincerity to save this country.

Lack of classroom did not stem from overpopulation. It started when the state began misallocating the national budget, which could have answered the needs of basic social services like education, in order to religiously succumb to World Bank and other “generous” foreign lending imperialists.

Apparently this government has no balls yet to repeal former Pres. Ferdinand Marcos’ Presidential Decree (PD) No. 1177 which provides for automatic appropriations of tax revenues for debt service, and former Pres. Corazon Aquino’s Executive Order (EO) 292, which instituted Section 26 of the Revised Administrative Code of 1987 providing automatic appropriation of principal and interest on public debt.

If the government is sincere in addressing the education crisis it could have done so by not overfeeding the pork barrel of the administration-led House of Representatives.

It could have done so by not making it appear that the budget for State Universities and Colleges are P34 billion short compared to the budget of the Department of National Defense.

It could have done so by assuming political will to impose a cap on debt servicing and start prioritizing the people’s welfare. Unfortunately they need more money for their political survival.

Mr. Lapus should start thinking about it.


Signed:

KARLA HYASMIND APAT
Vice President for Mindanao
Kabataan Partylist

AFP May Bagong Ebidensya Na Naman Sa Mga Kaliwang Party List Groups!

MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / 23 Mar) - Muli na namang nakadiskubre ang militar ng mga sinasabing panibagong ebidensya na magpapatunay ng malinaw na ugnayan ng New People's Army (NPA) sa ilang party list groups sa bansa.

Sa nakuhang bag mula sa rebeldeng si Allan Villare na napatay sa engkuwentro sa bayan ng Juban sa Sorsogon noong Marso 20 ay nakapaloob diumano ang mga dokumento ng campaign plan para sa partylist groups na Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Kabataan, Anakpawis at Suara Bangsamoro.

"We have strong evidence that the NPA and these party list groups are connected," diin ni Lieutenant Colonel Benigno Antonio, pinuno ng Army's 2nd Infantry Battalion.

Magugunitang natisod naman ng militar sa Davao del Sur noong nakaraang buwan anng mga campaign posters at calendars ng Bayan Muna matapos ang sagupaan.

Ayon sa buod ng dokumento, ang campaign plan ay binubuo ng tatlong bahagi: una, isinakatuparan ng Pebrero 13 hanggang Marso 13 ang house to house campaign, paglalagay ng mga campaign posters, pagbuo ng alyansa sa mga lokal na opisyal ng gobyerno, pagtukoy ng mga poll watcher, at pagtatayo ng municipal headquarters.

Kasama rito ang pagtukoy ng mga kandidato at tagasuporta ng party list groups na kaalyado ng Malakanyang tulad ng Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy (ANAD), Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas (PDSP), Akbayan, Sanlakas, Partido ng Manggagawa (PM), Akap, at Aksa.

Ikalawa, mula Marso 14 hanggang Abril 14, ang deployment ng propaganda teams sa mga dyip at tricycles, paglulunsad ng party congress municipalities at pagpapadala ng mga delegado para sa provincial conventions ng Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Kabataan, Anakpawis at Suara Bangsamoro.

Ikatlo, mula Abril 14 hanggang May 14, magpapadala ang rebeldeng grupo ng mga delegado para sa miting de avance na sasabayan rin ng mga protesta.

Ang mobile propaganda teams ng NPA ay bubuo ng caravan na maglilibot sa Sorsogon sa isang araw at sa mismong halalan ay agad na iuulat ang resulta ng eleksyon.

TInatayang 15,000 boto buhat sa Bulan, 7,000 sa Gubat at 3,000 sa Prieto Diaz ang minimum votes na makukuha ng mga partylist. Hindi naman agad makunan ng pahayag o reaksyon ang mga nabanggit na party lists. (Juley Reyes)

Students Hold Peaceful Protest vs Political Oppression In South RP

DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 21 Mar) – Students and members of the Kabataan (Youth) party list group, protesting alleged government persecution of political activists in the Philippines, held a peaceful rally Wednesday in Davao City.

Singing cultural songs and reciting poems in front of the University of Mindanao, the protesters accused Manila of political persecution. They also condemned the unabated political killings allegedly perpetrated by the military in the country.

Karla Apat, vice president for Mindanao of Kabataan party list group, said the government failed to address the many problems besetting the country.

