No STUDENT COUNCIL exists in Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Marikina. It is quite surprising to know that this academic institution does not allow, as the students claim, any centralized student body to be organized. Seldom have I known any school that has no student council. As matter of fact, the absence or even interruption of student council operation in most universities can pose a serious threat on both sides of the students and the administration. Can anyone remember the bloody history of university student councils during the Marcos period?
The purpose of this article is to explore on the issue of non-existence of a student council in Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Marikina. There is no intention to criticize the school administration. This article is written without prejudice to the City Government of Marikina, the administration of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Marikina or any other administrative office concerned with the school. However, the article aims to encourage the students to think critically, with prudence and respect to the school authority, about their academic and political environment.
The weak side of this article lies in its limited source of information regarding school policies. The author fails to interview any school administrator. No actual memorandum, circular or any other college ordinance was consulted in the exposition of this article. Even so, student council’s nonexistence for over five years is a prima facie evidence of a real and concrete problem. As for the students, there was no written explanation of administration’s rejection of proposal to institutionalize a student council.
II
For the past two semesters of teaching, I have noticed the lack of enthusiasm of the students to partake in student development programs initiated both by the school and the students. I shall discuss this issue on a separate article. Let the article provide you the central point, why is the student council absent in PLMar?
When I asked my students in Politics and Governance about the issue of student council, they have answered the following:
1) “The school administration has banned the formation of student council when a group of BS Accountancy students picketed in front of the Marikina City Hall.”
2) “They do not want to incorporate the students in their over-all academic and administrative development goals. That is, failing to integrate the students in school policy-formation and implementation.”
3) “They are overly afraid to allow student council for it will make them vulnerable to student scrutiny.”
4) “They think that students are not capable of handling such organization - that is, lack of sense of leadership, responsibility...intellectual ability (that's the worst of all that I have heard).”
Considering these justifications from the school administration were true, shall we accept it as it is? Or does it deserve further scrutiny? Why does no one enquires about this significant issue? As of now, I have not heard of any plausible rationalization from both sides of the students, faculty and administration.
III
PLMar’s situation is entirely different from what ordinary university students have in college. Allow me to share my experiences in campus politics in University of Santo Tomas, a Catholic and Dominican institution. In my very first year, I served as a staff in the Socio-politics Committee of the UST Central Student council and concurrently a Course Coordinator for Political Science of Grand Alliance for Progress, a political party. From then on, I actively participated in various school and political activities within and without the university. I chaired the majority political party in the Faculty of Arts and Letters. We have been involved in student, academic and socio-political issues for the whole of our college life. In fact, I still visit my political party in University of Santo Tomas every now and then. In most universities, students, regardless of their academic programs, have experienced governance and social participation. I am very sorry for the student so of PLMar for they cannot experience the active and challenging life of a university student.
One can argue that I was a political science student before, and PLMar programs are not Social Science related course. Does it follow that Business Administration, HRM, Education, Criminology, Mass Communication and Nursing students shall not be involved in political activities? Shall the students limit themselves in their enrolled courses? The answer is no. Otherwise, they will be as parochial as the uneducated people. The purpose of education is to liberate minds and not to confine it into mechanical parts of a machine. Education is not only for employment but for nation-building. Thus, it shall be education for citizenship.
Aristotle, one of the founders of Western Philosophical Tradition, said that “Man, by nature, is a political animal”. Among all creatures, only man can engage in civic and political activities – that is what the statement really mean. Do PLMar students act according to their “nature” following the Aristotelian philosophy of man? Not really. The absence of student council is the main proof. Student council, as manifestation of social consciousness and sophistication, is supposedly the trophy championed by the students in their advancement of shared interest and collective action. Jose Rizal’s observation in La Indolencia Filipina (1890) is still relevant.
“He [the Filipinos] is forbidden and denied the right of association, and is therefore weak and sluggish. The Philippines are an organism whose cells seem to have no arterial system to irrigate it or nervous system to communicate its impressions; these cells must, nevertheless, yield their product, get it where they can: if they perish, let them perish.”