“We are of course worried by the how the government is addressing ourproblems – instigating repression instead of answering the people'sdemands and basic needs.”

“Lack of priority to address the basic needs of citizens leads to 3.4 millionFilipino households hungry, lesser number of students who completeelementary and high school education, increased number of unemployedgraduates, proliferation of child laborers, among others,” Apat said.

The protesters later lighted candles and offered prayers to victims of injustice. (With a report from Romy Bwaga)

Political Activists Stalked In South RP

DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 13 Mar) – Suspected government agents were reported to have tailed and took photographs of political activists and party list groups allied with the opposition in the southern Philippines.

One party list group, Kabataan, said agents have followed its leaders and members and even took photographs of them in Davao City. Karla Hyasmind Apat, the group’s vice president for Mindanao, reported at least 3 incidents of spying over the past weeks and denounced the harassment on their members.

Apat said three of their coordinators were tailed by a motorcycle man on March 5 in Calinan Poblacion here. And another similar incident was reported March 9 during the funeral of slain activist leader Renato Pacaide in Digos City in Davao del Sur province.

And the latest was on Monday when motorcycle men tailed a student who is a volunteer Kabataan coordinator in downtown Davao City. The man took photographs of the student and followed him up to the office of Kabataan party list group.

All men who tailed the members of the Kabataan used motorcycle without license plates, said Apat. “In the light of the prevailing culture of impunity and the unresolved cases of political killings in the country we cannot just sit on this matter,” Apat said.

The military branded party list groups like Kabataan and Anakpawis, Bayan Muna, Kilusang Mayo Uno and similar organizations as a front of the underground Communist Party of the Philippines and its militant wing, the New People’s Army.

“We are worried with these incidents as we are dealing with lives of our members and our leaders,” Apat said. “They (military) consistently accuse our group of being a communist-front. Because of that tagging, the lives of our members and coordinators are put to grave danger.”

Militant party list groups, which are opposed to President Gloria Arroyo’s rule, have denied all accusations against them and said the military is preventing them from winning the polls. Most of the militant party list groups have been constantly on top of political surveys.

The military denied accusations soldiers were stalking political activists. (Romy Bwaga)

Photo: Kabataan Party List

Karla Hyasmind Apat, vice president of the Kabataan Party List for Mindanao and coordinator Karlos Juan Manlupig, of Ateneo De Davao University, pose with opposition senatorial candidates Loren Legarda, center, Allan Peter Cayetano, right, and Aquilino Pimentel, left, during campaign sorties Thursday 08 Mar 2007 in Davao City of the Genuine Opposition group. The Kabataan Party List group has been appealing for support to curb the rising cost of education and tuition fee increases in the Philippines.

Student Groups Accuse Soldiers Of Partisan Politics

DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 08 Mar) – The party list group Kabataan on Thursday accused the Philippine military of political partisan, saying, soldiers were campaigning for government candidates for the May elections.

It urged the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to investigate the reports and file charges against those involved in the illegal activities.

Troops were also reported to have been actively campaigning against opposition and progressive groups, including party lists the military claimed are fronts of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army rebels.

Kabataan party list president Raymond Palatino said reports of military campaigning for administration bets and allied party list groups can be used as grounds for the disqualification of administration candidates for using government machinery, including the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), AFP and even the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC).

"The military is not only campaigning against progressive party list groups and opposition candidates who are critical of the government in these forums, they are also asking students to vote for administration bets and party list groups that are identified with the government."

"This gives the administration party candidates and their ally undue advantage over other candidates, with the AFP serving as virtual campaign machinery for the administration," Palatino said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.

He said members of his group and student representatives from youth election watchdog Youth VOTE (Youth Volunteers for Orderly and Transparent Elections), trooped Thursday to the COMELEC main office in Manila and submitted evidence of military deployment and electioneering in some universities in the Philippine capital.

The students presented photographs of troops stationed inside the Philippine Normal University and video of a recent election forum sponsored by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) held there.It was not immediately known whether the COMELEC would investigate the allegations or not. (Mindanao Examiner)

Gov't Urged To Do More About Juvenile Delinquents

DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 05 Mar) – The party list group, Kabataan, expressed alarm Monday over the growing juvenile delinquency problems in the Philippines.

It said the government should do more to address the problems and save the children’s future.

“The government can do something better than criminalizing minors who are into anti-social activities. They are victims too of the problems of the society,” Karla Hyasmind Apat, the group’s vice president for Mindanao, said.

Apat said the prevalence of juvenile delinquency cases should be perceived not as a criminal offense but as a by-product of the ills of the current system.

“As victims of social crisis, youth offenders should not be criminalized instead should be given help by the state,” Apat said.

She said the state has the prime accountability in the rise of juvenile delinquents, citing previous studies released by both state and non-governmental child institutions that show most of these minors come from poor families.

“Helping juvenile delinquents entails uprooting poor families from theirdepressing state of poverty. Poverty is a major factor in pushing the youth toward lawlessness. The government should start pouring budget into basic social services instead of prioritizing debt servicing and the military,” Apat said.

“The increasing number of juvenile delinquents reflects the crisis of education which pushes more and more students out of school making them vulnerable to commit anti-social activities,” she said.

Mindanao Studes Face More Problems Over Tuition Fee Hike

DAVAO CITY - The party list Kabataan criticized Friday the Commission on Higher Education for suspending memorandum orders that limit tuition increases by private schools.

Karla Hyasmind Apat, Kabataan vice president for Mindanao, said the suspension of memo orders can be considered an attack to the student’s right to accessible education.

“We are threatened that the government’s acquiescence to private schools to repeal the limit to tuition and other fees increase will pave the way to an increase in the number of students dropping out of schools,” Apat said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.

She said CHED released a memorandum Feb. 20 informing colleges and universities that Memorandum Order 14 (CMO) and the two ensuing orders have been suspended pending review by the government commission.

The new order advised schools to “withhold recognition” of CMOs 14 of 2004, 42 of 2006, and 7 of 2007 “as the prevailing policy in tuition increase."

The memo orders imposed limits on tuition increases. CMO 7 states that tuition and other fees increase “should not be more than the prevailing national inflation rates.

CHED said it would instead follow CMO 13 as a guideline for any tuition increase for the current school year.

“But CMO 13 does not impose a limit on tuition increase. It only requires a consultation with the stakeholders which ends in mere informing the students regarding the increase,” Apat said.

The Kabataan party list fears that since CMO 13 does not include miscellaneous and other fees in consultation, schools can raise tuition fees by increasing miscellaneous and other fees.

The order, she said, is now being used by the University of Mindanao to propose as much as 11.36% increase in tuition fees.

Davin Acuram, UM student and president of the College Student Government, said the school administration reasoned out that the increase was prompted by the escalating prices of commodities.

“These are the same reasons that made CHED to submit to the private schools campaign to lift the cap on tuition increase. CHED has just institutionalize the annual increase without due consideration that Filipino students and their families who cannot afford such increases because of the increasing gap between the price of education and the capacity of the Filipinos to spend on it,” she said.

Apat’s group and members of the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) and different student organizations were planning to file a case in court to seek a temporary restraining order to stop CHED from revoking the restriction on tuition increases.

Mindanao Students Burdened With Tuition Fee Hikes

DAVAO CITY – The Kabataan Party List on Thursday scored the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for being inutile in enforcing its mandate in regulating tuition and other fees increases leading to the youth’s perennial and annual problem of the rising cost of education.

“Their inutility and submissiveness of CHED to abusive private Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) has cost sweat and blood of Filipino students clamoring for accessible education,” Karla Hyasmind Apat, the party list vice president for Mindanao, said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.

Apat cited the current proposal of the local University of Mindanao (UM) administration to increase their tuition and miscellaneous fees by 11.36%.

Davin Acuram, president of the College Student Government, said the school administration reasoned out that the tuition fee increase was prompted by the escalating prices of commodities.

However, Acuram argued that the administration lacks genuine consultation from the stakeholders of the University especially the students who will be most affected of the increase.

“For one, they failed to post a public notice that a consultation regarding the increase will take place,” Acuram said.

He said that participants to the supposed consultation were limited to less than 15 participants coming from the college student government, council of student organizations, council of fraternities and sororities and the supreme faculty council.

“Worse, there was no audited financial statement that was shown to us to present where the increase in tuition last year went,” Acuram said.