Now, let us contextualize Rizal’s statement in PLMar’s condition. The PLMarians are forbidden and denied the right of association to their student council, and is therefore weak and sluggish. PLMar is an organism whose students seem to have no arterial system to irrigate it or nervous system to communicate its impressions; these students must, nevertheless, yield their product, get it where they can: if they perish, let them perish. Can we therefore blame all shortcomings of the students to themselves alone? Should we hold them sole responsible for their excessive diffidence and lack of deference? Are their weaknesses in activity organizing and class participation due to their inability and incompetence? We shall treat this issue as strict yet prudent as possible.
IV
We can claim that one of the causes of weakness and incompetence of the students, both in academic and non-academic aspects, is their inadequate experience of self-organization and leadership. They are being deprived of an organization that shall embody their aspirations as community of students. While there is seemingly no functional and effectual means by which they can express their grievances and sentiments, students cannot exercise, in effect, their inalienable right to freedom of expression. The student council ought to be their “training ground” for governance and administration. Their timidity and coyness can indubitably be attributed to absence of esteemed status as one of the three coexistent and interdependent components in the institution namely, the administration, faculty and students. Had they been familiar with the dos and don’ts of leadership and organization, will they still feel and act the same way as they are now? Empowerment is the idea of leadership.
Had the students failed to be wise and responsible for their actions, should the school administration forbid the students of their right to association? No. If the administration opts to bar the student council to sanction the faults of the students, we can say that the cure is worse than the disease. Let the lessons of leadership be learn by natural unfolding of truth in their spirits. Let the students experience failures and mistakes. To err is human. To confine them in our over-protection is inhumane.
There shall be no valid reason for denying the students of their association. What will be our difference to the Spanish Colonial Government if we will forbid them their right to self-rule?
V
The students can have the refuge of the law in their desire for a student organization. The article found three applicable rules regarding youth/students organizations:
1) "The right of the people, including those employed in the public and private sectors, to form unions, associations, or societies for purposes not contrary to law shall not be abridged."
Article III, Section 8,
1987 Philippine Constitution
2) "Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association."
Article 20 (1),
UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights
3) "The fundamental law of the land requires the state through its instrumentalities, in particular the educational agencies, to promote the physical, intellectual and social well-being of the youth, the students. They are encouraged to go to schools of all levels to utilize their God-given talents for self-development and, collectively, for nation-building. That are encouraged further to join all kinds of organizations that foster camaraderie and instill brotherhood."
CHED Order No. 4 S. 1995,
Commission on Higher Education
While there is no expressed constitutional or statutory right to form student council, no law has prohibited its formation. (We shall have to wait for the passing of House Bill 2584 or the The Students' Rights and Welfare Bill to provide the students their statutory right) Even the ordinance enacted by the City Council of Marikina does not express discouragement and prohibition to form a student council. Thus, it clearly shows that there is no legal impediment for banning any organized student association.
VI
I advised my students to stand up for their rights and for their common interest. "But how?" say students. There are number of means. On one hand, the students may set a bargaining with the administration. This is the direct way for the students to resolve the issue but one has to avoid any confrontational or adversarial approach. On the other hand, the students can ensure the even-handedness in this conflict-resolution by allowing third party mediation or intervention. That is, inviting the Association of Local Colleges and Universities, or Commission on High Education to mediate. The students may also lobby their interest to the City Council of Marikina for augmentation/amendment of the city ordinance. Intervention by the courts can also be considered. Students may also try judicial settlement of the issue by filing a Petition for Mandamus demanding the institutionalization of a student council. Quoted in Ismael Khan's Everbody's Dictionary of Philippine Law, Rule no. 65 of the Rules of Court says:
"A special civic action filed by an aggrieved party before the proper court to to compel a tribunal, corporation, board, officer or person to perform an act which the law specifically enjoins duty, and there is no other plain, speedy, and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law, for the protection of the petitioner's rights and to pay any damages he may have sustained."
Students, as much as possible, although under special circumstances shall be tolerable, should not resort to protest rallies and class boycott. The students shall not fail to see the option of amicable settlements of issues.
By the way, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Marikina has, also, NO STUDENT PUBLICATION
TO BE CONTINUED...