CHEd Memo Order No. 14 ensures that copies of the school’s latest audited financial statement and tuition utilizations must be furnished to the student representatives during consultations.

“In this case however, there was no financial statement presented to us,” Acuram said.

Political Science student Winston Concoles, who is also the Kabataan coordinator, said if the proposed tuition hike is approved the UM students would have to pay P325 per unit upon enrollment from P275 per unit last year.

“We are faced with the yearly increase in tuition and we hold the CHED accountable for it because it is their mandate to regulate increases. But we don’t see CHED favoring the students instead they are favoring Higher Education Institutions (HEIs),” Concoles said.

“CHED seems to institutionalize the annual increase without due consideration that Filipino students and their families cannot afford such increases because of the increasing gap between the price of education and the capacity of the Filipinos to spend on it,” Apat said.

Kabataan To Government: Assert And Uphold Court Decisions On Nursing Issue

DAVAO CITY – THE KABATAAN PARTY LIST urged Manila Wednesday to assert the Supreme Court’s decisions on the nursing controversy, and to take highest consideration of the poor majority among nursing graduates in planned moves.

The Philippine government is set appeal to the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools’ (CGFNS) refusal to accept Filipino nurses who passed the June 2006 nursing examination.

“We believe that most of the 2006 nursing exam passers come from poor families who tried hard just to finish nursing and pass the exam in high hopes that such would guarantee them of better lives and retaking the exam is already an added burden to them,” Vice President for Mindanao of the Kabataan Party List, Karla Hyasmind Apat, said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.

Apat said the nursing graduates would only be forced to retake the exam in the context of not prolonging their agony over the controversy. She added they would rather spend, borrow perhaps, thousands of pesos just to work in countries were their profession is in demand, rather than wait in vain.

The group believes that the government should start asserting the Supreme Court’s decision to the United States who benefits most from the nursing graduates of the country.

“We stand with the majority of the Filipino nurses who are left with no choice but to succumb to the Philippine educational system’s flaws in order to have a better job and better life that this government could not provide to its own graduates,” Apat said.

Kabataan Party List said there is a dire need to push for the legislative agenda that will change the orientation of the Philippine Education system which currently serves the foreign needs.
“Our educational system right now is very colonial and does not serve the need of the country.

Our teachers and doctors are turning into nurses for the reason that this government can not compensate their needs and benefits and the government through the Department of Labor and Employment even tolerates this trend,” Apat said.

UP-Mindanao Besieged By Tuition Hike Protests

MEMBERS OF THE KABATAAN PARTY LIST and students of the University of the Philippines held picket rallies Friday in Davao City in the southern Philippines in time for the 1217th Board of Regents meeting of the UP system.

UP students are protesting a recent 300% hike in tuition fees.

Backed by members of various student groups from other schools and the Kabataan Party list, the students held a rally in front of the Grand Men Seng Hotel during the UP alumni gathering.

"We wanted to ask the support of our alumni in demanding for a repeal of the recent increase in tuition," Raymond Basilio, chairman of the University Student Council in UP Mindanao, said in a press statement.

Basilio’s group later proceeded in front of UP’s School of Management along Anda Street where the University Board of Regents were discussing new UP policies and the tuition fee increase.

"Parents of iskolars ng bayan will have to shell out an estimate of P 11, 600 to enroll in UP Mindanao for a regular load of 18 units. A far cry from the P 4, 500 a UP Mindanao student is paying at present," Basilio said.

"It is known that, more often than not, UP programs and policies serve as a blueprint for other colleges and universities to follow. If UP manages to get away with a 300% increase in its tuition and other fees, what would stop other colleges and universities from following the very same steps?" he added.

Karlos Manlupig, coordinator of Kabataan Party list coordinator, said the school year is about to end yet private schools and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) seemed adamant in not taking necessary steps to settle the issue of the illegal implementation of tuition and other fee hikes.

Manlupig was referring to the CHED Memo No.14 or the guidelines for applications for tuition and other fee increases."It has been declared illegal by the House Committee on Education but private schools are still using it as an excuse to raise tuition fees," Manlupig said.

Karla Hyasmind Apat, Kabataan Party list vice-president for Mindanao, said with the present economic condition, the increase in tuition fee will only serve as a burden to the parents of UP students.